Let's take a step back in time way back to
2002
you're an 11 year old boy on the cusp of puberty with a goth older sister who you think is the coolest person on the
Planet and you're looking for goth things that you can be like her
This is the ox and the hot thing is new metal
And you remember this VHS tape that she was watching that had something to do with metal and also was the same as that cartoon
With the cool robot that you liked a new figure yeah
I'll watch this so you pop the tape into the VHS sit down and this happens
This
this thing
hair the dress the dancing
This is the coolest thing your early-2000s brain has ever seen this just utterly blows your mind
Nothing could possibly top this. Then the movie itself starts, and it's just... no, forget that music video.
THIS is the coolest thing you've ever seen in your life
And that tape is so good that it fundamentally changes your feelings on Batman. On superheroes. On villains. On
cartoons in general.
Back in January of last year I had this idea to watch all of Batman Beyond in order from start to finish
In order to not get burnt out with a binge and give up halfway through I'd watch one episode a week. And in
order to keep myself committed to the rewatch I'd write reviews of each episode as I watched them
This project turned into my tumblr, BatmanBeyondReviews
Eventually as I worked on the reviews
I realized that there were other
topics that I wanted to talk about, which led to the creation of this YouTube channel and my first video.
It's been a year since I started BatmanBeyondReviews,
and I have officially watched all 52 episodes of Batman Beyond. And honestly, this has been a long
strangely emotional journey for me.
I've loved Batman Beyond for years,
but a few years ago the series became linked with a dark and traumatic period of my life which
killed a lot of my enjoyment of the series.
BatmanBeyondReviews was essentially a way of moving past that trauma and
finding a new enjoyment in the series that had dominated my life for nearly two decades before.
So with my last review,
I feel like I'm ending an important chapter of my life. One of healing and growth.
My reviews have been for myself first and foremost,
but as the year has gone on more than 200 people have joined me on my journey
and I'm happy that my reviews have resonated with so many people.
But if we're going to end, this we've got to end this right.
There's one more review that I have to do.
A review that in a way has been on my mind since I was 11 years old.
A movie that was a watershed film for me. That I would not be the person I am today if I had not watched it.
It's at a standard that all their superheroes must meet. So if it seems like I'm a bit biased - yes,
I am, absolutely, but I managed to handle my reviews of the series in an objective way,
so I'm going to be following my own format for the rest of this video.
Oh yeah. It's time to review Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.
Have you ever had a movie that you've just seen so many times that the plot is ingrained into your very being?
Something that you've seen over and over to the point that it's just a part of you? Where you know every line of dialogue
every action beat, where you just know and have absorbed all of it?
I stared at this page for days trying to figure out how to really talk about the plot of this movie,
which is difficult because there's just so much to talk about and I honestly don't want to spoil anything if you haven't already seen it.
There are some amazing twists and turns, and they really need to be enjoyed.
But to talk about how well the plot is handled, here's a really quick recap.
So a gang of Joker's have been stealing large industrial technology, which is unusual for a group of petty thieves and vandals.
They are employed by a person who seems to be the Joker, except
he's far too young and spry to really be THE Joker.
But he soon makes his presence known to Bruce, who is in shock because, as Terry puts it: You killed him didn't you?
He was going to do something so terrible you had no other choice.
Bruce asks Terry to give up being Batman as a way to protect him,
but Terry rebels. When the Jokerz go after Terry - not Batman
but Terry - and then Bruce, Terry demands the truth from the only other person who knows it.
He learns the fate of the Joker and the worst thing the Joker has ever done.
From there the heat is on to figure out what's going on and who's really behind this impossible Joker
before the Clown Prince of Crime can wipe out Gotham with a weapons satellite jammer.
The thing about the plot is that this plot pushes the envelope of what is expected of American children's animation.
This should come as no surprise as the powerhouse team of Bruce Timm and Paul Dini,
known for it is alternatively called the Timmverse or the Diniverse or by its official name,
The DC Animated Universe, are well known and respected for their mature take on superheroes.
