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Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker Nostalgiaview

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Welcome to Nostalgiaviews, the only program where my childhood comes to bite me back in the ass.

About a month ago, I did a television review of the introductory episode to Batman Beyond, describing the show to be pretty good though not as good as the show it spun off from, "Batman The Animated Series." I also described in that review that there was a direct-to-video movie on the show and I had expressed interest before to look at it. Well, just my luck, it turned out the Youtube Channel BehindTheLot was posting the movie online on their channel. So I played the patience game and waited until the entire movie was up on their page to see it in it's completion. So, just to let you all know, this Review wouldn't have been done without BeyondTheLot, thanks guys. If you like their videos, subscribe to them and see more Batman-related material.
With that said, let's review "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker."

- -

In the far off future, Gotham City has become Neo-Gotham, Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) has retired the Cape and Cowl for 50 years. Taking over the role as Batman now is high school student Terry McGinnis (Will Friedle). Now that we got that out of the way, let's start the movie.
We begin our movie at the Gotham Shipping Building as a security guard gets his ass kicked by a hyena man, revealing a gang of Trick-or-Treaters. Yeah I know they're supposed to be considered Jokerz, but I've seen the show and these guys don't exactly dress as them, so for all intents and purposes in this review, I'm just going to keep calling them The Trick-Or-Treat Gang.
Anyways, the T.O.T. Gang break into this shipping building as this one muscular albino dude tries to drive this hover fork lift thing to grab something that looks like a thing you put in your car. But before they can make off with whatever this heavy-ass thing is, Batman swoops in and yes, he does deliver a one-liner.
Batman: "It's a school night boys and girls, I'm gonna have to call your folks."
Alec: "We've already got Spider-Man 2099, we don't need another futuristic superhero to make wise cracks."
If that didn't already kill your perception of Batman, well son, I hate to tell this to you, but we're only a minute and a half into the runtime, so you better get use to it.
Anyways, the Albino doofus decides to go chasing after Batman while this one fat Trick-Or-Treater wearing pink shoots some laser at Batman, But Batman pretty much dispenses with him easily, in fact, he kicks all their asses without breaking a sweat until he mistakenly assumes the Twin Trick-Or-Treaters aren't a threat as they taze him and kick his ass to the curb. But Batman gets up and tosses them around, only to get distracted by Hyena Man as the other T.O.T Gang members escape with the thingy. Batman pursues, which makes the albino chase after him, stupidly letting the Car part thingy fall to the ground, he's not very bright, is he? Anyways, Batman keeps fighting, he throws a line around Tweedle-Dee as Albino tries to beat up Batman…wait, who's driving the vehicle then? Well, the Pink Trick-Or-Treater crashes the car part thingy to a highway as Batman ditches the albino by colliding with a flag pole, but things explode which causes Batman to lose the Trick-Or-Treat Gang. Well, we just had an intense opening fight scene with some collateral damage, what do you have to say for yourself there Batman?
Batman: "That ain't common' out of my allowance."
Alec: "Batman ladies and gentlemen!! The world's greatest detective and master of campy one-liners stolen straight from Spider-Man."

Anyways, time for the opening credits…which suck…I mean, it's just white text amongst a dark background that just fade in and fade out. It's so lazy and uninspired, I know this is a direct-to-video but come on guys! You could try a little harder? Hell, even the opening song sounds like the Batman Beyond Theme played by a Led Zeppelin tribute band. A bad one.
Well, after that, Bruce Wayne is seen in the Bat Cave just throwing a Bataraang around as Batman flies into the cave.
Bruce Wayne: "How did it go with the Jokerz?"
Batman: "I broke up the robbery but it was weird."
Alec: "I'll say, they looked more like Trick-Or-Treaters."
Well, apparently this is weird to them because this was the third time this month they had stolen high tech machinery, when Jokerz have no use for it, call me crazy, but didn't a gang of Jokerz steal a high-tech prototype military vehicle and go for a joyride once in the TV show? Well, forget that then, time for some news! Turns out Bruce Wayne has decided to come out of retirement and retake control of Wayne Enterprises…what, so it's no longer Wayne/Powers? Then again, in the conclusion to the first season, Derek Powers revealed himself as Blight to the Board Members and went into hiding. I wouldn't keep the name either, man, that must have meant a lot of business cards had to be changed....
So the news report not only exposits Wayne's return to control, it also reveals the obvious antagonist Jordan Price (Mark Hamill), a Board Member who isn't in support of Wayne's return to the company since he was next in line to take control. Terry decides, since Bruce will be busier with retaking control of his company, that he ought to what all high school students do when they have time on their hand:  go to da club, bottle full of bub, look mami he got the X if you into takin' drugs-…Did I really just make this joke? I mean, come on, how low have I gone to reference a 50 Cent song? I'm really slipping…
Oh well, turns out Terry is really tired as he dances with his girlfriend Dana…so you could say he's into sleeping it off you into takin' Tranquil, so cuddle up wit' him if you really need a nap- DAMN IT!

