DC Animated Superhero Movie Retrospective Series - Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000)

Written In December 2013

Plot Summary Taken From Wikipedia:

Many years back after Nightwing (Dick Grayson) moved to a new city to fight crime on his own, the Joker and Harley Quinn kidnapped Tim Drake, Dick’s successor as Robin, and disfigured him to look like the Joker, and tortured him to the point of insanity over a period of three weeks. In the process, Tim revealed Batman's secret identity—and the secret of what drives him to be Batman. When Batman and the Joker fought their final battle, the Joker got the upper hand and subdued him. The Joker then tried to persuade Tim to kill Batman. Instead, the boy, due to a trace of his former self still active, turned on the Joker and killed him, and suffered a mental breakdown in the process. Batman and Barbara buried the Joker’s body deep beneath Arkham Asylum, while Harley fell into a pit after she was fighting Batgirl and was presumed dead as her body was never found. The only other person who knew about what happened that night was Barbara’s father, Commissioner James Gordon, who promised to keep that night a secret. One year after the incident, Tim was rehabilitated, but Bruce forbade him from being Robin again, blaming himself for what happened and vowing to never again endanger another young partner. The event puts a strain on the relationship between Bruce and Barbara, leading the latter to retire as Batgirl to join Gotham City Police Department and in time follow her father’s footsteps as police commissioner. Tim eventually settled down with a wife and family, and a career as a communications engineer.

In Neo-Gotham City, the Joker resurfaces after having disappeared 40 years earlier. He has taken over a faction of the Jokerz, and on his orders, they steal high-tech communications equipment. One heist happens to coincide with Bruce Wayne’s formal announcement of his return to active leadership of Wayne Enterprises, as the Joker reveals himself to the world. Despite Terry McGinnis’ intervention, the Joker escapes. Bruce insists that the Joker must be an impostor, as he claims to have witnessed the real Joker’s death decades before, yet all evidence suggests otherwise. Bruce, unwilling to let Terry face the Joker, impostor or not, demands that he return the Batsuit, to which Terry reluctantly complies.

Later, Terry and his girlfriend Dana are attacked by the Jokerz at a nightclub. At the same time, the Joker ambushes and attacks Bruce in theBatcave, leaving him for dead. Terry defeats the Jokerz, and Dana is taken to the hospital for her injuries. Terry rushes to Wayne Manor, and finds Bruce near-dead from Joker venom. Terry quickly administers an antidote, and tends to Bruce with the help of Barbara Gordon.

After Terry insists on being let in on what really happened to the Joker, Barbara reluctantly tells him what happened. Terry decides to question Tim, who denies any involvement and bitterly says he had grown sick of his past life as Robin. Terry then suspects Jordan Pryce, who would have taken control of the company were it not for Bruce’s return. Jordan Pryce, thinking he will become CEO, plans to hold a private party on his yacht with his girlfriend Amy. However he finds Dee-Dee in her place, Amy having been tied to a pole and gagged at the port. Terry finds the Jokerz on Pryce’s yacht, who reveal that Pryce had hired them and given them access codes. However, the Joker has sent them to kill Pryce, as he is no longer needed. Terry rescues Pryce before a satellite laser destroys the boat, and then turns him in to the police with a recording of Pryce’s conversation with the Jokerz.

Back in the Batcave, Terry deduces that Tim must be working with the Joker when he discovers that the high-tech equipment the Jokerz have been stealing can be combined to form a machine that takes control of any satellite, even an orbiting military satellite with an automated defense system and fire it at will, thus explaining what happened on the yacht—and it can only be built by an engineer of Tim’s caliber. Bruce is skeptical about this claim, but nonetheless sends Terry to question Tim again. Terry tries to confront Tim, but is lured into a trap by the Joker, who confirms that he and Tim are indeed working together. Escaping in the Batmobile, he is then chased through Gotham by the laser-armed satellite.

Terry tracks the Joker to the abandoned Jolly Jack candy factory. After fighting off the Jokerz, he finds Tim, who transforms into the Joker before his eyes. The Joker explains that when he kidnapped Tim and during the three weeks of his torture, he secretly implanted a microchip (revealed later to have been stolen from Project Cadmus) into the boy’s brain that carries the Joker’s consciousness and genetic material, allowing him to physically and mentally transform Tim into a clone of himself at will, eventually becoming strong enough to permanently control his body. The Joker prepares to fire the satellite again to kill Dana, Terry’s family and Bruce, but before he can fire the laser, Terry sets Bruce’s dog, Ace, on him. Terry knocks the Joker's joy buzzer into the controls, destroying the beam’s guidance system, causing it to head to the factory.

The Joker attempts to escape, but Terry seals the factory. A fight ensues between the two, but the Joker is easily able to overcome Terry since he knows all of the original Batman’s moves and tricks. Terry then decides to improvise by using his expertise in dirty street fighting moves and mocking his obsession with Batman and his inability to make him laugh. An agitated Joker throws bombs at Terry, sending him crashing to the floor. The Joker then pins him to the ground and begins to strangle him. Terry, having covertly retrieved the Joker’s joy buzzer, delivers a shock to the Joker’s neck, destroying the chip, reverting Tim to his old self, and destroying the Joker forever. Terry escapes with Tim and Ace before the satellite destroys the factory and the satellite jamming device. The satellite gets deactivated and floats into outer space.

