batman under the red hood movie review

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Batman: Under the Red Hood Reviews

The voice acting and story makes this one of the best "Batman" animated DC films.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 10, 2023

I wish we could have had more flashbacks with Jason Todd to really emphasize that this is a darker take on Robin. However, I really enjoyed the darkness of this film and the voice acting.

Here’s a worthy movie that redeems some of Warner Premier’s lesser titles, offering a one-shot experience that’s easily disposable for general audiences, but a must-see for fans of animation, Batman, and general comic book fare.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 9, 2023

An extremely dark, brisk chapter in the Dark Knight's ever-popular screen sagas.

Full Review | Original Score: 68/100 | Jul 9, 2011

Definitely not for young kids, but it's smart pulp writing and well put together for a direct-to-DVD animation.

Full Review | Aug 11, 2010

Drug dealers and brutal beatings in animated Batman movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 3, 2010

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jul 30, 2010

More so than most of the DC Animated films, Red Hood aims for cinematic storytelling.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 29, 2010

It's a really entertaining little gem from the DC universe that I'm glad I devoted time to...

Full Review | Jul 29, 2010

With its colorful, exciting action and well-defined emotional underpinnings, Batman: Under the Red Hood is the best yet in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line. [Blu-ray]

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 21, 2010

Home » Movies » Movie Reviews

Batman: Under the Red Hood Review

Batman: Under the Red Hood is a DC Universe Animated Original Movie. Check out the full archive by clicking these words .

Allow me to be frank for a moment: In a world where Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight doesn’t exist, Batman: Under the Red Hood is the greatest Batman movie ever made. That sounds like hyperbole, I know. How can a 70-minute animation possibly live up to feature-length Hollywood blockbusters? And yet, here we are. Under the Red Hood manages to bottle some of The Dark Knight ’s essence; the focus on being a dark, gritty crime drama above a theatrical superhero story, the Joker as a primary antagonist, the brooding vulnerability of Bruce Wayne, the violence, the thematic weight. But it filters these things through DC’s now-trademark smooth and polished animation, slickening the action with overblown bust-ups against giant androids and cybernetic assassins. It has room for characters, scenes, and ideas that feel more reminiscent of a splash panel than a screenwriter’s storyboard, but that mature take on one of comics’ most ludicrous stalwarts remains resolutely intact.

It’s an odd mix, but a surprisingly potent one. The story is an adaptation of Judd Winick’s 2005 Batman arc “Under the Hood”, but it incorporates elements from the seminal “A Death in the Family”, too. When the latter’s four issues were running in the late 80s, DC set up a hotline so that fans could vote on whether Jason Todd, the second Robin after Dick Grayson, would live or die. That Under the Red Hood opens with the Joker (John DiMaggio) seemingly beating Todd (Jensen Ackles) to death with a crowbar should give you a decent idea of how they voted.

Much like how you can always rely on comic-book fans for macabre plot decisions, you can rely on DiMaggio to deliver a demented performance as the Clown Prince of Crime. Outside of Mark Hamill and the late Heath Ledger, nobody better embodies the grinning, face-painted lunacy of the Joker than him, and it’s important here, in a story so reliant on his mania. Winick also wrote the screenplay, and he once again captures something fundamentally tragic and everlasting about Joker’s relationship with Batman (Bruce Greenwood), the power he holds over his heart and mind, their mutual unwillingness to properly do-away with each other. The tale has its share of twists and turns, but what it boils down to is the same old conflict between Batman and his nemesis: Both will do whatever they can to destroy each other, but not the one thing that would bring their decades-long rivalry to a real end.

Because that rivalry is so well-known and so central to how most Batman stories function, Under the Red Hood shakes it into the margins of a crime drama that sees Black Mask (Wade Williams) as the reigning kingpin of Gotham City’s blood-soaked underworld. His criminal empire is being threatened by a mysterious vigilante known as Red Hood, who seems as smart and well-trained as Batman himself, but eager to prove he doesn’t share the Caped Crusader’s compunction about killing. The first thing he does is slap a duffel bag full of severed gangster heads on a table, just to let everyone know who’s in charge. The Red Hood mantle has a long and storied history in Gotham’s underbelly, and so Batman assumes, at first, that this is just another small-time crook trying to make a name for himself. No such luck.

I won’t spoil who’s under the hood, but the movie doesn’t seem to make much of an effort to hide it, and anyone who has read Winick’s original story will know where this one is going. As I’ve covered these animated movies, I’ve returned to the same criticism again and again, that the nuance and depth of a storyline are lost when you condense it into 60, or 70, or even 80 minutes. Under the Red Hood ’s approach is smarter, more knowing. It recognizes that to try and replicate the slow build of the comics wouldn’t work, so it’s instead matter-of-fact about its reveals. The director here is Brandon Vietti, a veteran of Bat-toons, and someone who clearly understands these characters and the world they inhabit. The action is orchestrated around Batman’s wits, his gadgets, his fighting prowess – all the powerless components that make him powerful. Red Hood, too, works in a similar, albeit bloodier, way. There are still dollops of profound silliness here, but far fewer than usual.

