All 31 animated Batman movies ranked from worst to best

4. Batman: The Long Halloween

When it was confirmed that Batman: The Long Halloween would be getting an animated movie adaptation, it raised some questions about why it hadn’t already been done at this point. The Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale graphic novel is regarded as one of the very best Batman stories ever told and its influence continues to be felt to this day, with live-action outings such as The Dark Knight Trilogy and The Batman drawing inspiration from it.

But the wait was ultimately worth it, because not only was Batman: The Long Halloween a worthy adaptation of its source material, it was a welcome return to form for the DC animated movies franchise (which had experienced its fair share of ups and downs in recent years). It feels right that this was the story to incite that return to greatness, because the story it juggles is nothing short of spectacular. And this isn’t just a case of lightning in a bottle, because lightning struck twice here.

Much like The Dark Knight Returns, The Long Halloween is split into two parts to ensure that the full scope of its story is adapted, and that was the right choice. The gripping mystery at the heart of it, and the stories that spiral out from that, are allowed to breathe, gathering momentum as it goes on and keeping us all on the edges of our seats.

The voice cast is nothing short of superb, too. It’s so fulfilling to hear Jensen Ackles voice his dream role of Batman, and he’s perfect in it, approaching the performance with the right amount of grit and subtlety. The late, great Naya Rivera is also a scene-stealer in her final ever performance, delivering one of the truly great voice performances as Catwoman.

Batman: The Long Halloween is a success on all fronts, and it exceeded some already-high expectations.