Fans love a good violent Batman movie once in a while, but when a promising animated film gets censored after it proved to be the perfect avenue to channel the grim and grotesque nature of the franchise, it surely was a massive disappointment for the audience.
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker almost gave fans what they wished for, but after a tragic shooting accident that happened in 1999 at the Columbine High School, the media’s portrayal of violence was put in question. This forced Warner Bros to distribute a censored version, while the original cut was released later in 2002.
5. The Decapitation Of Two-Face’s Dummy
In one of the scenes that took place inside Bruce Wayne’s Batcave, a collection of dummies representing his enemies was shown on the screen. The famed Caped Crusader then threw a Batarang, bouncing on Harvey Dent, aka Two-Face’s dummy, severing its head.
This was considered as extremely violent for the viewers, and it also portrayed Batman in a negative way. He was even friends with Dent in the past.
4. Omitted Escorts Scene
The flashback scenes held a lot of stories about Batman and Joker’s confrontation. In one of the sequences, Batman and Batgirl walked through the streets of Gotham to look for Robin. There was a scene where the latter was dealing with escorts. This was ultimately altered in the censored version. The two escorts were replaced by a random guy and girl.
3. The Color Of Joker’s Message
Nothing makes the Joker more frightening than his tricks and games. When the villain infiltrated the Batcave, he poisoned Wayne with his own venom. Batman is saved by Terry McGinnis by giving him the antidote, though he finds a message written on the wall painted in purple color.
The words ‘Ha! Ha! Ha!’ in the original version were written in red signifying the color of blood. The change ultimately gave the hint that Joker only used paint.
2. Bonk’s Death
As one of the members of the Jokerz, Bonk was expected to have more significance in the franchise, but his untimely death cut his promising future. He exhibited impatience that angered Joker, and so he ended up facing his wrath.
The original film showed that he was speared through the heart, assuring his death would be quick and certain. In the revised version, he was only poisoned by the Joker venom.
1. Joker’s Death
Fans would definitely be shocked that the death of the titular character was also altered. In the flashback scenes, Tim Drake fires a spear gun at Joker, while in the edited version, he drops the gun and lunges at Joker in order to lose his balance, ultimately falling into a web of wires that electrocuted him. This might be an appropriate change, though, given the situation that the studio was trying to deal with at the time.
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is available to watch on Prime Video.