That isn’t to say that some silliness isn’t welcome in a superhero story, but all available evidence seems to suggest that Batman, an intrinsically silly character, works best when he’s presented seriously. The things that make him most interesting are the relatable human flaws that inform his superheroics; the guilt, the aloofness, the overwhelming responsibility he feels towards his city and his extended Bat-family, which includes Robin, and also Nightwing (Neil Patrick Harris), who here is effortlessly charismatic, and tempers Batman’s seriousness with wisecracks. A lot of the movie’s considerable kinetic energy also comes courtesy of him, and his inclusion seems an incredibly smart choice, especially considering that he represents one potential outcome of being a Batman sidekick, while the rest of Under the Red Hood demonstrates another.

The DC animated originals that I’ve seen and written about thus far have all exhibited a fairly consistent level of quality, but only Wonder Woman and, now, Batman: Under the Red Hood, have felt so assured in their storytelling, masterful in their construction, and compelling in their execution. This is a terrific film, not just by the flimsy standards of animated fare, but by any critical metric you could apply to it. If you’re a Bat-fan, Under the Red Hood is mandatory viewing.

Article by Jonathon Wilson

Jonathon is one of the co-founders of Ready Steady Cut and has been an instrumental part of the team since its inception in 2017. Jonathon has remained involved in all aspects of the site’s operation, mainly dedicated to its content output, remaining one of its primary Entertainment writers while also functioning as our dedicated Commissioning Editor, publishing over 6,500 articles.

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Batman: Under the Red Hood

There's a mystery afoot in Gotham City, and Batman must go toe-to-toe with a mysterious vigilante, who goes by the name of Red Hood. Subsequently, old wounds reopen and old, once buried memo... Read all There's a mystery afoot in Gotham City, and Batman must go toe-to-toe with a mysterious vigilante, who goes by the name of Red Hood. Subsequently, old wounds reopen and old, once buried memories come into the light. There's a mystery afoot in Gotham City, and Batman must go toe-to-toe with a mysterious vigilante, who goes by the name of Red Hood. Subsequently, old wounds reopen and old, once buried memories come into the light.

• Brandon Vietti
• Judd Winick
• Gerry Conway
• Bruce Greenwood
• Jensen Ackles
• John DiMaggio
• 164 User reviews
• 60 Critic reviews
• 1 nomination

• Dick Grayson

• Ra's al Ghul

• Ra's Assistant

• Young Robin

• Alfred Pennyworth

• Tyler Bramford

• Reporter #1

• Judd Winick (uncredited)
• Gerry Conway (uncredited)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia The story is based on the 1988 Batman Comics storyline "A Death in the Family," where readers voted via a 1-900 number to either save or kill off the second Robin, Jason Todd. Over 10,000 votes were cast and with only a 72-vote majority, the decision was made to kill him. Todd was later brought back in 2005 as part of the 2005 "Under the Hood" storyline.
• Goofs The bathroom in which Batman and the Red Hood fight in has no door to it, until Batman makes his own door by punching the Red Hood through a wall.

Jason Todd : Ignoring what he's done in the past. Blindly, stupidly disregarding the entire graveyards he's filled, the thousands who have suffered, the friends he's crippled. You know, I thought... I thought I'd be the last person you'd ever let him hurt. If it had been you that he beat to a bloody pulp, if he had taken you from this world, I would've done nothing but search the planet for this pathetic pile of evil, death-worshiping garbage and then send him off to hell!

Batman : You don't understand. I don't think you've ever understood.

Jason Todd : What? That your moral code just won't allow for that? It's too hard to cross that line?

Batman : No! God Almighty, no. It'd be too damned easy. All I've ever wanted to do is kill him. A day doesn't go by that I don't think about subjecting him to every horrendous torture he's dealt out to others, and then... end him.

Joker : Aw, so you *do* think about me.

Batman : But if I do that, if I allow myself to go down into that place... I'll never come back.

Jason Todd : Why? I'm not talking about killing Penguin or Scarecrow or Dent. I'm talking about *him*, just him. And doing it because... because he took me away from you.

Batman : I can't. I'm sorry.

Joker : That is so sweet!

• Connections Edited into Batman: Death in the Family (2020)

User reviews 164

• Nov 4, 2016
• July 27, 2010 (United States)
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Batman: Under the Red Hood

Review by brian eggert july 29, 2010.

