Batman: Gotham By Gaslight appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. I felt consistently pleased with this strong presentation.
No issues with sharpness emerged. 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, Gaslight went with a dark palette that favored browns, blues and reds. The tones looked solid, as they showed positive richness and vivacity.
Blacks were deep and tight, while shadows showed nice clarity. Across the board, the image worked well.
I thought the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Gaslight opened up the comic book material nicely. This wasn’t a particularly ambitious piece, but it added pizzazz to the program.
The forward channels brought out the majority of the material. 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 storms or 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”.
We get a smattering of extras here, and we open with an audio commentary from director Sam Liu, writer Jim Krieg and producer Bruce Timm. All three sit together for a running, screen-specific look at story/characters and the adaptation of the source, animation and design, cast and performances, music, and related topics.
For roughly the film’s first two-thirds, this proves to be a very good commentary, as the three men seem engaged and informative. After that, they remain chatty but they reveal less useful material and veer more toward happy talk. Still, the track offers enough content to merit a listen.
A featurette called Caped Fear: The First Elseworld runs 20 minutes, 45 seconds and includes notes from Timm, Krieg, graphic novel writer Brian Augustyn, DC Entertainment VP Ames Kirshen, and DC Entertainment Creative Director Mike Carlin. They cover the source comic and its adaptation. We get a reasonable overview in this fairly efficient piece.
The disc includes three previews, and we begin with a Sneak Peek at Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay. The only new preview here, this one goes eight minutes, 33 seconds and offers info from Liu, Carlin, voice director Wes Gleason, surviving producer James Tucker, and actor Christian Slater.
We find an overview of Hell with an emphasis on promotion. That makes it limited in terms of appeal.
Next we get a Sneak Peek at Batman: Bad Blood. This goes for 11 minutes, 45 seconds and includes comments from producer Tucker, Carlin, director Jay Oliva, and actors Jason O’Mara, Yvonne Strahovski, Ernie Hudson, and Gaius Charles.
We learn about story/characters as well as cast and performances. This serves to promote the movie and that’s about it.
These reels finish with a Sneak Peek at Justice League Dark. During this eight-minute, 14-second piece, we hear from Carlin, Tucker, Oliva, O’Mara, and actors Matt Ryan and Camilla Ludington. It’s another ad for the project, so we don’t learn a lot about the production.
The set provides two bonus cartoons. From Batman: The Brave and the Bold, we get “Trials of the Demon!” (22::58), and from Batman: The Animated Series, we find “Showdown” (21:19).
The two shows contrast due to style, as the semi-campy Bold seems very different from the more serious/relatively dark Animated Series. Still, both offer entertainment and add value to the set.
Under trailers, we find a promo for Batman Vs. Two-Face. No trailer for Gaslight appears here.
As a 19th century take on Batman, Gotham By Gaslight offers moderate entertainment. However, the movie feels too gimmicky and plot-thin to become anything particularly compelling. The Blu-ray offers excellent visuals along with good audio and a selection of supplements. Expect a pretty average Bat tale here.