BATMAN BEYOND: RETURN OF THE JOKER (click here to buy it on Amazon) was – unfortunately – the only Batman Beyond animated movie to ever be released. That said, it’s a really good addition to the canon of Batman Beyond and helps tie together the older animated series into the world of Batman Beyond.
To give a quick recap: BATMAN BEYOND: RETURN OF THE JOKER takes place roughly 40-years after the animated series we’ve come to know and love. Bruce Wayne is old. He’s no longer Batman, but Gotham is still in trouble and needs the Batman. So high school superstar Terry McGuinness has taken the mantle of Batman while Bruce has taken on a support role similar to Alfred. Together they do their best to protect Gotham.
BATMAN BEYOND: RETURN OF THE JOKER takes place after the show’s three seasons. Terry and Bruce have been working together for a while now and have gotten into a groove. The movie opens with what seems like a routine mission. Things are disrupted though when an old enemy seemingly comes back from the dead. The Clown Prince of Crime has appeared once more in Gotham City! Except that, according to Bruce, and eventually Barbara Gordon, the Joker died years ago.
This is where, for a kid’s animated movie, things step into somewhat disturbing territory. There’s a really interesting flashback involving Batman, Robin and Batgirl from the original Batman animated series. It shows Tim Drake has been kidnapped by Joker and Harley Quinn and then subjected to some weird and horrid experiments that’s wound up turning him into some kind of Kid Joker. It’s during this flashback though that the Joker is accidentally electrocuted by Drake and killed once and for all. It’s worth noting that this was not the original version of the scene, and the intended version was much more violent than what’s in the movie now.
So who is this Joker that’s shown up in Gotham once again? Turns out, through a bit of convoluted storytelling, that it’s Drake. It’s difficult to trace exactly how this is possible, but it involves a personality chip and a few other things the movie sort of glosses over. But that’s okay because all we really want, as viewers, is to see is Batman fighting against the Joker.
The action scenes in the movies are pretty fun. It’s interesting, because the Joker here is using Drake’s body. So he’s immediately a better fighter than the Joker we’ve seen before. It’s more of an even battle between the two than one might expect and it makes for a more exciting final battle between them.
The battle comes to an end when Batman manages to fry the personality chip that’s stuck to Drake’s neck. After all this, the Joker is finally gone and Drake can be at peace. It’s a short, tight story that works as a slightly longer episode of the television series. The character development has more to do with Bruce and his mistakes as Batman, then it is of Terry, and that’s okay. Terry’s character was never the highlight of Batman Beyond and we simply want to see him kick butt as Batman and this move delivers that in spades.
Written by Peter Freeman, TV & Animation Writer -- Click here to read Peter's posts
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