Batman has always been a character whose storytelling prospects more often than not overshadow his appearances in comics, movies, and various other pop-culture. This is the sad truth of most iconic superheroes; their legacy outperforms the material that constructed it. With the campy 1960s television show, four underwhelming movies, and comic books that seldom grasp the depth of the character, finding great Batman stories is a rare luxury. Some may look no further than Batman Begins and The Dark Knight , an approach that’s hard to dissuade. But the 1990s television show Batman: The Animated Series stands as possibly the best amalgamation of the character’s dark tone and comic style. The show’s creators have gathered once more to make another animated Batman epic, this one unrelated to their previous series.

Warner Bros. Animation’s Batman: Under the Red Hood comes from Warner Premier, which debuts DC Comic-centric features, (usually) PG-13-rated, on home video for cheap, often resulting in a hefty profit and appealing primarily to the apologist fanboy crowd. Though starting strong with Justice League: The New Frontier and Wonder Woman , the animation in their recent releases has faltered. Watch Superman/Batman: Public Enemies or Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths and you notice that they feel no different than Nickelodeon cartoons, whereas the company has avowed to elevate its comic stories above typical cartoons through their generally superior storytelling. With this objective, Warner has failed to meet their high aspirations in most cases, but their latest effort reminds us why this studio should be considered one of the great animation studios in the business.

Based on the comic storylines “A Death in the Family” and “Under the Hood”, the movie is separate from the continuity of The Animated Series , much to fanboy chagrin. Though producers Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett and voice director Andrea Romano are behind the project, alas, fans will miss the aural appearances of Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill’s signature Joker. They’re replaced, respectively, by Bruce Greenwood and John DiMaggio, whose voices are both more gruff and serious, aligning with the Christopher Nolan approach to Batman. But their voices are also less iconic, or simply less known as those characters, creating a minor distraction as the movie begins.

The story follows Batman as he attempts to discover the identity of a new villain called “The Red Hood” (voice of Jensen Ackles), who has bribed or killed most of Gotham City’s criminal underworld. The established kingpin known as The Black Mask (voice of Wade Williams), a Scarface-like gangster with a black skull-face, hires everyone he can to take down his new competition, but the Red Hood anticipates every move from both Batman and Gotham’s criminal element. Though Batman tracks down the Red Hood with the help of Dick Grayson, his first Robin known now as Nightwing (voice of Neil Patrick Harris), the villain easily escapes. Who is this mysterious figure? How does he seem to know Batman’s methods front and back? And what does this have to do with The Joker, Ra’s al Ghul (voice of Jason Isaacs), and Jason Todd, the second young orphan to don the Robin mask and who was murdered by The Joker?

Whereas the twist of the Red Hood’s identity is obvious, the substance and atmosphere of the movie prevail. This is dark animation, filled with blood and violence in a noirish color scheme of blacks and grays that earns a PG-13 rating. The majority is hand-drawn, except during complex action sequences where vehicles and backdrops are rendered with computers. The characters feel attuned to adult emotions, but that’s counteracted by the fantastical comic book battles. And instead of resorting to mere action, the movie resolves to bring some weighty emotional purpose to Batman legend—adding to the character’s already deep-rooted inner pains. Of course, director Brandon Vietti has obviously siphoned inspiration from Nolan’s Batman pictures, both in style and tone. What’s more, the movie’s thick-bodied, deep-voiced Joker behaves less like the raving lunatic of The Animated Series and more like Heath Ledger’s murderous sociopath in The Dark Knight .

The lack of Conroy and Hamill, and the rest of The Animated Series ’ voice cast, does the movie an unfortunate and unintentional disservice. With the animation style closely following The Animated Series —with only a few slight, superficial alterations, such as the thicker, cracked visage of The Joker—viewers familiar with Warner’s previous DC Comic animations will have trouble reconciling what’s onscreen and what they’re hearing. It seems a rather simple detail with which the filmmakers could have coddled their target fanboy audience. After all, if a video-game-like Batman: Arkham Asylum can gather the voice cast that audiences/gamers want, why shouldn’t the production team that made them the gold standard?

Still, Under the Red Hood is an entertaining piece of animation. It can’t help but inspire Bat-fanatics to return to The Animated Series , where Warner Bros. Animation both found its bearings and reached the height of DC Comic adaptation. Moreover, the movie will no doubt begin questions about whether or not Black Mask will appear in Nolan’s third and final Batman film (it’s one of many rumors for the yet-unannounced villain, along with The Riddler, Catwoman, et al.). So here’s a worthy movie that redeems some of Warner Premier’s lesser titles, offering a one-shot experience that’s easily disposable for general audiences, but a must-see for fans of animation, Batman, and general comic book fare.

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Batman: under the red hood.

2010 Directed by Brandon Vietti

Dare to Look Beneath the Hood.

