Plot summary: Somehow The Joker has returned… to terrorise Gotham, and to solve the mystery Terry needs to learn some truths kept secret by Bruce for 40 years.
(Originally published on The Reel World March 19th, 2022)
Notes and Trivia
Original Release Date: December 12th, 2000
Directed: Curt Geda (11)
Written: Paul Dini (7) (story & teleplay), Glen Murakami (1) (story) and Bruce Timm (1) (story)
Animation: TMS Entertainment, Ltd. (1)
Music: Kristopher Carter (15)
The film started production immediately following the cancellation of a Boyd Kirkland-helmed sequel to Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero. Bruce Timm and the producers wanted to use it as a way to finally bridge the gap between the two time periods.
An elderly Selina Kyle was originally set to be the main villain, creating a series of clones of Bruce, one of whom she’d treat as a son/lover and use to fight Terry. The creep factor got the whole idea nixed, but elements of it turned into Joker’s plan here, while the rest will be important much later…
It was produced in parallel with the second and third seasons of the show, which is why Paul Dini and Curt Geda vanished during most of that stretch, and people like James Tucker and the Korean animators themselves began to direct more episodes.
Perhaps the film’s biggest claim to fame is the ‘uncut’ version, which raised the rating to a PG-13 through the inclusion of slightly more violence and stronger language. It was toned down due to Columbine and a backlash against violent content aimed at kids. So when you were a teen this thing was edgy, man.
If the orbital laser seems familiar, that’s because it’s a direct homage to Akira, and was even animated by the same person at Tokyo Movie Shinsa, seeking to outdo his own work.
Speaking of TMS, this was their long-awaited return after Koko & Dong Yang handled every single episode of Beyond. This single entry in the rankings would have placed them in first place if I were ranking animation studios.
Recap
Batman thwarts a robbery of machine parts by a group of Jokerz, but they get away with one of the computer chips. Terry later wonders to Bruce why they’d change their tactics from low-level whimsy.
The Jokerz report back to their boss… the revived Joker himself! He calls their recovery worthless, fatally shooting one of them for questioning his methods. He has Ghoul track down the next component, unbothered by the high security… at Wayne Enterprises.
Bruce prepares to return to the head of the company, irritating previous next-in-line, Jordan Pryce. The Jokerz crash the ceremony, terrifying Bruce. Terry fights them, but they get away with the tech after forcing him to save innocent bystanders.
Bruce inists Joker died years ago, refusing to speculate how he could have survived. He demands Terry return the Batsuit as he has done his time and Joker is too dangerous. After a heated exchange, Terry complies.
Enjoying more free time for family & friends, Terry goes dancing with Dana, but the Jokerz show up to fight him in the club. He saves Dana and kick all their asses without his suit.
Racing to the Batcave, Terry is horrified to find The Clown Prince trashed the place and gassed Bruce, having somehow learned his secret! Thankfully, Terry is able to give Bruce an antidote in time.
Barbara finally tells Terry what happened years ago: Tim Drake was captured by Joker & Harley and subjected to repeated gassing and psychological torture in the remains of Arkham Asylum, acting out a twisted nuclear family fantasy.
Batman and Batgirl tried to rescue ‘Joker Junior’, but in the midst of the chaos, Tim shot and killed Joker. They buried his body under Arkham and Tim required extensive therapy, while Bruce refused to take on another partner.
Terry pays the middle-aged Tim a visit, but gets a prickly, disinterested reception so next goes after Jordan Pryce, learning he partnered with The Jokerz in an effort to become CEO. A giant orbital laser destroys Pryce’s yacht, but Terry manages to fly him to safety… and a prison cell.
Piecing everything together, Terry suggests Tim is behind it all, as a communications expert like Drake could combine all of the stolen equipment to gain control of a military satellite. Bruce reluctantly agrees.
Confronting Tim for the second time, Terry walks into a trap, but manages to escape. Joker unleashes the orbital laser again, chasing the Batmobile across Gotham. Suddenly, Joker begins to look unwell and shuts off the laser.
Fighting his way through the Jokerz, Terry finds a groggy Tim, still plagued by his past. He casually reveals he knows the new Batman’s real name, attacking Terry and revealing that he IS the newly returned Joker thanks to a microchip embedded in his neck!
During their struggle, the laser target gets changed to their location, giving them precious little time to brawl. Terry gains the upper hand by behaving completely unlike Bruce: fighting dirty and annoying Joker with banter.
Furious, Joker begins to choke him, but Terry uses his electric joy buzzer to fry the microchip, restoring Tim. Terry gets him to safety just before the building is blown to hell.
Terry visits Tim in hospital, and the former Robin praises him as an excellent choice to succeed Bruce. The old man himself arrives, telling Terry that he makes Batman worthy, not the other way around as he had asserted earlier.
An elderly Harley Quinn bails her granddaughters, Dee Dee & Dee Dee, out of prison, scolding them for their antics. The film ends with Terry heading out on patrol.
