Merry Little Batman

Today I watched Merry Little Batman.  As anyone who knows me in the slightest knows, I am,  it is fair to say, "not a Christmas person."

Pictured: Not a Christmas Person.

My idea of Christmas movies is "Black Christmas" (the original), "It's a Wonderful Knife", or "Dead End" (2004).  

"Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go..."

I am, however, a Batman person. And so I watched "Merry Little Batman."

The bad?  The hideous, off-putting "Sponge Bob style" animation.   The wildly inappropriate song choices, which if I had been watching this film with a child would have caused me to turn it off immediately.  Some cartoony violence that's more Looney Toons than Batman (which is odd, since Warner Bros. passed on releasing this film themselves and gave it to M-G-M as some sort of tax write-off / holiday gift).  There seems to be some sort of Brit-tinged "edgy" humo(u)r that colors a lot of these decisions, which is also odd since the director is from Allentown.

Perhaps it's Allentown's long-festering yule-envy of neighboring Bethlehem, which gets all the Christmas tourism.

And the severely mixed messaging of young Damian learning that eight-year-olds are, unsurprisingly and obviously, definitely totally not ready to fight crime and of his father Bruce learning that eight-year-old are, suddenly and inexplicably, definitely totally ready to fight crime.

But there is a good. It got a few belly laughs out of me, which was a pleasant surprise.  The idea of villains who have grown elderly is one I've seldom seen. Damian's natural talent for collateral damage not being a cartoon throwaway but a crux of the plot was an enjoyable twist.  And seeing a Joker who has grown sentimental but no less dangerous, manipulative was an unexpected delight.

It's not easy to portray a Joker who is both silly and insidious, but they nailed it.

It is definitely not "destined to be a classic".  But unless you are the starchiest of Batman fans, you will probably get some enjoyment out of "Merry Little Batman".