Christmas with the Joker

"Christmas with the Joker" was the second produced episode of Batman: The Animated Series, but it was the 38th aired, not being shown until Nov. 13, 1992, which was just in time for Christmas. Unfortunately, since this was the second episode made, the animation was a bit sloppier and many of the voices hadn't quite "found their way" yet (Alfred was voiced by a completely different actor). So kids who had watched the previous 37 episodes in a row would probably be wondering why this one was so shoddy. Of course, it wasn't all that bad.

This is the first time Mark Hamill performed the voice of the Joker, which was simply sublime. His signature laugh, wide range of emotions, and the ability to sound goofy and menacing at the same time made Hamill the definitive voice of the animated Joker for nearly 20 years. Just like there will never be a voice for Batman as good as Kevin Conroy, there will never be a cartoon Joker that sounds just as good as Hamill did. For being the first appearance of this classic character and iconic voice, I will add a point.

I'll add another point for the first appearance of Robin. He is a very important character in the DC universe, and I really liked what they did with him here. He's a little older, which is a little more realistic, and he's off at college now, which allows him to come and go when needed. I think Batman does work best alone, but it is necessary to occasionally contrast him with someone more cheerful, and nobody does that better than Robin.

Now, this is a pretty goofy episode, and probably shouldn't be taken seriously, but I have to take my Batman episodes seriously. With the Joker, I'm willing to let a few things slide, like rocket Christmas trees, but some things are just too strange, like using candy canes to gag his hostages. How did they stay in their mouths? Why couldn't they spit them out? Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if they were just stuck in their mouths the whole time, but the Joker repeatedly pulled them out and put them back in, accompanied with a strange velcro-like sound effect. The score is now a 6.

I'll take another point off for the sloppy animation. Of course, this is the second episode made, and they obviously spent more time with "On Leather Wings," but for this Christmas special that wouldn't run until after 37 episodes had been aired, the animation should have been better. The animators could never figure out quite how long to make the Joker's face or how skinny to make him. In some scenes he looked kind of fat, but then he was fine in the next scene. They also had a hard time deciding how big certain things should be, like the Joker planes that Batman fights off with a very rubbery bat and Robin catches in a trash can without moving. The planes initially looked quite small, like normal-sized remote control toy planes, but then one of the heads pops off and it's huge — almost as big as Robin's head!

This leads me to my next point deduction for the crappy action scenes. Batman and Robin have a couple of challenges before they get to the Joker, and as such, each challenge should build up in intensity. Unfortunately, one of the challenges that had the most potential, stopping a moving train, was one of the first things they had to do. They should have saved that for last and made a bigger deal of it. Instead, the final challenge before the Joker was a rather boring fight in the toy factory complete with Batman's nonsensical instruction to Robin: "Operation Cause and Effect."

Kind of along those same lines, was how Batman defeated the Joker's henchmen. He pushed a giant teddy bear onto them. A bear so big and heavy that two full-grown thugs couldn't push it off themselves or crawl away from it. Why not momentarily knock them down under a whole bunch of toys and then have Robin tie them up while Batman chases the Joker? That's what Robin's there for! The impracticality of this massive teddy bear that says, "I wuv you very much" is enough to knock the score down to a 3.

But not all hope is lost! This is Christmas, after all! I will add a point for the genuinely funny moment when the Joker gives Batman a present that throws a cream pie in his face. That's all the Joker really wanted to do — just give Batman a Christmas present. He had a bit of outside help and went to a lot of work just to cause some chaos, throw a pie in Batman's face, and then go back to Arkham. He didn't want to kill Batman, not on Christmas. Just mess with him a little bit. And that is a Joker I can appreciate.

Final score: 4 out of 10.