'The Dark Knight Returns: Part 1' Animated Film Trailer Hits The 'Net

‘The Dark Knight Returns: Part 1’ Animated Film Trailer Hits The ‘Net

For all the hit and miss of DC’s theatrical features in the last decade, their animated features have been mostly top-notch. The wealth of quality has evolved from the team that brought us the classic DC animated shows of the ’90s and early 2000’s.

No doubt to capitalize on the recent Batman movie the next direct to DVD animated feature is a two-part adaptation of the seminal Bat-tale, The Dark Knight Returns. There is little doubt that the film will be a visual marvel, Frank Miller’s work translates very well to moving images, but we have yet to see anything real to give us a sense of how it ‘feels’. Until Now.

MTV has debuted the first real trailer for part 1 of the animated epic, and for the uninitiated lets start with the synopsis:

Batman has not been seen for ten years. A new breed of criminal ravages Gotham City, forcing 55-year-old Bruce Wayne back into the cape and cowl. But, does he still have what it takes to fight crime in a new era?

What is interesting is how the trailer seems to emphasis the elements of the story that parallel the recent Christopher Nolan movie, and it kinda reminds us how much Nolan has been pulling from Miller’s work for his whole franchise. Which does kind of put a kibosh on the wild fan-boy theories that Nolan and Bale will return in twenty years to actually make a live action The Dark Knight Returns, it would be treading on some very familiar ground.

Check out the full new trailer after the jump.

It is really great to hear how well Peter Weller has nailed the part of the aged Batman, for a while I thought he would not be able to top Michael Ironside’s brief, but memorable turn in the Batman: The Animated Series episode, Legends of the Dark Knight.

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