Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment have revealed the details for the Blu-ray release of their upcoming interactive animated film DC Showcase - Batman: Death in the Family, set to arrive on Oct. 13.
Batman: Death in the Family -- an extended interactive short -- will be joined by four additional DC Showcase shorts on the Blu-ray: Sgt. Rock (originally released with Batman: Hush) Death (originally released with Wonder Woman: Bloodlines), The Phantom Stranger (originally released with Superman: Red Son) and Adam Strange (originally released with Justice League Dark: Apokolips War).
Death in the Family itself adapts the classic 1988 DC Comics story Batman: A Death in the Family, which saw the death of Jason Todd after DC held an event allowing readers to call in and vote on the comic's ending. The animated Death in the Family is Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's "first-ever venture into interactive storytelling" and "allows fans to choose where the story goes through an innovative navigation guided by the viewer's remote control."
The Blu-ray version of Death in the Family will retail for $24.98 USD, with the Digital edition coming in at $19.99. "The Blu-ray features a Blu-ray disc with all of the shorts in hi-definition, including the fully-interactive, extended-length Batman: Death in the Family, plus a digital version of the four other 2019-2020 DC Showcase shorts," Warner Bros. and DC's official release reads."The Digital distribution features the Batman: Death in the Family extended-length short in a non-interactive format (pre-assembled version of the story, entitled Under the Red Hood: Reloaded), along with the other four 2019-2020 DC Showcase shorts, and three other non-interactive versions of the Batman: Death in the Family (entitled Jason Todd's Rebellion, Robin's Revenge and Red Hood's Reckoning) as bonus features (Note: not all Digital retailers offer bonus features with purchase)."
The Blu-ray version of Death in the Family's story also includes about five minutes of additional content not featured in the Digital release, as well as audio commentary tracks by DC Daily's Amy Dallen and Hector Navarro for Under the Red Hood: Reloaded, Sgt. Rock, Death, The Phantom Stranger and Adam Strange.
Written, directed and produced by Brandon Vietti, Death in the Family is a follow-up to DC's acclaimed 2010 animated feature film Batman: Under the Red Hood, with Bruce Greenwood, Vincent Martella and John DiMaggio reprising their roles as Batman, young Jason Todd and the Joker, respectively. "In the new animated presentation, the infamous murder of Batman protégé Jason Todd will be undone, and the destinies of Batman, Robin and The Joker will play out in shocking new ways as viewers make multiple choices to control the story," the release explains. While Death in the Family uses Under the Red Hood as a "baseline," the branching story features characters not seen in the original film, including Talia al Ghul (voiced by Zehra Fazal), Two-Face (voiced by Gary Cole) and James Gordon (also voiced by Cole).
"Batman: Death in the Family is essentially a comic book come to life," said Vietti. "We've paid homage to the 1988 interactive experience of DC's 'A Death in the Family' comics release by giving fans a unique opportunity to craft their own story through a branching tool that can lead in multiple directions. The viewer gets to choose these characters' paths, and each choice paves an alternate future for all of the characters and, ultimately, the story.
"From the very first navigation card, we wanted to give the audience an impression of what they're getting into, but then also give them something unexpected -- maybe even something they’ll regret, so they have to think twice about every future choice they make," he continued. "Branched storytelling has to be stronger than just the gimmick of the choices -- it has to be rewarding and offer new and worthwhile insights into the characters. It needs to involve you, and keep you searching for the next twist. So we sought to subvert expectations and do something very different."
Produced, written and directed by Brandon Vietti, Batman: Death in the Family stars Bruce Greenwood, John DiMaggio, Vincent Martella, Zehra Fazal and Gary Cole. It is scheduled to be released on Blu-ray and digital HD Oct. 13.