I'd call it 'adult' but in this day and age adult takes up on superheroes tend to mean something like this
Adult seems to mean 'superheroes are dumb and must be fundamentally changed to be palatable.'
Which is not what the DCAU did. The DCAU
embraced the superhuman and the heroic in their properties instead of just making things dark.
That said, when it comes to being dark, Return of the Joker is about as dark as you can get
The movie is rather infamous due to the fact that the widely released version is unrated while the director's cut received a hard R.
And according to Bruce Timm, the original drafts of the film were even
darker, to the point Warner Brothers kept asking for more and more cuts.
This was always meant to be a hard-edged film, going to places that American cartoons never go and
challenging even where a Batman film in general can go.
This plot is complex, with a powerful emotional cord that runs throughout it.
A major theme is trauma and how people cope with trauma,
specifically how men bury their emotions and how a lack of communication
hampers personal growth and allows for trauma to keep grip on one's entire psyche.
The story asserts that PTSD is a monster lurking inside anyone who has been through trauma,
threatening to take over and turn people who are once bright and effervescent
Into entirely different people. That trauma can make someone lash out and continue cycles of abuse.
Although in this case,
it's a very literal way of saying this. And
this is all couch through the language of superheroes, bringing to light for the first time in a children's medium the idea that
superheroes live lives steeped in trauma. I first saw it when I was around 11 years old and it blew my mind.
I had never thought about why Batman had never killed the Joker or about what it would be like to leave a vigilante
lifestyle. And while recent superhero movies have tried. I don't think any of them have really properly addressed these issues.
They seek heavy themes, they seek darkness, they seek redemption arcs, but none of those things can be achieved without a clear vision.
Return of the Joker had a vision, a purpose. To answer the questions: what happened to the Joker? What happened to Robin?
What happens, inevitably, to superheroes? In finding those answers the film creates a wickedly dark, at times funny, and
overall deeply enthralling narrative that almost didn't make it to audiences. The creators understood their characters
and how to handle them, most notably the film's villain and the film's protagonist.
I have nothing against Heath Ledger, may he rest in peace,
but whenever I hear people talk about his version of the Joker,
they talk about it as if it is the definitive version of the character. And I'm sorry,
but Ledger's Joker cannot hold a candle to Mark Hamill's.
Specifically Hamill in this role. If this film had been released in theaters. This would have been a career-defining rule for Hamill,
I'm sure. This should be the gold standard of the Joker. Not Nicholson, not Ledger, not whatever
horseshit this is.
This version of the Joker is pure distilled nightmare clown.
And that is in large part thinks the specific inspiration for this particular Joker.
The thing about the Joker as a character is that each version brings something unique to the table
Don't like the camp of Romero? Well, Nicholson has a darker take. Want something even grittier and more realistic? Here's Ledger.
Hamill's Joker holds a particular place in the Joker line-up.
He's more manic and chaotic than Nicholson, but more fun and flashy than Ledger. He's charismatic, but creepy.
Then Return of the Joker came along and he was given a bit of a makeover and an updated
personality, and that catapulted him up to the top of the stack when it comes to creepy.
So let's talk about design first.
The Joker's design from Batman: The Animated Series was good, taking most of its inspiration pretty directly from the original comic
appearances of the character, with a sharper, sleeker look.
For Return of the Joker, the art team had a difficult time coming up with the right
redesign for him until they started sharing a copy of Thomas Harris's recently released novel 'Hannibal'.
The descriptions of the titular Hannibal Lecter as a looming figure with red eyes and slicked back hair
proved to be the perfect inspiration for this new Joker. All the details are stripped away, the purple zoot suit replaced with a black bodysuit,
leaving only his face and hands. And those hands. Bruce Timm described them as strangler hands,
which is all you really need to know about this Joker. this Joker is willing to get his hands dirty.
His design was more serial killer than Clown Prince of Crime and that alone ups his intimidation factor.
But design alone can't carry a character, and what makes this joker stand out is how deeply sinister
he is in a way that no other Joker has managed to capture.