There's a mystery afoot in Gotham City, and Batman must go toe-to-toe with a mysterious vigilante, who goes by the name of Red Hood. Subsequently, old wounds reopen and old, once buried memories come into the light. Batman faces his ultimate challenge as the mysterious Red Hood takes Gotham City by firestorm. One part vigilante, one part criminal kingpin, Red Hood begins cleaning up Gotham with the efficiency of Batman, but without following the same ethical code.

Bruce Greenwood Jensen Ackles Neil Patrick Harris Jason Isaacs John DiMaggio Wade Williams Carlos Alazraqui Robert Clotworthy Gary Cole Brian George Kelly Hu Phil LaMarr Alexander Martella Vincent Martella Jim Piddock Kevin Michael Richardson Andrea Romano Dwight Schultz Fred Tatasciore Keri Tombazian Bruce Timm Michael Villani

Director Director

Brandon Vietti

Producers Producers

Alan Burnett Bobbie Page Bruce Timm

Writer Writer

Judd Winick

Original Writer Original Writer

Casting casting.

Andrea Romano

Editor Editor

Margaret Hou

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Michael Uslan Benjamin Melniker Sam Register Gregory Noveck

Composer Composer

Christopher Drake

Sound Sound

George Brooks Robert Hargreaves

Warner Bros. Animation DC Comics

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

English Latin Spanish

Releases by Date

10 aug 2010, 27 jul 2010, 27 aug 2010, 01 sep 2010, 06 oct 2010, releases by country.

• Physical 14
• Physical 15
• Physical 16 Blu-ray, DVD
• Physical PG

Netherlands

• Physical 12
• Digital 7 Blu-ray, DVD
• Physical PG DVD
• Physical PG-13

75 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by angie ★★★★★ 1

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

"I'm not talking about killing Penguin or Scarecrow or Dent. I'm talking about him. Just him. And doing it because... Because he took me away from you" I CRY EVERYTIME

Review by noelle ★★★ 8

couldn’t get over the fact that they animated dick to be the ugliest character in this movie

Review by Patrick Willems ★★★ 22

I don’t really understand the DC direct-to-video animated movies. The ones adapting classic comics like All-Star Superman or The New Frontier just end up being chopped-down disappointing retellings of some of the best comics ever published, which really deserve a prestigious big-screen treatment. And then there are ones like Under the Red Hood, which is pretty good, but for some weird reason is a standalone movie that doesn’t fit into any specific continuity, but feels like a chapter in an ongoing story. Instead of making all these movies they should’ve just made a new DC animated tv show. If this movie had been, like, season five, it would’ve been incredible.

Review by james💫 ★★★ 3

spoiler: batman was not under the red hood

Review by adambolt ★★★

Batman really needs to stop letting kids be around the Joker.

Review by kylie ★★★★ 3

i giggled when jason said “let’s keep this even” and took off his masks and was wearing another one under it

Review by ellie ✨ ★★★★½

i'm not crying, there's just a batarang in my eye

Review by georgina ★★★★ 2

i love my son jason todd

Review by Sethsreviews ★★★★ 8

The perfect balance between nail-biting action sequences and exploring the depths of Batman's character complexity. Dark, mysterious, and thrilling, there is nothing but constant excitement from start to finish. Also, the film's tone is flawlessly complemented by the art direction, which successfully bridges the divide between gritty reality and a genuine comic book vibe. I'd argue that this and Mask of the Phantasm are among the very best Batman films ever made. Great time!

Review by Aus ★★★★½ 2

When joker says “...and then one with the crowbar!” I lose my shit every time

Review by fari ★★★★

Jason didn't die and come back to life for you to fancast him as Jensen Ackles

Review by 𝖏𝖊𝖉 ★★★★ 5

i want the entire batfam to n*t in me

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Batman: Under The Red Hood Review

By matthew meylikhov | july 27th, 2010 posted in reviews | % comments.

Featuring Winnick at the helm of the adaptation and impressive voice cast including John DiMaggio (famous for his role as Bender on Futurama) as well as Neil Patrick Harris, the movie seeks to adapt one of the more controversial stories from the DCU to film. Why so controversial? Because it featured the return of one of the classic “dead three” — Jason Todd.

Take a look behind the cut for my opinions of the film.

Out of all the things that he’s ever done, I think this is probably one of my least favorite things Winnick has ever done. I don’t think it was necessarily him and him alone that returned Jason Todd to the DCU, but the way that he did it was never something that really impressed me. It’s clever to a certain respect, but it’s also fairly odd. At least, to me. I never really understood the point of bringing back a Robin and making him into essentially a villain. Todd has been through a gauntlet of writers, all of whom have put their own personal spin on the character allowing him to be both a hero and a villain again, but it all starts here with the Under the Hood storyline.

