Gotham Knight: Not your usual animated movie score
Mark | Mississippi, USA | 09/28/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"How is it I'm the first one taking the time to write a review for this brilliant CD? It's been out for months, has it totally escaped everyone's notice?
Batmam: Gotham Knight was an unusual experiment designed to take advantage of the Bat-mania surrounding the release of The Dark Knight in theaters. Gotham Knight was to be an anthology of six Batman stories, shown as one animated movie. It was to be animated by six separate famous Japanese animators, written by American writers, voiced by American voice actors (most notably using Kevin Conroy, the legendary voice of Batman in the Animated Series and Justice League), and scored by three separate American composers. All to be overseen by DC Animated Universe producer Bruce Timm.
The movie itself has garnered the full spectrum of differing reviews. Some revulsed at the idea of Batman presented as anime. But I would argue that with so much American influence in this project, that it's merely anime-like; especially with the clearly American score music accompanying it.
What you're getting with this CD is that score music, 3 different composers scoring 2 stories each. The composers worked independantly of each other, so the work of each of them is very different thematically. The liner notes contain each composer's thoughts on each story, and believe me, over the course of 26 tracks on this CD, the music will go from strange to traditional action to epic. Listening to the disc straight through is almost as much an adventure as watching the movie itself.
People can argue the merits of Gotham Knight. Some Batman fans have labeled it as a failed experiment, but I loved it. It dared to be different, to tell Batman from different points of view, even if it was in ways some might not be easily familiar with. Trust me, our Caped Crusader is in there. And the music you'll find here is an integral part of that. As long-time Batman writer/editor Dennis O'Neil has said many times, Batman has been told so many different ways in so many different mediums over the decades, yet he is still fundamentally the same caped hero everyone in the world recognizes. This music is Batman music, there's a lot of action and pathos to be found on this CD, and with a Batman score, what more can you ask for?"
Track Listings (26) - Disc #1