"Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two" Animated Release Talkback (Spoilers)

Rate this movie

  • *****

    Votes: 2 28.6%
  • ****1/2

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • ****

    Votes: 2 28.6%
  • ***1/2

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • ***

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • **1/2

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • **

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • *1/2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • *

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    7

Yojimbo

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The Dark Knight must combat a unified front of classic DC Super-Villains, diffuse an escalating mob war and solve the mystery of the Holiday Killer in Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two, the thrilling conclusion to the two-part entry in the popular series of DC Universe Movies.

tlhpart2.png

Batman: The Long Halloween - Part Two
Studio:
Warner Bros. Animation
Release Date: July 27, 2021 - Digital and August 10, 2021 - Blu-ray, DVD; TBA HBO Max Streaming Service

Synopsis: Inspired by the iconic mid-1990s DC story from Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two continues as the Holiday Killer is still at large and, with Bruce Wayne under the spell of the venomous Poison Ivy, Batman is nowhere to be found. Liberated by an unlikely ally, Bruce quickly uncovers the real culprit: Poison Ivy’s employer Carmine Falcone. The Roman, his ranks decimated by Holiday and his business spinning out of control, has been forced to bring on less desirable partners – Gotham City’s rogues’ gallery. In the meantime, Harvey Dent is confronting battles on two fronts: attempting to end the mob war while also dealing with a strained marriage. And, after an attack that leaves Harvey hideously disfigured, the District Attorney unleashes the duality of his psyche that he’s strived his entire life to suppress. Now, as Two-Face, Dent decides to take the law into his own hands and deliver judgment to those who’ve wronged him, his family and all of Gotham. Ultimately, the Dark Knight must put together the tragic pieces that converged to create Two-Face, the Holiday Killer, Batman and Gotham City itself.

Jensen Ackles leads an all-star cast as the voice of Batman/Bruce Wayne alongside the late Naya Rivera as Catwoman/Selina Kyle, Josh Duhamel as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Billy Burke as Commissioner James Gordon, Katee Sackhoff as Poison Ivy, Titus Welliver as Carmine Falcone, Julie Nathanson as Gilda Dent, David Dastmalchian as Calendar Man & The Penguin, Troy Baker as The Joker, Amy Landecker as Barbara Gordon & Carla Vitti, Fred Tatasciore as Solomon Grundy, Alyssa Diaz as Renee Montoya, and Alastair Duncan as Alfred. In addition, Robin Atkin Downes voices both Scarecrow & Thomas Wayne, John DiMaggio is the Mad Hatter, Laila Berzins is Sofia Falcone, Jim Pirri is Sal Maroni, and Zach Callison is Young Bruce Wayne. Additional voice work was provided by Gary Leroi Gray and Rick Wasserman.

The entire filmmaking team returns for Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two as led by supervising producer Butch Lukic, director Chris Palmer, and screenwriter Tim Sheridan. Producers are Jim Krieg and Kimberly S. Moreau. Executive Producer is Michael Uslan. Sam Register is Executive Producer.

Batman: The Long Halloween - Part Two Bonus Content
Blu-ray and Digital

DC Showcase – Blue Beetle (New Animated Short) – Sufferin’ Scarabs! Silver Age Blue Beetle is back! And, had he ever starred in a 1960s Saturday-morning limited-animation cartoon with its own jazzy earworm of a theme song, it would have been just like this! Welcome to the adventures of Ted Kord, alias the Blue Beetle, as he teams up with fellow Super Heroes Captain Atom, The Question and Nightshade to battle that nefarious finagler of feelings, Doctor Spectro.
-Sneak Peek at the next DC Animated Movie – An advanced look at Injustice.
-DC Universe Movies Flashback
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2
Batman: Hush
-From the DC Vault
Batman: The Animated Series – “Two-Face, Part 1”
Batman: The Animated Series – “Two-Face, Part 2”

Discuss the Batman: The Long Halloween - Part Two animated release here!

