The Joker In Animation: A Retrospective

[Otaku-sempai]

Now that I think about, the first time I saw the Joker in animation were those Scooby-Doo movies from the 70s. Larry Storch did that one I believe. Then it was Hamill in BTAS in 92.

Larry Storch is alleged to have also voiced Joker in Filmation's The Batman/Superman Hour (1968; though other sources credit Ted Knight), while Lou Scheimer Lenny Weinreb voiced the Joker and other characters for the 1977 Filmation series The New Adventures of Batman.*

Frank Welker voiced Joker in 1985(?) for Hanna-Barbera's Super Friends series.

I don't want to see these earlier versions completely ignored just because this retrospective doesn't go back that far.

* Thank you, Yojimbo, for the corrections (wikipedia credits Larry Storch for the 1968 Joker, though I don't know what is their source. Ted Knight is mentioned, but is credited only for other characters. IMDb also credits Storch for the Joker; perhaps James Tucker's memory is faulty?)!

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

There actually seems to be quite a growing appreciation for THE BATMAN online. No doubt the young kids who watched it without prejudice growing up.

There is alot to like in the show, but I agree with most that its quality was spotty at best.

 

[-batmat-]

I quite like The Batman! It's not BTAS and it's not supposed to be, either. Season 4 was amazing. Season 1 and 2 I really like aswell, it feels unique, with Yin, Bennet and Rojas and their particular interpretations of most villains.

I did get tired of so much Joker and Penguin throughout the series last time I watched it.

I'd love a bluray release of it! Would buy it in a heartbeat

 

[M.O.D.O.K.]

I actually went through a reverse arc with this show, as a I started posting in this very forum to defend it, until I became lukewarm on it over the years due to a rewatch and the appearance of stronger post-B:TAS shows.

I never liked Joker either way, though. I always felt he and Penguin held the show back, especially as The Batman Strikes! did a better job at both using those characters and the rogues gallery we barely saw because Joker and Penguin HAD to be in a lot of episodes.

 

[Otaku-sempai]

I never liked Joker either way, though. I always felt he and Penguin held the show back, especially as The Batman Strikes! did a better job at both using those characters and the rogues gallery we barely saw because Joker and Penguin HAD to be in a lot of episodes.

I've never read enough of the Batman Strikes! comic to get a sense of that, but I'll take your word for it.

 

[Yojimbo]

Larry Storch also voiced Joker in Filmation's The Batman/Superman Hour (1968), while Lou Scheimer voiced the Joker, Bat-Mite and many other characters for the 1977 Filmation series The New Adventures of Batman.

Frank Welker voiced Joker in 1985(?) for Hanna-Barbera's Super Friends series.

I don't want to see these earlier versions completely ignored just because this retrospective doesn't go back that far.

Yeah, I think this forum only covers B:TAS to current stuff but worth noting none the less. James Tucker mentioned to me that actually "Ted Knight voiced Joker on the ‘68 Filmation Batman cartoon and Lenny Weinreb voiced him in the ‘77 series."

 

[Otaku-sempai]

Yeah, I think this forum only covers B:TAS to current stuff but worth noting none the less. James Tucker mentioned to me that actually "Ted Knight voiced Joker on the ‘68 Filmation Batman cartoon and Lenny Weinreb voiced him in the ‘77 series."

My source was wrong. Thanx for the corrections!

 

[Stu]

Our retrospective takes a more tragic turn from this point. Hopefully you will forgive that it is not animated, but I felt it too important a piece of The Joker's history to ignore. With Batman Begins proving to be a success and the end of the movie wonderfully setting up The Joker for its sequel, production began on The Dark Knight for a July 2008 release as soon as director Christopher Nolan had completed work on his underrated magic thriller The Prestige.

Opposite the somewhat tame hype (in hindsight) for Batman Begins, speculation as to who would portray The Joker was rampant as soon as Sgt Gordon stated that he “Leaves a calling card.” Heath Ledger originally met with Nolan under the consideration to be cast as Bruce Wayne but Ledger himself for his first Batman film, but admitted that a superhero film was not something he believed he could believably pull off without feeling silly and more qualified actors were available for the role. Indeed, after deciding that the cape and cowl was not for him, Ledger changed his tune towards “these kind” of movies after seeing Batman Begins and allegedly sought the role of The Joker, with Nolan, eager to work with Ledger, agreeing to cast him before the screenplay even been completed.

In January 2006 the casting made the news and the internet, as it normally does, did not react positively to news of Ledger getting the part. Despite the overwhelming positivity towards Nolan for his astounding efforts on bringing Batman to the big screen, fans were not impressed with news of the “Gay cowboy” portraying The Clown Prince of Crime. Personally, I had no idea who Ledger was, so had no preconceived notions about his ability to portray the character. Shamefully, my reaction to Ledger was the same as when Tobey Maguire, Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman were cast as Spider-Man, Batman and Wolverine respectively - completely clueless as to who they were.

Indeed the internet’s reaction to the casting was damn right venomous in hindsight. I had confidence that Nolan and co would make another great Batman movie, so the casting of an actor I had never seen work had little to no impression on me, personally. Also bare in mind, Gal Gadot faced backlash from the same online folk for her Wonder Woman casting because her boobs weren’t big enough and now she is worshiped for her portrayal once people had seen her work. The internet can be a fickle place.

I admit the first image of The Joker was not one I was fond of and I thought the teaser trailer of the Batman logo fracturing as Batman spoke of the mob crossing a line was a bit lame but in hindsight it got people talking. The Nolan’s (Christopher’s Brother Jonathan) wrote the film with him and David Gower confirmed that they were looking to Batman: The Man Who Laughs, Batman #1 and Batman: The Long Halloween as their inspiration for the villain. I ignored most of the news after this for fear of spoilers and stuff that I imagine was common knowledge to most folks came as an in movie surprise to me, including the Scarecrow cameo and even that Harvey Dent became Two-Face. I confess when I walked into see the film on opening night, I knew next to nothing about the story beyond the fact it had Batman and The Joker in it. As someone who hates spoilers, this is a great way to see a film.

