 Welcome, everybody, to another episode, another installment of a week in Geekdom Reviews. I am your host Yvonne Minmez, and this is Episode 6, and welcome, I guess, to the review land of YouTubes. This is our review show, as I've just mentioned, and we thank you for tuning in week after week, or episode after episode, because let's face it, our show is not that consistent. And we've got a special treat for you guys, we've gone a little retro, and by retro I mean just a couple years ago, nothing too fancy, we've got the Blu-ray review for one of my favorite animated flicks of all time, definitely a true gem, unlike last episode, which was eh. But this, my friends, is the Blu-ray release, oh, sorry for the glare, Batman Beyond, Return of the Joker on Blu-ray. Now this film is from the 2000s, 2001 I think if I'm not mistaken, and if you've seen it you know it's a great film, but what I'm going to be focusing in on this episode is the actual Blu-ray transfer, which was amazing, I really liked it, and it's one of those rare gems when you see it, you realize how good the quality is, and when you see the actual film, the old one, and now you see the little specs and details and such, and they really went out of their way to make a good version of an old, timeless classic in the superhero community. If you actually look at it, I was thinking, you know, if you haven't seen it, you would think that this is like a couple years ago or something, like this was brand new, especially the explosion scenes, I know people will focus on other aspects, but one scene in particular where at the start there's this huge explosion, Michael Bay type, and the colors were so crisp and dynamic and the fluidity, if you will, of the animated flame as it encompasses the whole screen, that was just rock solid for me, there's nothing new to say about the voice cast, they're just professionals all the way, and all the classics from Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, Angie Harmon and Melissa Joan Hart, they actually did quite a good performance I had forgotten about their characters and their vocal abilities, if you will, they did a great job as well as Will Friedle. I remember back when Batman Beyond started, people were a little hesitant about it, but they quickly grew to like it and it's become just as famous as the regular animated series from the 90s. This movie of course is I guess like the final spot, the final version of the animated shows because this is in the future of course, and by the way if you want to continue the Batman Beyond series, be sure to pick up the multiple comic book series, this is going to sound a little bit weird but my favorite part of the whole thing, watching in high resolution, was the flashback scene, and by flashback scene I mean where they finally explain what happened, because supposedly when this starts you find out that the Joker died and you learn in that flashback scene how it all went down, and it was pretty good, I remember seeing it on TV and it was, even then it was good with all the edits it had and now we're getting the on cut edition, which was the same as the DVD edition that came out a few years ago, it's nothing new, but I hadn't seen it, I had only seen the TV version and that was pretty good, but now seeing the Blu-ray release, I got to see all the changes they made and some of them were spot on and good for them for making that edit and not causing a whole lot of commotion, and it's great for all the older fans and the new fans, if you've never seen Batman Beyond it's a great take on the whole Batman mythos, it's in the future, Bruce has an apprentice and he becomes a new Batman, basically the Joker comes back and there's a whole mystery as to how the heck can he come back when he's been dead, so when you find out it's, I guess back then it was a little far-fetched, but now seeing so many comic books adapting that type of storyline and sci-fi flicks and stuff, I was like, ah, okay, sure, but I dig it, whatever you say, some of the scenes however, I gotta say like the flashback scene really well made and it was of course in the old animated series fashion from the 90s and that was really good, as for the disc itself, it has a ton of special features, however I must say I was not really that impressed by them, if you will, it has a commentary that, well the commentary was good, no commentaries are always good, it has some animation tests and the Mephisto Odyssey Crash music video featuring Static X and if you're a music buff, you know that Static X, yeah, they sucked, so yeah that was particularly a like a little footnote in the strange history of the 2000s and how music evolved from the 90s and into the 2010s and such, but yeah, I don't know what they were thinking about that, but yeah that was a craze back then, but on to the film itself, it's not too long, it's too short, I guess, but unlike taking into consideration the plot and it being a DC animated movie, I was actually surprised that it was 76 minutes long, but another DC movies that I've reviewed and I've talked about on the podcast for a week and geeked them, I basically said you know that I was not a big fan of how little they, little running time, because you've got like 70 minutes to tell a whole story and sometimes you're adapting these things and a lot of details are gonna be flying off the screen and you're not gonna catch them, whereas in the comic book you have that time, so in the animated world, even though they shortened it and tried to condense and as much story as possible, I really would like them to go beyond the 90 minute mark, I think that would be an appropriate time for each of those movies, but however, this movie in particular was really good, because this obviously was not adapting something from a comic book, this was an original animated property that was based on characters from comic books, but yeah it was it was actually pretty cool to see it, because 76 minutes for this was pretty good, the first couple acts were amazing by the time the flashback rolls, that to me was the highlight of the whole movie, because you finally got to see what happened and you got to revisit those old fond memories of Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and Joker respectively, and after that it just, the final, I might add that the final scene sort of played out a little bit too quick, when everything goes down I'm not gonna spoil it if you haven't watched it, but I'm guessing if you're a fan and you're looking for a review, I'm guessing you already have, but in that final confrontation where everything blows up, I think the way they got rid of them, you know, with the parlor trick and the chip in the neck, it was a little bit too easy I guess for such an important character in the whole mythos of the Batman animated and comic book world, so I guess it was a little bit underwhelming in my opinion, but nonetheless it's a great movie, great art, they really outdid themselves with the voice cast, it's all the classics that you know and love, if you like the 90s you're definitely gonna enjoy this, this great movie and it I sincerely believe it's one of the best DC animated movies they've done compared to all the other recent stuff, it still holds up, it's one of the greats and I definitely go check it out, as I said the special features were a little bit underwhelming and well yes there is a commentary, there are a couple features, they're pretty short, so aside from the commentary all the rest isn't really needed in my opinion, so I guess they could have just released a commentary and I still would have complained that it would have been lacking, so I don't know, maybe it's hard to please movie buffs, but yeah what are we gonna give this film? Definitely a 5 out of 5, it's one of the best DC movies I've ever seen, it's my favorite of the animated movies and I guess it's a bit of a debate if you have to see Batman Beyond and the animated series to watch this, but you should, I mean you can watch the movie and really appreciate it because they do a really good job of explaining it, but yeah as for getting all the details and enjoying the full experience of course you have to check out the series first, the the old one and then Batman Beyond and then watch this this one. 5 out of 5 what more could I say? Great DVD transfer colors look amazing vibrant, I actually went back and looked at the original and it looked really crappy on my TV compared to this to this Blu-ray release and of course when you buy it, I forgot to mention, that of course you're getting both copies DVD and the Blu-ray and the original uncut version of course, so yeah go definitely check it out and let us know what you think of course you can write to us down below or up or left or right I don't know where you're gonna guys are gonna write your stuff but let us know send us your feedback or we can geek them at gmail.com you can also tweet us you can follow us at a weekend geekdom or you can follow us on Facebook just type for our podcast a weekend geekdom and of course please folks don't forget to constantly visit we are trying to update as much as possible our website aweekingeekdom.com we are going through some changes but our podcast is up and running as always and we look forward to recording more episodes so that you can hear it and you can have a hell of a good time listening to them so yeah bat bat beyond return to the Joker five out of five from the from yours truly so definitely go check it out so for everyone here and myself as you can see I'm all alone here in the studio today as always this has been Giovanna Menendez signing off and I will see all of you later