Of course, when Under the Hood came out, it was in continuity with the DCU, so it was already assumed that every fan of the title had already read the classic story that is required reading for this kind of a tale: A Death in the Family. This story featured one of the classic and oft mentioned Batman moments, as the Joker beat Jason Todd to death in a crowbar. So if we’re making an animated film about one storyline that references another, how do we work with this? Why, we put them together of course!

The film opens in a redesigned version of Jason Todd’s death. Originally, Todd was given up by his mother (who he had just reunited with) in Ethiopia before being beaten and left to die in a warehouse with a time bomb. We basically have the same story here, but it jumps right into the middle of the beating and the setting is switched. Of course, Batman still doesn’t arrive on time, and we are treated with the classic scene of Batman holding the boy in his arms. We then jump to years later and are returned to the days of Black Mask’s occupation in Gotham, with Batman and Nightwing fighting Amazo and being brought into the storyline of Under the Hood. From there it pretty much follows the storyline to the T, although featuring a different ending.

For the most part, I thought that the story maintaining it’s roots worked well. Winnick was the one at the helm of the film’s plot here, so it only stands to reason that he’d effectively rewrite his tale. That’s something that I always hate about adaptations of storylines. When you’re simply reimagining a character, then go nuts with it, but if you have a book that already lays out the plot, there isn’t need to change it. If it worked in the book (assuming you think the originally story worked to begin with) then it’ll work in the movie. While it certainly was an odd choice to adapt this of all storylines, it did offer up an entertaining film. It even kept some of the important moments in the story, especially in regards to how the Red Hood was finally revealed to Batman. While the book featured a more hyperactive timeline, beginning with the end, watching the story “in order” worked just as well, especially when it paid tribute to it’s root.

There are three things that I do ultimately find odd about it though. There are two elements of the story that stayed in the film that I don’t think worked for a casual audience: the Amazo fight and Black Mask’s appearance in general. Black Mask is definitely a classic Batman villain at this point, especially considering War Games and all that fun stuff with Stephanie Brown, but for the average viewer who likes Batman because he’s Batman, it might seem a bit odd. The reason Amazo was there was because he was being shipped as a weapon to the Black Mask, and in the terms of an ongoing comic book where Batman had been going up the Black Mask for months it felt more natural. Here, we’re kind of thrown the Black Mask element not as a predominant feature, and it is assumed that the audience will understand who he is. To me, this felt a bit off putting despite my Bat-knowledge.

The third thing that I didn’t feel worked too well was the changed ending. Now, obviously the ending will be different, but (and these are pretty hefty spoilers, so if you don’t want to know don’t look) to me, taking away Todd’s moment of beating the Joker with a crowbar and leaving him for dead took away from his villainous return. Todd does get his hits in, but it’s in a different setting here. Obviously the movie isn’t going to take the time to establish that Joker had just been ousted from his position and forced to crawl and hide away in his old carnival from The Killing Joke, but that was my FAVORITE part of the story. To have Black Mask captured and Joker simply defeated after another crime spree was not as effective as the comic’s . Of course, it can definitely be argued that that ending only worked in the comics because of years of storytelling and different writers, but I’m allowed to be a stickler some days.

One thing that I really did like, though, is all the new sequences inserted that elaborate on Todd’s upbringing with Bruce Wayne. I think that, especially in comparison with Hood’s actions, showing a young Todd and allowing Wayne to reflect on where he went wrong was actually quite a sad and moving element of the story. My earlier problem revolved around poor adaptation to larger storylines that the casual viewer might not recognize, but these moments show that Winnick did at least try to bring this part of the story in for an unknown viewer. To most people, Robin is Robin and they probably don’t really care how many there have been. This is why it’s so important to SHOW us that Todd was a young Robin — and quite an innocent young child at that despite his recklessness — helps us empathize with what he ultimately became, and thus this becomes the movies most redeeming aspect. Granted, this made it PAINFULLY obvious that the Red Hood was Todd the whole time whereas the comic was more shocking, this is just something that comes with beginning your movie by killing Robin.

One of my biggest complaints about the last DC Animated film was the voice cast. For Crisis on Two Earths, it was pretty horrible. For this, it’s passable. It really depends on the character. Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing works surprisingly well, and DiMaggio as the Joker works at points too. DiMaggio has the harder role to overcome because his voice is so recognizable and the Joker’s character is as well, but there are moments where DiMaggio really brings out the fear of the character versus the insanity that Hammil usually brings. Bruce Greenwood has a tough time beating Kevin Conroy, but he adapts quite well to the role. However, Wade Williams as Black Mask and Jensen Ackles as the Red Hood are the voices that I couldn’t really get in to. Ackles didn’t seem like the logical progression for the rebirthed character after being voiced by spry young Alex and Vincent Martella, and Williams never quite instilled any fear at all into me as the viewer, especially not in comparison with the dark actions of the comic book counterpart.