Meanwhile, in a totally subtle location given the movie's title, the Trick Or Treat Gang meets with a mysterious figure who chews them out for botching the job. The Albino gets pissed and demands to leave the gang, which prompts the shadowy guy to pull a gun that looks like a Lego Stormtrooper blaster on him. He kills this Albino before coming out into the light to reveal, gasp! The Joker!! I'm so surprised! It's not like his name is in the title of the movie so we weren't expecting he'd eventually show up, though I don't know why he's wearing a tight-skin purple leathery jumpsuit. The Joker (Mark Hamill) decides to ignore the failure of last night and goes searching for another mechanical thingy just like it. Ever consider www.Neo-Amazon.allcrap?

Meanwhile, there's a party going on on an open roof as Bruce Wayne and Terry McGinnis go up to a Wayne Enterprise party to celebrate this old bastard coming back to the company when his heart could give out at any second. He's about to give his speech when the Trick-Or-Treat Gang crash the party. Bruce Wayne kicks the crap out of Hyena Boy as Dee Dee kicks this old man around, not caring if their kicks could potentially crack his old ribs or make him dislocate a hip. Of course, this leads to The Joker dramatically coming out of the floor to announce his return to a disbelieving Bruce Wayne.
The Joker: "Oh no, your old eyes do not deceive you Brucey, after all, who'd know me better than you?"
Alec: "And thus, a new age of erotic Batman and Joker fanfiction was born."
Speaking of which, Batman flies in to confront the Joker, only for Joker to send Hyena Boy after Batman while the others steal another mechanical thingy. Batman tries to pursue, but The Joker sets off an explosion that send two people falling off the edge, forcing Batman to rescue them, losing The Joker. The real downside to all this? They hadn't even served the appetizers yet.

After the party, Terry drives Bruce home as Terry tries to formulate how The Joker could possibly still be alive and young when he ought to be pushing 80, but Bruce doesn't seem up to talking about it. Moving away from that, some old man watches a news event about The Joker attack looking on in horror as his wife asks him what he's watching, which is a dumb question, I mean, can't she hear the news anchor? Isn't it obvious he's watching the news? You know, a form of media everyone uses to acquire information before the Internet? This movie was made in 2000 mind you, the Internet hadn't exactly exploded as largely as it has now, just so you know.
We then cut to Commissioner Gordon, not Jim Gordon, Barbara Gordon, as Terry tries to get some information about The Joker from her but she gets really defensive and refuses to discuss this with him. As that goes on, Bruce Wayne does a voice scan to determine whether the voices are identical as Terry again asks about The Joker, to which Bruce only responds that he died years ago and he was there when he died…this is just giving more fuel for the erotic fanfiction writers, isn't it?...
Terry assumes Bruce killed The Joker, prompting Bruce to demand Terry return the Batman suit, telling him he no longer has to be Batman, even though when he turns around to look at all the other Batman costumes on display, you can clearly see the Neo-Batsuit is already there. Terry tries to defend himself by saying the suit redeems his past sins in his eyes, but Bruce scolds him as being "a dumb kid" as Terry throws his backpack on the ground and leaves the Batcave.
Alec: (in an Bruce Wayne voice) "Good, now that he's gone, I can get back to writing more erotic fanfiction about me and Catwoman."

