Batman: The Long Halloween – Deluxe Edition [4K Ultra HD]

Director: Chris Palmer

Cast: Jensen Ackles, Naya Rivera, Josh Duhamel (VOICES)

Release Date: September 20, 2022

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, DC and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and inspired by the iconic mid-1990s DC story from Jeph Loeb and the late Tim Sale, Batman: The Long Halloween – Deluxe Edition begins as atrocious serial killings on holidays in Gotham City send The World’s Greatest Detective into action – confronting both organized crime and a unified front of classic DC Super-Villains – while attempting to stop the mysterious murderer.

Please Note: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

‘Batman: The Long Halloween’ brings the iconic DC story to life and accompanies Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent as they join forces in an attempt to make real change in the corrupted city of Gotham by working together. Meanwhile, a mysterious killer has begun murdering some of the city’s most ruthless and corrupt individuals with criminal ties and leaving no clues as to their identity. As time goes on and more Holidays come and go with accompanying bodies dropping to match, the Dark Knight will have to become the detective he’s capable of if he hopes to stop the chaos, while also taking on numerous dangerous foes of his as the events send the town into further turmoil.

The fan-favorite DC storyline ‘Batman: The Long Halloween’ comes to animated life and is now available as one complete animated film at last. It’s a beautifully animated offering with plenty of exciting action, twists and some notably dark and violent moments that are brought to explosive life with fitting style and a well selected voice cast that includes Jensen Ackles, Naya Rivera, Josh Duhamel, Billy Burke, Katee Sackhoff, Titus Welliver and many more to back it up, all guided smoothly along by director Chris Palmer from a screenplay by Tim Sheridan.

For a more detailed review of the film itself I encourage you to check out my reviews for the previous Blu-ray releases which debuted last year. You can read my review for the ‘Batman: The Long Halloween – Part 1’ release HERE and my review for the Part 2 release HERE!

‘Batman: The Long Halloween’ arrives home in its entirety at last, combining both previously released films into one epic animated feature that DC and Batman fans won’t want to miss out on if they haven’t already had the pleasure. The majority of the content within seems to be largely identical for the most part to the previous two halves based on my recollection, although after some comparing there are at least a few moments from the first part that are tad more bloody and graphic this time around such as the bathtub shooting and the restaurant massacre. The real treat here though is to finally have the epic 168 minute tale as one lengthy film and many diehard fans may want to double dip for that reason alone. The Deluxe Edition release also marks the 4K Ultra HD debut for the film and there’s definitely some noticeable improvement in the 4K UHD presentation compared to the Blu-ray editions, particularly in color depth, clarity and an absence of the few issues that often seem to accompany the DC Animated Movies on Blu-ray such as occasional banding. The Deluxe Edition release also includes a new Featurette/Documentary with the creative team that many fans will likely appreciate.

Overall, ‘Batman: The Long Halloween’ is a dark gloomy tale brought to beautiful animated life and featuring plenty of iconic Bat-villains along with a notable mystery at its core and a solid voice cast that all come together to deliver one of the better DC Animated Movies in recent memory. Now, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s 4K Ultra HD release of ‘Batman: The Long Halloween – Deluxe Edition’ brings home both parts of the animated film and combines them into one great animated feature, while also marking the first time it’s been released on 4K Ultra HD. The Ultra High Definition video presentation with HDR10 looks pretty wonderful and is a definite improvement over the Blu-ray release(s), paired with a solid 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack and a brand new Featurette/Documentary included on top of it. If you’ve been waiting to purchase the film or simply want to own it in 4K, then this 4K UHD Deluxe Edition release is definitely recommended.

VIDEO:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘Batman: The Long Halloween – Deluxe Edition’ features a full 2160p Ultra High Definition presentation with HDR10, presented in its original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks rather great as a whole and delivers a clean, sharp and nicely detailed presentation from start to finish. It holds up smoothly throughout even during the many darkly lit and fast moving sequences and never finds itself struggling to maintain a sharp and colorful picture that’s definitely an improvement upon the Blu-ray release(s) of the film. The HDR10 addition further complements the presentation and offers a clean and richly balanced color palette that fits the film’s tone perfectly while still allowing certain elements and colors to really shine while others are sufficiently dark and almost gloomy. Overall, this is a very nice Ultra High Definition presentation with HDR10 that shouldn’t have any trouble pleasing the fans.

AUDIO:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack does its job well and offers a clean, sharp and frequently immersive audio presentation throughout that regularly contributes some extra fun and excitement to the viewing experience. It utilizes all five available channels in order to send music, action and vehicle effects, along with plenty more throughout the various speakers at every fitting opportunity while always making certain that any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously remain clean and fully audible. Overall, this is a solid 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that holds up well and never falters or disappoints throughout.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘Batman: The Long Halloween – Deluxe Edition’ includes one all-new extra in the way of the Documentary/Featurette ‘Batman: The Long Halloween – Evolution of Evil’ (running approximately 25 minutes in length) which includes interviews/comments with the film’s creative team and more and can be found on both the 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs. The release also includes ‘4 Bonus Cartoons’ from the DC Vault  (running approximately 22 minutes apiece) which can be found on the included Blu-ray disc. All four cartoons are episodes of ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ and include “Two-Face Part 1”, “Two-Face Part 2”, “Christmas with the Joker” and “It’s Never Too Late”. The Blu-ray disc also includes previously released Sneak Peek previews for the animated DC Movies ‘The Dark Knight Returns Part 1’, ‘The Dark Knight Returns Part 2’, ‘Batman: Gotham by Gaslight’ and ‘Batman: Hush’.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray disc included in the 4K UHD Combo Pack and resized. They do not represent the quality of the 4K Ultra HD disc itself and will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on the 4K UHD & Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

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‘Batman: The Long Halloween – Deluxe Edition’ Arrives Home on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray & Digital September 20, 2022 from DC Comics & Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

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