Batman: The Animated Series Christmas Episodes Review

This is Kevin Conway, and I am the goddamn Batman.

Hello and welcome to the 25 days of Tooncast

Beyond Christmas. I am your host TFG and Mike.

Joining me on day 17 of the 25 days Tooncast

Beyond Christmas is Steve Megatron. Hello, sir.

Hello. How are you? Pretty good. All right. And

today Steve and I return to Gotham. That's right,

folks. We're going to be talking about two Christmas

episodes from Batman the Animated Series. The

first one being from Batman the Animated Series

Prepper with Christmas with the Joker. And the

other one being Holiday Nights, which was from

the new adventures. It was the new style. So,

yeah, that's what we're going to be talking about

today. And this is kind of a return for us. And

this is kind of funny because, you know, we're,

you know... We did legends of the dark night

40 podcasts in a year and a half two years however

long it was and we reviewed all the BTIS episodes

reviewed all the Batman Beyond episodes and Do

it again. Well, no Kind of but not really a little

bit different We're not doing every single episode

all over again that would just be repeating ourselves

folks we stand by that content At least the 40

episodes. And gracefully delete it. Hey! I thought

it was funny. Let's not go there. Delete it!

Yeah. I make the punchlines around here. The

joke's on you, Bats. So, we're gonna take a quick

break. First up is gonna be Christmas with the

Joker, and then after that, Holiday Nights. We'll

catch you in a minute. Go get some cocoa, folks.

We'll be back after this. Alright folks, now

that you got your hot cocoa with or without marshmallows,

and you got some chestnuts roasting on an open

fire, and Christmas trees that don't have rockets

in them, and a bunch of other stuff, let's talk

about Christmas with the Joker. You know the

one thing I remember about this one, before I

even watched it, was the whole, you've never

seen it's a wonderful life? Couldn't get past

the title. That was pretty good writing. Yeah

Because Bruce hasn't really experienced a wonderful

day in his life. Yep Absolutely So this one is

basically it's Christmas Eve and the inmates

of Arkham are celebrating they sing jingle bells

and set up decorations Of course Joker is given

the golden ornament to put on the top of the

Christmas tree However, as soon as he places

it on top of the tree a hidden rocket activates

and the Joker rides out to freedom All and all

all the while he is singing Jingle Bells Batman

Smells Oh Mark Hamill Just love that jingle bells

jingle bells jingle all the way Yeah, that's

not what he was singing No, I know oh Come on

Joker get with the season already I Don't want

to do it Well, you should want to do it. I don't

want to do anything Do it or I'll put some gravel

in your throat. I'm Batman. I Don't want to know

what goes in Batman's throat Well, it could be

a clown So the Joker breaks out of Arkham back

in the Batcave Robin does try to convince Batman

to not go out on Christmas and and basically

Joker forces their hand. Yep, pretty much and

You know, we get this whole, you know whole thing

of Batman and Robin where Robin just wants to

kind of kick back for once and Batman's just

his usual Batman self and Meanwhile, the Joker

kidnaps Commissioner Gordon Chief O 'Hara. Oh,

I'm sorry wrong show Commissioner Gordon summer

Gleason and Harvey Bullock and basically introduces

Laffy his Christmas elf You know, I almost would

not have wanted to have seen Joker actually,

like, if they would have just kept the camera

on Laffey and not actually... because the whole

point of the ventriloquism bit is you don't move

your lips. I get that's part of the joke here

because he is moving his lips, but, uh... Well,

you could say he's going, funny guy. Yeah, so...

