(8/6/09)
It is the job of the animation director to make a show visually appealing. Sometimes this amounts to flashy fight scenes, but in the case of Batman: the Animated Series, where fights are sparse and more emphasis is on character and suspense, cinematic direction is better suited. Dick Sebast does his best work here, crafting shots with perfect compositions that speak so clearly that words could never capture their meaning.
Note the opening fight scene that relies more on expert staging and fluidity than on fast-paced adrenaline. Sebast utilizes the construction site not as an interchangeable arena, but as something that provides bountiful opportunities for action. There is the nail gun, the construction platform, and the I-beam, all of which breathe life into the showdown. And instead of cutting between Batman’s confrontation and Robin’s, Sebast often pans from to the other, creating a sense of simultaneousness and coherency. Sebast repeats this in part two, making use of a carousel in much the same way as Alfred Hitchcock in his masterpiece Strangers on a Train.
There is the staggering low-angle pan of Haley’s circus, connoting the joy and magic that characterize the show, only for the camera to pan even higher to the Flying Graysons. This virtuoso movement tells us that this is the pinnacle of this magical place, and that Dick and his family exist on a plane all their own. But of course this sanctuary is soon to be violated, as Tony Zucco trespasses, and in a simple shot of torn rope we see the tragic result of his tampering.
And there are those shots of Wayne Manor, towering and overpowering. Rarely has this structure that is the home of our hero been scene through such subjective eyes. Typically it is a manor; here it is a stone-cold structure. Grays dominate the sky and the walls. The message is resounding. Dick then enters his room, and we see how alone he is, on a little bed in the center of a vacuous space. This aloneness repeats itself in the scene of Dick and Bruce talking by a large window. The room is big and dark, despite the sliver of sun that creeps in. These are the treasures of the series.
There is a forties vibe here that really caught my attention. Yes, most episodes have the art deco design, the old-time automobiles, and the black-and-white television, but there was something especially gritty about this one. In Robin’s Reckoning, the gangsters are more personal than the usual random thugs, and there seems to be a life to Gotham City that doesn’t tend to exert its presence in other episodes. Here we see Dick scavenging the Lower East Side in search of Zucco, and as wee see newsstands and diners, we get the idea that the city breathes. I especially love when Batman goes undercover in an alleyway. Just look at all of the cracks and rubble that dominate the background walls.
My favorite scene that makes the best of both atmosphere and action is Batman’s assault on Stromwell’s house. It is not merely a great strand of continuity that harkens back to It’s Never Too Late, but it also reminds one of the hierarchical nature of the mob. I was reminded of The Godfather when Stromwell cast Zucco out of the ‘family,’ and the machine-gun equipped bodyguards seemed to come straight out of Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece. The impeccable animation that works with so many layers of light and shadow is truly a sight to behold.
The story is a work of utmost care. It is a story in which the flashbacks not only provide important exposition, but also make for meaningful narrative juxtaposition. Scenes the depict Bruce and Dick in a loving state of emotional bonding dissolve to scenes of contempt and frustration. And the classical ideas of fate and destiny are present as well. Robin says in a strikingly vulnerable pose that he will never be like Batman. As we find out later in the DC Animated Universe, his attempts to divorce himself from Batman are not entirely successful.
The ending is a letdown, killing the intrigue of Robin’s potential abandonment of the ways of Batman and wrapping up the story too neatly too quickly. Batman tells Robin that he did not want him to go after Zucco in case that the man who took his parents might kill him as well. This logic is faulty, as Zucco is only of concern for his murder of the Graysons and has proven himself to be no more dangerous than the average thug. Batman will take Robin after the Joker, but Tony Zucco is apparently far too dangerous for an experienced crime-fighter to pursue.
But I will accept such a copout, as these issues between the two are dealt with at a later time. I can rest at peace with an otherwise masterful two-part episode.
