In the Gotham City of the future, the Joker has returned with a new gang and a new bag of tricks to disrupt the lives of an elderly Bruce Wayne and the new Batman, Terry McGinnis. Though Wayne assures Terry that this can't be the original, the man in the purple suit not only looks and talks and acts just like the Joker, but he reveals a frightening knowledge of both Batman and Bruce Wayne. When the attacks become more and more personally directed, Terry has to find answers quickly. But to do that, he'll have to reopen some nasty old wounds and find out what happened forty years ago, when the original Batman, Batgirl, and Robin fought the Joker for the last time. . .
The two recent animated Batman series, produced by Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, and Alan Burnett, could have no better ending than this movie, which manages to neatly tie up the loose ends of both shows while fully delving into the darker themes of the franchise. There was quite a hullabaloo when fans found out that the commercial release was a truncated and retooled version of an original that the WB execs deemed unsuitable for the children's market they were aiming for. There were legitimate concerns. This is a very violent and dramatically intense animated film by Western standards, but it's also a very good one. I'd say this is easily the best of the animated Batman movies and rivals the best of the live-action ones too.
The strength of the movie is in the writing. Dini and Co. really took the time to explore and utilize the familiar elements of the Batman mythos, creating a new story that finally bridges the original "Batman: the Animated Series" to the later "Batman Beyond." It's very dark and very mature in the way that it handles our familiar characters. This is a universe where our heroes did not live happily ever after, where the original Gotham Knights have grown old and embittered. Terry McGinnis never really worked for me as the new Bat, but here, he's finally come into his own, distinguishing himself as a wholly different type of crimefighter in comparison to his predecessor. I was very impressed with the dialogue, filled with quips and ironies that play on all the old clichés of the genre. The way Terry uses this is especially satisfying in an ending that's too good to give away.
The animation in a little shy of feature quality, but much more fluid and dynamic than the usual Saturday-morning fare. The obligatory CGI is used sparingly and remains thankfully unobtrusive. The character designs look like they were de-stylized a bit. Joker appears much more solid and threatening than when we saw him last. Mark Hamill's voice work for this darker version of the Joker is outstanding. The rest of the cast is solid, with the exception of a slightly awkward sounding Barbara Gordon in the absence of her usual voice actress, Stockard Channing. The music generally sticks to the techno-rock of the series, but we do get a few of the good old orchestral themes in flashback.
I've been a fan of this particular version of Batman for a good long time,
and this movie is a fitting ending. I do wish they'd have shed some light on
the fate of some of the other characters, but the time spent on the three particular
"missing" ones here was very gratifying. The television series doesn't need
to be viewed before watching the movie, but long time viewers will probably
find it more engaging.
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