Gotham by Gaslight dvd

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Lou Szabo
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Gotham by Gaslight dvd

Post by Lou Szabo »

Has anyone watched the Gotham by Gaslight movie. How does it track with the comic?

I was thinking about it, and I've read a few books on it, and seen a few documentaries and movies (Sherlock Holmes). I was think if a Batman existed in London, and Alfred had that medical training, wouldn't it be a delicious twist if Alfred was the villain.

There's a book about Sherlock Holmes that indicates that his personality split, and he was indeed Jack the Ripper. I was expecting it to be Watson, so it was a double twist. There's even a thought the Ripper was related to the Torso killer here in Cleveland, but that's a real stretch.

Somehow, I think of Jeckyl and Hyde in the context of those Jack the Ripper killings.
Some days you just can't get rid of a ... SHARK!
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AndyFish
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Re: Gotham by Gaslight dvd

Post by AndyFish »

Hey Lou-- ordered mine and its arriving today-- I'll let you know what I think.
I've read all the Holmes novels (by Doyle) and studied Jack the Ripper at length-- at one time even getting a tour of Scotland Yard's Black Museum when I was researching for a potential book-- yes I know the last thing we need is ANOTHER Jack the Ripper book.

I liked the graphic novel concept but I thought the story was too short. This might be a case of improving the original.
We'll see.
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Lou Szabo
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Re: Gotham by Gaslight dvd

Post by Lou Szabo »

Mine is in transit with the BATB Batman/Scooby too, so I'm eagerly awaiting it. Target was out of the metal versions.
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AndyFish
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Re: Gotham by Gaslight dvd

Post by AndyFish »

Got it-- watched it.
Overall- it's a very loose adaption of Mignola's Graphic Novel, which itself was pretty short so there was room to indulge in the requisite "how do we fit existing characters into this?" kind of reminds me of when Gilligan's Island would have a dream sequence. Catwoman, Jason Todd, Harvey Bullock, Mrs Cooper, etc all get roles to different degrees.

I like the voice of Batman, a lot of people are going to want Kevin Conroy-- but this was a nice change of pace. Mostly a normal voice and the grumble is gone.

They played up the mystery aspect of it but, ahem, I figured it out the second the guilty character appeared. Jack the Ripper's identity is one of the age old mysteries and I didn't like that they came up with a solution in the book, and I don't like it here. With WHODUNNITS it takes a real talent, because too often there is too heavy a hand to convince us a character is the guilty one so you end up seeing through that.

In the graphic novel Commissioner Gordon was a near double for Teddy Roosevelt, who is such an interesting historical figure, I was sorry to see they didn't follow that for this one.

Overall, the animation style was different from your average Batman cartoon, also a plus because I'm tired of the doughy Bruce Timm style.
There was no reason this should have an 'R' Rating-- I don't mean content or language-- it's violent and there are swear words a plenty-- I mean they didn't need to put any of it in there unless they're trying to convince us cartoons are not just for kids anymore.

I give it a B- but I'm a big fan of the gothic era Batman, I think the character works best there, after the 60s of course.
A little too heavy handed at times but not boring either.

I much preferred the new team up with Scooby Doo. A few good laughs in that one.
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Meule
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Re: Gotham by Gaslight dvd

Post by Meule »

Big gothic Batman era AND Jack the Ripper fan too... And although the movie isn't an exact adaptation of the graphic novel (Mignola is a genius if you ask me) it still is quite entertaining
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Yellow Oval
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Re: Gotham by Gaslight dvd

Post by Yellow Oval »

Wasn't sponsored by Clark Beans by any chance, was it?
"Hmmm... I don't like the twist this joke is taking. Let us away! Let us away!"
Mr.Freeze
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Re: Gotham by Gaslight dvd

Post by Mr.Freeze »

Jack the Ripper couldve been a woman who hated "ladies of the evening" and thus decided to punish them.
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gothosmansion
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Re: Gotham by Gaslight dvd

Post by gothosmansion »

I liked the movie up until the end, and then I thought it fell apart...mainly due to changing the identity of the murderer from the original graphic novel. In the movie, Batman accidentally discovers who the murderer is. He doesn't really use his detective skills. That has been a problem with a lot of the film versions of Batman, though.

Even thought Jack the Ripper wasn't captured in real life, I wouldn't want him to get away with murder in a fictional Batman story. I like my super heroes for escapism, and I always want to see the bad guys caught.
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AndyFish
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Re: Gotham by Gaslight dvd

Post by AndyFish »

gothosmansion wrote: Sun Feb 11, 2018 8:55 am I liked the movie up until the end, and then I thought it fell apart...mainly due to changing the identity of the murderer from the original graphic novel. In the movie, Batman accidentally discovers who the murderer is. He doesn't really use his detective skills. That has been a problem with a lot of the film versions of Batman, though.

Even thought Jack the Ripper wasn't captured in real life, I wouldn't want him to get away with murder in a fictional Batman story. I like my super heroes for escapism, and I always want to see the bad guys caught.
From a storytelling aspect- they could never get away with having him escape. You need closure to a story, so I get why they do it-- I just don't like the way it's done, especially this time around.

I agree 100% Batman figures it out by accident, and that's against the nature of the character.
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Yellow Oval
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Re: Gotham by Gaslight dvd

Post by Yellow Oval »

Well, I finally watched Gotham by Gaslight and it gave me gas - painfully. This thing is barely like the comic introducing a whack of characters and situations (adult ones? Really?) that WERE NOT in the graphic novel. This DVD, to me, represents DC Comics real well in that it has gone completely off the rails. Why do all comic and their parent companies today try to be the next Heavy Metal magazine? I could go on, but, whatever...

Note to Self - Avoid any product in the future that has Micheal Uslan's name in/on it like the plague!!!! :shock:
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Lou Szabo
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Re: Gotham by Gaslight dvd

Post by Lou Szabo »

Well I saw it last night and I had not read the book since it was released, but I liked the twist.

I agree it would have been a better ride with real Detecting. They missed some opportunities to present clues suspects, and misdirection. They started to with "real Jekyll and Hyde" and the pin, but it was as if they were writing a term paper and reach the word limit and just jumped to the conclusion and turned it in.
Some days you just can't get rid of a ... SHARK!
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Lou Szabo
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Re: Gotham by Gaslight dvd

Post by Lou Szabo »

So there are some Batman Gotham by Gaslight figures, but Hot Topic has a 1/10 statue
FF247997-4D2C-4C18-B6CE-A5D7F6406FF4.jpeg
FF247997-4D2C-4C18-B6CE-A5D7F6406FF4.jpeg (31.51 KiB) Viewed 8991 times
Looks pretty neat.
Some days you just can't get rid of a ... SHARK!
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