Part one begins with one of the most well staged fights in the series, as Batman and Robin take down a bunch of thugs on a construction site. It’s fun and it gets the episode off to an exhilarating start. After such good teamwork on the duo’s part, Batman suddenly refuses to let Robin in on who the gang leader is. As Batman tells Robin not to do any more investigation into the case, we get an image of Batman that we don’t usually see, and it’s not a likable one. Robin gets understandably upset, and after finding out that the leader is Tony Zucco, someone who had changed Robin’s life many years before, Batman comes across as downright despicable.
The episode goes into a flashback mode, showing Dick Grayson’s life before he ever met Bruce. As anyone who’s read the comics knows, Dick spent his early life as a trapeze performer at the circus alongside his parents in an act known as ‘The Flying Graysons’. Even though I haven’t seen the episode in quite some time, I can still recall the music during the first shots of the Flying Graysons as they fly through the air majestically on their trapezes. Of course all is not well at Haley’s Circus, as one Tony Zucco is threatening the owner for protection money. After Haley refuses, young Dick spots the man cutting the trapeze rope before their big performance. What follows is one of the most well directed scenes in all of ‘Batman: the Animated Series”.
As the Graysons begin their act, the rope starts to come loose. It gradually comes apart until only a few strands hold up the trapeze bar. Dick’s parents swing off screen, and then all we see coming back is the severed rope. It’s such an effective moment and the shock really does transfer. Following this scene, Dick cries and says goodbye to his fellow circus performers before he moves in with Bruce Wayne, who, knowing what it’s like to lose one’s parents, has offered to take him into his custody.
Not only is this touching enough by itself, but it’s also such a great contrast too. Just moments before we saw Batman talking down to Robin and excluding him from the case, and now we see Bruce, affected by young Dick’s predicament, and making a heartfelt effort to console him. The way the episode depicts their early relationship has a striking sense of realism. Instead of Dick accepting his new life with Bruce with open arms, he is not instantly happy, continuing to deal with the shock of his parents’ deaths. The sheer massiveness of the manor coupled with the cold emptiness of Dick’s room does a great job of showing how out of place he feels in this new environment.
After a great scene that shows Batman questioning Arnold Stromwell, Tony Zucco’s uncle, we see Bruce hug Dick in a touching moment inspired by Alfred’s advice. I love these last few events because it adds history to Batman, showing a change in costume, and also offers an action scene that manages to not feel out of place. Secondly, the events after Batman’s run in with Stromwell show Alfred’s real importance, as he gives Batman perfect advice. The hug is especially dramatic, because it is followed by the present day Robin speeding away from the Bat Cave in utter defiance of Batman. The juxtaposition of these two scenes is excellent and makes for one of the best cliffhangers I’ve ever seen in a television series.
Where the episode really fails is the ending. After a nice buildup to the climax showing Dick speeding through town on his motorbike, and his eventual confrontation with Zucco, there really is huge tension and such a great feeling watching Dick finally claim his revenge, but when Robin refuses to kill him, he realizes that Batman was right all along; Batman wasn’t in the wrong at all, he had a genuine concern for Robin and felt he might lose his ward, and as Robin admits he was wrong, they walk off into the sunrise.
This is why the episode is so poorly done. Robin was in the right. He deserved to take down Zucco. If the episode really wanted real drama, it should have shown an actual confrontation between Batman and Robin, as opposed to a rushed heartwarming reconciliation between the two. The episode is so anticlimactic and given that it was supposed to be the big dramatic moment of a two-part episode that delves into the past of a major character, it really is a huge letdown. And, unfortunately enough, it severely hurts the episode.
This weak conclusion is even worse when considering the amount of visual depth put into the first part. The Spectrum animation is beautiful, but there’s even more. The artistic staff put so much effort into designing an alternate Batman costume and young versions of Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock that reference the great ‘Year One’ comic. As I mentioned earlier, the pans across the grand Wayne Manor covey such emptiness and sterility, and there are so many great shots that do a great deal to show how young Dick feels in such a cold and vacuous place. Part two, with its mediocre Dong Yang animation and lack of interesting visuals complements the first part quite poorly.
I love the first part of ‘Robin’s Reckoning’ to death that it almost pains me to have to give it a fairly average score simply for its second part. The amount of damage it does to the episode as a whole simply cannot be overlooked.
No comments:
Post a Comment