Forget sticking bombs inside of guys or sending dead rats to coworkers,
this Joker is the worst threat that Batman has ever faced, because he's the only one to get truly personal.
In a move that is obviously inspired by the controversial death of the Robin Jason Todd in the comics,
this Joker kidnaps and tortures Robin Tim Drake to the breaking point. All for what, exactly? To start a family?
No, while Joker plays at a relationship with Harley,
it's a horrible power imbalance, and he doesn't really care about her wants or needs. No,
he does this purely to hurt Batman, because he knows Bruce will not kill him.
It's an almost self-destructive act. Either it will finally destroy Batman, therefore taking away
The Joker's main source of fun, or it will push Bruce far enough to result in the Joker's death.
Joker hits Batman where it'll hurt the most,
taking away his surrogate family from him and then mocking him once
he finds out that that family is really all that Bruce wanted in the end.
This one act brings to light all the weaknesses of Batman as a character and the series' Bruce never recovers from it.
To go back to the idea of trauma, this version of the Joker is essentially driven by the need to traumatize everyone connected to Batman.
And it's not enough for the Joker to just hurt Bruce, but to cause lasting psychological damage. Barbara puts
it best: The Joker sought to completely compromise Batman and his team, and he succeeded, something no other Joker has managed to do.
One of the major parts of any Batman's character motivation is the need for control
after a traumatic event, and with his twisted acts in this film, Joker shows Bruce that he can never have control.
This is what makes Hamill's Joker the single most effective Joker. Because Bruce's entire worldview has been permanently changed.
Bruce cannot bounce back from this.
But he doesn't have to.
Beyond had the good sense to know when to retire a character, something that pop culture in general has a problem with.
And it's through Bruce's replacement that we see the emotional triumph of the film.
From the word go, Terry has stood out as a radically different character from Bruce. Terry's everything Bruce isn't: a brash, cocky, arrogant kid,
intelligent, but doesn't apply himself, who came from very little and from whom society expects very little. Bruce has a kind of patriarchal authority
To him that worked in the unstable 1940s when America was just leaving the great depression and entering into a war,
but as we move further away in history from Batman's conception,
cracks begin to show in the character, with some authors going so far as to critique Batman for having noticeably fascist undertones.
Terry was created in the late 90s and it shows.
He is very much a gen Xer. He's everything expected from a cyberpunk protagonist:
self-taught,
self-reliant, but crushed under system of capitalism and an unfair justice system,
fighting back against corporate greed and corruption. A hero of the underclass, not just trying to fight crime but to make people's lives better.
Very early on in the film Terry lays out his motivations for continuing to be Batman:
I was a pretty bad kid once.
Ran with a rough crowd, broke a lot of laws, to say nothing of my folks' hearts.
The kind of punk you wouldn't have wasted a second punch on back in the day.
I'm trying to make up for past sins. I guess on a personal level
It's a chance to look like a worthwhile human being again.
In my eyes if no one else's.
It's what I want, Bruce. He's not in it for revenge, but for personal redemption,
and this is what makes him a compelling character to follow throughout the story.
This is a fully realized character with a more clearly defined goal than any other
Batman before him. His arc raises an interesting question for a vigilante story: should criminals, especially those abandoned by the system, have the
opportunity for redemption?
And in the end, does it matter who recognizes that redemption? Terry is motivated by a need for
self-actualization, and that makes him incredibly human.
Because Terry comes from a different world from Bruce, his approach is different.
I have seen Terry criticized as an heir to Batman because he's less of a thinker and more of a brawler,
but this movie makes it clear that just because he isn't well-educated,
doesn't mean that Terry isn't smart. Bruce knows how to scare people, but Terry truly understands people.
And that's why he's able to do something Bruce has never been able to achieve:
He can get under the Joker's skin. Just by talking to him. Get a clue, Clowny. He's got no sense of humor.
He wouldn't know a good joke if it bit him in a cape.
