The Haunting Side Of The Caped-Crusader

When I look back at my own upbringing throughout my childhood years, within the 1990’s, one of the things that was prominent and always available to watch, was Batman; whether it was the Tim Burton filmic pieces or the animated T.V. series which was simply, one of the best shows I watched when I was growing up. Yes, there was other things that took up my childhood viewing space, such as with the 90’s Disney animated-features, of course, and Pokemon which blossomed into a successful concept; both in the Video-game and T.V. worlds at the time of it’s ascension. However, Batman was one of those things that I look back on now that stands out more than the other shows that I watched. For one, whether it was within the film adaptations or in the animated show, Batman was a premise that blended the ‘light-hearted/kid-friendly’ sequences, with the dark motifs, that it always had, rather well. He’s one of those superheroes, as well, that has been changed and re-adapted in rather drastic ways. The first of these, in my instance, was indeed, the animated series of Batman Beyond. I can’t remember whether it was in the Warner Bros. shop in the Arndale (which they should bring back by the way!!) or somewhere else, but I vaguely remember witnessing a visual advertisement for Batman Beyond which basically featured the dark-deco art style that was ever present in the Batman Animated series that people know of. The concept, of basically centring around a futuristic version of the dark knight, really intrigued me. This of course flourished within the direct-to-video animated feature of Return of the Joker; a film that champions past and present Batman-inspired animations, with it having this fixation on showcasing this balance between not only the past and present, but the relationship between the villain and vigilante counterpart, and memorable voice-work from the likes of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill who both exceed in delivering two voice-performances into their own singular characters…

Set within a cyber-punk Gotham City and taking place sometime within the time frame of the Batman Beyond animated series, Return of the Joker basis its story around the character of Terry McGinnis, the new Batman of the future who is mentored by the elderly original Batman, Bruce Wayne. While Terry’s latest run-in with The Jokerz may have looked like his typical night as being the new caped-crusader, all is not what it seems as the Joker, a previous adversary of Bruce Wayne’s, re-appears to once again wreak havoc upon Gotham. With Bruce haunted and hurt by the re-emergence of his greatest villain, Terry finds himself in an odd mystery; a mystery which see’s a shaken Barbara Gordon explain the fate of the original Joker and Terry himself, confronting this ‘Joker’ who threatens the very existence of Gotham… 

One of the positives to take straight away from Return of the Joker, is how it doesn’t stray away from its source material in the form of the Batman Beyond animated T.V. series. It is an animated feature that adds to the qualities that the animated T.V. series had in abundance. That quality, specifically within Batman Beyond, was this excessive yet satisfying trope of combining and melding the new with the old; allowing not only a simple progression of Batman in the future, but also threading little Batman references and red herrings from when Bruce Wayne was the caped-crusader. For example, every episode of the series would at least feature a reference to the original Batman animated series, whether it was a call back to Dick Grayson, when Terry finds a jacket labelled ‘D.G’, or a throwback to an old adversary of Bruce Wayne’s, as seen in one episode when Terry meets and old and decrepit Bane. However, in Return of the Joker, they definitely add the depth to these red herrings with the re-appearance of Batman’s arguably greatest villain, in the Joker. His emergence does, both within the context of the film and how you view the events that unfold, question Joker’s existence; how is it possible that he’s able to suddenly re-appear after 20 years? as though it was nothing? This, of course if any of you have seen the film, is thoroughly explained through a flashback sequence involving Tim Drake, as Robin, who is severely tortured by the Joker and disfigured to look like the Joker, and Batman, who faces the Joker at the old Arkham Asylum for ‘the last time’. As you can all see from the top, I titled this film review ‘the haunting dark side of Batman’, and there’s a good reason why I think Return of the Joker, out of most Batman animated features, subtly yet effectively explores this ‘darkness’ better than its brothers and sisters. It’s simply down to this 10 minute flashback sequence; a segment, sorry for spoiling, which originally featured extreme violence and uses of blood all of which culminated in the original cut of this film receiving a PG 13, the first animated Batman film to receive this rating. It isn’t just the physical animation as to why this film could be as a ‘dark’ take on the dark knight, but the story material itself, with Tim Drake more or less being lobotomised and the Joker finally learning the true identity of Batman (which is followed up with a brilliant dialogue excerpt perfectly voiced by Mark Hamill) is honestly something that you don’t normally see within Batman, let alone within a children’s animated feature such as this one. The little segment of the Joker taunting Batman about his true identity itself, is brilliantly executed; with the camera rotating around the figure of Batman as the Joker eerily jeers at him about his identity is suspenseful and isn’t something you normally see within a supposed 90’s animation for kids.  

