Yeah, it was a kids show (just like Justice League basically was). I just liked that version a lot more. I thought the character was much more interesting, thematically, then the "chaos" Joker in Nolan's movies. Like I said, I wasn't expecting something wacky, and I was expecting him to kill. I just found him off from what I thought the Joker should be.
I think the movie was a change in direction from most of what we'd seen before, but then, the other characters and elements were different two; it's a whole-cloth reinvention. I can see where someone with a strong attachment to an existing canon might be thrown off, but personally, I think the movie version was exactly what was needed to convince us that the character was real, in keeping with the naturalistic tone of the rest of the movies (the first two, anyway).
Yeah, I do have a fairly strong attachment to the characters (I also didn't like that Bruce Wayne wasn't that smart). And, like I said, I didn't expect a wacky Batman: TAS Joker in Nolan's films; he just wouldn't fit in, and I don't see it working out in a live action medium that well.
However, the utter commitment to chaos just wasn't gripping, to me. Whimsy I understand, and expect. And there was some of that there, but it wasn't the focus. No, the focus was on chaos, and that bored me. The commitment to chaos was unexplained and yet somehow predictable, and I kind of want Joker to be unpredictable. I would've liked seeing people not be able to understand how his head works really at all, save for Batman on some level. I just found the goal of chaos rather one dimensional. Still a pretty good movie, though.
This totally jumped out at me though. There was a lot more than some nods in there! That idea is central to the movie ("I don't want to kill you. What would I do without you? No, you complete me."), it was even stated at the end of the first movie (the great exchange on "escalation"). What more could they have done with this "defined by Batman" idea than what they already did?
Well, Joker
says it, but it's not really explored. And, Batman doesn't quite struggle with that fact as much as I think he should. Like I said, there were nods there, but I'd rather see the Joker show us, not tell us.
In one Batman: TAS episode, Joker goes so far as giving up on crime because he thinks Batman is dead, and there's no point if Batman doesn't stop him. Joker actually gets depressed. We don't need to go that far, but at least it's showing us. The commitment to chaos for the sake of chaos plus "you complete me" is basically lip service to that aspect of their relationship, rather than showing the audience that this is the case. In my view, at least. As always, play what you like
