Friday's with Blinky: Joker

  This week we take a look at the final Joker short film. Next week we'll round up the miscellaneous Blinky Joker stuff to continue with the Endless Knight theme. Then we might start with the Catwoman stuff.

  Made in 2006, before Dark Knight introduced a different kind of Joker this short brings us Bryan Bockbrader as Joker.  And let me tell you he is a hell of a Joker.  He's a little Ceasar Romero, a little Jim Carey and a little Jack Nicholson.  He's got a great laugh, delivers his lines with a pitch perfect craziness and has presence in his character.  I love the wardrobe on this as well, the Joker in his untucked dress shirt and loosened tie.  Anytime I look at a Joker character I looked for influences from comedians so when I see something I instantly associate it with a comic.  The look of this Joker is very 'late night comedian'.  He looks like he just finished a set at the Chuckle Hut, maybe he bombed, maybe he didn't, maybe he bombed but didn't think he did, anyway that's what he looks like.  Like a deformed psycho who just did 15 minutes on a mic in front of a brick wall.  Perfect.  It's hard to chose a favorite between Bryan and Chris' Joker performances, they're both very different so there isn't a lot of comparison.  It depends on what you like but there's time and room enough for both.

  Joker's the star so he's really the only character who get's time enough to shine.  Deanna Miller is there as Harley.  She's good, what few lines she has she delivers well.  The voice is really good, very close to the source material, which is nice.  She doesn't really get much screen time but she's not a distraction or a detriment, she does her part to carry the short.  Her costume could have been made a little more real however, Joker looks part of the real world but Harley's costume is straight from the animated series so she looks a little out of place.

  You can kind of tell this is early on.  The things Chris would get really really good at in the later short movies are present in this but just a little rough.  The soundtrack dates it a little but fits in with the tone and is thematically appropriate.  The camera work is good with it's low angle shots up at Joker, occasionally at a slight angle to make Joker both intimidating as well as depicting him as twisted.  It's well done and worth checking out.