Tragically, one bit of news caught us all by surprise, with the death of Heath Ledger in January 2008. An accidental overdose of sleeping medication was given as his cause of death, meeting his tragic demise at just 28. His work on The Dark Knight has been completed by the time he passed, and the film was released to fever pitch hype on 24th July 2008.

The film exceeded all fan, critic and box office expectations. The film deserves its place in any “best movie of all time” conversation and Ledger’s portrayal as The Joker is still regarded as one of the greatest performances of all time. Finding a sweet spot between deranged, creepy, terrifying and funny Ledger stole the show here. He richly deserved his post humane Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, even the biased views of the Academy could not deny him his award. The film itself didn’t win best picture nor was it shockingly even nominated, in what can only be described as an insult to movie going audiences everywhere (Slumdog Millionaire took the statue here, to the bemusement of most.)

The film itself sees new Distinct Attorney Harvey Dent look to rid Gotham of organised crime as Batman continues his own crusade against the cities criminals until the city is shocked at the emergence of The Joker, a murderous psychopath who is intent on creating anarchy. The film was twist after twist and is one of the most well plotted, character defining pieces in cinema. It does not stop from its amazing opening bank robbery sequence until it’s haunting finale. It was the first superhero film to reach $1 billion which seemed utterly unfathomable at the time. It also seemed like a true event film... personally, from my work colleagues to my mates down the pub who had no prior interest in superhero movies, everyone was talking about the movie. Most of the folks down my local boozer had never seen Batman Begins, so my DVD of the film was passed around that much to the point it was never returned, so my pals knew what happened before the film so they could see it. I still don’t know who has it to this day (fear not thought gentle readers, I have since upgraded to Blu Ray... twice.)

The Dark Knight is by far the greatest live action DC film ever in my humble opinion and in the 12 years (at time of writing) since, none of them have come even remotely close. It also helped cement The Joker as a pop culture icon... try as they might, none of Batman’s other rouges have reached his level of fame.

Ledger’s performance deserved every bit of praise it received. He is entirely unrecognisable in the role and went to the point of doing his own make up to feel the character. It’s especially well written too, with his backstory only “told” by Joker asking if people want to know how he got his scars... the answer changes each time. There’s no Jack Neaper, no vat of chemicals, no Red Hood. Just a man and his scars. Another incredibly inventive twist is that his traditionally bleached skin is actually make up, which he uses as war paint to scare people, similar in the way that Wayne dresses up as Bat. He is only seen in a single shot without his make up and is never seen applying the same. The lack of backstory works tremendously to add intrigue to his character. Thankfully, no one has attempted a prequel story, it was simply not needed. What was shown on screen works tremendously, nothing further needs adding.

With many assuming Ledgers portrayal would pale in comparison to Nicholson’s or Hamill’s, it eventually showed that they don’t have to be compared. I love all three actors portrayals differently, not because they copied one another. If you put them against each other’s Batman it would feel out of place but for that Batman? They are all pretty much perfect foils.

With Ledgers death and the critical acclaim for his performance, whatever rumours of The Joker appearing in the threequel were quickly squashed as recasting was simply out of the question. I do not know if Nolan intended for the character to return had Ledger lived, or if Ledger had any wish to return to the role. As Nolan himself says;

“We're not addressing The Joker at all. That is something I felt very strongly about in terms of my relationship with Heath and the experience I went through with him on The Dark Knight. I didn't want to in any way try and account for a real-life tragedy.”

The only nod to the character came from the novelisation of The Dark Knight Rises in which they stated that following the Dent Act the cities criminally insane were removed from Arkham Asylum to Blackgate Prison, with the rumoured sole exception of Joker who remained the Asylum’s only occupant. Unless he has already escaped?

In the decade since its release, Ledger’s Joker is still remembered as one of the best big screen villains ever. It is a great shame we as an audience never got to see what was next for him.

Next: Where Batman goes adventure will follow!

 

[Yojimbo]

Our retrospective takes a more tragic turn from this point. Hopefully you will forgive that it is not animated, but I felt it too important a piece of The Joker's history to ignore.

Well, I guess I'll allow it. I think we've had some Nolanverse easter eggs big and small here and there in animation. I think some in Teen Titans Go! and recently the flashback in Harley Quinn season 2 definitely had some nods to The Dark Knight with Joker's design, the interrogation room beating, and the bomb in the dude ploy he uses to escape Arkham.

 

[Stu]

As is the tradition following a big screen superhero summer movie, an animated adaptation will follow in the fall. With The Batman almost forgotten about as soon it left the airwaves, a new Batman series was set to premiere on Cartoon Network. This was excellent in that the show did not have to bow down to the demographic grabbing suits at Kids WB! but also bad in that... it was on Cartoon Network, who have been clueless about what it is they want to do with shows for what feels like decades now. I admit to not being one to watch much animation beyond the DC DTVs these days, mainly because everything looks like cheap to produce, doodle based crap now.

I thought with the success of The Dark Knight and the fad of the kiddie orientated The Batman now over, now would be the time for an adult orientated Batman show, an animated action show that didn’t rely upon toy sales. I thought wrong, as Cartoon Network then announced that the new Batman show would be a team up cartoon called Batman: The Brave and The Bold. A team up show presented incredible licensing opportunities as action figures could be made from Batman and his amazing friends and the show was to tip its hat to the silver age which featured a more fun, adventurous Batman than the brooding vigilante detective I had hoped for. I must confess, I tutted and dropped my expectations for the show based on one press release and a handful of images. Foolish, in hindsight, to be sure, but this seems to be a very popular trait online.

It was announced that Legion of Superheroes producers James Tucker and Micheal Jelenic would produce the show and it would be something of a throwback to the Brave and The Bold comics of the 70s. Beyond that, I remember very little hype for the show beyond a couple of promotional images featuring some very old school designs and that each episode would feature Batman teaming with a different DC superhero who wasn’t named Superman or Wonder Woman each week (licensing issues apparently... more DC Comic embargo nonsense to me.) On one hand, having no Supes and Wondey would give DC’s other characters some much needed limelight, many of whom I’d grown to appreciate and enjoy seeing more thanks to the spectacular Justice League Unlimited Cartoon.