That morning, Terry surprises his little brother and mother by actually waking up before noon as he announces he's no longer working for Mr. Wayne. So, what's a high school student like Terry going to do now? Why hit up da club of course! It's not like he has any studying he ought to be doing. Apparently when Terry goes up to Dana, he tells her he's not going to have a lot of money coming in, which immediately makes me question, was he getting paid to be Batman? How much was he getting paid to get his ass handed around Neo-Gotham? $500 a month? Honestly, when you're working for someone like Bruce Wayne, I would assume he would be getting at least $5 grand a month! I mean, he is, after all, putting his life on the line to keep the streets of Neo-Gotham safe. Terry ought to be rolling in cash! But now I'm thinking aloud.

Moving on, Bruce begins creating Joker Anti-Toxin when The Joker breaks into his cave, acknowledging Bruce Wayne as Batman. As that goes on, Terry gets beat up by The Twins as the T.O.T. Gang arrives to kick his ass. Terry Manages to rescue Dana as the T.O.T. Gang pulls guns, which I think Bouncers usually look for before you enter a club. Terry climbs over to the giant lava lamp, pushing it over and washing the gang away. The Ambulance team arrives to take Dana away as Terry gets on a bike and drives off to Wayne Manor, trying to call him.
Terry: "I need some straight answers from you- wait, it's night, where does he go?"
Alec: "I dunno, maybe he decided to follow your example, go and find him in da club, bottle full of bub, he's into havin' sex if ya ain't to makin love-" (slaps head) "I apologize."

As he drives at Wayne Manor to discover he's arrived at what looks like Jim Carrey just redecorated the place as he finds Bruce Wayne on the floor with a disturbing wide smile on his face. Oh my God! He's suffering from Rule 34 Syndrome! That's what'll happen when you write erotic fanfiction about you and Catwoman, Brucey.
Thankfully Terry manages to locate a cure and saves Bruce Wayne, sadly, it does not completely cure Rule 34 Syndrome, it will always be there…it will always be there…
Barbara comes over to check up on Bruce as Terry watches the news to learn that since Bruce has "fallen down some stairs," Jordan Price has taken over Bruce's duties at Wayne Enterprises. Barbara comes down as Terry demands exposition to what happened to The Joker, well it's about time we got some too. Anyway, Flashback time! Doodely-doo! Doodley-Doo! Doodely-Doo!

Many years back when Bruce didn't need help to go to the bathroom and erotic fanfiction writers were shipping Robin and Starfire; Tim Drake had taken over the Robin costume and was just swinging through the city all by his own self when he came across a woman in distress, naturally being the good hero, he swung in to save the day, but it turned out the woman in distress was actually Harley Quinn, who knocked him out with a mallet. Discovering that he had gone missing, Batman and Batgirl scoured the city night after night for three weeks without any luck until an explosive package was left for them to discover, leaving behind an Arkham Asylum straight jacket. Apparently in this world, Arkham has been moved and the original building is now in ruins. By the way, Barbara's narration seems to remind me of Frank Miller for some reason…
Barbara: "The Asylum had been moved to a newer high security building, the old building had been partially demolished and hung open like a rotting wound."

Batman and Batgirl bust in to discover Harley and Joker have set up their own home. After tying up Batman, they explain to Batman they were catching up in years and decided to "adopt" children as they reveal they turned Robin into a little Joker Jr, with a purple suit, white skin, wide smile and all. Batman breaks free and pursues the Joker while Batgirl deals with Harley Quinn in a catfight that goes outside. This culminates in Batgirl and Harley falling over the edge as Harley falls to what is implied to be her doom. Meanwhile, Batman looks around for The Joker as Joker shows a film to Batman how he tortured Robin to reveal Batman's secrets, including his secret identity, which I find a little contradictory since in an episode from Batman The Animated Series, Dr. Hugo Strange revealed Batman's identity to the Joker and Two-Face and they didn't believe him at all, what makes him believe that Bruce Wayne is Batman now? Just the fact that it's Robin telling him? Wouldn't he just assume Robin was told to say it was Bruce Wayne if these situations ever happened? I dunno, I'm just thinking out loud here.
This pisses off Batman something horrible as he beats the ever-living sh*t out of The Joker and tosses him into the next room, he momentarily distracts Batman as he whips out a knife and jabs Batman in the leg. He chucks a gun over to Joker Jr, telling him to "finish the punchline." But instead, Joker Jr. fires the "Bang!" flag into Joker's chest, as he laments "that's not funny…" before dying.
Now, here's the thing. This movie had two versions, the original version and the edited version. The edited version, which you would have seen on television when it aired, omitted a lot of the violence and blood, removed the "Oh my God" exclamation and, most notably, changed The Joker's death. In the edited version, Tim pushes Joker into a room with electrical equipment, causing all these liquids to spill out on the floor, Joker slipped and pulled on a lever that, off-screen, electrocuted him. Yeah, it was pretty lame in comparison which is why a lot of fans tend to distance themselves from that version and stick to this version.

