Product Description

The greatest villain of all comes out of the past to threaten Batman, Bruce Wayne and all of Gotham City in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, the first feature-length Batman Beyond movie. The sleeker, deadlier and seemingly immortal Clown Prince of Crime is back with his own unique brand of havoc and mayhem. While trying to uncover the Joker's secrets, the new Batman, Terry McGinnis, discovers the greatest mystery in the life of the original Caped Crusader: What happened the night he fought the Joker for the last time. When Bruce Wayne is almost killed in one of the Joker's latest attacks, Batman vows to avenge his mentor and put the Joker to rest forever. Get ready for heart-stomping action, awesome adventure and amazing revelations in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Commentary by the filmmakers
Biographies:Animated Character Biographies
DVD ROM Features:Links to Warner Bros. Family Entertainment web sites, Special web events, Sampler trailers
Deleted Scenes
Documentary:Behind the scenes documentary
Interactive Menus
Music Video:"Crash" by Mephisto Odyssey (featuring Static X)
Other:Animation tests
Production Notes
Scene Access
Theatrical Trailer

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3211 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-04-23
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Animated, Color, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 77 minutes

Amazon.com
Some diehard Batfans have been slow to warm to the animated series Batman Beyond even though it was created by the same team responsible for the excellent Batman cartoon of the early '90s. The Dark Knight should be a brooding avenger in a noir-nightmare Gotham City, the purists argue, not some smart-aleck teen four decades in the future, with jet packs, invisibility shields, and other sci-fi gizmos loaned him by an elderly Bruce Wayne (voiced, excellently as always, by Kevin Conroy, his stony bass given a raspy hint of old age), now confined to hobbling about on a cane and monitoring his protégé's activities from the Batcave. Between its respectful reexamination of the "tortured hero" mythos and its sleek, anime-inspired look, this feature-length movie should go a long way toward quieting their complaints. Of course, it doesn't hurt that they've brought back the most legendary figure in the Rogues Gallery (voiced by Mark Hamill, deliciously deranged), but exactly how and why the Joker has managed to turn up 40 years after his last meeting with Batman still as youthful and diabolical as ever is explained not only logically but terrifyingly as well. The secret behind his arrival is perhaps the saddest, grimmest twist any purported "kids' show" has dared to attempt. (Parents may well want to preview this tape before screening it for the very young.) Once again, Warner Brothers' cartoon Batman has outshone all the live-action films, never allowing the thrilling action set pieces or flashes of wry humor to drown out the drama, even tragedy, of the all-too-human superheroes. --Bruce Reid

Customer Reviews

Joker Is Back
I've been a Batman fan ever since I was in diapers. When the Beyond series started, I was a little hesitant and didn't think it'd be that good until I learned it was from the same guys who did the animated series before and my hope was raised a little and after watching the first two episodes that started the show off, it became my favorite Batman show. Then when this first came out, I rented it immediately and watched it several times. I bought this because I had been searching for the uncut edition ever since I heard about it. At first, I didn't see what was so different about the movie I loved and watched like crazy when I was younger. But then it got to ***SPOILER ALERT*** scene where Joker was showing Batman what he did Robin and I'll be honest, I was a little disturbed. "You'd have been so proud to of seen him fight", Joker said as he put two electric clamps onto the table Robin was strapped and shocked the hell out of him. Then Joker mentioned he used needles and I think hypnosis and I was just sitting there thinking, "This is a different side to Joker than I have seen."

Don't get me wrong, I thought the movie was great, the twist is pretty predictable but I was a little disappointed in the final fight although I did enjoy watching Batman make fun of the Joker. If you're a fan of Batman and the Joker, definitely check this movie out. But might want to watch it before you show to your kids.

What DC should aspire to
Movies of this caliber are what DC should be producing instead of Superman:Doomsday and Gotham Knights. Great story, great characters.

Batman Beyond was already a great achievement in providing an entertaining continuation of the Batman: TAS mythos, but this movie takes it to the next level. The characters are interesting, there is legitimate conflict and the psychological attack by the Joker elevates him from his evil clown status.

Definitely worth multiple watches and actually motivated me to buy Gotham Knights when Batman Beyond: The Movie was packaged with it at Target.

This could have been great
I want to applaud the writers and director for this movie. Brilliant work. And also the voice actors did a great job. My only problem with it was that it was a bit too short and the animation is TV quality. This could be a great movie if it was about 20min longer and the animation was done in high quality CGI. Then it would be worthy of the theater. And with such great story telling and directing, that is where this belongs. But as a straight to DVD movie, it was very well done.

I especially like the Joker.