In the city jail, two of the female Jokerz, Deidre and Delia Dennis, are bailed out by their grandmother, an elderly Harley Quinn, who laments what disappointments they are. Meanwhile, Terry and Barbara meet Tim in the hospital. Bruce arrives just as Terry leaves, telling him that it is not being Batman that makes him a worthwhile person, but the other way around. Bruce then joins Barbara and Tim in the hospital room. The film ends with Terry donning the Batsuit and flying off into the heart of the city.

You know how my last review I got up on my soapbox about a controversial fandom issue? Well today I’m going to step back up to it to talk about a real life issue; censorship. This film prior it’s December release back was HEAVILY edited and recut, this was done so because of the Columbine High School shooting in April of 1999. In my humble opinion, these cuts and edits are fucking ridiculous. The film was meant to be rated PG-13, that means it was meant for kids who are old enough to understand the difference between reality and fiction and can understand that the kind of thing that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are wrong and sinister. This movie does feature teenagers/young adults doing depraved things as part of a gang that worships and names itself after a homicidal maniac, but they are quickly shown to only be doing there acts for thrills and cash. When exposed to the Joker’s ways of committing cold blooded murder and laughing his ass off about it, they all react in fear, and from then on are more following along out said fear. The film shows a boy the target audience’s age being horribly tortured and then to preserve the life of his true father figure kills his torturer. The film is clear to show that these actions are not okay, and alludes to an adult Tim Drake having many sleepless nights about his actions here. It also makes it clear, that the main character of Terry McGinnis was a gangbanger who busted shops and hurt people, who does what he does now out of a hope to redeem himself in his own eyes. The point of censorship is to show to prevent kids from getting the wrong idea about the world, to prevent them from knowing that crime doesn’t pay, but it does is decrease the impact of that message. So I beg of you, when purchasing this film on DVD (or Blu-Ray, I don’t if it’s available on that format) please buy the version that is it rated PG-13 by the MPAA, do not purchase the version labeled either “unrated” or just PG. By buying either of the other two versions, you are encouraging executives that it’s alright to undermine the message of the artists behind films. Of the MPAA, all I can say is this;

Now let’s get to the pros and cons of the actual PG-13 cut.

PROS:

• Mark Hamill kills it again as the one and only clown prince of crime! It’s a bit different than his usual take on the clown, but that actually serves the material.
• The Joker is probably his most manic and sadistic during the course of the DC Animated Universe.
• The scene where the Joker kills Bonk is a great example of the Joker’s dark comedy and also parallels with a lot of real life folks who associate themselves with symbols of hate and violence out rebellion without actually thinking of what they’re true meaning is.
• This is Will Friedle’s BEST performance as Terry McGinnis, possibly even the best performance of his career.
• Bruce’s initial refusal to let Terry fight the Joker is great for a couple of reasons. One, it makes sense because while Bruce has been more than happy to let Terry go head to head with plenty of rogues, Terry has never once been up against someone as sinister as the clown. Two, it builds the clown for people who only ever watched Batman Beyond. It doesn’t build up the Joker in general, because if you know Batman outside Beyond, you KNOW the Joker is a major threat and someone to be feared.
• How the Joker is back is actually rather brilliant and genuinely horrific.
• How Terry defeats the Joker is great, and I always enjoy seeing bad people mocked and shown to be as pathetic on the outside as they are on the inside.

CONS:

• While I think Kristopher Carter does a good job with the score, personally, I would’ve gone for a different musical cues at certain moments, and left the music out entirely for others. For example, the scene where the Joker explains what he did to Tim should’ve been left silent until he reveals that he knows that Batman is Bruce Wayne, at the moment we shoudl’ve gotten that sort of dramatic drum roll, then the music should’ve slowly risen from that point forward until Bruce crashes through the window and attacks the Joker.
• We don’t see enough of the Jokerz being afraid of the Joker, I think it would’ve been good if Terry caught one after a fight and managed to pry the info of the Joker’s location from them.
• Harley at one point is thought dead in this film but is then revealed to be the Dee Dee twins’ grandmother, personally, I think she should’ve been left dead in spite my love of her.

This film is very much the precursor to the type of movies we’re gonna get to later in this series, particularly Under The Red Hood. So what did I actually think of the movie, well how about a play by play from the doctor himself;

The first scene:

 

the Joker’s reveal:

 

the Joker’s second reveal: 

Bruce asking Terry for the suit back:

 

Barb’s flashback about Tim:

 

When Terry talks to Tim about the Joker: 

When Terry and Bruce find out that Tim IS the Joker: 

Me during Terry’s fight with the Joker:

 

At the ending when Tim is reunited with Barb and Bruce and Bruce and Tim both tell Terry he’s a good Batman:

 

So all in all, the movie entertained me, entranced me, broke me, and left me very happy, I’ll be giving Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker a 9.2 out of 10.