Director – Mike Roth, Screenplay – Morgan Evans & Jase Ricci, Story – Morgan Evans & Mike Roth, Producer – Rebecca Palatnik, Music – Patrick Stump, Supervising Animation Director – Mac Whiting, Animation – Doghead Animation & Gigglebug Entertainment, Art Direction – Guillaume Fesquet. Production Company – Warner Bros. Animation.
Voices
Yonas Kibreab (Damian Wayne/Little Batman), Luke Wilson (Bruce Wayne/Batman), James Cromwell (Alfred Pennyworth), David Hornsby (The Joker), Therese McLaughlin (Poison Ivy), Dolph Adomian (Mr. Freeze), Brian George (The Penguin), Natalie Palamides (Francine), Michael Fielding (Terry), Chris Sullivan (Bane), Reid Scott (Commissioner Gordon)
Plot
It is nearing Christmas in Gotham City. Bruce Wayne has arrested all the super-villains of Gotham City and retired from being Batman so that he can raise his son Damian. Now eight years old, Damian most wants to be a junior Batman and is delighted when Bruce gives him the Christmas present of a toy utility belt. Batman is then called back into action by the Justice League to an emergency in Newfoundland. Damian is upset that he cannot come too. Damian contrives to send Alfred out so he can play on his own only for criminals to break into Wayne Manor. When they snatch the utility belt, Damian goes into action but his pursuit wreaks havoc through a Christmas parade. This gains the attention of The Joker and a consortium of other super-villains including Poison Ivy, Bane, The Penguin and Mr Freeze, who have hatched a plan to steal Christmas from Gotham. They use the utility belt to lure Damian, where The Joker considers his wake of destruction as great as any super-villain.
There is a lengthy series of animated Batman films made among the DC Universe Original Animated Movies, along with assorted Batman animated tv series. The 2000s have also given us some real oddities when it comes to the Batman animated film, including the likes of The Batman vs. Dracula (2005), where Batman takes on Dracula; Batman Unlimited: Animal Instincts (2015), Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem (2015) and Batman Unlimited: Mechs vs Mutants (2016) based on a line of Batman action figures; Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders (2016) and Batman vs. Two-Face (2017) in the style of the 1960s Batman tv series featuring the voices of Adam West and Burt Ward; the entertainingly parodistic The Lego Batman Movie (2017); the anime film Batman Ninja (2018) where the characters are translated to mediaeval Japan; and the crossover Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2019). Amid this, one of the strangest is Merry Little Batman, a Batman Christmas film.
Merry Little Batman is a real head-scratcher. It is Batman reconceived in terms of I really don’t know what. The artistic style is the stretched elongated figures of Charles Addams or perhaps more recently the world of Despicable Me (2010). This leads to some bizarre piece of over-ornamentation such as the Batmobile, which looks like a Saturn V rocket redesigned in terms of Steampunk. Entry into the Batcave requires an absurdly complicated series of steps including opening a bank vault door, travelling down a rickety bridge on a mining cart, crossing a rope bridge, going down two elevators and abseiling down a waterfall.
None of this is quite as bizarre as the redesigns of the characters. Like the idea of Batman with a beard, or Damian who spends much of the film with a mask that resembles a paper bag over his head. Alfred has been drawn as a doddery old codger who looks as though he is one step away from a walking frame. Bruce and Damian sing a chorus of Batman (1966) tv series theme tune “Nana nana nana.” And that’s not even getting to the scenes where Damian gets his own Batsuit, which comes with a built-in A.I. called Bat-Dad. It gets even more bizarre when it comes to the super-villains. The Penguin spends the entire film confined to a senior’s motorised scooter. Co-writer Morgan Evans was apparently a fan of Batman & Robin (1997) and so wound in the villains from that film – thus we get a Mr Freeze who wears a Hawaiian shirt and makes bad puns in a Schwarzenegger accent.
Damian in Batsuit(l to r) Alfred, Batman (with beard) and Damian with cat in the Batmobile
Just as bad is some of the ways in which characters are wrenched out of shape. Ever since, he was introduced on the comic-book page in 2006, Damian has been the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul, who was raised in the League of Assassins and has naturally violent instincts that Bruce is constantly having to curb. This version fairly much erases Damian’s background and simply has him as a naive kid who seeks to emulate his father and nothing more than that. Certainly, we do get namedrops of Talia and mention of how she was a complicated person – we even get a cutaway of Batman’s body and see the name Talia tattooed next to his heart. As Batman, Luke Wilson emulates the laidback surfer dude delivery of his better known brother Owen and delivers the least Batman-like characterisation in the history of the cinematic Batman.
Indeed, Merry Little Batman may well be the worst Batman adaptation since the aforementioned Batman & Robin. Aside from the character atrocities and inanity of the humour, the plot essentially amounts to a Batman-universe take on Home Alone (1990) with the criminals being on the receiving end of a high degree of slapstick animated violence. Oh and the show ends with Batman, Damian, Alfred, Commissioner Gordon and The Joker all sitting down the have Christmas dinner together –he may be a maniac, but The Joker really just wants to not be alone for Christmas – and singing Jingle Bells (Batman Smells).