Please note this talkback is for both the Batman: The Long Halloween - Part Two animated feature and all aspects of the assorted home media releases. Discussion for both are now housed in one single talkback discussion thread. Spoilers are also allowed, so those who have yet to see the movie may want to avoid this thread until they have.

Related Threads:

-Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One Talkback (Spoilers)
-Batman: The Long Halloween News & Discussion Thread (Spoilers)
-Batman: Year One Animated Feature Talkback (Spoilers)
-Batman: Gotham By Gaslight Animated Feature Talkback (Spoilers)
-Batman: Hush Animated Feature Talkback (Spoilers)
-Batman vs. Two-Face Animated Feature Talkback (Spoilers)

Note: Remember, we appreciate and encourage discussion, but please keep your posts civil, relevant and insightful. Please do not post any improper or inflammatory material, as we will issue warnings if we believe it necessary. And remember to keep the discussion ON-TOPIC!
 

bigdaddy313

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It was a very good conclusion I think, even when I knew who is behind the holiday killing.

And what do you know, after the end credits I am right again, so this art style and colour pilate 100% confirms animated universe reborn after Justice League Dark Apocalypse
 

-batmat-

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Slightly better than Part 1 but I got the same feeling than the first part gave me. It feels that in the translation and transformation from comic to movie, a lot of excitement was lost. I still remember the first time I read The Long Halloween it had me on the edge of my seat and I read it all in one sitting. I think that's my problem with the movie. It doesn't feel exciting.

I won't go intro too much detail, but a few things I liked were, again, the artwork. And a welcome change was to give some closure to Catwoman's involvment with the story and her deal with Falcone. In the comic, instead of explaining it to Batman, she rans off and all of this is resolved in later comics. Bruce having a very happy ending being back with Selina Im not too crazy about, but it's alright.

My main issue is, not surprisingly, with the identity of Holiday. In a similar thing to Red Son, they take a somewhat twist ending and play it straight. The ambiguity of Holiday's identity in the comic is what makes it so interesting and sparks so much discussion.

Gilda being Holiday makes me wonder a few things. First, we get a pretty good look at Holiday in the movie while we don't in the comic. Holiday clearly looks like a man. Definitely not like Gilda. I felt that was a bit of a cheat instead of valid misdirection. Second, why does Gilda kill Alberto if she's doing everything out of love for him? She didn't seem to resent him at all, since she says to Harvey more than once "Why can't you be more like him?" Gilda's "but I still loved him" talking about Harvey felt very odd considering she disregards him for the entire movies and seems to move on without too much problem when Harvey becomes Two-Face.

Batman figuring out Gilda was Holiday and letting her walk free is very shocking. I can't think of a reason why would Batman do that. As much as she suffered and Batman understands it, she still went on a killing spree and should be arrested.

Harvey's turn into Two-Face should have been teased more, I liked the idea of Two-Face being dormant inside him and trying to get out, but I feel it didn't really work very well, and to a lesser extent it didn't in the comic, too. Turning a good guy into a bad guy is hard, and this only gives BTAS more and more credit with how convincing their take on it was.

About the time skips, I felt the same thing I did last time, once. The calendar starts showing days and Holiday killings, brushing off in seconds 2 full chapters from the comics, and once it stops in April 1st, we get the scene where Catwoman fights Poison Ivy. After that, we get the Mother's Day killing, in a time skip that I didn't relize happened, only until they mention Mother's Day, and leaving out the Holiday "not-killing" from April Fools that gave the original story a very intriguing touch that I would have loved to see included.

Other than that, there's the little changes that I don't find reasoning for, like Carmine not wanting Sofia in on the business, when in the comic, she's released from prision and Carmine welcomes her and tells her how much her help is needed (without her having to offer it).

I guess Alberto being definitely dead (it seems?) and not being Holiday, Dark Victory doesn't seem very possible, but I guess they can always change it and work it around, which seems to be what they're doing anyway. Also it meant a lot of the killings and things that happened had to be changed since a few of them were for Alberto to cover his fake death.