Anyways, Flashback time is over, Barbara explains that they buried The Joker and nobody else ever knew of what happened that night. She tells Terry that Tim had undergone therapy and Bruce forced Tim and Barbara to retire early. Tim Drake is still alive is now a high-tech communications engineer with a wife and kids. Since Tim is the closest suspect he's got, Terry decides to disobey Bruce Wayne and investigate.
He goes over to check up on Tim, who only tells him that he was just as surprised to learn The Joker had returned and now regrets being Robin. Batman decides, since he's clean, to check up on one more lead; Jordan Price.
At that moment, Jordan is on his way to his private yacht to do businessman stuff with his hoe, but the Trick-or-Treat Gang kill his boner by talking about their business deals together. Batman flies in and overhears the conversation as the T.O.T. Gang handcuffs Jordan to the table, telling him that their boss considers him a loose end. Before the Gang can escape, Batman bursts in, but they run off, just as a light begins to shine on the yacht. Batman manages to rescue Jordan Price just as a huge laser from the sky fires on the yacht. Batman, however, turns Jordan Price into the police, giving them the audio recording he took of Jordan admitting he allowed the T.O.T. Gang to break into Wayne Enterprises.

Back at Wayne Manor, Terry is stumped for leads as he pretty much establishes the cliches of Mystery Stories of trying to find that "one clue that someone overlooked." Wayne comes down to the cave to tell Terry he didn't want him to get involved with the case for fear of what The Joker would do to Terry. As Terry complains, he finally gets that "one clue that everyone overlooked," as he notices the Robin suit was heavily damaged while the other suits were just knocked over, reminding Terry how Tim had "no love of the suit." Terry manages to piece together the materials stolen on the computer to be a satellite jamming system, a device that could take control of any military satellite, so to say. Bruce tells Terry to suit up as Terry asks to bring Ace with him…for no reason other than to just pull Batman out of a jam whenever he's not int eh mood to do it himself.

Batman flies off to Tim's workplace only to run into a trap set up by The Joker who confirms that Tim Drake is definitely working for The Joker. Since The Joker is a good sport, he tells Batman that he has taken control of an orbital defense satellite, just to give Batman a bigger incentive to escape, despite all the lasers shooting at him. But like that's ever stopped him before, he escapes anyway and drives off, locating The Joker's hideout. When he tries to notify Bruce, The Joker hacks his communication and begins using the satellite to fires several laser blasts at the Batmobile, even following him around, destroying numerous buildings before The Joker turns it off…for little to no reason other than he has to go sit down…which he already was…
Batman flies over to the Jolly Jack Candy factory where he runs into the Trick-Or-Treat Gang again, this time, sending Ace to go take care of Hyena Boy and easily dispensing of the other losers.

Batman enters the factory and finds Drake on the ground, with no memory of where he is, but he gives himself off by naming Terry, throwing an electric claw on Batman before he reveals to Bruce and Terry that, dun, dun dun!!!!!
Tim Drake IS The Joker…sorta.
The Joker exposits that while he was torturing Tim Drake years ago, he implanted a mole-shaped microchip onto the back of his cerebral cortex that housed the memories and the personality of The Joker. He then reveals to Batman he plans to fire the laser at the people Terry cares about, his family, his girlfriend and Bruce Wayne. Before The Joker can activate the laser, Ace arrives to free Batman as Batman knocks The Joker's electric joy buzzer into the controls, which sends the Laser to activate and carve a path right to the factory. The Joker tries to leave but Batman locks the doors to keep him in as they both begin to tussle. The Joker, however, knows all of Batman's fight moves and is able to hold his own against Batman, Terry asks for advice by Bruce,
Bruce Wayne: "The Joker's vain and likes to talk, he'll try to distract you, but don't listen. Block it out and power on through."
Alec: "Must…resist…urge…to make…dirty…joke…from that line…"
This gives Terry an idea as he knees The Joker in the balls with his street fighting moves and he starts to mess with The Joker's head, getting on The Joker's nerves as he throws some grenades at Batman and pins him under a table to strangle him, ironically paralleling the scene from early in the movie with the Albino strangling Batman. This gives Terry the chance to grab The Joker's joy Buzzer as he uses the device to destroy the microchip on Tim Drake, forever destroying The Joker.
Batman thankfully manages to escape the factory in time before it explodes, destroying the satellite jammer as a result. After that, this old woman, whom Dee Dee refers to as "Nana Harley," bails the girls out of prison as Barbara and Terry pay Tim Drake a visit in the hospital as Tim Drake compliments Terry's actions as Batman. As Terry leaves Tim's hospital room, Bruce Wayne arrives to also pay Time Drake a visit as he also compliments Terry's accomplishments as Batman.
Bruce Wayne: "It's not Batman that makes you worthwhile, it's the other way around. Never tell yourself anything different."
Alec: "Hmm…erotic fanfiction of Terry…and Batman?…yeah, I don't have anymore jokes to make about erotic fanfiction..."

