"Everytime I put on that suit, it’s my chance to help people who are in trouble. I guess on a personal level, it’s my chance to look like a worthwhile human being again. In my eyes… no one else’s. It’s what I want, Bruce."
— Terry McGinnis, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

This explains why Terry continues to risk his life as Batman. It’s the essence of his motivation, of his desires, of the continued guilt he feels for the past mistakes he has made before encountering the legend of The Bat. At first, it was all about revenge for his father’s death. Now it’s all about redemption. But has young McGinnis learned enough to face the biggest adversary in Batman’s Rogues Gallery — The Clown Prince of Crime himself… The Joker!

The question remains: how has The Joker managed to survive all these years and still look like a spring chicken?


The Future is a Grim One

It’s Gotham City 40 years into the future and things seemed to have become worse than ever. Despite the cosmetic changes with hi-tech gadgetry, hover cars, laser pistols, and enormous skyscrapers, crime still runs rampant throughout the city no matter what form it takes. Luckily for Gotham, she has a constant… a protector named Batman. Even though it’s Terry McGinnis playing the role, Bruce Wayne, even grimmer than ever, is still around to mentor this cybernetic crimefighter.

Batman Beyond has given a fresh new spin to the Batman mythos by adding to the already 60 years plus legend. Die-hard fans didn’t readily embrace this new Batman considering it a mockery. I, to my regret, was one of them. But the key word is "was". Brought to you by the same producers of both the animated shows of Batman & Superman, the creators have really taken this to the next level. If anyone could do justice and show the proper respect to these heroes, they would and have gone beyond any expectations with masterful results.

Terry McGinnis has faced many crazed villains of his own: the silent assassin Curare; the sultry Inque; the master of hypnotism Spellbound; and the radioactive menace Blight. He has even encountered some of Wayne’s old foes: the card carrying Royal Flush Gang; the cool Mr. Freeze; a withered old Bane; and a reborn Demon’s Head, in the form of his daughter Talia, Ra’s Al Ghul. But none of these villains have prepared him for the worse of the lot.


Joker Beyond

Terry McGinnis: "It’s funny. I know all about your other major enemies but you never mentioned him. He was the biggest, wasn’t he?"
Bruce Wayne:"It wasn’t a popularity contest. He was a psychopath… a monster."

And, in true Joker fashion, he proves Wayne right… with deadly results. The mystery is how he managed to survive after all these years looking exactly like The Joker of old. Terry echoes our sentiments: "Clone… robot… suspended animation due to floating around in a block of ice?" How he does manage to survive is really quite ingenuous.

*note: the suspended animation in a block of ice is for the die-hard comic book fans who know that’s how Captain America, from Marvel Comics, managed to survive from the 1940’s to the present day. But I digress and my geekdom is showing. GAH!!*

The Joker is very unorthodox; there is no reason to his behaviour and patterns. The only one who really understands his motivation is The Joker himself. Bent on lunacy, he has managed to bully his way into The Jokerz, a street gang who he uses to do obtain and put forth his nefarious schemes. After all, what is The Joker without henchmen?

As one can imagine, Bruce Wayne is stunned by The Joker’s reappearance. After all, he knows what happened to the original Joker and Terry is looking for answers.

Terry McGinnis:"So how is it possible he is around after all this time?"
Bruce Wayne: "It’s not possible. He died years ago"
Terry McGinnis: "You’re sure?"
Bruce Wayne: "I was there."
Terry McGinnis:"You killed him, didn’t you?"

And, in that exchange of dialogue between Bruce and Terry, we are left with even more questions: did Bruce actually go over the bend and kill The Joker compromising his own belief that he would never take a life? It’s something that has left us wondering.

What is even scarier is seeing The Joker ambush Bruce Wayne in the Batcave and injecting him with Joker venom. The Joker in the Batcave? That doesn’t seem right at all. In fact, it’s almost downright sacrilegious with The Joker hovering over Bruce Wayne, with a chilling laugh, saying "Hello… Batman!" It’s perfect.

The Joker has left his mark and Terry finally realizes that he is in over his head. The Joker isn’t just a regular villain using whoopee cushions and squirting flowers as a gimmick. This is a true psychopath at work.

*note: if you blink you will miss it but there is a foreshadowing to The Joker’s identity. The trophy cases with the original Batman, Robin, Batgirl and Nightwing costumes are shattered. We see Terry running to Bruce’s aid from the point of view of the Robin costume. In that one shot, we see broken glass and the words "HA HA HA" marked all over the Batcave. I have said enough.*


The Missing Years

We all know that Bruce Wayne is a grumpy, 80-year old man who has retired as The Caped Crusader. Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl, is now the Commissioner of Gotham City following in her father’s footsteps. We don’t know exactly what happened to Dick Grayson, the original Boy Wonder who later became Nightwing, but we do learn about Tim Drake, the second Robin. Fans of the Batman Animated series have been asking this question, and they finally received their shocking answer as this bridges the two shows together.

Robin and The Joker are linked closer than you can possibly imagine especially when Mr. J captures The Boy Blunderer. For weeks Batman and Batgirl search for Tim until they come across a clue leading them to The Clown Prince. The Joker has turned Robin into Joker Junior.. "JJ" as he calls him… as he and Harley Quinn, Joker’s sidekick and main squeeze, decide to start a family of their own. After all, as The Joker remembers, Batman always has a few spare kids hanging around, so he decides to borrow one. Imagine a smaller version of The Joker running around. Now imagine that someone being a person very close to you. Now imagine if you were Batman and witnessed this. So what would you do next?