Not that you ever had a good joke. Shut up. Shut up! The final fight of the movie is the best Batman vs
Joker fight ever put to the film. It highlights why Bruce could never win against the Joker, and displays a rise of a new generation.
There's something chilling about how easily Terry can get into the Joker's head,
and it's so satisfying when it happens. In a way,
this is the only way Terry could have defeated the Joker, because the Joker is the film's metaphor for trauma.
We cannot defeat our trauma by physically fighting it.
It's through this final fight that Terry defeats the trauma that lingers over the film.
He confronts Bruce's trauma, but also confronts his own,
lingering from his time in juvie. This is clear because it is Terry's actions that finally allow Bruce to open up and address his own
feelings about the Joker's death.
It isn't just the trauma that Terry is dealing with though. Remember,
he is also fighting for self-actualization, and in the end he achieves it. More than that, he comes to understand
that is not Batman who makes him worthwhile,
but it's he who makes Batman worthwhile. While other Batman films harp on the idea that Batman is an idea,
this is the only one that takes it in another direction,
That it is the human person within the concept of Batman that makes for such a powerful symbol.
It's an uplifting message, showing every punk and screw-up that they have an inner value and are capable of redemption. Capable of being heroes.
The growth of all the other characters is due to Terry. He drives the movie, carrying all of its emotional weight.
This is the height of Terry's character development; a hero,
but also sort of therapist, driving away the demons that haunt Gotham, proving himself to be a worthwhile successor to the mantle of Batman
because he is already an incredible person. The new generation brings with it a new approach, one based not on fear but on
understanding and feeling.
Even if it is through a macho 90's cybergoth filter.
If this were a written review, this is where I would give the movie a rating.
But if I did, the movie
would be off the scale. It can't be compared to the rest of the show because it's in a league all its own.
It's something far more than a simple little direct-to-video movie.
It is a definitive statement on who the Joker is and what Batman stands for; on the trauma lurking at the core of Batman as
a character and a final act of triumph over that trauma.
It puts its stamp on these characters in a way that nothing else can.
The creators of Batman Beyond had a little story about how they felt when they were asked by the studio to create a
teenaged Batman series. They discuss how the idea was repellent to them, how they wanted to quit.
But instead they put thought and care into it and turned out an amazing new series that leaves the status quo of Batman in the
dust and, eventually led to this movie. And they created something amazing.
Something that sadly has never been accepted into the larger canon of Batman movies.
Perhaps because it's a cartoon, perhaps because it's direct-to-video, perhaps because it's not Bruce under the cowl.
But if I have any real goal with this video and with this year's worth of videos that I have posted to tumblr,
it's that I hope people remember Batman Beyond and give it a chance.
I want other people to be able to appreciate Batman Beyond as much as I have.
And finally, I want to heal from my own trauma.
This is a movie about healing.
It's a movie about recovery from the darkest possible depths of evil, About rising above society's expectations and being a hero.
The plot, villain, and character growth pack an
extraordinary punch for Saturday morning cartoon, to say nothing of the gorgeous animation, fantastic voice acting, or
visceral and stunning fight scenes. It goes where no other Batman movie has really tread,
It takes risks with the story and the characters, and all of those risks paid off in abundance.
So call it nostalgia, call it fanboying, call it whatever you want.
But I will maintain with all my heart that Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is the best Batman movie ever made.
Until they make a live-action Batman Beyond movie
Come on Warner Brothers, Clint Eastwood is the perfect choice for Batman you gotta make this before he dies.
Go, go get on that. Go. Go.
Thank you for watching this video,
and thank you to everybody who has been following my reviews for the past year. It has been a trip
doing them
and I don't really know what I'm going to do with myself now that I'm
done. Actually, no, I do. I am going to be launching Wright Reviews,
where I will be watching Kamen Rider Kabuto starting next week.
So please follow me on tumblr. If you like this video, and you want to see more like it, please like, share, and subscribe.
Although I will say it's gonna be a little while until I do another Batman Beyond video.
I've got other topics that I want to talk about.
Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.
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