Best Performance
I assume if I were to choose anyone other than Mark Hamill I’d be arrested. Not that I’d want to, as he’s as at the top of his game. I don’t know if it is his finest outing ever, but the list of better options would be short. Not only does he play the hits with his trademark laugh and twisted quips, he taps into one of his lesser-used bag of Joker tricks: genuine anger. Not irritation with Harley or dismay at being foiled by the heroes, actual fury at Terry for making fun of him. It rounds the performance out really nicely, and gives you a decent summary of his storied career as the Clown Prince of Crime. Bonus points to Hamill for also voicing Jordan Pryce to sell the idea that he may have been The Joker, exactly like Stacy Keach in Mask of the Phantasm. It sounds just enough like him to make it work, but is different enough to not be too on the nose. Likewise, before Joker comes out of the shadows, he makes himself sound ever so slightly different to maintain the illusion for a few extra seconds.
Kevin Conroy and Will Friedle’s roles aren’t quite as impressive by comparison, but they do get some good exchanges as they argue about whether Terry should continue to be Batman which are paid off in the emotional final conversation. It’s just difficult to contend against such a huge sexy role and your lines are less meaty.
Mathew Valencia returned for a couple of lines as the young Tim Drake, but voice director Andrea Romano performed the legitimately haunting laughter that is one of the film’s trademarks. In this house we Stan Andrea Romano.
Ghoul was created specifically to let Michael Rosenbaum do his Christopher Walken impression that cracked the team up during sessions during his previous appearances as Terminal and various minor characters in the show. It’s not his worst impression…
Just like in the show, Lauren Tom barely gets to do anything, but I did enjoy her trolling Terry for being sleepy. Oh, and props to Arleen Sorkin for pulling off the old lady voice in the face of an older actress being considered instead.
‘Episode’ Ranking
There was obviously no bigger card to play for a Batman Beyond movie than to do as the title says and bring back The Joker after doing their best to steer clear of the classic BTAS villains. Granted, there were a few exceptions like Mr. Freeze, Ra’s al Ghul and Bane, but they all made sense given their gimmicks. Joker instead lived on via the gang who hero-worship him, so in many ways loomed omnipresent throughout the show. Beefing them up with some new blood was a good call, and this particular group are more memorable than J-Man, Scab and even Terminal due to the film’s popularity.
However, I actually did not like how they went about the return of the Murder Clown, as I think the microchip was a bit of a cop-out, presumably wanting to completely absolve Tim Drake of any wrongdoing. I would have much preferred they went with him legitimately absorbing Joker’s pysche as an alter after all the torture. For me, Joker using hyper-sophisticated technology just feels off, but that kind of thing won’t bother everyone, and it will be tied back into canon eventually.
Regardless of how they got there, it’s undeniable that Terry facing the ultimate final exam in his predecessor’s nemesis is a compelling final chapter for Beyond. Bruce is so spooked he asks him to step down from being Batman immediately, but in the end it’s Terry that’s able to not only solve the mystery solo – dispelling the notion that he’s just the muscle and Bruce still does all the detective work – but also defeat The Clown Prince in one last battle. His plan is a clever one, and it perfectly underlines the major difference in personalities between the two Batmen. I’ve said several times that the show is basically Spider-Man being coached by Batman, and having the movie culminate in Terry quipping Joker half to death to contrast with Bruce’s stoic silence illustrated that idea perfectly. Joker may be the main attraction, but this is as much Terry’s coronation as anything, proving as Tim says that he is truly a worthy successor.
Devoting a portion of the runtime to an extended flashback to the classic BTAS era was essentially a cheat-code for a positive reception, but I’m not mad at them. Seriously, click through that little slideshow! No matter how popular Beyond became, audiences never stopped craving more of the original. The montage of Bruce and Babs tirelessly looking for Robin was excellently done, and the standoff in Arkham is arguably the most memorable stretch of the film. Joker Junior is perhaps the creepiest thing in the entire franchise, and he legit gives me chills. Circling the camera around Batman to show his horror really drives the whole sequence home, with the pathetic fallacy of a thunderstorm and Joker laughing in the projection booth acting as cherries on the top. They needed to do something extreme to justify Joker’s death, the breakup of the Bat Family, and all of them refusing to talk about it decades later, and I think they succeeded.
I will say that I missed Max, but it was likely her or Dana and the McGinnis family, who appreciated his temporary retirement more, so I guess it was the right choice. I still might have liked ten more minutes to show him at last excelling in school, and they could have snuck in more of the supporting cast like Max, Howard, Blade and Nelson. But that’s a minor quibble.
The extra time and money that comes with a movie was evident from the off, with the impressive camera pan as Terry beat up every member of the gang. The film is filled with little animation flourishes that the series could never replicate, in particular the orbital laser madness. I’ve really missed TMS, gang.
Overall it’s pretty difficult to argue against this being the peak of the Beyond concept, benefitting from the return of not just the franchise’s top villain, but also Paul Dini and Curt Geda as creative forces. I can’t help but think if both had been around for more of the series, it may have lasted longer. They got to do ten minutes of Bruce-era Batman, and still introduce strong new creations in Ghoul’s Jokerz, and with the spectacle of a giant anime laser that only a movie could bring. Stellar.