Once again thanks to the fine folks over at Toon Zone News I was able to see the opening episode early for reviewing purposes. I saw that each episode had an opening prologue before the credits with one team up before getting to the actual story with another hero. This showed the audience more heroes per episode and allowed more stories to be told, in theory.

Mystery in Space sees Batman team with Green Arrow to take on The Clock King. I’ve always had a fondness for the efficiency expert from the original animated series, so you can imagine how odd it was for me to see him changed into a villain with an actual clock for face. With a cape. And a dodgy German accent. And a whirley bird shaped as a clock. We then get to the main story which sees Batman/Blue Beetle team up which takes place in Space. Upon viewing the episode and the second one with an annoyingly juvenile Plastic Man (faithful to the comics there, to the creative teams credit.), I decided the show perhaps wasn’t for me and having just sat through 65 episodes of The Batman, I felt I should sit this one out. There wasn’t anything wrong with the show per se, it just didn’t feel like Batman to me. In hindsight? The opening two episodes weren’t the best and I judged the rest of the show on it.

My reaction to the show changed when my Brother showed me Chill Of The Night!, which was the Batman origin episode from the second season. I will come to it later, but I was that impressed with the episode I bought the available DVDs to catch up and didn’t miss an episode after that.

Some of you might vaguely recall at this point that this is supposed to be a retrospective on The Joker, so let’s get to him. The villains were not the focus of this show and it tended to feature other DC villains just as much as Batman centred crooks, but Joker appeared in the first season in a two part story which did help it feel like a big deal. Part one actually shows an alternate reality Red Hood come to Batman for help as the Justice Syndicate has taken over the world and captured all of his comrades. In this backwards reality, the villains were twisted version of the heroes and visa versa. This story felt like it had bigger stakes than the rest of the episodes beforehand, and it was great fun seeing Batman battle evil versions of Green Arrow, Atom, Blue Beetle and Red Tornado.

The twist comes in the second part in which Batman returns to his reality and finds he has been framed by Owl Man wearing a very cool old school Bob Kane costume and turned his colleagues against him. Finally, The Joker rescues Batman, fuming that a fake Batman is gaining more notoriety than him and demands that he and Batman put a stop to Owl Man’s reign of terror. It is a perfect ego show for The Joker, but the episode also has a great hook because you know The Joker heel turn, to use a professional wrestling phrase, is coming at any moment.

I do like the visuals of the show. The thick black outlines meshes perfectly with the bright, bold nuance of the show. It’s very bright and primary, which works perfectly in the context of the show. It’s not a Bruce Timm clone but works with a similar straight against curve animation theory, which makes animating the designs simpler. The animation quality rarely falters because of this and the digital colouring is much improved upon from the old Batman Beyond/Justice League season one days. To be blunt, the show is very, very nice to look at, beyond the odd horribly coloured orange city background. The show mastered its digital colouring, so it doesn’t look mute and jaded like when the technology was first introduced. No eye sores here!

The Joker himself has a very nice model. It’s very reminiscent of the 1950’s Joker from the comic books... if you’re looking for a Heath Ledger Joker here, you are looking in the wrong place. He fits perfectly with the tone of the show, which had a playful, tongue in cheek but didn’t skimp on the action. Unlike The Batman, this show sense of humour was actually funny, with most episodes having a genuine laugh out loud moment featured. Even the poorer episodes had a cracking line or two. They didn’t resort to Batman making terrible puns or bad quips, Bats had a dry sense of humour and was never short of a sharp put down. The Caped Crusaders humour is also helped by sensational casting with the wonderful Diedrich Bader who is just awesome as Batman. At the time of the shows release it still sounded utterly foreign to hear anyone else beyond Kevin Conroy voice Batman but Bader is undeniably charismatic in the role without sounding forced or playing second fiddle to the more colourful guest stars. He very much anchors the show and does so in terrific fashion. He leads an fantastic cast and delivered his punchy, alliterated lines awesome. His Twitter feed is well worth a follow too. He was even nice enough to personally respond to me when I tagged him in a post about this show, and another one about his other excellent comedy, Veep.

I am reminded I should be speaking about The Joker. Jeff Bennett voices Joker this time around and damn it, he’s fantastic too. Bennett has has exceptional range so you’re probably not aware he’s voicing someone until you read his name in the credits. It still seems unfathomable to me that this shows Joker in The Shocker from The Spectacular Spider-Man and Johnny Bravo himself. He voices a ridiculous number of characters in The Brave and The Bold alone, none of whom sound like each other. In additional to a sensational Joker, he also plays a excellent Captain Marvel too. As far as casting goes, Bennett is exceptional. Credit to him for not just trying to do a Mark Hamill imitation too.

Batman and Joker have great chemistry here and The Joker is actually pretty funny. There’s not really a dark side to the villain here, he comes across as the jester of crime here more than psychotic killer but having him butcher people would not have fit in with the tone of the show. He works best here as a villain who has a car that can turn into a hot air ballon with the push of a button, because that’s what the show was about.

The Joker would make scattered appearances through the shows three season, 65 episode run. He and his awesome Joker mobile were featured in Deathrace To Oblivion, a Wacky Races style episode featuring the cast of The Brave And The Bold as Mongul challenges the main heroes and villains of the show to a race with him sparing the winners City. This was a great, fun episode, it’s a joy from beginning to end.

The Joker would also appear in Chill Of The Night!, the shows finest episode for me. This is the episode that got me back into the show after my initial uninterestedness, which sees Batman finally confront the man who killed his parents and flashbacks to his origin. We finally see Batman unmask in this episode as he is the pawn of a game of question of mortality between The Phantom Stranger and The Spectre, who pose him the moral dilemma, what would Batman seek vengeance against his parents killers, or see him brought to Justice?

The episode has a darker, inspired tone, which was deeply intentional according to producer James Tucker, when I asked him on Twitter. (Which is the cool thing about Twitter, being able to casually ask creators stuff like this. In my day we had to find their email address and hoped they’d grant you an interview, which could be hard graft sometimes!)