All in all, Under The Red Hood is not a bad film in the slightest. In fact, it’s far more enjoyable than the last entry into DC’s Animated universe. The voice cast does a reasonably good job with their role, and the animation here is pretty fantastic. There are some odd mixes between 2D and 3D, but it’s not often enough to become overly jarring or detrimental. While I do have my problems with the storyline, they’re really just problems that I’ve always had in general with what happened with the character. The amount that I enjoyed this movie actually quite surprised me, and ultimately I do recommend giving this a watch over some of the other DC Animated films. While it’s not quite as good as A New Frontier (which is my favorite), it is definitely as good of an adaptation as Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.

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Batman: under the red hood.

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Great movie. a little shocking to the system, though., i watched this when i was 5, an amazing but violent movie, the best dcau movie out there, really entertaining and i love jason by the way.

Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010)

Batman: under the red hood.

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Batman faces his ultimate challenge as the mysterious Red Hood takes Gotham City by firestorm. One part vigilante, one part criminal kingpin, Red Hood begins cleaning up Gotham with the efficiency of Batman, but without following the same ethical code. Killing is an option. And when the Joker falls in the balance between the two, hard truths are revealed and old wounds are reopened.

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Batman: Under The Red Hood

Movie » Batman: Under The Red Hood released on July 27, 2010.

Following the brutal murder of the second Robin at the hands of the Joker, a new Red Hood emerges, taking over the Joker's original identity. Is this Red Hood a darker crime fighter or a villain with a conscience? This DVD also features a short film featuring Jonah Hex.

Summary short summary describing this movie..

Batman: Under The Red Hood last edited by Cosmic Cube on 01/23/22 04:55PM View full history

The movie starts off with the Joker beating Jason Todd , the second Robin to death with a crowbar in an abandoned building. Ra's al Ghul , realizes his mistake with allying with the Clown Prince and learns that Batman won't make it in time to save Jason Todd. Batman arrives late to rescue his wounded partner and the building explodes just as Batman arrives. Jason's body is found in the rubble caused by the explosion Joker had previously set up.

Five years later in Gotham City, a new criminal vigilante Red Hood has assembled a meeting with the top earning thugs and drug dealers in Gotham. The masked man then reveals that he has killed all of their second hand men and officially names himself boss and tells them to give him forty percent of their earnings and warns not to sell drugs or go anywhere near children, or else. Elsewhere, Batman and Dick Grayson are then seen fighting an Amazo (android) at a shipping dock near the river. Once the robot is defeated and the three thugs who were there are tied up, Batman begins questioning them and learns that they are working for the Red Hood. Suddenly, a sniper, revealed to be The Red Hood shoots and kills all three thugs. Batman begins to chase Hood throughout the city, and Bruce is lead to Ace Chemicals, the birthplace of the Joker. Red Hood sets off an explosion, destroying the facility with Batman barely escaping with his life. Bruce and Nightwing rendezvous in the Batcave and Batman tells Nightwing since The Red Hood has appeared, trafficking has gone up but crime has remarkably gone down.

Batman and Nightwing proceed to Arkham Asylum and question Joker about this new Red Hood, and whether or not he is involved. Joker taunts and torments Batman about the death of Jason Todd, and denies any involvement. At Black Mask 's headquarters, Sionis is in a fit because his "Amazo" was destroyed. Black promptly puts a hit on Red Hood to his men. A new recruit starts to talk about the next shipment coming in and both Batman and Red Hood have bugged the place, listening in on the conversation. It cuts to a scene with a helicopter, and Red Hood shows up and hijacks the helicopter, only to be stopped by Batman and Nightwing. Red Hood runs and Batman chases him, leaving Nightwing to clean up the mess the duo left behind. Once Nightwing is finished he joins up with Batman and the chase leads to a blimp and rooftops. The is extended leading Nightwing to saying how good Red Hood is by being able to evade Batman at every turn. The chase leads to a train station above ground and a explosion goes off leaving Batman and Nightwing temporarily unstable and lets Red Hood escape. After reviewing the audio footage from the battle, Bruce realizes that Red Hood knows his secret identity. Dick returns home after having his injured arm bandaged by Alfred.

Bruce keeps watching the footage, making him wonder if Jason is behind the helmet. This leads to a flashback of when the duo were at their best and worst fighting The Riddler and some average thugs. The scene cuts to a shoot out on one of Red Hoods protected areas by Black Masks henchmen with a intrigued Red Hood watching form afar. It then cuts to another scene where one out of eight of the crime bosses that is following The Red Hood is being beaten and about to be burned when... The Red Hood jumps in to save the day, but little did Red Hood know that it was a trap and a group called, "The Fearsome Hand of Four" attacks Hood. Hood soon gets beaten but goes on to say he's stalling and Batman shows up and the duo are reunited and start to fight the four, when one of the four gets the upper hand on Hood, he zaps him in the head and kills him with no regard life which causes Batman to look down on Hood and they have an argument in which Hood then leaves.

