Batman: The Killing Joke - The Novel Cut

Updated
batmanyoda_front
Faneditor Name:
Original Movie Title:
Franchise:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
2016
Original Running Time:
76
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
39
Time Cut:
39
Subtitles Available?
Available in HD?
Brief Synopsis:
The original adaptation of the concise graphic novel had added material to "pad it up" to a feature length running time to justify the price tag of a DVD or blu-ray. Unfortunately most of the added material is garbage. This removes almost all the added material and restores this to a proper adaptation of the graphic novel.
Intention:
The Killing Joke, like The Dark Knight Returns that came before it, is one of the blueprints for the modern Batman mythos. In particular for the Joker who was finally given an origin of sorts. Many elements from it were used in the various Batman films including Batman 1989, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Suicide Squad and Todd Phillips' Joker. To put it simply, The Killing Joke is a classic and one of the best Batman stories ever written.
Unfortunately the suits at Warner Brothers decided that the short story couldn't be sold on its own merits and added a 30 minutes prologue and extended many scenes that not only didn't need to be there but watered down the powerful story that Alan Moore wrote.
My intention with this fanedit was to restore Alan Moore's focused vision of two protagonists and their walk over the razor-thin line between sanity and madness.
Additional Notes:
*Spoilers* About the ending, Alan Moore said: "For the record, my intention at the end of that book was to have the two characters simply experiencing a brief moment of lucidity in their ongoing very weird and probably fatal relationship with each other, reaching a moment where they both perceive the hell that they are in, and can only laugh at their preposterous situation." Grant Morisson said: "That's what I love about it, is that nobody's noticed--how many, thirty years ago it was? Batman kills the Joker. That's why it's called The Killing Joke. The Joker tells "the killing joke" at the end, Batman reaches out and breaks his neck and that's why the laughter stops and the light goes out at the end, is because that was their last chance at crossing that bridge. And Alan wrote the ultimate Batman/Joker story--he finished it!"
Special Thanks:
Special thanks to Dwight Fry.
Release Information:
Digital
Editing Details:
I mostly removed everything that was added in but also was forced to make some creative choices because the graphic novel is pure comic book language and this can be difficult to translate into sequential moving images that is cinema's language. For example, Batman's pummeling of thugs to get information on the Joker's whereabouts: In the comic it's all on a single page and intercut with Gordon going through the merry-go-round doors. The way this is experienced in a graphic novel when we turn to that page is our eyes will get all the information in one glance, then look at each panel individually for whatever amount of time is required for us to process what is going on. This can’t be replicated with moving images because it's too jarring and confusing and the subtle things that bind the page together are completely lost. For example one of the merry-go-round doors has a panther whose pattern is also on the prostitutes' dresses.

If you’re curious about the language of comics, do yourself a favor and check out Scott McCloud’s “Understanding comics”. I learned a lot about visual arts and storytelling through it and it’s all told in comic book form so it’s an easy read: https://www.amazon.ca/Understanding-Comics-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X
Cuts and Additions:
- Replaced the godawful Warner Bros Animation logo with the much nicer one from Dark Knight Returns.
- Cut the first half hour as it's pure invention and extrapolation from the graphic novel and even offending (Batgirl has an affair with Batman??).
- Kept a single shot of the rain on the ground as this is how the graphic novel actually begins and ends but it's inexplicably missing at the "real beginning" of this adaptation which is at the 30 minutes 56 seconds mark. that entire 30 minutes is removed from the edit as it isn't in the graphic novel.
- Added a very light rain effect when Batman arrives at Arkham Asylum, the way it looks like in the graphic novel.
- Spruced up the bat mobile engine with a race car engine. It's the bat mobile, not a Toyota Camry.
- Turned down the saturation on the flashback scenes to match the graphic novel.
- Cut the jazz music during the Joker flashback scene when he explains he's a failure to his pregnant wife. Why is relaxing smooth jazz playing? Because that's what you do in a cartoon, you MUST have music everywhere. I replaced the jazz with noise from the street making it even more clear that he lives in a shit apartment in a shit part of town.
- Why did they remove the beautiful Alan Moore transitions from the graphic novel? How difficult would it have been to follow the book? Sadly, this can't be fixed but I did find a nice transition from flashback Joker to carnival Joker to Barbara in the hospital.
- Removed the doctor pricking Barbara with a needle to check her sensitivity while she's sleeping. That is not how medicine works.
- Removed the jazzy music in the shitty bar / restaurant.
- Made a fade transition from the Joker's wife's death to tortured Gordon. like all the other transitions. This transition also fixes the sequence of events that they changed for the adaptation for some reason.
- Removed the entire judge wig sequence as it's not in the graphic novel. It also gives voices and opinions to Joker's lackeys which isn't in the graphic novel either.
- Removed most of the music during the singing Joker sequence and left it as an echo. The sequence works in the graphic novel because we don't hear the music, we pay attention to the lyrics and the point that the Joker is trying to make. However in the context of moving images and sounds, it feels like a Disney musical number. By removing the music and leaving just an echo of it, it lessens the misplaced humor and reinstates the scene as truly horrifying and reinforces the Joker as a megalomaniac.
- Removed Batman saying "I'm gonna count to ten - one, nine. Is he scolding a child? My mom used to do that. Also, it’s not in the graphic novel.
- Removed Batman asking thug to swear to him instead of god. Why would Batman ask this?? Removed most of the dialog but left just enough to let the audience know that Batman is looking for information on the Joker’s whereabouts. The scene is silent in the graphic novel but in the adaptation it just appears as if Batman is randomly beating up thugs. The dialog I left in makes Batman's investigation clear.
- Reconstructed the music and sound effects for the entire Batman pummeling for clues sequence.
- Removed night club mob boss talking to Batman. You don't say "You done?" to Batman beating up your thugs. Also, not in the graphic novel. Also removed the rest of the dialog, just like in the graphic novel.
- Removed the dialog between Batman and the prostitutes. Here it’s a full scene, in the graphic novel it’s a single panel without dialog.
- After Batman receives the circus tickets, changed the transition from a fade in from black to a hard cut to Gordon point of view in the roller coaster car.
- Removed establishing shot of the factory and made a hard cut after Joker says "Time to reflect upon life and all its random uncontrollability" to flashback Joker reflecting on the factory fence.
- Added a glass distortion effect to the Red Hood's point of view to further limit flashback Joker's ability to see in a similar way to the graphic novel.
- Created a new "Alan Moore transition" from Joker laughing maniacally after falling into the vat to Batman's head.
- Deleted Batman's confrontation with Joker's thugs. He meets the Joker right away, just like in the Graphic novel.
- Deleted Batman's fight with the bat midgets. He seemingly kills two of them in the spiked pit, but Batman doesn't kill. Also, not in the novel.
- Deleted Joker's line: "By clinging to reality, you're denying the reality of the situation.". It's clumsy and not in the novel.
- Added police sirens as Batman stated they were on their way, and they do come in the graphic novel as the camera pans down.
- Added back Alan Moore’s name in the credits. He asked for them to be removed but he might appreciate this fanedit. Although he has stated that the story is too violent and that the best Batman adaptation was the 1960s Adam West version. Go figure. Alan Moore is a mad man.