Also a question, when Batman fights all the villains, he sets off a lot of Scarecrow gas that fills the room, but no one is affected. What did I miss?
 
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Yojimbo

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Yes, this was a Batman story and given the subject matter, still, Part 2 felt really morose and unsatisfying on first view. Between this and Gotham by Gaslight, no one hasn't really nailed down the detective mystery story yet in these DCU Movies or the kind of structure that keeps us on the edge of our seats guessing whodunit.

Instead, it was a big drive towards the wrong suspect and a lot of the same typical action set-pieces in the final act. Jim Gordon felt like window dressing in this part, was really hoping he would have as big a role as Batman and Harvey. It felt really odd that no one knew Gilda was from Oxford (or Harvey was from Gotham University for that matter) or thought to have a file on her during the investigation. I guess the point was she flew under the radar because they were so fixated on Harvey as the suspect.

The Independence Day murder. So they changed it from the coroner to... an unnamed paid hitman? Or was this a character from the comic they tweaked as the next victim in the movie?

The surprise end credit teaser - I dunno how to feel about that yet.

Idk about the movie, I think I have to watch it again.
I won't go intro too much detail, but a few things I liked were, again, the artwork. And a welcome change was to give some closure to Catwoman's involvment with the story and her deal with Falcone. In the comic, instead of explaining it to Batman, she rans off and all of this is resolved in later comics. Bruce having a very happy ending being back with Selina Im not too crazy about, but it's alright.
From interviews, knowing there was a When in Rome short planned, I'm all the more grateful of this tweak to the story as well. That was the saving grace of the final half of the movie, imo.
Gilda being Holiday makes me wonder a few things. First, we get a pretty good look at Holiday in the movie while we don't in the comic. Holiday clearly looks like a man. Definitely not like Gilda. I felt that was a bit of a cheat instead of valid misdirection. Second, why does Gilda kill Alberto if she's doing everything out of love for him? She didn't seem to resent him at all, since she says to Harvey more than once "Why can't you be more like him?" Gilda's "but I still loved him" talking about Harvey felt very odd considering she disregards him for the entire movies and seems to move on without too much problem when Harvey becomes Two-Face.
Like on the yacht, that clearly looked like man and not Gilda... I guess the costume wasn't just a hat, dust jacket, etc., she wore prosthetics?

It sounded like Gilda implied Alberto stood by and let them do the terrible surgery on her to take the child away.

I think she loved the idealistic/white knight part of Harvey, not Harvey himself, because it reminded her of when she met Alberto and how he married her without hesitating when he found out she was pregnant. Then again, we're talking someone who clearly snapped and went on a murder spree so... where her logic was and what she said was true is moot.
Batman figuring out Gilda was Holiday and letting her walk free is very shocking. I can't think of a reason why would Batman do that. As much as she suffered and Batman understands it, she still went on a killing spree and should be arrested.
Yeah, that part didn't feel defined enough but at that point, he had no proof she was Holiday. She just destroyed the costume and weapons. Harvey took the fall for the murders. I guess Batman could have secretly recorded their conversation and used that as a confession but would that be admissible evidence coming from a costumed vigilante?
Other than that, there's the little changes that I don't find reasoning for, like Carmine not wanting Sofia in on the business, when in the comic, she's released from prision and Carmine welcomes her and tells her how much her help is needed (without her having to offer it).
I think it was to highlight more of how he made the wrong choice and hired supervillains instead of embracing the family he had left. And as a result, he lost everything.
Also a question, when Batman fights all the villains, he sets off a lot of Scarecrow gas that fills the room, but no one is affected. What did I miss?
Ha! I wondered about that one, too. Penguin, I think I saw him shield himself with the open umbrella...
 

powerjake

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Ok, sinse both parts of Long Halloween movies are now out. how would you rate the story now as an animated adaptation?.
 