"With his last act of cruelty, The Joker had tainted us all with compromise and deception. I suppose he had the last laugh after all."
— Commissioner Barbara Gordon, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

After that incident, Batman forbade Tim from ever donning the Robin suit and swore he would never endanger a young partner again. Tim got his life back together through some heavy counseling, married, and made a life for himself as a communication engineer. Sounds like a happy ending for the Boy Wonder.

Or so it seems.


The Once and Future Batman

It is inevitable that Terry and The Joker will face each other. But this isn’t a regular Batman vs. Joker fight. The rules are different. The Joker has always been one to rely on gimmicks to help him escape from any incident. He was never one who could match it up with Batman in a physical fight. Not anymore as Terry finds out. In fact, The Joker is better than Terry in a fist-fight knowing all the moves of the original Batman and Robin.

But he doesn’t know Terry.

"Don’t play psycho-analysis with me, boy!"
— The Joker, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

In a twist of events, Terry figures out The Joker’s motivation, why he always comes back to haunt the original Batman… he could never get a laugh out of Batman. That’s why he continued to wreck havoc all over Gotham. And this gets under The Joker’s skin as Terry figures him out.

The Joker:"Don’t you dare laugh at me!"
Terry McGinnis: "Why? I always thought The Joker wanted to make Batman laugh?"
The Joker: "You’re NOT Batman!!!"

The question to how The Joker survived is explained fully. Just ask Tim Drake… even though he doesn’t even know he has been helping The Joker after all these years.

This is really Terry’s story as the mantle of The Bat is finally passed onto him. Even though it ties up events surrounding the past with Bruce, Tim and The Joker, we see how Terry has to deal with these repercussions in his life and what it means to be a hero. He has learned how to adapt to his surroundings and realizes that brawn isn’t the only way to deal with dire situations. He has managed to do the impossible: to outsmart The Joker, and he did it on his own. Terry is now Batman and Bruce sums it up perfectly:

"It’s not Batman who makes you worthwhile; it’s the other way around. Never tell yourself anything different."


The Bat Family

Kevin Conroy once again provides the voice of Bruce Wayne as he does in the regular Batman Beyond shows, as he did previously in the Batman Animated shows. I can’t imagine anyone else playing his role because he IS Bruce Wayne. Will Friedle (Boy Meets World) is Terry McGinnis, Batman for the next generation. Together, they make quite a formidable team. However, I was thrilled to have Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker of the Star Wars fame) back as The Joker. Listening to him in that role really brings life to that character as he sets the tone for The Joker and does it extremely well.

The animation is one step better than the show, and that says a lot since the show is beautifully crafted. Batman Beyond is very rich with a sleek, Japanese animé influence throughout its entire makeup. The movie showcases this to an even greater extent thanks to the good folks at TMS Entertainment. The fluidity in the action sequences, the camera angles and character movements are all prime examples of this style of animation. Even the most subtle of things will capture your eye such as the rendering of smoke and explosions. There is definitely a lot of pride displayed in the artwork alone, and this is a movie that deserves it.


The Greatest Bat Villain of All

No, it’s not The Joker. In fact, it isn’t really anyone in the Batman mythos. The greatest villain happens to be the executives at Warner Bros. The movie I have viewed is the edited version and it has been the topic of controversy. The original take shown went into depth on the motivation between the Batman-Joker relationship. It delved more into the character’s psyche and added to the overall flavour.

In the flashback sequence, The Joker is killed by Robin as is in this version. How he dies is entirely a different story. In the original version, Robin kills The Joker with his own missile-launching gun right into the chest. The edited version has Robin pushing The Joker as the crashes into a vat of water. The Joker is covered in wires and slips. As he falls, he grabs onto to the nearest thing… a lever on a machine that electrocutes him. We don’t actually see the electrocution but it is suggested by his screaming and the sound effects. The executives thought this was too much for children to handle and asked for it to be toned down. This would have been fine if they didn’t already release the original version. Instead, we now have fans crying for their heads by butchering a vital ingredient to the plot.

They are many more scenes that were altered or made it onto the cutting room floor, and it doesn’t sit well with the fans. I haven’t had the privilege of viewing the original version so I can’t judge it for myself. But from what I hear, it would have made the story flow better. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy this version. I guess I’m lucky. Maybe ignorance is bliss.

It’s obvious that the executives of Warner Bros. don’t understand the mechanics and dynamics of a good Batman story. After all, these are the same people who allowed four Batman live action movies, and you saw how well they destroyed that franchise.

Let the creators of Batman Beyond do their jobs. They know the characters and understand the pacing. They have nothing but respect for the mythology and have stayed true to the spirit of Batman. Let’s hope that Warner Bros. doesn’t sabotage the up-coming Batman Beyond live-action movie that is being produced.

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DVD Features

For your added pleasure, there are some extras with the DVD version.

• A running commentary from the creators as they share their views as the movie is played.

• Character Bios

• Some cut footage that didn’t make it to the final version of the movie. These are storyboard-animatics that are shown along with the voice overs. But if you think you will find the unedited version on this DVD, you will be disappointed if you purchased it for that reason alone. It’s not on here at all.

• A music video by Crash


*another geekdom note: if you flip over Bruce Wayne’s limousine, you’ll see that it’s the Batmobile from the original Batman Animated series. It’s official. I am truly pathetic.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12