For decades now, when it came to comic book movies and Christmas, there was only one film that fit the bill, Tim Burton’s Batman Returns (1992). It’s a film that introduced audiences to cinematic versions of Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin (Danny DeVito), and let those of us unfamiliar with mistletoe know that it’s best to kiss under it than consume it. That goth-at-Christmas tale is about to get usurped by a different superhero adventure, and this one is for the whole family. It’s not because it’s animated, but because it offers a child’s eye view of what it means to be a hero and the perils of reaching too far, too fast, and not in your time amid action-packed heroics. At the same time, it also possesses a great deal of heart, offering lessons for parents in terms of letting go and accepting the passage of time. There’s all of this and more in Mike Roth’s (Regular Show) animated adventure Merry Little Batman, a Warner Bros. Pictures/Animation production coming to Prime Video.
L: Luke Wilson as the voice of Batman in MERRY LITTLE BATMAN. . © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. MERRY LITTLE BATMAN and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © DC. All rights reserved.
It’s Christmas Eve and there’s nothing Damien Wayne (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) wants more than to fight crime alongside his father, Bruce (voiced by Luke Wilson), as the sidekick to Batman on the streets of Gotham. Only problem, Gotham’s been crime-free for years. Strike that, two problems, Bruce doesn’t think of Damien as ready to don the tights. But fate has a strange way of setting things in motion when an emergency calls Bruce away and Damien is left to deal with a surprise crime spree that threatens Christmas all on his own. With time running out, can Damien be the hero Gotham deserves?
Yonas Kibreab as the voice of Damian Wayne in MERRY LITTLE BATMAN. © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. MERRY LITTLE BATMAN and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © DC. All rights reserved.
These days, multiverses are about as common knowledge to the general film-watching public as to the longtime comic readers who are watching some of their favorite tales transformed into theatrical releases. Because of this, do your best, dear reader, to recognize that the world of Merry Little Batman is nothing more than an alternate reality in which Damien is a fairly well-adjusted eight-year-old who wants to be just like his dad and not a League of Assassins-raised Heir to the Demon. So if you’re expecting to go into Merry and seeing Damien murder invaders to Wayne Manor, lower your expectations from a Harley Quinn (2019) response to Home Alone (1990). So while it may not be the comics-accurate representation of Damien, Merry creates a version that’s rambunctious, sweet, well-intentioned and immediately recognizable as dedicated to the craft of superheroing.
This is, perhaps, the smartest thing in Roth’s entire project: it quickly establishes who this Damien is and what the tone of the project is from the jump. First, through a rocking holiday tune intro that features a bat wearing a festive hat leading the audience toward the manor, Roth establishes the sort of wink-at-the-camera nature Merry will have while making it clear that this is a different sort of Christmas film. Second, upon our first meeting with Damien (pajama-clad and wearing a brown bag cowl), we find someone who’s incredibly agile, clever, gifted with tools, and possessing a deep desire to follow in his father’s footsteps. This opening establishes that what we’re really dealing with is a son and father story swathed in holiday wrapping and superhero garland. These details make it so that even those without an idea of who Batman is have a clear idea of these characters, their motivations, and that it’s all a smokescreen to tell a story about fathers, sons, and legacy. After all, what is a Christmas tale without some kind of introspection, right?
A good bit of the fun to be had with Merry comes in the animation style. It’s designed like it’s hand-drawn, the colors within the figures visibly shifting as though inconsistently shaded from frame to frame. Rather than implying inconsistency, it inspires a child-like drawn quality, where shapes are a little less than realistic yet not so malformed as to be frightening. Emblematic of this but also a brilliant bit of character design work is in the heads of the Wayne men which appear as nearly mirrors of each other: Bruce with his short head and elongated protruding jaw covered in hair which he thinks “increases the intimidation factor,” while Damien has a smaller, regular-sized head and jaw, but whose hair poofs at the top and extends toward the front. Add in the ninja-like acrobatics and Damien is clearly cut from the same cloth as Bruce. It’s details like these that permeate Merry, each design decision either in character, set, or production indicative of creative minds putting their own spin on a child’s view of the world. To that point, this Gotham does share a little bit of similarity with the gothic design of the beloved Batman: The Animated Series but it’s less sharp in both look and feel, softened enough so that every location doesn’t appear threatening, making the journey Damien goes on less a step into a precarious world or one in which the eight-year-old is perhaps too inexperienced to explore on his own. But Roth and his team make good use of this very fact, creating a situation that borders on kids learning a hard truth about Santa, until it pivots into something distinctly Gotham (unlike recent Netflix release Leo that pulls no punches in that regard). In fact, one could easily play a game of “catch that reference” as Merry has plenty from the live-action films and television program, to the comics, though I’m sorry to say that **spoiler warning** Bat-Cow does not make an appearance. **end of spoiler.**
© Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. MERRY LITTLE BATMAN and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © DC. All rights reserved.
Back to the animation for a moment. There’s a sequence that may be troubling to younger viewers due to the drastic shift in look and tone, as well as the circumstance. It’s a brief sequence that will impress adults and animation fans for the way it changes from the blues, plum, and reddish-browns to straight black-and-white (evoking Frank Miller in a lot of ways), but may upset young ones who are a little more emotionally sensitive. It’s at a pivotal moment in Damien’s emotional and psychological journey as a budding hero, but, more importantly, as a son who just wants to impress his father. It’s not long and is resolved peacefully (again, Christmas film), but be ready to chat with your kids about absence, loss, and the pressures of living up to what your children *think* they are supposed to be versus who they are.
David Hornsby as the voice of The Joker in MERRY LITTLE BATMAN. © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. MERRY LITTLE BATMAN and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © DC. All rights reserved.
I’d be remiss to not at least offer a quick thought on the large penny in the room: Merry Little Batman is an Amazon MGM Studios production by way Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Bros. Animation because the studio decided to sell it off, along with other properties. It used to be that a studio selling off one of its properties was an issue of quality, something that’s plagued films like Coming 2 America (2021) and The Lovebirds (2020), two films that were owned by one studio and sold to another during the start of COVID-19 as a means of keeping money coming in for the former and the ability to offer films for their streaming services for the latter. Put another way, “sent to streaming” holds about as much respectability by some as “direct to video/television.” One shouldn’t be surprised that WB made this choice given the number of other misbegotten choices they’ve made that filled the pockets of the folks in charge while seriously damaging the illustrious studio’s public-facing and art-relation sides. Merry Little Batman may not be a major awards player, but it’s got spunk and an originality in its style and execution that exudes potential to become a holiday staple in nerd houses wherever a film like this can be seen. But rather than give the film the chance to make its mark, it’s going to land on Prime Video ahead of Christmas and will likely get buried in the avalanche of material available on the site rather than be an option at the cineplex when no other animated joint is set to release until Illumination’s Migration on December 22nd. The bright news is that Amazon MGM does seem to put their releases on physical format as both the shared-owned Coming 2 America and the Amazon MGM-released Air (2023) each have Blu-ray and DVD editions. Maybe this means that folks who enjoy Merry Little Batman will be given a similar opportunity to add this good-hearted, fun, and festive family adventure to their collection down the line.
Available on Prime Video December 8th, 2023.
Available on digital-to-own November 15th, 2024.
Available on digital-to-rent November 26th, 2024.
For more information, head to the official Prime Video Merry Little Batman webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
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