This one was scripted by the great Paul Dini, my favourite Batman writer and features nods to the original Batman: The Animated Series he produced, with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill starring as The Phantom Stranger and Spectre respectively. The stunt casting (which I do not use in a derogatory tone in the slightest, the exact opposite in fact!) does not end there with Richard Moll, TAS’ Two-Face voicing Lex Moson, the character who ordered the hit on the Wayne’s and the Bright Knight himself Adam West and his Catwoman, Julie Newman voicing Dr and Mrs Wayne.

The episode has a great level of drama and gravitas to it, which is augmented by the various Bat villains including our boy Joker. As I mentioned before, the strength of this episode convinced me to buy the DVDs featuring the episodes I missed and I never missed an episode from there. For the purpose of this very retrospective I upgraded and bought the full backlog on Blu Ray online, which is sadly not available here in the UK. (I will spare you another rant about Warner Archive and their lack of international sales, I have spent a fortune on their Blu Rays due to eBay scalpers increasing the prices.) This episode alone was well worth the cost of all three seasons. For such an upbeat and funny show, there was something very somber when Batman hung up his Father’s costume and simply uttered “Case closed.” If you’ve not seen this episode in a while, or never seen it, you should buy this Blu Ray too! This episode can easily be compared to the very best episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond or Justice League Unlimited.

Joker would later make more major appearances in Emperor Joker, in which Bat/Mite returns and inadvertently gifts The Joker with his fifth dimension powers. He finally gets his wish to kill Batman over and over again as he can simply resurrect him at will. There are some nice nods to some of the great Batman/Joker feuds from the comics and the episode even introduces Harley Quinn. It’s a odd episode to be sure, but it fits perfectly with the tone of this show.

Season three brings further Joker appearances including a cracking episode which sees the big 3 team up for the first time in what feels like years. Realising that their frequent battles with Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman always results in failure, Lex Luthor, The Joker and Cheeta decide to swap foes and actually succeed before it becomes a battle royale and the three villains vanity is the author of their misfortune.

A few final reflections of the show, following my recent binge. The show was far better than I remembered it being, even though I enjoyed it immensely first time around. It managed to capture a tone that was juvenile enough so even the youngest of viewers enjoyed it, but it had enough humour, heart and heroics that a grown man in his 30s still thoroughly loved it.

The show's version of Aquaman is still the undisputed highlight of the character for me, with the great John Dimaggio giving his career best performances as a superheroic adventurer who loves nothing more than fighting crime and sharing tales of his various victories over vengeful supervillaims. I don't care how many millions of dollars the live action Aquaman movie made, or how good Jason Momoa looks with his shirt off, this is how Aquaman should be for me. I would have been all in for an Aquaman animated spin off, but alas, it was not to be.

The show clearly had it's roots inspired by the Batman television show from 1966, with the various death traps Batman and his colleagues would find themselves in. The amount of time he escaped with a Batlaser and lock pick from his glove became almost as comical as the number of times he would find himself in such a situation.

There are a number of great musical numbers throughout the show, even after the musical episode itself. My favourite is Grey and Blue. There is never an explanation as to why the characters break into song randomly and Batman himself never sings. They are infrequent enough not to outstay their welcomes and Dimaggio and Grey Griffin have excellent singing voices on them.

The final episode of Mitefall which sees Batmite try and get this old hat Batman animated series cancelled is weird as hell, even for this show. It's even odder than sometimes, I feel Batmite is addressing me directly when he talks about the older Batman fans. The casting of Henry Winkler and Ted McGinley is utterly inspired and will no doubt be completely lost on the show's intended audience, but is a good laugh for the older folks watching the show. Tremendous.

Perhaps overlooked by many Batman fans as being strictly for the kids (myself included initially) I remember somewhat dreading the inevitable arrival of the final episode Mitefall in my Blu Ray reviewing. Batman's final address to his audience was like a hammer of justice right to the feels, and I suspect, made many a man misty eyed.

BATMAN: So, this is really it.
AMBUSH BUG: Yeah, looks like. At least you can say you had a good run.
BATMAN: A great run. And until we meet again, boys and girls, know that wherever evil lurks, in all its myriad forms, I'll be there, with the Hammers of Justice, to fight for decency, and defend the innocent. Good night.

I feel there was more left in the show, but alas, 65 episodes is sadly all that is required for Cartoon Network's syndication policy, and it was out with this show, on with the next Batman show for Cartoon Network.

A further direct to DVD feature was commissioned years later and presumably released in the stealthiest of manners as I had no idea it was even made until researching for this post. While I feel Scooby Doo is perhaps a bit long in the tooth now, I am immensely looking forward to sitting down and seeing Batman once again throwdown his hammers of justice again.

Hopefully this post will have you nostalgic for some Batman: The Brave and The Bold. Treat yourself to the Blu Rays if you don't already own them, you won't regret it.

Next: A Classy Number.

 

[Stu]

Following the tragic cancellation of Justice League Unlimited, news shortly followed that a new line of Direct to DVD features was announced, essentially as animated adaptations of some of DC’s most popular comic book stories. The majority of the Justice League Unlimited crew moved over to these new DTVs starting with Superman: Doomsday, an animated version of The Death and Return of Superman, a story that read like complete crap, but sold incredibly well and gave DC mainstream attention and started the ongoing ‘trick’ of character death and returns, which completely negates the drama of a comic as if one takes the ultimate end, death, and make it meaningless, what’s the point? Why care if a character dies if they just come back when a sales bump is needed?

These DC DTVs are ongoing to this day, which is an incredible feat given how much the DVD market has fallen since 2007. They have ranged from pretty lousy to utterly outstanding, which is to be expected given how many films they have produced in this amount of time. You can’t win then all. It is impressive we still get them, given how streaming has almost completely negated the need for physical copies for some. Not me, however. I still buy Blu Rays, but admittedly, it's for Marvel Studios movies and these DC Animated movies.