Back at the Headquarters of Black Mask, Mask is given news that his shipment has once again been taken away by Hood and gets into a rage when a small red dot his seen on his neck and then to his forehead, form afar a Red Hood waves and shoots a rocket into Masks room but a reluctant Mask survives and is forced to call... for a helping hand.... Joker is set free by Mask and was given the task of killing The Red Hood. Back at Wayne manor Bruce digs up Jason;s grave site and finds that the body is still there but not a real one, Bruce gets enraged that he was fooled and bursts out of his estate to the source of where this all started. At Ra's al Ghul s' mansion Batman bursts into the window from where Ra's is standing and questions him about Jason in which where Ra's confesses and tells him all he needs to know. On his way back to Gotham Batman finds that Joker has abducted all eight of Red Hoods crime bosses including Black Mask and his assistant on the bridge, Joker starts to pour gas on the hostages in a large truck container and as Joker is trying to light the event The Red Hood appears and the two have a conversation in which Joker ends by finally being able to start his lighter and starts to burn the hostages alive... then out of nowhere Batman swoops in and splashes what seems to be foam or something like it to stop the fire and tries to take Joker out with him but a sharp Hood grabs on to Joker and cuts the wire holding Joker and Hood and Joker fall into the river.

Hood tells Batman to come to Crime Alley if he wanted Joker back. Showing up at a what seems to be a abandoned apartment Hood tosses Joker on the ground and starts to beat him with a crowbar,for payback after what Joker did to him five years ago. By the time Batman arrives Hood is done and waiting for Batman to arrive, When Batman shows up Hood and Batman fight it out and end up on a rooftop of a church and that's where Hood takes off his helmet and shows that in fact, he truly is Jason Todd. After another short fight Jason jumps through a window and back in the room Joker was being held in. Here the three finally are able to talk. Jason confronts Bruce as to why he never avenged him and tosses Bruce a gun and tells him to either shoot Joker or him(Jason), or else he (Jason) will kill the Joker by blowing "his deranged brains out," in which Bruce refuses and turns his back, tossing the pistol aside. Jason then shoots at Batman and misses with Batman throwing a small Batarang in the barrel of the gun Jason is holding right before he shoots again, making the pistol malfunction and explode, injuring his hand. However, Jason has an ace up his sleeve and sets off a bomb he planted in the room (similar to the one that Joker used to kill him). The bomb goes off and Jason is nowhere to be found, while Joker is found in the rubble laughing, and is returned to Arkham with Black Mask being set free with a million dollar bail and Batman going back out there, but only after telling Alfred that nothing has changed between Jason and him and sets off in his Batmobile . At the end, a quick flashback is left showing Jason's first day and first time in his Robin costume.

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Batman: under the red hood from the Devil Himself 0

Batman: Under The Red Hood by the_devil_himself on August 25, 2010

This was one of thr best movies from DC yet. Gotham Knights was just to risky and when you start something as exciting as PG-13 animated Batman movies...you kinda want to do something that isn't so un related to the actual comics. This movie however, made up for that. It made sense. It was very well acted by all of the cast(Impressive voice from john as the joker(Bender from furturama). It had very dark and surreal emotions through out the movie and was very original in my opinion. Any Batman fa...

Greatness 0

Batman: Under The Red Hood by vagrantsaint on July 31, 2010

Ok, I just watched the movie and I want to get this out while it's still fresh in my head.   Just for the record, I watched the Blu-Ray version of the movie (is there any other way to watch movies these days?) First thing's first.  The movie starts off with the Joker beating Jason Todd to death with a crowbar.  Batman is racing to save him, but as Ra's so accurately predicts, "he won't make it in time." The first thing that threw me off was the voice of the Joker (John DiMaggio).  With everyone ...

Batman:Under The Red Hood 0

Batman: Under The Red Hood by samimista on June 19, 2011

       "What hurts more? A? Or B? Forehand? Or backhand?" When you watch Batman:Under The Red Hood you know you'll be hurting from laughter due to the hilarious lines delivered by Joker (voiced by John Di Maggio).The screenplay for the 2010 movie was written by Judd Winick,based on the 1988 Batman Comics storyline "A Death in the Family",where readers voted via a 1-900 number to either save or kill off the second Robin,Jason Todd.Over 10,000 votes were cast and with only a 72 vote majority,the d...

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How Red Hood Made Parenthood a Part of “Batman”

BY: Jules Chin Greene

Monday, April 22nd, 2024

The best Batman stories are the ones that center his humanity. After all, Batman is an ordinary person, just as vulnerable as you or me underneath all that armor. But beyond his physical vulnerability, part of what connects Batman to fans is his imperfection. He may be the World’s Greatest Detective, but he certainly isn’t the world’s greatest parent. And while live-action adaptations of Batman have largely stayed away from representing the Bat-Family in its totality, Batman comics offer an intimate look at the Dark Knight’s shortcomings as a parent.