- Return of the Joker (NEW ENTRY)
- Meltdown
- Inqueling
- Out of the Past
- Eyewitness
- Babel
- Final Cut
- Disappearing Inque
- Spellbound
- King’s Ransom
- A Touch of Curaré
- Shriek
- Rebirth Part I
- Bloodsport
- The Call Part I
- Splicers
- Unmasked
- Zeta
- Armory
- Hidden Agenda
- Lost Soul
- Earth Mover
- Black Out
- Dead Man’s Hand
- The Call Part II
- Where’s Terry?
- Sneak Peek
- Rebirth Part II
- Once Burned
- Curse of the Kobra Part I
- Countdown
- Big Time
- Revenant
- Untouchable
- Sentries of the Last Cosmos
- April Moon
- Heroes
- The Eggbaby
- Terry’s Friend Dates a Robot
- Mind Games
- Hooked Up
- The Winning Edge
- Ascension
- Joyride
- Golem
- Ace in the Hole
- The Last Resort
- Plague
- Payback
- Rats
- Speak No Evil
- Curse of the Kobra Part II
- Betrayal
Rogues Roundup
The Joker (Mark Hamill) (first appearance)
Mistah J’s new look was intended to resemble Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs, while in flashbacks he gets a bit of an amalgamation of his original BTAS design and the vastly inferior one from TNBA.
Giving him access to all of Tim’s knowledge made for a fun twist, as it not only let him finally confront the man behind the mask, it made him more of a physical threat than ever via the former Robin’s combat expertise. This is also gives Mask of the Phantasm a run for its money in terms of being the scariest he’s ever been in the DCAU. If you’re a purist who can never accept the idea of Terry being in Bruce’s league by defeating his nemesis, you still have the out that he’s in his fifties and borrowing a body.
What more can be said? He’s The Joker. He’s back, and not in Pog form. He laughs, he schemes, he murders, and casts an unrivalled shadow across the city. The Jokerz’ fear of him, combined with Bruce’s utter disbelief at his return make it clear this is a true menace, and who else could serve as the show’s final villain?
If not for Inque absolutely ruling, he’d leap straight to the top from a single appearance.
Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin) (first appearance)
The script originally called for Harley’s death from the fall in the flashback, but as she was Paul Dini’s prized creation, he added in the scene at the end to confirm her survival. Those with long memories may recall Poison Ivy injected her with a concoction that gave her immunity to toxins and also boosted her overall durability. So. That’s how.
Her role is relatively small, but she’s still a delight in her interactions with Robin/Joker Junior, and her fight with Batgirl is a pretty good one. The final reveal that she’s Dee Dee & Dee Dee’s grandmother provides some much needed levity and is a cute continuity wrinkle.
I can’t rank her too highly, because as with other returning villains, I look at them in a vacuum, and while she’s fun here, it’s not enough compared to those that have headlined episodes.
The Jokerz (Michael Rosenbaum, Melissa Joan Hart, Don Patrick Harvey, Henry Rollins, Frank Welker) (ninth appearance)
In a film that could be interpreted as giving up on the mission statement of creating a whole new Rogues Gallery on par with the original, it was really nice to see this new collection of Jokerz. Ghoul, the Dee Dee’s, Chucko, Bonk and Woof are all strong designs, and Woof in particular deals more damage to Terry than the group did throughout the entire show. In fairness, he is a Spliced hyena-man.
Dee Dee and Dee Dee getting the jump on Terry by pretending to cower in fear was fun, likewise him using his invisibility to trick them into taking each other out later.
This version of the group would get to return in an episode of Justice League Unlimited (even the resurrected Bonk!), as well as several of the Batman Beyond comics, and for good reason. In a single appearance they’re the most iconic version of the group that’s been there since day one. In a world where the show got more seasons, they’d almost certainly have had a recurring presence. One last push up the rankings.
- Inque
- The Joker (NEW ENTRY)
- Curaré
- Mr. Freeze
- Shriek
- Derek Powers/Blight
- Spellbinder
- The Jokerz (↑)
- The Royal Flush Gang
- Talia/Ra’s al Ghul
- Mad Stan
- Earthmover
- Ian Peek
- Dr. Cuvier (and pals!)
- Willie Watt
- Robert Vance
- Harley Quinn (NEW ENTRY)
- Repeller
- Armory
- Stalker
- Deanna Clay
- Agent Bennet (and the NSA!)
- The Mayhem Family
- The Terrific Trio
- Kobra
- Starro
- Bullwhip’s Gang
- The Brain Trust
- Cynthia
- Simon Harper (and the Sentries!)
- Karros
- Paxton Powers
- Charlie ‘Big Time’ Bigelow
- Dr. Stephanie Lake
- Howard Hodges & General Norman
- Jackson Chappell
- Payback
- Falseface
- Mr. Fixx
- Winchell
- The T’s
- Ratboy
- James Van Dyle
- Ronny Boxer
- Dr. Wheeler
- Major
The Matt Signal 
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