The first Batman DTDVD was Gotham Knight, an anime inspired series of collected shorts designed as a tie in to The Dark Knight that takes place between the two Nolan films. The Joker does not appear nor is he even mentioned here, surprisingly, as he is the main antagonist of the sequel, but I’m not sure including him here would’ve added anything for the character himself, as the main movie did everything with him perfectly.

The Joker’s face would feature in a brief cameo in the awesome but all too short Justice League: The New Frontier during the final montage, and an alternate reality version of The Joker dubbed The Jester was quickly killed off in the excellent Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths He wouldn’t appear in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies because Batman and Superman already had enough characters to punch their way through. Plot is not one of this films strongest suits sadly, it followed the book too closely for that. It looks damn nice though!

Under The Red Hood was announced as the latest Batman DTDVD which surprised me. When one considers the classic DC Batman stories, The Red Hood is not usually among them. Batman: Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, Knightfall, The Killing Joke, The Long Halloween... I could go on. All of these are considered ‘bigger’ stories than The Red Hood at the time which was met with mixed reviews, as it broke one of the no no rules at the time of bringing back Jason Todd. This had been teased at earlier in Jeph Loeb’s lousy Hush storyline, but even at the time, I thought this was a Clayface fake out and I was right. (Seriously, go check out the talkback thread for Hush over at the Comic Book Culture forum. I called it!)

Having vaguely remembered the comic books it was based upon and the frankly sheer nonsense that brought about Jason’s return (Superboy banging on the wall of reality? Piss off.) and the fact that I think Jason Todd as The Red Hood was and frankly, still is something that I think Batman would’ve put a stop to when he started using guns and shooting people, I still remember really looking forward to seeing this movie, because it felt like ages since I’d seen a straight up Batman animated movie and the build up sounded like everything I wanted to hear. They were looking to the old Batman: The Animated Series for their inspiration and Brandon Vietti, one of my favourite directors from Spider-Man: The New Animated Series and The Batman was directing. Surprisingly, Judd Winnick who wrote the original storyline in the comic pens the screenplay too and an all new cast performed the voices of the various characters.

Hype for these DVDs came and went as it normally does, especially if you are like me and go out of your way to avoid it for fear of spoilers (seriously, the number of times I’ve almost missed one of these movies release dates is astounding, good think I follow the great Gary Miereanu on Twitter, who does a marvellous job of hyping these without filling my timeline with spoilers to ruin it!). I finally sat down and watched this with my brother when the DVD arrived in the mail and... wow. This movie is still, to my mind, the best DC DVD since they started these Warner Features movies. Up there with the all time classics of Mask of The Phantasm and Return of The Joker, Under The Red Hood is pretty much perfect, top to bottom. Harrowing, heartbreaking and thankfully without the pacing problems that plagued past pictures, this one is truly among the elite for me. It managed to fix the silly issues from the comic book, the film starts with a bang and doesn’t stop playing with your emotions until it’s final, crushing line.

The movie has action, emotion and drama in spades, which is quite an incredible feat considering these are new versions of the characters. This is not a spin off of a previous feature and is set in an all new as yet untouched continuity, which was the norm for these DC features at the time.

We will start with the cast and since it’s his piece, we’ll begin with The Joker. The great John DiMaggio portrays The Joker and is fantastic. I once had DiMaggio typecast as Bender but he’s never done a bad job in his thankfully ever expanding career and this is one of his creepier roles. He brings a Joker level of flair to it, but given his main role in the film is child killer, he’s not playing this one for laughs. Some of his lines are just evil... again this is not a character here for the funnies. This role is given to Black Mask, who comes across as intimidating but has some great lines which Wade Williams relishes. His Joker is sinister and unhinged and he plays it perfectly. He does not shoot for the moon unless he needs to. I am surprised, given how good his Joker was that he has not reprises the role since (until this sequel/redo which I have not seen at time of writing) which in fairness, took 10 years to be done. He is much, much better than some of the The Joker’s who have followed.

The rest of the cast rounds out tremendously, following Williams and Dimaggio. Bruce Greenwood plays Batman here and is probably my favourite after Conroy. He is simply excellent and he gives a wonderful performance for a Batman that ranges from joyful with young Robin, angry with Ra’s (and lets be honest, himself) to broken at the films dramatic, frantic finale. He would go on to reprise his role to great critical acclaim in Young Justice and was welcomed back with open arms by me. Andrea Romano delivered here once again, with Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing and Jensen Eckles delivering in their roles. The Voice work in this film? A+ stuff here.

Visually, the film is just as strong. The animation is consistently strong throughout and the models look beautiful from top to bottom. Batman himself has two models, the ever awesome grey and blue suit with the old school yellow Bat oval for the flashback scenes and his then modern costume with the grey and black suit. Both of them look awesome. These movies look to be afforded slightly better budgets than the usually restrictive television features, and the upgraded level of care normally shows. The flashback sequence to Jason's first night as Robin is surprisingly bright and colourful with Batman in his iconic grey and blue and Jason in the pixie Robin suit. The mood and colour changes when when we see the flashback to Jason laying the smack down on a pimp with his big boy costume, taken from Tim Drake's One Year Later look from the comic books.

The action scenes are excellently staged from the Batman/Nightwing Vs AMAZO fight to the rooftop chase with The Red Hood. The final fight is also emotionally charged and very well done, this one is worth watching over and over again. I had no issues upgrading from DVD to Blu Ray for this one when I finally started collecting Blu Rays.

The Joker model is creepier then we usually get. It’s not cartoony in the slightest and even animates well even with the number of lines on his face. I can see a bit of Ledger in there, especially in the finale, but it works. It has a classic Joker look to it, but this one is clearly intended to be scarier than funny.

The story sees The Red Hood return to Gotham to take out criminals by forcing the ganglords to work for him and rid Gotham of crime in ways Batman never would. As Batman eventually learns this new Red Hood is in fact his fallen Robin Jason Todd, resurrected by Ra’s Al Guhl and his Lazarus Pit (which makes infinitely more sense that the stupid Superboy wall punching) with Todd’s endgame to bring about his reunion with his killer and see that he meets his end.