Red Hood and Batman have arguably the tensest relationship in the Bat-Family, established in the masterful “Under the Hood” arc in Batman #635-641 , #645-650 and Batman Annual #25 by Judd Winick, Doug Mahnke, Shane Davis, Eric Battle and Paul Lee. “Under the Hood” is also known as “Under the Red Hood,” with the storyline faithfully adapted into the 2010 animated film, Batman: Under the Red Hood . It tells the story of a new villain named Red Hood who takes control of Gotham’s criminal underground. As Batman and Red Hood fight, he notices his foe’s uncanny ability to predict his next move. To his horror, Batman eventually discovers that Red Hood is actually Jason Todd, his second Robin who was killed by the Joker during the events of 1988’s “A Death in the Family” arc in Batman .

“Under the Hood” was a landmark moment in DC history because it showed Batman dealing with failure, just like any other parent. Jason Todd’s return put into question whether Batman could ever truly break the cycle of grief, even after his success with his third Robin, Tim Drake. In this sense, the resurgence of Red Hood as a villain signified a new type of enemy that Batman had to confront: his own past. In facing Jason, Bruce had the choice of punishing his shortcomings or learning how to live with them. Thankfully for all of us Jason Todd fans, Batman and Red Hood were able to eventually smooth out their relationship.

Like any stellar Batman story, “Under the Hood” challenges one specific part of Batman’s identity. Batman stories that take this approach typically center on his relationship to his city (Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s “Court of Owls Saga” being a great example, alongside Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Lynn Varley’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns ) or his relationship to his vigilante persona (Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Batman: Arkham Asylum , Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jiménez’s recent “Failsafe” arc in Batman ).

But “Under the Hood” places Batman’s life as a father at the forefront, transforming the Caped Crusader from an orphan to a parent who lost a child—a state we don’t even have a word for in the English language. In this sense, Winick’s writing cemented an additional pillar to the Batman mythos, one that cannot be ignored by both creators and fans now. His struggles as a parent are just as compelling as his struggles as a vigilante and Gothamite. Just look at Snyder and Capullo’s Batman: Death of the Family , and the heartbreaking “Cheer” storyline by Chip Zdarsky, Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira in Batman: Urban Legends .

What makes this specific element so enticing is that Batman can’t approach his parenting problems with the same dogged, almost paranoid intensity as his crimefighting. That is, as arguably the most prepared person in the DC Universe for any type of situation or foe, Batman can’t easily devise a tool to help him be a better father. Winick’s writing illustrates this in Batman #645 during a flashback when Alfred recalls the first time Bruce realized that “Jason had a ‘mean streak’” that Dick Grayson didn’t have: “And as a father… [Bruce] was at a loss for what to do.”

As we move back to the present, Batman admits that he’s been “blind, arrogant, careless and stupid.” Not about his actions as a parent, but about the coffin in front of him that he once believed held the remains of his former sidekick. He goes on to explain how he’s “gone over every inch of it, trying to find any clue of tampering…and while searching for those markers…those mistakes…I overlooked something…”

Here, Batman isn’t talking about the coffin so much as he’s demonstrating his own cognitive dissonance. Jason’s return, and the subsequent flood of memories and reflections, can’t be dealt with through a typical investigation by Batman. The evidence of his new emotional reality—the “clue of tampering”—isn’t even observable. What’s even more heartbreaking is that Bruce isn’t fully aware of how he’s overlooked “those mistakes” of his past with Jason, instead compartmentalizing it all into his examination of Jason’s coffin. Bruce’s work as Batman is ultimately a distraction from the more troubling, confounding dimensions of parenthood.

Today, Batman is stronger because of the Bat-Family, but that strength didn’t materialize overnight. In “Under the Hood,” Batman was forced to exorcise his buried children, paving the way for Red Hood to become the nuanced voice of criticism within the Bat-Family.

While most deaths in comics aren’t permanent, Jason Todd’s return in 2005 was an earth-shattering moment. By exploring the effects that Jason’s return had on Batman, writer Judd Winick infused “Under the Hood” with an appropriate sense of humanity. And as Batman discovers, to be human is to be messy, making “Under the Hood” a cathartic, evergreen story.  

Batman: Under the Red Hood (originally known as “Under the Hood”) by Judd Winick, Doug Mahnke, Shane Davis, Eric Battle and Paul Lee is available in print as a graphic novel and on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE.

Jules Chin Greene writes about comics for DC.com, and his work can also be found at Nerdist, Popverse and Multiverse of Color. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @JulesChinGreene.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Jules Chin Greene and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.

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