Batman: TAS episode #33: Christmas with The Joker

[Editor's note: I'm going to stick with the numbering system that I started with, which is based on HBO's arrangement. until I get to disc 4 of the Blu-rays, where I can begin following the arrangement that is presented on the discs and simply move on from there.]

Unlike the previous episode (Beware the Grey Ghost), Christmas with The Joker is presented as a very "standard" Batman adventure and, in truth, kind of like a "standard" Christmas period TV show, where the basic premise is subsumed in the holiday timing and theming that one assumes was foremost on the minds of the viewers, with Consumerist Extravaganza (aka the holiday season) looming large, so Batman and Co. were following suit. This was originally the second episode of the series broadcast on November 13th of 1992 so that does become one of the themes of the episode, in which Robin insists that it's time for them to kick back and take a break during the holidays, while Batman is determined to keep their normal routine, not least because the Clown Prince of Crime has just escaped from Arkham and our hero knows he'll be a problem. It's a pretty standard plot in that respect and follows it to the letter, so there's very little innovation here from a screenplay perspective. In some respects, that's fine, because anything involving The Joker is going to be just as entertaining, if not moreso, than any of the other regular villains that we'll encounter. That's reemphasized here by the reminder that Mark Hamill is perhaps the best choice ever made as the voice talent behind the deadly harlequin, as his mildly deranged cackle gives us the air of menace we needed behind the character's otherwise goofy exploits and schemes. With Commissioner Gordon, Summer Gleeson, and Harvey Bullock held captive as "the Lawful Family" whom The Joker threatens to kill if the heroes don't get there in time to save them, the producers not only generated a regular Batman adventure with Christmas trappings but also dropped in the people who would be part of the regular series cast for years.

The episode was also an acknowledgement of the greater cultural context that would be attached to the series, as it begins with the schoolyard rhyme that would never have been approved of by DC Comics but which most children of the era would've been familiar with:

Jingle bells, Batman smells
Robin laid an egg
Batmobile, lost a wheel
Joker got away-hey!

This was a Batman for the 90s, in which society has become refamiliarized with the character as an essential part of the culture and not just a costumed superhero known only to children. Again, the dual nature of good cartoons- funny pictures and adventures for the kids, more mature even subversive messages for the adults akin to the best of Warner Bros. productions, rather than the basics of something like Disney -is evident here. These are the lessons of Marvel ringing true in DC presentations and a tip of the hat to how Batman has greater appeal than almost any other character in the DC stable for many, many reasons. A further example of that appears in the discovery of a "Betty Blooper" doll; an acknowledgement of Betty Boop, a classic character of animation history who had just been reintroduced to moviegoers and animation fans everywhere with the recent production of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? in 1988. Here was also a chance to insert the usual Jokerisms (a menacing Joker-in-the-box and the dolls produced by LaffCo as a clue for the heroes to find where the villain was hiding), as well as an opportunity to bring in Danse Macabre as a musical overture to the action. As the second episode of the new series, it doesn't stray too far from the old reliables, which is both understandable and acceptable, even if it seems rote, 30+ years later (and kinda did, then, too.) Speaking of which, Robin being used to spit out expository elements of the plot ("We gotta stop that train-!" after they discover that The Joker has detonated the nearby railway bridge) is also SOP right from the 60s TV show, alongside a typical pun line when our hero dispenses with some of Joker's threats in the most direct way possible ("They don't call ya Bat Man for nothing!") I will say that the writers missed a chance to make the cream pie that covered The Batman some kind of dire chemical, but we'd reached the end of our half hour episode running time by then. Ah, well.

Anyway, a solid return to our examination of the series with the greatest foe The Batman has ever had or ever will, even if it was about as bog-standard as you can get for a plot. Next up, we revert to a more mundane challenge for the Darknight Detective when he encounters a moral quandary that is a more pointed example of the series' direction toward younger viewers in See No Evil.