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DC Collectables- DC Icons: Cyborg.
Continuing my quest to re-watch all the DC Animated features to date and give some thoughts regarding 3 key touchpoints: Animation Style, Voice Acting & Story. These are really just rough notes as I watched the movie and might not make a whole lot of sense unless you have recently watched it. See 290-2, 303-2, 318-2, 331-2, 344-2, 358-2, 369-2, 371-2, 385-2, 399-2 & 414-2 for my previous instalments.
Batman: Year One 2011
Animation Style: I’m a big fan of the overall look of the animation and designs of each of the main characters and can see links to the Batman: Year One comic source material. Its exceptionally cool how they split panels during the end credit between the comic and the cartoon to show how similar they were, making this feel like a comic that has come to life. I’m sure other animated features have done that in the past, but they really made a point to show it.
Voice acting: A fairly small cast by comparison to other DC movies, Batman: Year One has some highlights, including Brian Cranston as Jim Gordon, Eliza Dushku as Selina and some amazing other character actors with years of experience in both TV and Movies. Unfortunately though, the voice of Batman and Bruce Wayne did not work for me at all. He is played by Ben McKenzie, who has been in a lot of great projects, including funny enough, playing Gordon in the Gotham TV series, but his voice modulation was just way off what I think Batman should sound like; thankfully he was a one and done.
Story: While I have not read the source material, I feel like I have seen this same Batman story over and over in different media, so if this was the first (which suspect it is), then kudos to Frank Millar for such an ingenious concept. I mean, we all know Batman’s origin story, but we always seem to come in at the 2nd act of his crime fighting career, so when we see his trials and tribulations of figuring things out, including, but not limited to, getting his ass kicked multiple times, it’s really quite interesting. I also love the year one parallels between Bruce and Gordon and if I’m being honest, almost like Gordon’s arc better as there are more surprises throughout. I also like how this was a low key “Year One” for Catwoman even though I’m not certain that it is my favorite origin story for her. Overall it’s a good movie and will be enjoyed fans of Frank Miller's style, but personally this was a bit lacklustre for me given that I feel I’ve seen this type of story before and that I prefer a more mature Batman that is already part of the Justice League or has the extended “bat family” to back him up.
Pros: Much like the other DC Icons that I have had the pleasure of reviewing, Cyborg has some amazing detail throughout. It’s really wild how DC Icons was able to make unique moulds for all these figures and keep the price comparable to Hasbro’s Marvel legends. Additionally to that, Cyborg is a deluxe figure and comes with a number of different weapon attachments, open and closed hands and a power generator complete with 3 different hoses that each port into different arms. Lastly the articulation is Icons standard and allows for a number of decent poses.
Cons: Overall I’m not really sure that Cyborg is worth the inflated price. Yes, there are some really cool weapon attachments and the idea of the power generator is cool, but the finished product is rather frustrating as the hoses do not reach his arm. This is a combo of not being long enough and being far too stiff to bend. This was the selling feature and it doesn’t even really work… BOOO.
