DC Comics brings us more tales of the Batman and Gotham City’s criminal underbelly with yet another direct-to-video animated feature. Batman: Under the Red Hood is an animated adaptation of Judd Winick’s “Under the Hood” story arc from the monthly Batman comic. It tells the story of a mysterious new figure in Gotham City calling himself the Red Hood. Is the Red Hood a hero or a villain? What’s his connection to Batman? What does any of this have to do with the Joker and Ra’s Al Ghul? Is this movie any good?

It’s no secret, and you’ll certainly figure it out for yourselves before Batman does in the movie, but the Red Hood is Jason Todd. Jason Todd was a teenage boy that Batman took in to become the second Robin after Dick Grayson left and made a new name for himself as Nightwing. Jason suffered a tragic death at the hands of the Joker, Batman’s greatest foe. This movie tells the story of Jason’s tragic death, the circumstances that bring about his return, and the reactions it brings about in certain characters.

I wasn’t really a fan of the comic that this movie was based off of. It felt like an unnecessary, scattered story of a violent whiny brat who should’ve stayed dead, and he wanted to lash out at the world and his old mentor for his death. The movie, however, has a much tighter narrative that works to its advantage. The scale of Batman’s universe is brought down, creating quite a few differences from the comics that are, as far as I’m concerned, much better. The Red Hood is a lot more focused on his task and goals, and although the original bitterness is still there, there’s a strong sense of tragedy in this movie that I wasn’t feeling in the comics. This movie made me feel sorry for Jason Todd, which was quite an accomplishment.

By its own merits, this is a very well made animated movie. The animation is fairly smooth, the action scenes are intense, and the pacing of the story is just about perfect. The story is a very tragic one, and this is only punctuated by the last moments of the film. It’s also a PG-13 film, so prepare to see a little brutality and hear some mild profanity.

Batman is voiced aptly by Bruce Greenwood, who also provides the voice of Batman on the new Young Justice animated series. Jensen Ackles (Dean from Supernatural) does a good job as the Red Hood, having no trouble bringing across the characters wit or anger. John DiMaggio (Bender from Futurama) voices the Joker with a lot more control and sinister amusement than I’m used to from previous portrayals of the character.

If you haven’t already seen Under the Red Hood (seriously, people. It’s been out for six months), definitely check it out. It’s one of the best direct-to-video animated Batman movies out there.