I’m
sure I don’t have to tell you how big a Batman fan I am. I did after all do the
‘Top 15 Batman Villains’ and ‘Batman Live’ pieces as my first posts back in
August last year, followed by the ‘The Batman vs. Dracula’ film and my review
of the 2004 animated series, and you all know how the Joker is my favourite
Batman villain, and that Mark Hamill is the best Joker ever.
Now
following the release of ‘Arkham City’, Mark Hamill stated that that was his
last outing as the Joker, and it was effectively cemented when the Joker was
killed off at the end. And people complained more about the Mass Effect 3
ending (My review of Mass Effect 3 is coming). I then heard that, on Twitter,
someone asked Hamill and he effectively said “never say never”. I really have
no idea what’s going on now.
Or
at least I think they’re planning to do an animated one, otherwise why all the attention? But I can’t seem to find anything concrete online; there’s nothing
on IMDB, zip on Wikipedia, and I found some bits online about ‘The Killing
Joke’ (I’m just going to refer to it as ‘TKJ’ now) being a possible future
work. That and the fact that if the people behind an animated version of TKJ’
even have the idea of going to anyone other than Mark Hamill, well, it’s one of
the twelve signs of the Apocalypse.
Granted,
there have been plenty of other voice actors who played the Joker, so I suppose
the possibility of someone else getting the job isn’t hard to imagine. There is
a video on Youtube entitled ‘The many incarnations of the Joker’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql6nV7dgz6s&feature=related)
, which does
actually provide a pretty good comparison between them. I have no idea which of
these voice actors are still available, but this post is essentially going over
all of them. Well, except for the Joker in ‘Crisis on Two Earths’, who they
changed into the Jester. Yes it’s an alternate version of the Joker, but it
just isn’t the same. If you want my input on the Jester, well, the character as
a whole doesn’t seem to be on the same level as the Joker.
Anyway,
we first have the Joker from ‘Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder’. Huh, I wonder
why Robin got a longer part of the title. But anyway from what IMDB tells me,
it was Larry Storch, who is described on IMDB as a “kinetic wiseguy”, and there
lies the problem. No offence to the guy, I’m sure he’s a good man, but after
listening to his Joker, well, he doesn’t sound like the Joker, he sounds more
like one of the Three Stooges. His voice doesn’t exactly resemble the Joker nor
sound that maniacal, so how can we find the Joker terrifying? I know that that
was what the producers wanted at the time so that the show was more kid
friendly, but it’s just the wrong voice.
And
that’s kind of the same problem with Jeff Bennett’s portrayal in ‘Batman: The
Brave and the Bold’ TV series. Though he does seem to portray Joker like a
Shakespearian actor, it was played a bit more like you’d expect the Joker to be
played. On top of that the ‘Brave and Bold’ series was more of a homage to the
old TV series than anything else.
Then
there’s Frank Welker. Now, if you haven’t heard of Frank Welker, where the Hell
have you been? Welker has been doing voice acting for over forty years, having
voiced the likes of Fred from ‘Scooby Doo’, Doctor Claw in ‘Inspector
Gadget’, and Nibbler from ‘Futurama’.
Now, why I do think Welker is a living legend and very much love most of his
performances, there are some which sound off. There’s Megatron in
‘Transformers’ where he sounds like he has a sore throat, and there’s the Joker
where he sounds too whiney. He sounds too much like a henchman rather than a
criminal mastermind, Hell, he sounds like Penfold from ‘Danger Mouse’!
We
also have the Joker from ‘Young Justice’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No4HyDGQSHg&feature=related)
. Oh boy where
do I begin? This Joker is voiced by Brent Spiner, and I had to find the ‘Young
Justice Wiki’ site to find that out. The only good thing about this portrayal is
it’s creepy, which is what we kind of want from the Joker. The bad thing is he
sounds completely wrong. He sounds like he’s whispering every single line,
every line sounds forced, and...he just sounds wrong! He sounds like a pervert
you’d find hiding in your closet. This Joker has no chemistry, no hilarity,
this is not the Joker everyone has come to love.
There
are two others I want to go other before I get to Hamill. First, we have John
DiMaggio from ‘Under the Red Hood’ (URH). Now, DiMaggio, who is more famous for
portraying Marcus in the ‘Gears of War’ franchise and Bender in ‘Futurama’, did
a really good job as the Joker in URH, he sounds like he could go from
eccentric to psychopath in a second (Which, in fact, he does) and actually puts
some effort into his voice. The only bad thing I can comment on, is that
DiMaggio’s Joker laugh is a bit lacklustre, it sounds like he’s trying to
achieve the right Joker laugh, but is being held back.
So
yes, DiMaggio is a favourite amongst fans to becoming the new “main” Joker. But
if Hamill has/does retire from donning the purple suit (In animated form
anyway), I actually think that Kevin Michael Richardson should be the main man.
He voices the Joker in the 2004 animated series, and I personally feel he does
the best job beside Hamill. Richardson’s voice matches the Joker very well,
especially the Joker’s eccentricity, and he has nailed that fine line between
funny and insanity. While the radical redesign was something which many fans may
not have liked, I’m sure you remember my comments on how the Joker now looks
like Hitmontop, Richardson’s voice acting immediately makes us forget that. Again,
like DiMaggio, I do feel that Richardson needs to work on the laugh; it’s not
bad but it’s not great either.
To
be honest, I’d love to play the Joker, the Joker is my dream role. Alas, I will
never portray the Joker. It’s not that I’m not a professional actor, I’d love
to get into the business so that others can criticise my acting skill. But I cannot
play the Joker, because I can’t do the laugh. It doesn’t matter if you’re the
worst actor or the best actor, if you can’t nail the laugh, you can’t play the
Joker. Jack Nicholson did (To be honest) an alright laugh, Heath Ledger did a
brilliant laugh, Mark Hamill, is the template for the Joker’s laugh.
Seriously,
go listen to Hamill’s laugh, and you’ll see what I mean. If another Joker’s
laugh does not meet Hamill’s laugh, then that Joker might as well be thrown out
the window. On top of that, Hamill is just the best Joker ever. His style and
energy to the role is fantastic, the voice is perfect. Mark Hamill truly
brought the character to life, it is really hard to see anyone other than
Hamill play the part.
So
of course Hamill should play the Joker in the animated TKJ! There is no-one
else on the planet who can be Joker in TKJ. While DiMaggio and Richardson are
the best replacements, Hamill IS Joker, anyone else is a tragedy. If anyone
other than Hamill is selected to play Joker, they will have extremely big shoes
to fill and high expectations to fulfil. It won’t be fair on the actor or the animation.
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