The finale brings us a tense showdown with Jason giving Batman a choice. Kill Jason or Jason kills Joker. After a fake surrender and a slight of hand batarang, Jason is subdued and Joker really rubs it in

“JOKER: I can't believe you got him! You expert, rootin'-tootin', eagle-eyed, Goth-loving marksman! I love it! You managed to find a way to win... and everybody still loses!

No! Don't spoil it, this is better! I'm the only one who's going to get what he wants tonight! Yes! Big-Bang-Boom! We all go out together! Don't you just love a happy ending?”

It appears the only thing better for Joker than killing Robin was killing Batman and Robin and dying at the same time. All three survive the explosion and the film ends with Alfred asking if they should remove the memorial to Jason in the Batcave, to which Bruce replies nothing’s changed and we get to see a flashback to Todd’s first night as Robin. It’s a heartbreaking conclusion to a somber piece. Greenwood sells it tremendously. He is very reserved in most of his lines, which exemplifies the drama when he actually raises his voice. He is a tremendous voice actor.



Special mention must go to Christopher Drake who scored the film. As mentioned above it is a somber movie and Drake finds a perfect tone throughout, as he frequently does. I do like the majority of the music in these movies. While Dynamic Music Partners never fail with their work on these DC (and Marvel) animated projects, I like the variety of the composers used and Drake does excellent work here.

The film was met with critical acclaim upon its release. Until recent times it sadly never received a sequel (I haven’t seen Death In The Family at time writing, so I have no idea if it’s a sequel/do over etc). It was, at one point, even considered to be the basis of Ben Affleck’s solo The Batman film before Affleck dropped out as Robin is seen to be dead and killed by The Joker and Harley Quinn, in yet another annoying example of the DCEU skipping over potentially fascinating stories and telling us about them, not showing us them.

Jason’s death and return was also a featured storyline in the Batman: Arkham Knight video game which tells a similar story in a poorly predictable manor, which is nowhere near as good as this film. Fans let Rocksteady know about that one after its release, a telling sign that they really, really should have invited Paul Dini to write the threequel rather than rely on story consultations with Geoff Johns. Johns work outside of comic books is sadly pretty much lousy, to the point where he should probably stop being consulted.

More Batman Direct to DVD films have been released since this, and some of them are just excellent, but this is the best of the bunch for me. It's not something I'd recommend you watch to cheer yourself up, but for a hard hitting animated movie, this is up there with the elite.

Next:

 

[Stu]

Going back to the initial announcement of the DC DTVs, it was obvious to those who know about these things that we would eventually get adaptations of The Death and Return of Superman and The Dark Knight Returns are these are the main two storylines that DC Comics appear utterly infatuated with. (Watchmen is another, but an animated adaptation never appeared to be on the cards.)

Their take on The Death and Return of Superman would naturally be the first movie we would see from this new line, intended for an older audience and as the products itself (the disc) was sold directly to consumers, there was no toy company needed here to fund production, which meant product placement and action figures sales were not on anyone’s agenda. I seem to recall seeing Superman and Doomsday figures from this movie before its release, but one can’t recall if they were ever actually released or not.

It seemed to take a while to announce The Dark Knight Returns film, but anyone who watched the previous DC DTVs knew there would be problems with it; all of the films, Under The Red Hood aside, have suffered pacing problems because the budget doesn’t stretch far enough, the movies were just too damn short in most instances. Superman: Doomsday for example tends to start as one film before its second half veers off in another direction seemingly not related to the first half of the movie... they did not have time to adapt The Death and Return of Superman properly, so it became something entirely different. (They later did and the two part movie is infinitely better than Doomsday!)

Thankfully, saner heads prevailed and it was decided that Batman: The Dark Knight Returns would be split into two films. If you have have even the slightest knowledge of Batman comic books, you will no doubt be aware that The Dark Knight was a mini series originally released in 1986 and was one of the true game changers in comic book history. While mature subjects had often been highlighted in many of the Marvel/DC comics books prior to The Dark Knight, this book did not have children as it’s intended target audience. This was meant for adults who wanted a bit more sophistication from their comic books. Writer/Artist Frank Miller cites his inspiration as the Dirty Harry movies and his inability to believe that he was now older than Batman was in the then current comic books. I am one of the few people who appears to prefer Miller’s earlier run on Daredevil in which he confesses that he never wrote that book for children either, but I digress.

The book is essentially responsible for the advent of the dark, grim and gritty comic books that followed throughout the decades... whether or not this is a good thing is up to ones own opinion. It is rumoured to have been the inspiration for Tim Burton’s Batman movie at the time, but Burton has later confessed he never read comic books so make of this what you will. This comic book series was the first step to getting people to stop thinking about Adam West whenever the name ‘Batman’ was mentioned.

The film is a faithful adaptation of the book so to go into the story would be redundant here. Suffice to say it’s influence cannot he underestimated and it is still as highly regarded as any Batman story you will ever read. To do the book justice in 70 minutes would not have been possible, so kudos to whoever decided it needed room to breathe. Veteran The New Batman/Superman Adventures/Batman Beyond writer Bob Goodman writes both parts of the feature so the tone does not waiver. Goodman provides quality scripts here, as he traditionally does. The pacing for both films is well done and incredibly, it never feels too short if one watches the first film along, or drags if watching both parts together. He even managers to slip in a great nod to Robocop in the fight with the Police on the rooftop.

Visually, the film takes its inspiration from Miller’s art. A streamlined, animated approach to his style works wonderfully here, which is a fine compliment given that I think the original book is not the prettiest thing to look at... the colours are muted with a sickly green and yellow too often, which works on screen but the big advantage of the film is that it doesn’t try to recreate the 12 panel approach in the book. Every page is bursting with far too much pencil work and thought bubbles to fit on the page, so while the book is occasionally ugly, the animated movie is afforded much cleaner visuals and works all the better for it. Unlike say, Michael Turners style for the Superman/Batman: Apocalypse movie, Millers work animates wonderfully, the film is another visual triumph. It’s colouring is especially impressive, particularly when Bruce is in the cave. Joker is fairly close to his Millers design from the book here, but it’s a lot cleaner and well, looks a lot better. Millers work always looked better in black and white to me, it’s crisper and seems to play to his strengths. I honestly think the book would be better if Miller drew it on larger paper, every shot of The Joker is squashed and looks rushed for it. I can’t emphasis again how much nicer this movie looks than the book it is taken from. He is without his traditional purple suit here, instead going for a smooth white jacket with a purple shirt, white tie and purple trousers. It works. My worry for piece was that they would attempt to copy Millers look exactly and it would animate like crap for it. Not so here, director Jay Olivia is wise enough to take what he can from the book and improve upon it, rather than just try and translate exactly for the film (this rarely, rarely works.)

