Why Mark Hamill's iconic Joker voice in the Batman animated series makes the role so memorable
Mark Hamill became a household name after playing the role of Luke Skywalker in the 'Star Wars' franchise. However, that's not the only iconic role that requires a mention--- who can forget his voicing of Joker in 'Batman: The Animated Series'? He had also voiced the Joker in several other animated films and video games.
Recently, the actor tweeted about how important that role was for him and joked about how it helped him 'frighten young children'. He wrote, "I can't tell you how much 1 single role has meant to me. Because of him people recognized the gleeful psycho within-Because of him a new career of megalomaniacal villainy opened up & I was now able to frighten young children-I will be grateful for that...Forever."
Eerie, deranged and frightening, the Joker is DC's easily most notorious villain. Every actor from the 1960s with Cesar Romero to Joaquin Phoenix in 2019, has brought something new and added to the sinister image of the murderous clown. While each is distinct in his portrayal, Hamill managed to inspire fear with the dark animation 'Batman: The Animated series', with sometimes just a laugh. While Heath Ledger's laugh was sadistic and creepy,Phoenix's had a laugh full of pain and hollowness in 'Joker', Hamill's laugh as the Joker is chilling and eerie, enough to bring on the goosebumps.
This wasn't just the normal evil guy, this was someone who enjoyed mentally and physically torturing someone because it genuinely amused him. He felt the thrill of killing, but more importantly, tearing into someone's psyche and rattling them. Leaving behind his Luke avatar, Hamill tapped into the sheer cruelty of the Joker and brilliantly captured the madness of the villain. One of his most memorable and haunting outings as the Joker was in the animated film 'The Killing Joke', where he tortures James Gordon and Barbara while recalling what exactly led him to become the Joker. Worse, he tries to make Gordon like him.
However, it's Joker's frenzied speech on memories that stays with us. "Memory’s so treacherous. One moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights, with poignant childhood aromas, the flashing neon of puberty, all that sentimental candy-floss. The next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go, somewhere dark and cold, filled with the damp, ambiguous shapes of things you’d hoped were forgotten. Memories can be vile, repulsive little brutes. Like children, I suppose. But can we live without them? Memories are what our reason is based upon. If we cannot face them, we deny reason itself! Although why not? We aren’t contractually tied down to rationality!
There is no sanity clause! So when you find yourself locked onto an unpleasant train of thought, heading for the places in your past where the screaming is unbearable, remember there’s always madness!
Madness is the emergency exit. You can just step outside, and close the door on all those dreadful things that happened. You can lock them away forever."
Watch Hamill's darkest turn as the Joker was in 'Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker'.
It showed his methodical determination to ruin Batman once and for all and to wear him down emotionally as well as physically. There's a scene that remains etched in fans' minds. The Joker kidnaps Tim Drake and tortures him relentlessly, making him another clone of himself. In the final act, Tim comes through for Batman and kills the Joker. The Joker dies saying, "That's not funny..."
Hamill was last seen in 'Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker', which released on December 20.