The first trailer has been released for the upcoming animated feature Batman: Year One, and boy is it beautiful.

Watch the trailer here below.

This release comes in an established line of straight-to-DVD animated features from DC Animation, spearheaded by legendary creator Bruce Timm. Batman: Year One adapts the comic book story of the same name from the incredible artist David Mazzucchelli and writer Frank Miller during a time when he was writing the best comic books of his life.

Batman: Year One is easily one of my favorite comic books of all time, so I’m incredibly excited by this Blu-ray release. It’s been noted by the creators of the animated feature that great care has been taken in making this adaptation as faithful to the source material as humanly possible, and while I prefer some liberties taken while adapting a comic into another medium, Batman: Year One is such a strong story, that nothing needs to be changed. Timm and company feel so strongly about the source material that they are even drawing the animation in the specific style of Mazzucchelli, and the trailer certainly shows it.

If you are unaware, Batman: Year One focuses its attention on three primary characters in their first days in Gotham City. Bruce Wayne as Batman (Ben McKenzie) is just cutting his teeth as The Dark Knight as he makes mistakes and decisions concerning the future of crime-fighting in Gotham City. Detective James Gordon (Brian Cranston) has just moved to Gotham from Chicago to start anew with his pregnant wife, but what he finds is a corrupt police system and only one man, a vigilante, who is actually concerned with cleaning up the city. The last focal character is Selina Kyle (Eliza Dushku), a bad luck ridden prostitute who is inspired to change her ways when she sees Batman attempting to clean up the city. The only problem? She changes into Catwoman, a conflicted character with a predisposition for theft who skates the line between justice and villainy.

The Blu-ray and DVD, coming on September 27, 2011 according to IMDB, will also feature the return of a brand new DC Showcase short film starring Dushku as lead character Catwoman. The DC Showcases were amongst my favorite of the special features on every release they accompanied, so it’s been disheartening to see them absent from the past few animated films from DC. Also, the fact that Catwoman is getting a lead roll in the special feature excites me, because if understood properly, Catwoman comics are some of the best out there. And if you want to see how good the comics are, check out Catwoman: Selina’s Big Score by Darwyn Cooke, or anything with Ed Brubaker’s name on it, like Catwoman: The Dark End of the Street. You won’t be disappointed.

Without further introduction and ado, I present the trailer for Batman: Year One here below. Have a look and get ready to be excited.

Trailer

[Source: MTV]