4. Dad's frugality proved powerfully prolific prognostication, not because it saved the family $1 on the phone bill, but because the ruthless lack of creativity on the part of DC Comics would both render fruitless my call and reverse the once-powerful and beautifully told "A Death In The Family" storyline in which the Joker brutally beat Jason Todd, the second Robin, with a crowbar and blew him up in a warehouse.
3. This brings me to "Batman: Under the Red Hood," the latest prostitution of poor, pitiful Jason Todd's one-noble fate, penned by Judd Winick, a man whose unfathomably wretched writing has wrecked a rain forest's worth of comics.
2. So, you could say I come into viewing the latest DC direct-to-DVD release with some baggage -- the storyline itself is another testament to the laziness and money-grubbing of comic creators and publishers -- yet I still found myself enjoying this disc as much as any DC cartoon since "New Frontier," easily the best release of a sordid and shameful lot.
1. Two final knits: If you're going to have an animated Batman just have Kevin Conroy voice him for crying out loud and, finally, DC really needs to refund money to everybody who called that 1-900 number back in 1988.
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"Batman: Under the Red Hood"Run Time: 70 minutes
Genre: Animated-superheroes-DC Comics
Unrated direct-to-DVD release
Director: Brandon Vietti
Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Neil Patrick Harris, Jensen Ackles, John DiMaggio, Jason Isaacs and Wade Williams
Finney's Flicks Grade: B
