Review: Batman - The Killing Joke

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What’s more terrifying than a psychopathic clown?

A psychopathic clown you care about.

“Fresh” off of one of the greatest cartoon series ever in Batman: The Animated Series, Kevin Conroy, Luke StairSkywalker himself, Mark Hamill and Tara Strong, reprise their iconic roles as the Dark Knight, the Joker and Batgirl respectively in WB Animation’s Batman: The Killing Joke. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, TKJ is an intense, nuanced portrayal of madness and humanity that has a minor number of issues relating to story and animation quality.

The film contains two stories that could have been better interwoven; the first featuring Batgirl and the second starring the Joker. Hamill steals the show, completely losing himself in the twisted mania of his character. It is just a shame that the animation quality is not up to the standard of the film’s impressive voice-cast. Sometimes the jumpy and simplistic style works to the film’s benefit, but other times it has a distinct “made on a dollar and a prayer” feel that works against it. There are also times when character actions (especially Batman – the hell??!) feels forced and unnatural. The film, however, does a good job of balancing the two opposing itones found in it’s title – that of twisted violence and even-more-twisted humour.

3halfstars

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