User reviews

9 reviews
 
89%
 
11%
5-7 stars
 
0%
3-5 stars
 
0%
1-3 stars
 
0%
Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.9(9)
Audio Editing
 
9.9(9)
Visual Editing
 
10.0(9)
Narrative
 
9.3(9)
Enjoyment
 
8.8(9)
View all user reviews View most helpful
Overall rating
 
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
I felt this adaptation was much better represented with a much shorter form factor. Despite how much runtime was cut from this edit, it doesn't feel incomplete. However, my gripe with the original cut remains here, in that all that buildup ultimately didn't lead to the most amazing payoff for me personally. However, that has nothing to do with the editing skills displayed here, and I highly recommend this to anyone looking for an animated adaptation of this story.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
(Updated: November 17, 2022)
Overall rating
 
7.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
6.0
Enjoyment
 
3.0
Aside from the usual technical excellence of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's work in their primes, I'm not much of a Killing Joke fan for its darkening ramifications on the wider DCU (though Barbara Gordon as Oracle is the ultimate sow's ear-to-silk purse story in all of comics, thanks to Ostrander/Yale). The original Killing Joke film adaptation written by Brian Azzarello (a good enough writer but undoubtedly a poor man's Garth Ennis who is himself a poor man's Alan Moore) was a bloated, character-betraying mess and the animation was utterly banal DC DTV house style. (For a better visual adaptation of TKJ, I implore all to check out the Zellers Batman commercials by veteran animator John Celestri.)

BlueYoda has done the best possible job of reining in the bloat of the original cut, allowing what is now a faithful adaptation of this undeniably important comic, and it is exciting and even revelatory to see some of Alan Moore's subtler scene shifts (a trademark of this era) take place. I have to admit, a few of them (the cut into Jim Gordon's apartment for example) had never occurred to me.

So a much-improved version of a mediocre adaptation of a seminal but depressive comic. Hard to say I'll revisit it but for the curious, this is definitely the version you want.
R
Top 10 Reviewer 156 reviews
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 2
(Updated: September 23, 2022)
Overall rating
 
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
I really liked this. it was good to get rid of the crap opening and get to the actual good stuff

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
Overall rating
 
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
Can find nothing at all to fault, to utilise the overused phrases the cuts were seamless and it never felt like anything was missing. From all what is said about the extra material on the original version I don't think I ever need watch it, why should when this edit exists!

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
P
Top 50 Reviewer 81 reviews
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
Overall rating
 
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
I love the graphic novel the Killing Joke. It was short, concise, and brutal. Blueyoda's fanedit brings back the brutal concision that was horribly missing from the original. Of course, the important edit is the removal of the unnecessary relationship with Barabara Gordon. This fixed the rewatch for me and made this a watchable, short adaptation of one of my favorite graphic novels.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
View all user reviews