The Joker features in little more than a cameo in Part One but features prominently in the second part. He is shown to be heavily medicated, with nothing to live for now that Batman has retired. When news of his return reaches Arkham Asylum after 10 years, Joker wakes up from his funk and he even gets the final line of the piece with “Batman... darling...” perfectly setting up the second movie. Great cliffhanger from Goodman here.

Speaking of his creepy vocals, The Joker is voiced by Michael Emerson this time around. When I heard of his casting I must confess I originally thought it was such a weird, out there choice. Emerson seems very reserved for a Batman villain, much less one as flamboyant as The Joker, but Emerson pulls it off, despite admitting voicing the performance was the toughest two hours of his life. He saw The Joker as follows;

“The Joker seems to me to be the dark, wicked part of the human id, but with more tools.

I have to say I don’t really have to search far and wide to find a twisted or dangerous character.”

It’s also important to note, as Bruce Timm himself did that this version of Joker is the most evil we’ve seen as he is literally a mass murderer here. Unlike previous movies/shows, this is not hinted at or told here. He literally kills an entire audience of people, on screen. The Joker here is not the prankster or clown prince of crime we’ve seen previously, here is an ageing rock star who still believes he has that last run in him, which culminates in his victory over an admittedly older Batman. With his game with Batman finished for 10 years, he must have realised it was now or never to actually finally kill the Bat. Indeed, this was his last dance.

Joker’s return to relevance begins with his manipulation of Dr Bartholomew Welper, an arrogant, publicity seeking psychiatrist, fresh off releasing a mentally unstable Two-Face into the wild, manages to book him and Joker on The David Endochrine Show and naturally, The Joker kills them both and the entire audience.

One feels the citizens of Gotham feel there is an element of glamour to the supervillains the city hosts, as I cannot imagine many places would willingly host a serial killer on a late night talk show to the ticket buying public, especially from the same quack Doctor who released Harvey Dent early so he could attempt to blow up Gotham.

Using his mind controlling lipstick, The Joker hypnotises a US senator to push the panic button to increase tension between the US and The Soviets before we get to the final Batman/Joker confrontation at the fairground. This extended fight is one of the more brutal DC fights even before they became somewhat comically overdone and as the violence is more harsh than comical, every single punch, stab and gunshot wound looks like it hurts like hell. Add in a couple of ruthless digs about Batman’s advancing years and this is one of the deeper fight scenes in the history of the DC DTVs.

It finally ends with Batman snapping Joker’s neck in an attempt to paralyse him. Refusing to let Batman have the last laugh as it were, Joker continues twisting his own neck, killing himself and leaving his body as evidence that Batman killed himself. It’s a gruesome fight scene and that final click of The Joker’s neck following his death is a toe curler, even for those of us who relish such sounds from the chiropractors office.

I honestly can’t remember if this is lifted from the book or not, but I always did enjoy Batman’s final spit at The Joker’s corpse before he set it aflame. This may be Batman and Joker’s best ever fight scene, and despite Joker not knowing Wayne is Batman this one feels personal as Wayne unleashes his frustrations over the number of people he has allowed to die by letting The Joker continue to live.

Peter Weller voices Batman this time around and does an excellent job, especially in the Joker fight scene as he vents his frustrating that he hasn’t finished The Joker off before, which leads one to wonder if he will actually kill him this time. He sounds exactly like you would expect Batman in his fifties to sound. I especially liked his speech when he attempts to inspire the people of Gotham and forbids them from using guns. It sounds naturally clunky, but it works excellently.

The Joker, of course meets his demise about halfway through the film, which then becomes a battle of Batman vs The Government and his refusal to bow to their order, having outlawed costume superheroes a decade earlier, with Superman being the only exception who has taken up residence as The Presidents super powered lap dog. For a story written in the 1980s, sadly too much of this take on political madness feels right at home in 2020.

The two films are well worth a purchase even if you are not a fan of the comic. They are up there with the great Batman DTVs and I, personally much prefer the films to the book. I do not believe that anyone who was a die hard fan of the book would be disappointing in these movies. I sadly have not seen/read Miller's reaction the film, as he was a massive fan of his The Dark Knight Returns segment of Legends of The Dark Knight from The New Batman Adventures, which ironically, Goodman also wrote.

Thankfully there are no plans for an animated adaptation of the sequel to this book, the universally planned The Dark Knight Strikes Back which was written after Miller either lost his marbles or he just didn’t care. Or, perhaps even sadder, a strong mix of both.

Next: No escape, only Asylum

 

[Revelator]

It is rumoured to have been the inspiration for Tim Burton’s Batman movie at the time, but Burton has later confessed he never read comic books so make of this what you will.

Burton said he read both The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns. He was not into comics before starting work on the film, but he did read those comics and admire them. And to be fair, they are the only essential Batman comics of the 1980s.

 

[-batmat-]

Burton said he read both The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns. He was not into comics before starting work on the film, but he did read those comics and admire them. And to be fair, they are the only essential Batman comics of the 1980s.

Really? No Batman Year One?

 

[Revelator]

Really? No Batman Year One?

I spoke too soon. But that's arguably more of a Commissioner Gordon comic.

 

[Otaku-sempai]

Burton said he read both The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns. He was not into comics before starting work on the film, but he did read those comics and admire them. And to be fair, they are the only essential Batman comics of the 1980s.

Regardless of whether Tim Burton had read The Dark Knight Returns, screenwriter Sam Hamm definitely had done so.

 

[Stu]

I seem to recall reading that Burton suffers from dyslexia, and therefore had trouble physically following the flow of comic books.

I honestly could not tell you what, if anything, Sam Hamm read before writing the screenplay. I assume he was something of a Batman fan, as he expressed his annoyance of Alfred letting Vicki Vale into the Batcave and absorbed himself of blame, citing a writers strike. The source of this is the Batman Blu Ray special features, which again, are well worth your time regardless of how you view the films!

 

[Revelator]

From an interview with Sam Hamm (Comics Interview 70):

"I used to buy most of the DC superhero comics, all of the Marvels, and I was pretty familiar with the basic premises of the strip. When I started reading comic books it was around 1959 or 1960 and Batman was in a pretty dry phase, the kind of material they were doing was like he travels back in time and meets the Aztec Batman. (Laughter.) Or he's got to thwart a a pink alien from outer space. But the stuff that I really responded to when I was a kid was the stuff they reprinted in the 80 page Giants, stuff from the late '40s, early '50s, which had a much more pulpy and noir-ish tone to it--a lot of disfigured villains in the Dick Tracy vein. That was the stuff that excited me about the character when I was a kid.

"...I think the first issue of Dark Knight had just come out when I was first discussing the possibility of doing the screenplay. I went into the comics stores to see what was going on in the field about then, and I was pretty staggered!...I think unavoidably there will be a bit of Dark Knight in the tone...there are a couple of, like, literal swipes from Dark Knight--a couple lines of dialogue [in the first scripts]...Jennette Kahn, once I did come on the project, sent us a package of the reprinted [Steve] Englehart material, I guess from a stretch of Detective Comics that he had done. The Mankiewicz draft had been based on supporting characters from that series."

In another interview (Comics Scene 03), Hamm says he "also took a couple of lines from Alan Moore's The Killing Joke." Keep in mind that the script for Batman was afterward rewritten by Charles McKeown and Warren Skaaren.

You're correct about Burton's dyslexia. From an interview in Burton on Burton:

"I was never a giant comic book fan, but I’ve always loved the image of Batman and The Joker. The reason I’ve never been a comic book fan – and I think it started when I was a child – is because I could never tell which box I was supposed to read. That’s why I loved The Killing Joke, because for the first time I could tell which one to read. It’s my favorite. It’s the first comic I’ve ever loved. And the success of those graphic novels made our ideas more acceptable."

Also, from another interview with Burton (Comic Scene 08):

"I remember when Sam Hamm and I first started working on it, we got the Batman Encyclopedia [Vol. 01 of Michael Fleischer's Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes] which shows that the series disrupts its own history: First, this is how Batman was created and then this is how he was created; this is how the Joker was and then there's this; and then Robin is here and then he's not here. There's no such thing as a consistent history.
Batman's an archetypal character. You have to take it as that. I thought 'Why can't there be a place for everything?' It's like any sort of folk character. There are 50 Sherlock Holmes, 50,000 Phantom of the Operas, 100,000 Beauty and the Beasts, and you're going to get that with these type of characters. People should be more open."

 

[Stu]

From an interview with Sam Hamm (Comics Interview 70):

"I used to buy most of the DC superhero comics, all of the Marvels, and I was pretty familiar with the basic premises of the strip. When I started reading comic books it was around 1959 or 1960 and Batman was in a pretty dry phase, the kind of material they were doing was like he travels back in time and meets the Aztec Batman. (Laughter.) Or he's got to thwart a a pink alien from outer space. But the stuff that I really responded to when I was a kid was the stuff they reprinted in the 80 page Giants, stuff from the late '40s, early '50s, which had a much more pulpy and noir-ish tone to it--a lot of disfigured villains in the Dick Tracy vein. That was the stuff that excited me about the character when I was a kid.

"...I think the first issue of Dark Knight had just come out when I was first discussing the possibility of doing the screenplay. I went into the comics stores to see what was going on in the field about then, and I was pretty staggered!...I think unavoidably there will be a bit of Dark Knight in the tone...there are a couple of, like, literal swipes from Dark Knight--a couple lines of dialogue [in the first scripts]...Jennette Kahn, once I did come on the project, sent us a package of the reprinted [Steve] Englehart material, I guess from a stretch of Detective Comics that he had done. The Mankiewicz draft had been based on supporting characters from that series."

In another interview (Comics Scene 03), Hamm says he "also took a couple of lines from Alan Moore's The Killing Joke." Keep in mind that the script for Batman was afterward rewritten by Charles McKeown and Warren Skaaren.

You're correct about Burton's dyslexia. From an interview in Burton on Burton:

"I was never a giant comic book fan, but I’ve always loved the image of Batman and The Joker. The reason I’ve never been a comic book fan – and I think it started when I was a child – is because I could never tell which box I was supposed to read. That’s why I loved The Killing Joke, because for the first time I could tell which one to read. It’s my favorite. It’s the first comic I’ve ever loved. And the success of those graphic novels made our ideas more acceptable."

Also, from another interview with Burton (Comic Scene 08):

"I remember when Sam Hamm and I first started working on it, we got the Batman Encyclopedia [Vol. 01 of Michael Fleischer's Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes] which shows that the series disrupts its own history: First, this is how Batman was created and then this is how he was created; this is how the Joker was and then there's this; and then Robin is here and then he's not here. There's no such thing as a consistent history.
Batman's an archetypal character. You have to take it as that. I thought 'Why can't there be a place for everything?' It's like any sort of folk character. There are 50 Sherlock Holmes, 50,000 Phantom of the Operas, 100,000 Beauty and the Beasts, and you're going to get that with these type of characters. People should be more open."

Thank you for this. I do try and do my research for these pieces, but confess much of it comes from my head/memory. You seem well versed in your Batman history, bravo!

I do find it odd how I can remember fragments of interviews I read years ago, but with the more recent DTVs, I have to watch them to remember even the basic plots of them.

 

[Revelator]

Thanks, and thank you for this thread and your commentaries. This year I ended downloading a lot of back issues of defunct comic magazines in order to research Golden Age Batman writers & artists, the 89 Batman film, and BTAS. They've come in pretty handy!