Batman: Gotham Knight (PG-13, 2008)

BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT is like an animated-movie equivalent of a comic book (hey, Batman in a comic book -- imagine that), with six separate directors/artist teams (with lots of CGI) handling different segments, as loosely linked storylines covering Batman's adventures in Gotham City. Most telling (and effective) is the opener, in which a bunch of skateboarding kids see Batman's running battle with a bad guy. Each has a different POV of the caped crime-fighter. One beheld him as a mighty robot, another as a supernatural shadow-being, and so on, until the real Batman shows up -- a vulnerable, flesh-and-blood man whose life is saved by one of the kids. Ensuing stories relate Bruce Wayne testing new gadgets, plunging into the freakish world of Arkham Asylum villains to save a kidnapped bishop, and going to India to learn the inner-strength secrets of the fakirs. In the finale he faces a hired sniper targeting Commissioner Gordon.

The effect is not unlike The Animatrix -- uneven, disjointed, sometimes baffling, with some mesmerizing visuals, and not for all tastes. Batmaniacs have proven very accepting of bold, revisionist takes on their hero, and the cartoon Batman here was obviously meant to be taken seriously. The striking, protean animation is strongly influenced overall by Japanese anime, though it's a bit strange when Bruce Wayne looks like a tousle-haired Tokyo teen, ready for a round of Yu-Gi-OH! cards, more so than combating scoundrels like Scarecrow and Killer Croc (no Joker, no Riddler, no Penguin, not even a Robin or Batgirl to bring this one into more juvenile territory).

The flashback to India is the most emotionally satisfying episode, while the finale tries to tie various strands together. Naturally the shorthand-narrative format limits most of the material to action and terse dialog, only paying lip-service to, say, Batman's attitude toward guns (his parents were shot to death) instead of going into depth. The appeal is for those with a strong background in Batman-ology, rather than newcomers.