It’s a little hard to put Merry Little Batman in a box (with or without wrapping paper and a bow). It has a weird art style that seems part Regular Show, part Nightmare Before Christmas, and part Calvin and Hobbes. It doesn’t adhere to anything close to an existing canon. There’s a few gross-out kid jokes in the beginning but nothing close to the more troubling bits of Eight Crazy Nights. It doesn’t quite have the heart of Eight Crazy Nights either, though.
Yours truly spent the first thirty minutes wondering who in the hell they made this for (which is pretty much what comes to mind whenever walking through a comic book shop now so that probably tracks). Somewhere between wondering why a DC/Warner Bros property was put out on Prime rather than their own damn service, MAX, and noticing that it clocks in at roughly 90 minutes, it was easy to figure it out. This nerdy, meta-heavy holiday fever dream was made for me. This is an animated version of the old Marvel What The…!? title or any number of goofy, satirical one-shots that Marvel or DC would put out from time to time. The ones only the completionist uber nerds bothered to put in their weekly stack.
The decision was made to focus on a grade-school-aged Damian Wayne. In this tale, Damian is just a regular kid rather than his trained-assassin-from-birth comic book counterpart. His days are spent running through the expanse of Wayne Manor in a homemade Batman costume and battling imaginary villains under the watchful eyes of overprotective and semi-retired Bat-Dad, Bruce Wayne (Luke Wilson, Old School) and an aged, doting Alfred Pennyworth (James Cromwell, Star Trek: First Contact).
The thing is, Gotham City has no crime. Upon learning he was going to be a father, Batman really buckled down on the crime punching and made Gotham a utopia. His main mission now is to hover around Damian in order to danger-proof every facet of his life and grow a killer beard “to up his intimidation game.” When Batman is called away by the Justice League, burglars strike and Damian tries to recreate the McAllister home all throughout Gotham when one takes his new utility belt. The chaos that ensues draws the attention of Joker, Bane, Poison Ivy, a Rascal-riding Penguin, and Mr Freeze (sporting a rather familiar accent).
There are a few points in the story where the characters get to learn things. Damian comes to realize his father’s lessons about focus, responsibility, and sacrifice. Bruce has to trust his son and his own ability as a father to save them both. There’s even a sad little Blade Runner “tears in rain” moment in there if you look for it.
Ultimately, time will tell if Merry Little Batman will be a bag of Easter eggs for mega nerds, a legit holiday classic, or something in-between. The writing comes from the staff of Teen Titans Go! and Regular Show, so it likely has more trans-generational appeal than this writer is probably giving it credit for. And, hey, yours truly thought Elf and Jim Carrey’s The Grinch were doomed so maybe it’s time to take a cue from Commissioner Gordon and stand back and let the experts handle this.
