"Doomsday vs Return of the Joker" by Troy H. Cheek on Aug 25, 2008
This week, I had the pleasure of watching a few animated films. I'd like to take a moment to tell you about Superman: Doomsday and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Next week, we'll discuss Colon Blow: Attack of the Subtitles. And thus concludes the use of italics in this review. You should be able to tell if I'm talking about the movie or the character based on context.
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is the older film. It was created back when Batman Beyond was still on the air, using the same character designs, same production crew, and the same voice actors. I think I heard that they subcontracted out some of the animation, but the results are good enough that I'm not going to argue.
If I recall correctly, Return of the Joker was intended to be aired on the Cartoon Network as part of the established DC Animated Universe. Its release on DVD later was just a perk. The version originally aired was the version that the producers created for that purpose, while the DVD contained deleted shots and alternate takes that the producers felt told the story better but weren't acceptable for broadcast. Nothing really major, mind you. The producers were still in the middle of creating the regular series and were used to thinking in terms of what was acceptable and what wasn't. I didn't see the original airing, but the recent re-run seems reasonably close to what I rememeber watching on the DVD. The scenes that were different were ones that I remember being mentioned on the DVD commentary track as changes they'd made from the broadcast version.
Superman: Doomsday came out more recently. It was created after the Superman, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimted animated series had ended. Though it uses roughly the same character designs and some of the original production crew, it has different voice actors and definitely takes place outside of established continuity. Animation quality is, again, close enough for jazz.
Doomsday was created as a direct to video product. As such, the producers didn't have to limit themselves to was fit to broadcast 10 year olds during family viewing hours. The movie was rather violent in places, but not that much more so than one of the rougher Superman or Justice League Unlimited episodes. I didn't expect to see a whole lot of censoring or editing when I viewed the broadcast version. Without actually thinking about it, I was expecting that the producers had created it with broadcast in mind or had created alternate takes of unacceptable scenes.
I was wrong in thinking that.
Summaries and spoilers: Batman Beyond is set decades after the original Batman animated series, though still in that continuity, sometimes referred to as the DC Animated Universe. It's also known as the Diniverse or the Timmverse, as Paul Dini and Bruce Timm were major influences. Bruce Wayne has retired. Terry McGinnis, a young punk who lost his father to hoodlums seeking to emulate the Joker, has taken over as the new Batman. Unbeknownst to either of them at the time, Terry is actually Bruce's biological son. With Bruce playing Alfred in the Batcave, Terry as Batman Beyond has taken a bite out of crime, occasionally with the help of Bruce's guard dog, Ace.
Just as Bruce and Terry are getting into their routine, the Joker returns. Bruce knows it can't be the real Joker, because he was there when a brainwashed Robin killed the Joker decades ago. However, Joker came up with a way to cheat death. He managed to hitch a ride in his killer's body and mind. It took years, but he finally found a way to take over.
After several violent and destructive fights, several false hope moments, and a lot of good old fashioned Bat detective work, Terry faces Joker, beats him at his own game, and saves the day. All in all, an excellent presentation of an excellent story. The differences between DVD and broadcast versions aren't all that great. I'm sure the broadcast version I watched had scenes that were cut short or out entirely, but the story still flows and the movie is watchable.
Summaries and spoilers, part two: Doomsday is set, well, I'm not sure when or where. The overall animation style is similar to the Superman animated series, except that Superman has picked up some major frown lines on his face. Superman has obviously been active for a while, and he and Lois Lane have been sneaking off to his Fortress of Solitude together for a while, but other than that, I'm not really sure in which part of Superman's life this adventure is set.
Perennial villain Lex Luthor is trying to tap into geothermal power to create a new energy source. Is he doing this in Iceland or out in Yellowstone National Park where geysers of boiling liquid surge to the surface with amazing regularity? No, of course not. He's doing it a few miles outside of a major metropolitan city in a goelogically stable area by drilling miles beneath the Earth's surface. Naturally, he uncovers something.
The something is a doomsday weapon left over from a devestating war a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Doomsday is the perfect killing machine. He starts by killing the drilling team, then the first small furry woodland creature he sees, then a truck driver...
Well, it's heavily implied that he kills the drilling team. It's heavily implied by a bunch of heavy edits. When I watch the broadcast version, I noticed that the first fight scene seemed a bit jumpy, like shots were cut short or cut out. When Doomsday reaches the surface, it looks like he simply scares away a deer instead of killing it. I even got the impression that the truck driver survived.
Regardless, Doomsday treads his heavy tread over to Metropolis, where Superman shows up to take him down. This requires a long, drawn out fight. Eventually, Superman kills Doomsday, but at the cost of his own life. The world mourns the loss of Superman, crime skyrockets, Lois cries on Martha's shoulder, and we suddenly find ourselves living in a crapsack world. But wait! What's this? Superman is back from the dead!
Superman flies around doing all the things that Superman does and all is right with the world. At first. It turns out that this Superman has decided that he knows what's best for the world, that there's no use locking up criminals if they'll just escape again, that the police and military might of Metropolis are powerless against him.
You see, this isn't the boy that Jonathan and Martha Kent raised. He's a clone, programmed by Luthor his best estimation of Superman's behavior, but lacking the moral compass that Clark Kent had. Pretty soon, Clonerman has taken over Metropolis.
