Back in 1996/1997, a 13-issue “limited series” called Batman: The Long Halloween ran. About 25 years later, DC adapted this story as an animated film.

Gotham finds itself stuck under the thumb of Carmine “The Roman” Falcone (voiced by Titus Welliver) and his crime syndicate. To add to the chaos, the “Holiday Killer” used various occasions as an opportunity to murder various underworld figures.

Into this setting, fairly new crimefighter Batman (Jensen Ackles) partnered with freshly promoted Gotham Police Captain James Gordon (Billy Burke) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Josh Duhamel) to deal with these problems. They attempted to figure out how to take down Falcone and solve the “Holiday Killer” mystery as well.

Halloween originally hit video shelves as two separate parts. This 2022 “Deluxe Edition” allows viewers to see the entire story told as one long narrative.

I hoped this might allow the end product to connect better. However, that doesn’t become the case.

Halloween provides a moderately scattered tale. Whereas the focus feels like it should remain on the Holiday Killer, the film bites off an awful lot, and it doesn’t follow all these plot threads in a satisfactory manner.

In addition to the story elements in my synopsis, we get moments related to the personal lives of various characters. We also find time with Catwoman, Joker and others.

Even with 168 minutes of running time, this feels like too much, mainly because the film flits around these moments in a casual way that never digs into them well. We get brief glimpses of various topics but not much depth.

The actors don’t do a whole lot with their parts either. Welliver’s Falcone sounds more like The Simpsons’ Fat Tony, and Troy Baker’s Joker comes across as a cheap imitation of Mark Hamill’s acclaimed take on the character.

I do like the focus on “early days” Batman, as the notion of a semi-inexperienced Dark Knight seems intriguing. However, Halloween fails to explore this notion in a meaningful manner.

The film can feel overstuffed and it brings a story that casts too broad a net. For a narrative that intends to deal with the Holiday Killer, we don’t really get much about that character.

Instead, the film often just feels like an excuse to cram as many Bat-villains into one place as it can. We get the umpteenth telling of Two-Face’s origins – though slightly modified to fit this tale – along with a slew of guest spots from the likes of Poison Ivy, Scarecrow and others.

These tend to add little, as the plethora of Bat-foes just feels contrived. These characters mostly don’t mesh with the story, mainly because so much of Halloween seems like a loosely organized collection of scenes more than a coherent tale.

Even when Halloween gets to its action-packed finale, it doesn’t kick into gear. We find perfunctory fights without much to thrill or excite.

The ability to view Long Halloween as one nearly three-hour movie doesn’t fix these problems. We get a spotty, scattered Batman adventure that lacks coherence or much to make it engaging.

Batman: The Long Halloween appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. The movie came with solid visuals.

Sharpness excelled. The movie always came across as tight and well-defined, so don’t expect any signs of softness.

Jaggies and moiré effects also remained absent, and the image lacked edge haloes or artifacts. In addition, print flaws were a non-factor and didn’t appear at any point.

In terms of colors, Halloween went with a dark palette that favored moody greens, reds and ambers. The tones looked solid, as they showed positive richness and vivacity, and HDR added range to the hues.

Blacks were deep and tight, while shadows showed nice clarity. HDR contributed emphasis and impact to whites and contrast. Across the board, the image worked well.

I thought the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Halloween opened up the comic book material well. The forward channels brought out the majority of the audio, but the entire package added a lot to the movie. Music presented strong stereo imaging, while effects cropped up in logical spots and blended well.

The surrounds also contributed good information. For the most part, these reinforced the forward channels, but they also contributed a fair amount of unique material.

These instances mainly occurred during bigger action scenes. The back speakers brought out a nice sense of space and environment.

Audio quality always satisfied. Speech was warm and natural, without edginess or other issues.

Music sounded lively and full, while effects displayed good definition. Those elements seemed accurate and dynamic. All of this led to a positive presentation that deserved a “B+”.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the Blu-ray version? Both came with identical audio.

In terms of visuals, the 4K seemed a smidgen stronger, with better delineation, blacks and colors. This didn’t become a major upgrade, but it topped the already-strong Blu-ray.

Only one extra appears on the 4K disc itself: a featurette called Evolution of Evil. In this 24-minute, 56-second piece, we get notes from graphic novel writer Jeph Loeb, supervising producer Butch Lukic, clinical psychologist Drea Letamendi, screenwriter Tim Sheridan and producer Jim Krieg.

“Evil” looks at gangster films and the genre, the source novel, story/character domains and psychological factors involved. This becomes an introspective look at the project.

On the included Blu-ray copy, two Sneak Peeks follow, as we find promos for The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 (12:34) and Gotham By Gaslight (8:28). In the former, we hear from executive producer Bruce Timm, casting director Andrea Romano, director Jay Oliva, screenwriter Bob Goodman, co-producer Alan Burnett, DC Entertainment Animation Creative Director Mike Carlin, and actors Michael Emerson and Mark Valley.

We get notes about story and characters as well as cast and performances. It’s basic advertisement and not much more.

As for “Gaslight”, it features DC Entertainment Animation Creative Director Mike Carlin, writer James Krieg, and executive producer Bruce Timm.

They tell us about the source comic and aspects of the film’s story and character areas. It’s a promo piece but it’s an effective one.

A Sneak Peek at The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 lasts six minutes, 51 seconds. It delivers statements from Timm, Romano, director Jay Oliva, screenwriter Bob Goodman, co-producer Alan Burnett, DC Entertainment Animation Creative Director Mike Carlin, and actors Michael Emerson and Mark Valley.

We get notes about story and characters as well as cast and performances. It’s basic advertisement and not much more.

We also find a Sneak Peek at Batman: Hush. This nine-minute, 16-second clip features director Justin Copeland, voice director Wes Gleason, producers Jim Krieg and James Tucker, screenwriter Ernie Altbacker, and actors Jerry O’Connell, Geoffrey Arend, Peyton List, Jennifer Morrison, Maury Sterling, and Jason O’Mara.

“Peek” covers the source comic and its adaptation as well as story/character areas and cast. Most of this learns toward promotion, but the “Peek” becomes a bit more substantial than most.

Finally, we get four Bonus Cartoons. From Batman: The Animated Series, we find “Christmas With the Joker” (22:23) and “It’s Never Too Late” (22:23).

Although “Joker” offers a simplistic plot, it makes up for this with clever antics. The show nicely combines action and intrigue, and Batman and Robin need to use their vaunted detective skills to get through the events.

In addition, Joker gets good usage. Overall, the episode seems strong.

Expect less from “Late”. Sign that we have a dull episode: I fixate on the animation.

Stromwell offers a bland, generic crime boss with little to make him distinctive, and the story provides little more than modified soap opera content.

This is why I noticed just how much “arm acting” we get in Batman. The characters gesticulate awfully broadly, which occasionally looks ridiculous. Chalk up “Late” as a less than effective show.

From Batman: The Animated Series, we find “Two-Face Part 1” (22:25) and “Two-Face Part 2” (22:28).

“Two-Face” presents a good introduction to this major villain. It also reminds us how well the The Animated Series did darkness. From the extremely moody visuals to the startling vision in Bruce’s dream, this sure doesn’t feel like the standard kiddie cartoon.

Adapted from a famous graphic novel, the filmed version of Batman: The Long Halloween leaves me cold. It comes with an overstuffed collection of characters and plot threads that makes it a disappointing project. The 4K UHD boasts strong picture and audio along with a moderate set of supplements. This winds up as a lackluster Batman story.

To rate this film visit the prior review of BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN