Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is a 2000 American direct-to-video superhero film produced by Warner Bros. Animation and distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. It is the third film in the DC Animated Universe and is based on the animated series Batman Beyond while also serving as a continuation of and resolving plot points from Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures. The film features the DC Comics superheroes Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Terry McGinnis (Will Friedle), as they try to unravel the mysterious return of the former's archenemy, the Joker (Mark Hamill), preparing a climatic showdown with the villain.

The film was heavily censored following the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and Warner Bros.'s objection to its content, causing its release to be delayed from Halloween 2000 to December 12, 2000. Subsequently, an uncut version was released on DVD on April 23, 2002.

Plot
A new faction of the Jokerz gang—consisting of Bonk, Woof, Ghoul, Chucko, and the Dee-Dee twins—attempts to steal high-tech electronic equipment but are intercepted by Batman (Terry McGinnis), the protégé of the original Batman, Bruce Wayne. The gang reports back to their leader, revealed to be the Joker, Bruce's arch-nemesis who has been presumed dead for decades. The Joker kills Bonk for his defiance and to intimidate the other members.

Later, the Jokerz attack a press conference commemorating Bruce's return to Wayne Enterprises and the Joker reveals himself to Bruce, who insists that it cannot be him. After fending off the attack, Terry demands information from Bruce and police commissioner Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl, but neither gives him answers. Not wanting Terry to face the Joker, Bruce orders him to return the Batsuit so he can investigate the Joker on his own despite the limitations of his age. However, the Jokerz attack Terry, nearly killing his girlfriend Dana Tan, while the Joker poisons Bruce and his Great Dane, Ace — revealing that he knows Bruce was Batman and Terry is his successor.

After Terry saves Bruce's life with an antidote, Barbara finally explains the Joker's disappearance: four decades ago, after Nightwing (Dick Grayson) left Gotham City for Blüdhaven, the Joker and Harley Quinn kidnapped his successor Tim Drake, then Robin, while he was on patrol, torturing and brainwashing him for three weeks at the abandoned Arkham Asylum, learning Batman's secret identity, and turning him into a miniature version of the Joker. After Batman and Batgirl find Tim, a battle ensues, during which Tim briefly comes to his senses and kills the Joker with his own gun, while Harley falls down a ravine and is presumed dead. Over the next year, Tim recovered with help from Wayne family friend Leslie Thompkins, was forced to retire from superheroics, and severed ties with Bruce, leaving to make it on his own in life.

Terry visits Tim, now a successful telecommunications engineer with a family, who voices bitterness towards his past but denies involvement in the Joker's return. Terry's next suspect is Jordan Pryce, a Wayne Enterprises executive who hates Bruce for ruining his chance to take over the company. He ultimately finds that Pryce is not the Joker, but had conspired with him in an attempt to kill Bruce. When a directed-energy weapon strikes Pryce's yacht, Terry rescues him before turning him in to the police. In the Batcave, after realizing the Joker only destroyed the Robin costume, Terry recalls Tim's grudge against his old persona and deduces he must be involved. Cross-referencing Tim's expertise as an engineer with the Jokerz' thefts, Terry and Bruce discover that their stolen equipment can create a jamming system to seize control of a laser-armed military satellite.

When Terry goes to face Tim in his workplace, he triggers a trap set by the Joker, who he follows to an abandoned candy factory. Subduing the Jokerz with Ace's help, Terry confronts Tim, who subdues Terry by disabling his Batsuit and then physically transforms into the Joker. He explains that he previously encoded a copy of his consciousness into a microchip hidden behind Tim's ear, allowing him to survive death by overtaking Tim's body and intending to do so permanently. With the satellite, the Joker plans to kill Bruce and Terry's loved ones before destroying Gotham City. As they battle, Terry uses one of the Joker's joy buzzers to destroy both the weapon and the microchip, killing him. Terry, Tim, and Ace escape as the satellite destroys the Joker's lair.

Following the Jokerz' arrests, Barbara hides Tim's unwitting involvement to protect him, while the Joker is declared dead and the Dee-Dee twins are bailed out by their grandmother, an elderly and reformed Harley Quinn. Bruce makes amends with Tim and Barbara while Tim recovers in the hospital, during which he and Bruce acknowledge Terry as worthy to carry the Batman mantle.

Voice cast

 * Will Friedle as Terry McGinnis / Batman
 * Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne / Batman
 * Mark Hamill as Joker and Jordan Pryce
 * Angie Harmon as Commissioner Barbara Gordon
 * Tara Strong as Young Barbara Gordon / Batgirl
 * Dean Stockwell as Tim Drake
 * Mathew Valencia as Young Tim Drake / Robin
 * Andrea Romano as Joker Jr. / J.J (credited as "Laughing Boy")
 * Arleen Sorkin as Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn and Amy
 * Melissa Joan Hart as Delia and Deidre Dennis / Dee Dee
 * Michael Rosenbaum as Stewart Carter Winthrop III / Ghoul
 * Don Harvey as Charles Buntz / Chucko
 * Henry Rollins as Benjamin Knox / Bonk
 * Frank Welker as Woof and Ace the Bat-Hound
 * Lauren Tom as Dana Tan
 * Rachael Leigh Cook as Chelsea Cunningham
 * Teri Garr as Mary McGinnis
 * Ryan O'Donohue as Matthew "Matt" McGinnis
 * Vernee Watson-Johnson as Ms. Joyce Carr
 * Mary Scheer as Mrs. Drake
 * Jason Stanford as a Gangster

Production
The film was initially put into production after the cancellation of Boyd Kirkland's Batman: Arkham, the intended sequel to Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero. When Bruce Timm and Glen Murakami were given the greenlight to produce a Batman Beyond feature-length film, they decided to use the extra time to answer questions pertaining to the time period between Beyond and Batman: The Animated Series.

The animation was outsourced to TMS Entertainment in Japan. It is also the first Batman direct-to-video animated film to use digital ink and paint.

Dwayne McDuffie, writer for the DCAU series Static Shock, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, stated that the events of the flashback sequence in the film take place at the end of the present-day timeline of the DCAU, following the end of Justice League Unlimited but prior to the start of Batman Beyond.

Release
Return of the Joker was originally set for release on Halloween 2000, but following the backlash against violence in children's media that resulted from the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, and general apprehension by the higher-ups at WB over the film's content, the creative team was forced to make edits that delayed its release to December 12, 2000.

The most dramatic change was the method of the Joker's death; in the original cut of the film, he is impaled by a flag shot out of a handgun by Tim Drake; in the re-edit, he is electrocuted after becoming tangled in water tubing. Nearly two years after the film's initial release, and following online petitions, Warner Home Video released an uncut and unaltered version of Return of the Joker, with more violence and some altered language, as well as the Joker's original death scene.

While the 2000 release was not rated, the uncut version was the first animated Batman film to receive a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association, as well as the only PG-13 rated film to be released under Warner Bros' now-defunct Family Entertainment label.

The uncut version was released on Blu-ray on April 5, 2011.

Marketing
A comic adaptation of the film was released in February 2001, drawn by Craig Rousseau. The page depicting the Joker's death had to be redone in accordance with the edits made to the film. A tie-in video game was released in 2000 for Game Boy Color, PlayStation, and Nintendo 64. Scholastic released a novelization of the film, penned by Michael Teitelbaum, on October 1, 2000.

Music
Released on October 17, 2000, the soundtrack to Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker contains music composed by Kristopher Carter, as well as two tracks of music featured in the direct-to-video film.

Critical reception
Nisha Gopalan of Entertainment Weekly praised the uncut version of the film, in particular how it "sheds light on the dark, obsessive relationship between the villain and his vigilante counterpart." Gerry Shamray of Sun Newspapers said that Return of the Joker "would have made a great live-action Batman movie." Ryan Cracknell of Apollo Guide called the film "an animated masterpiece."

Peter Canavese of Groucho Reviews called it an "energetic and unsettling Batman adventure," adding that it "provides a memorable showcase for Hamill's celebrated take on the Joker, and allows both McGinnis and Wayne to see action and face emotional challenges." Michael Stailey of DVD Verdict gave the uncut version a score of 92 out of 100, calling it "a taut, high-impact film" and "a must-buy to Bat-fans and animation lovers alike."

Garth Franklin of Dark Horizons had a mixed response when reviewing the uncut version, saying that "the script is pretty solid, the animation superb, and the voice performances all work well," but added that "the Terry character's personal scenes aren't anywhere near as engaging [as the scenes featuring the Joker or Bruce Wayne], and the investigative subplot doesn't work as well as it should." Jeremy Conrad of IGN gave the uncut version a score of nine out of 10 for the movie itself, six out of 10 each for video and audio, and eight out of 10 for extras, adding up to an overall score of seven out of 10.