I think it would be criminal, especially to those who’ve watched Batman within the 90’s, if I didn’t mention the voice-performances of both Mark Hamill, who portrays the Joker, and Kevin Conroy, who plays Bruce Wayne Batman. It would be wrong of me to dispute the filmic performances of the likes of Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger who have both played the Joker in their own separate ways. But for me, personally, Mark Hamill has to be a name mentioned in relation to talking about the Joker and which actor has played him the best. The main reason why Hamill sticks out more than the rest, is simply his range of depth. Hamill has this nice pitch to performing the Joker; whether it’s a scene that simply involves light-hearted comic-relief where the Joker/Hamill is doing incredibly witty, to a scene or action which see’s Joker/Hamill perform a rather menacing laugh/speech that engages you to the circumstance we are situated in. The fact that he’s been doing this role successfully for 20 odd years now, is an achievement that has to be credited and I honestly believe there will be no one to match what Hamill has created himself within the role of the Joker. Much of that can also be applied to Kevin Conroy’s input as Batman as well. Especially in this film considering he’s playing the same character of Bruce Wayne, but in different stages of his life; when he’s old mentoring Terry McGinnis and when we see him in the 10 minute sequence as the original Batman. While he isn’t a voice-actor that has been in the spotlight compared to the likes of Hamill and Conroy, Will Friedle as McGinnis/Batman does rather well in capturing a young Batman who is still learning his as the caped-detective. 

As much as I can credit Warner Bros. for releasing this direct-to video film with a darker tone compared to previous and even recent Batman related animations, it must be said that there are a few problems that Return of the Joker upholds. My first disapproval would be the animation despite the fact it is refined and much more crisper, in terms of the character models, than the T.V. series. It’s understandable being that it was released directly to video which shows that it didn’t have enough money in the production and distribution stages, but it would have been better if Return of the Joker employed CG segments within the more serious situations of the film, something that Batman: Sub-Zero did in that film. My last criticism would be that of the contextualisation and characterisation of the character of Terry McGinnis. While it is nice to see much more depth to the relationship the Joker and Bruce Wayne, we never really ever get personal scenes of Terry that construct his character on an emotional level. He’s really a character that’s just there to be the hero and nothing more. Being that this film was constructed into 3 episodes essentially, with a running time of 1hr and 15 minutes with the beginning, middle and end sharing a time a 20 odd minutes each, you would think there would have been some emotional attachment regarding Terry and his take on the film plot-line.

Regardless, throughout the 90’s, Batman did indeed take on many changes, whether it was within the rather laughable film adaptations or through the animations which me and my brothers grew up on. One of the more successful re-imaginations came in the form of Batman Beyond and in the Return of the Joker follow-up film. This is a film that, unlike others, tackles the darker motifs of Batman in a simple, kid-friendly yet dark manner. Of course, being that this film was released 16 years ago now and there is now a whole range of Batman entertainment, Return of the Joker has to be placed in the top-half in relation to the better Batman viewing experiences…

That about wraps everything I wanted to say. As always everyone, thank you for reading my latest film review and I hope you’ve enjoyed the read. If anyone has an opinion on the film or on the review itself, please feel free to drop a comment down below in the comments section. Next week should be a rather fun and busy one for myself as I have two Blog Posts that I intend to put out for you all. The first one will be a list of my favourite films that I’ve watched this year so far and the 2nd post will be my continuation of the Harry Potter film reviewing series that I recently started last week (https://rabbittevision.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/harry-potter-and-philosophers-stone.html). Until then, I want to thank you once again for reading my latest review and I’ll be seeing you next week! Have a nice day! 😉 Adieu!! 🙂

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ – Alex Rabbitte