Frontier

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Yeah, that part didn't feel defined enough but at that point, he had no proof she was Holiday. She just destroyed the costume and weapons. Harvey took the fall for the murders. I guess Batman could have secretly recorded their conversation and used that as a confession but would that be admissible evidence coming from a costumed vigilante?
I think the idea is that thematically Batman, unlike in the comic, figures out who Holiday really is but, because he wasn't ready as a detective by the time of the story, he wasn't able to stop Holiday in time and figuring out who it was didn't change anything. Bringing in Gilda ultimately wouldn't have mattered even if he could do it because one way or another he still failed.

One of the common criticisms of the story is Batman's less than stellar detective skills (and the murky outcome of who Holiday really is) so I guess in some respect the movie made it a plot point.
 

honorableninja

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did anyone else feel the post credit scene felt well tacked on? as really nothing throughout either parts suggested this was in the same universe at man of tomorrow. and it just my personal opinion but would have rather it had been martian manhunter next to flash instead of green arrow as oliver appearing just was basically saying "he exists in this universe" with no characterization.
 

Yojimbo

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did anyone else feel the post credit scene felt well tacked on? as really nothing throughout either parts suggested this was in the same universe at man of tomorrow. and it just my personal opinion but would have rather it had been martian manhunter next to flash instead of green arrow as oliver appearing just was basically saying "he exists in this universe" with no characterization.
It smelled of the corporate overlords requesting a tag for the new shared universe. But idk, presumably the tag will be discussed in an interview, panel, or live tweet. I'm curious to see why they included this.
 

Frontier

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did anyone else feel the post credit scene felt well tacked on? as really nothing throughout either parts suggested this was in the same universe at man of tomorrow. and it just my personal opinion but would have rather it had been martian manhunter next to flash instead of green arrow as oliver appearing just was basically saying "he exists in this universe" with no characterization.
Well, I kind of already assumed as much given the character designs, and we'll probably be seeing Ollie more in at least one of the 2022 movies.
 

BigFatHairyDeal

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If you permit me a pedantic rant, the "Solomon Grundy" nursery rhyme actually rhymes. So "Grundy" rhymes with "Monday." You see, there's an accepted pronunciation of "Monday" (and all days of the week) where "-day" is actually pronounced to sound like "-dee." I think one of my old dictionaries at home actually puts that variant pronunciation first, but nobody these days says it that way because it probably makes you sound uneducated. Anyway, if you're going to recite the nursery rhyme, rhyme "Monday" with "Grundy." It really sounds better that way. :)

Did anyone here ever play that PS3 game Heavy Rain? A lot of gamers got really angry about the reveal of the mystery killer. The reveal of Gilda as Holiday in this movie made me think a lot about HR and how both really cheat the mystery by giving the killer one body type while the killer had a completely different one. It's like they tried as much as possible to make Holiday look as much like Harvey wearing a mask and hat. My feeling is that's dirty. I get that you want to preserve the mystery, but that's less misdirection and obfuscation, like good mysteries do, and more like lying/cheating/baiting and switching.

I know The Dark Knight pulled a lot of inspiration from The Long Halloween, but I kind of feel like this two-parter was a movie better told by two other great Batman movies, The Dark Knight and Mask of the Phantasm. It's not that I didn't enjoy the movies, but at parts, I just felt my interest waning at certain and I was compelled to check MLB scores on my phone or even read this forum :) while the movie played. But you know? I never finished reading "The Long Halloween" comics, I got to watch a story that was largely new to me, and was entertaining for at least a solid two hours.

The action scenes in the two-parter were kind of disappointing, for reasons explained above, but also because I feel at times it should be more grounded and not cartoon wonky.

I will also say that I really, really like this art and animation style. Glad it's here to stay.

The post-credits scene does one thing for me: it tells me that the Batman that's going to be sharing adventures with the other DC heroes is a younger, less experienced Batman, and I'm for it. Though I won't be surprised if Batman fixes all of his deficiencies as a detective by the time we see him fighting alongside the Justice League.
 