So Terry stands on top of a garter as he puts the Batman Mask on as he flies off into Neo-Gotham to continue his crusade to fight crime…as well as to da club…so come give him a hug if you into gettin' rubbed- (gets smacked again) I apologize again...

- -

Well…that's wasn't amazing, but it wasn't terrible.

Just like the show it's based on, the movie looks pretty good animation-wise. There's no corner-cutting, apart from the opening credits, even though it's a movie intended for home media. The voice cast is solid, Will Friedle does a good job and manages to sell the emotion of his character at the right times and Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill are still fantastic in their respected roles. The story is involving, but I wish it could have had more time to build up on the mystery on who The Joker was or to see The Joker interact with this futuristic setting.
It feels almost surreal to be reviewing a nostalgic movie and actually find something GOOD to say about it. But hey, when it comes to animated movies, Batman has had better treatment in this regard than his live-action counterparts….most of the time…
Overall, this movie is worth checking out if you liked the Batman Beyond TV show…just don't give the erotic fanfiction writers any ideas…

- -

And now, a Public Service Announcement...(depressing Sarah McLachlan song plays)

Johnny Zealous: "Hello…I'm Johnny Zealous, the One-Note Salesman Joke and I'm here to talk to you about a serious issue plaguing our nation today…Rule 34 Syndrome.
Nobody knows for sure where Rule 34 Syndrome comes from but every year, 35 million people will contract Rule 34 Syndrome…and half won't even be aware they're living with Rule 34 Syndrome…
Nobody really knows for sure what the symptoms of Rule 34 Syndrome is, but doctors over the years have come up with theories as to what the symptoms might be or what Rule 34 Syndrome actually is…but we found a doctor to help explain..."


Dr. Legit Quack: "Symptoms include the urge to dress up as fictional characters, discuss plot threads with television shows with people who pretend to care, lack of sleep, fangasming at the mere mentioning of a fictional character's name, and the strange desire to write fanfiction for these fictional mediums. I determine that Rule 34 Syndrome leads to heart failure, cancer, depression, genital warts, athletes foot, insomnia, malaria, tuberculosis, obesity, homosexuality, abortion, anxiety disorder, down syndrome, and the deadliest of them all, terrorism. I base all this information on absolutely nothing, but I'm a doctor so you have to believe what I'm saying as being true."

Johnny Zealous: "Please, donate whatever money today so we can help find a cure for Rule 34 Syndrome. Cause you need to get these people to get off their computers and try to be productive members of society and hate anything different that they don't understand. This PSA was brought to you by Michael Rogers and the 100+ people working night and day to pass the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) so you don't get to have any fun on the Internet."
Title Card art = :iconjarvisrama99:

Well, it's been a while, but I managed to find some time in my schedule to write this review about a movie based off a TV show, which I did a review on previously: [link]

BeyondTheLot Youtube Page - [link]

For some strange reason, I can't seem to get Jarvis' title card to be a preview image along with this review, I'm gonna try to give it a day to see if it'll decide to work for me or not.
© 2013 - 2024 Volts48
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Dim432's avatar

The UK version was called Batman of the Future.


also the DEE DEE's are my favourite girls and also Its great hearing mark Hamil's voice as the joker mark Hamil is The joker