Batman: The Killing Joke (2016) on Netflix

R20161h 16mAction Animation Crime

Barbara Gordon patrols as Batgirl while Batman hunts an escaped Joker. A robbery pulls her toward Paris Franz, a mob nephew who fixates on her, and Batman takes her off the case.

Netflix3.3/5
IMDb6.4/1066,720 votes
Rotten Tomatoes35%

Trailer

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Plot summary

Barbara Gordon spends her nights as Batgirl, patrolling Gotham alongside Batman. Answering the bat-signal for a robbery in progress, she chases the getaway van and crosses paths with Paris Franz, nephew of a powerful crime boss. Franz becomes infatuated with her and sends her messages. Batman, concerned for her safety, takes her off the case. Meanwhile the Joker has escaped from his cell at Arkham Asylum, leaving a decoy in his place. Batman links a murder scene, where four men lie dead with smiles on their faces, to him, and the Joker's attention turns to Barbara and her father, Commissioner James Gordon, whom he seizes.

Cast

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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

Mark Hamill, who wanted to quit playing the Joker at the time, said at San Diego Comic-Con in 2011 that he would voice him for an adaptation of The Killing Joke and encouraged fans to campaign for it; his fans then set up a Facebook petition page titled "Petition to get Mark Hamill to play the Joker in animated Killing Joke".
In 2009, producer Bruce Timm was slated to make an R-rated version of The Killing Joke, but concept artist Phil Bourassa revealed that development stalled after just two weeks because DC's live-action Watchmen underperformed.
The Killing Joke became the first Batman film and the first Warner Bros. Animation film to be rated R by the MPAA.
The film's first night of Fathom Events screenings took $3.2 million in the US and became the biggest theatrical event in Fathom's history.
Adapting Brian Bolland's realistic art style was too challenging to animate, so the crew brought in artist Kevin Nowlan for his simpler, similar style, and the animation was done by The Answer Studio, an outsourced studio in Japan.
Producer Bruce Timm said the team had to add a lot more story because the source graphic novel was not long enough to make a feature-length film.