DCAMUFAN

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I love the post credit scene and think it's a nice addition. Like others have said I'm sure it's going to be discussed in a future panel or interview
 

Rick Jones

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did anyone else feel the post credit scene felt well tacked on? as really nothing throughout either parts suggested this was in the same universe at man of tomorrow. and it just my personal opinion but would have rather it had been martian manhunter next to flash instead of green arrow as oliver appearing just was basically saying "he exists in this universe" with no characterization.
I thought it was a cute surprise after the final scene featured trick or treating but when you really think about it, it's kind of messed up that they just show up at Bruce's front door like that.

I'm a little jaded about them incorporating this into a new universe, after the way the last one ended, but we'll see how it goes. It's felt like forever since I saw a Batman story in main continuity that I liked. It's probably been since Batman - Year One. The movies in the last continuity weren't that great to me. This two-parter worked like a mystery mini-series for me, and I really like those. I don't think it was perfect and there's part of me that wishes it was done in a style that was more reminiscent of Tim Sale's art but all in all I'm glad that it was done. One thing that stuck out to me was the score. It's definitely not the kind of score I would have ever imagined for this story. Not that it was bad but it just felt different to what I would have imagined.

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Stu

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Initial thoughts - they have clearly slashed the budget of these features, there was a clear and obvious slant to have the characters move as little as possible unless it was an action scene. Pans and camera tricks only get you so far… I suppose it’s the price to pay for the number of movies we get a year now.

I did enjoy the movie, but am somewhat baffled at Batman letting Gilda go. I can see his reasoning, in that he failed Harvey so let’s Gilda get away with it but… no. Unless this sets up Dark Victory along the way? (We didn’t find out if Sophia died from her fall or not.)

Solid movies, but not up there amongst the great DC animated movies for me.
 

Rick Jones

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I did enjoy the movie, but am somewhat baffled at Batman letting Gilda go. I can see his reasoning, in that he failed Harvey so let’s Gilda get away with it but… no. Unless this sets up Dark Victory along the way? (We didn’t find out if Sophia died from her fall or not.)

I keep going back to thinking about that. I'm pretty sure some of Batman's rogues don't have the body count that this woman does. She should at least be in Arkham.

What was done to her was evil but as we see with so many of the other villains, how you react to that is what leads you down this path, and she went way past the point of redemption.

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Otaku-sempai

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Initial thoughts - they have clearly slashed the budget of these features, there was a clear and obvious slant to have the characters move as little as possible unless it was an action scene. Pans and camera tricks only get you so far… I suppose it’s the price to pay for the number of movies we get a year now.

I did enjoy the movie, but am somewhat baffled at Batman letting Gilda go. I can see his reasoning, in that he failed Harvey so let’s Gilda get away with it but… no. Unless this sets up Dark Victory along the way? (We didn’t find out if Sophia died from her fall or not.)

Solid movies, but not up there amongst the great DC animated movies for me.
If Warner Bros has not literally slashed the budgets then I suspect that neither have they kept up with inflation.
 

khuddle

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I give the movie an A-. Artwork and animation were sublime. I especially love the new artistic interpretations of Poison Ivy, Catwoman, Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter -- just brilliant. The story was ok, not like they reinvented the wheel or something, but it was good enough not to detract from the gorgeous animation (unlike, say, the story in Justice Society: WW2).

Can't wait to see more from this particular animation studio.
 
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Yojimbo

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Can't wait to see more from this particular animation studio.
Answer Studio was a sight for sore eyes. I was glad they were able to have just one studio animate Part 2 (And Answer did do Batman: Under the Red Hood, Son of Batman, Batman vs. Robin, Batman: Bad Blood, Batman: The Killing Joke, Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, and part of Superman: Man of Tomorrow previously) and I hope they keep doing more of these DTVs.
 

Hanshotfirst1138

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The appearance and abilities of Harvey’s second personality was a little nebulous; is there more info about that in the comic?


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