Luckily, Superman did survive after all. Recovering in his Fortress, Supes learns that the clone is making a mess of things in his name. Armed with righteous indignation, and a Kryptonite gun, Superman returns to Metropolis. Of course, coming back from the dead can leave one pretty weak, so Superman gets his butt kicked, but intervention by Lois at a crucial moment, having decided that this is the boy Martha Kent raised and the man she loves, turns the tide. Clonerman dies and the city loves Superman again.
I didn't like the Doomsday movie nearly as much as I liked the Joker movie. Oh, it's a good idea, but a bad execution. The story is based on the death and return of Superman in his comic books. Doomsday's origin is similar, though Luthor wasn't involved in his discover, and Superman's battle to the death is also similar. If you squint and look sideways, Superman's return to life is similar. Past that, however...
In the comics, Superman had four (4) pretenders. There were, in no particular order, a guy in an armored suit who just wanted to make a difference, a cyborg from space, an immature clone, and a Kryptonian artifact come to life. The animated Clonerman was pretty much a combination of the clone and the artifact. Clonerman had the cloned body of a Superman and the detached, alien viewpoint of a Kryptonian. The Doomsday movie obviously couldn't fully portray a story which played out in multiple comic books over a few years, so they had to chuck out most of the pretenders. They made a good choice, as a fully grown clone pretending to be Superman is exactly what Luthor planned in the comics, and a clone programmed by Luthor would end up acting pretty much like Clonerman acted in the movie.
But while the comic story ended with the pretenders choosing sides and Superman facing off against an alien menace, the movie story ended with Superman and Clonerman whaling the tar out of each other. Not that they didn't do it in an entertaining manner.
At least, in the original version I watched on DVD.
The broadcast verson of Doomsday was, obviously, edited for television. From what I remembered, the DVD wasn't much more violent than the DC Animated Universe regularly aired in all time slots. Obviously, the executives over at the Cartoon Network thought otherwise.
As I've mentioned before, Doomsday's earliest murders were implied or simply edited out. In some cases, this was barely noticeable, but in others, the jumps and cuts were painfully obvious. It got even worse when Superman showed up. There are still a few punches being thrown, but hardly any are seen landing. Superman goes from flying towards Doomsday to slamming back against a building. Doomsday seems to get knocked around for no reason. Buildings explode. Why? The music builds up, cuts off, builds up again. It's like somebody went through a symphony orchestra and decided to get rid of the violins, the drums, and half the clarinets, but didn't change the music the rest of the folks were playing. When it comes time for the violinists to kick in, you just jump straight back into the woodwinds again. It makes for a very disjointed viewing experience.
Superman's final battle with Clonerman is similar. It didn't seem quite as bad. I think the editors were either learning, or I'd simply become numb to the whole concept. I watched to the end of the broadcast more out of a sense of duty than a sense of enjoyment.
They could have edited better, or created alternate takes. I guess they didn't have the budget or time or something. Or perhaps, like me, they thought the DVD could have been aired as is. They certainly didn't do as good a job as the Batman Beyond team.
An example that sticks out in my mind is a scene where Terry returns to Wayne Manor to find it trashed. Poor Ace the Bathound is lying on the floor badly hurt. It's obvious that Ace fell defending his home and his master, even if we didn't see it onscreen. A little later, Ace is recuperating while watching an old Warner cartoon where an animated dog is moaning that he doesn't deserve to live. Terry asks Ace how he's doing. In the original version, the animated dog exlaims "I wish I were dead!" at this time, as if giving voice to Ace's thoughts. Ace pulls away from Terry's comforting hand. He doesn't deserve to be comforted.
In the altered version, the dog's line is a repeat of "I don't deserve to live!" Call me crazy, but I think that works even better. Ace doesn't actively wish for his demise, just doesn't think he deserves to go on after failing to protect his master. Ace pulling away from Terry's comforting hand actually brought a tear to my eye.
Robin kills Joker in both versions, though in different manner. I'm not sure which I consider less suitable for young children.
In an earlier scene, Joker kills a henchman named Boink. The Joker has a gun that, when fired, out pops a stick holding a flag saying "bang!" In the DVD version, Joker pulls the trigger again and the flag pole flies out, impaling the henchman. In the broadcast version, the gun sprays poison gas. In both cases, the unlucky henchman falls back, obviously dead. Joker chats for a while in front of Boink's dead body.
On the DVD, Joker asks the surviving henchmen one by one if they are still with him. When he comes to Boink, and Boink doesn't answer, Joker says, "Oh, right. Dead." Then he leads the other henchmen away, one or two looking back nervously at the deceased Boink.
During broadcast, we cut from Joker chatting to Joker leading away the nervous henchmen. I guess asking the dead guy a question was too gruesome for family hour. But the cut is done smoothly. If I hadn't seen the DVD version before, I wouldn't have know the scene was missing. I might still have missed it, if I hadn't remembered the DVD commentary talking about it.
So, there we have it. Superman: Doomsday is almost unwatchable due to editing for content. Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is still a darned good movie. Both aired on the same network within weeks of each other.
Go figure.