So, we have Joker's stolen family, the awful

lawful family, and first of all, I see why he

kidnapped Gordon and Bullock, but Gleason? Like,

shouldn't that be where the mayor is? Like, if

you're gonna kidnap people in law enforcement

or the government, like Gleason, she's a media

mogul, or she's a TV reporter, so... i mean i

get it it's part of the joke it's part of the

you know daddy mommy baby thing i understand

that that's funny but i'm just saying he calls

them the awful lawfuls so so the joker has kind

of a sick twisted uh... personality in that he

uh... he wants to play some kind of uh... weird

sex games with his uh... you know uh... this

is not the awful awfuls The awful waffles. Yep,

the falafels. I was gonna say no, so you do some

waffles the falafels and He basically Joker forces

summer Gleason to open a present which is a Betty

blooper doll That has to be a Betty boop joke

And of course then Batman realizes that the doll

could only have come from the Laff Co toy factory

so they then find him and and and all that stuff

and fights ensue and The Joker gives Batman a

present and I hadn't seen this since we had originally

reviewed it on Legends of the Dark Knight, so

I was not sure. It's very rare once I've done

a review series on a cartoon that I go back to

it. There's been a few exceptions that I've done

this with, but this is one of them where I know

in the back of my mind about Christmas with the

Joker, but I don't remember every single moment

of it, and this is one of those things I'm like...

What the hell is he having that blue bat box

and of course it's a it's so he can give Batman

a pie in the face So you really could say I was

a funny guy So the Joker obviously ends up getting

caught and and and everything else and I like

how he got away though in the first place on

the Christmas tree in the beginning the raw Christmas

rocket Yeah, the Christmas rocket jingle bells

Batman smells Absolutely And we have at the end

I love the ending because Batman saves him and

bids him a Merry Christmas and Joker just simply

says Don't want to say it. Come on. You got to

say it. It's Christmas Give me the line. I can't

remember. Oh my god. Now I have to edit this.

All right. Oh Bloody hell I will edit this See

you knew what the fuck it was the whole damn

time I just wanted an edit point Ass. I've got

an edit point coming up, you jackass. What I

love is the ending to this, where basically Batman

saves him and bids him a Merry Christmas, and

Joker simply says, Bah, Humbug. I absolutely

love that. It was just so fun. And of course

- It's the beef. Yeah and of course later Bruce

and Dick do finish watching It's a Wonderful

Life and Bruce does have to admit it does have

its moments and it ends with the Joker spending

Christmas alone in his cell but seems to be in

good spirits singing and laughing. I love this

one. I really do even though I don't go back

to it and watch it a lot. This is a really cool

fun episode. All the Christmas puns. You know

just absolutely awesome Yeah, that's for this

one It correct me if I'm wrong was this the first

episode with the Joker in it. Yes with the Hamill

joke mm -hmm Yeah, first first episode production

wise to feature Robin and the Joker So it was

hammer time Hamill time oh Do do you do? Handle

time It's actually kind of a funny joke yeah,

it is it's it's in a really morbid stupid way,

but Handle time Now see I did not I knew this

but I didn't remember it part of the trivia here

is is that Joker's last appearance in the DC

Animated Universe was Justice League Wild Cards,

which also featured a pirated television special,

and in both episodes Joker used the phrase technical

difficulties. Now, the technical difficulties

I always have and the technical difficulties

audio that I've always had has been the one from

Wild Cards. He does say it in Christmas with

a Joker, but I just never really caught it in

the beginning. Yeah, I always enjoyed it When

he says that Technical difficulties, let's move

on shall we? Yeah, that was awesome Let's see

the Christmas tree from a Charlie Brown Christmas

can be seen in the background when Joker rides

up on the sleigh so that's interesting Let's

see Gordon calls Joker you diseased maniac similar

to how Superman uh... addresses lex luther uh...

in the nineteen seventy eight superman film and

the episode basically makes uh... references

to uh... christmas carol uh... and evanescent

scrooge along with us we were to set it's a wonderful

life the nutcracker ballet uh... this is one

of One of a few only episodes of Batman the animated

series. This is one of the very early ones Where

it was not? Ephraim Zimbalist jr. As Alfred it

was Clive rebel. Yeah, it's Clive rebel go back

and watch it again That's not Ephraim because

I know Ephraim's voice like Yeah, it was Clive

rebel. It was a completely different voice this

time I still love Christmas with the Joker. Four

and a half out of five. What about you? Oh yeah.

Definitely. Definitely. Can't give any less to

the official Joker. Or the official Batman. With

a nice holiday cheer. We'll be back after this

folks with Holiday Nights. We come back here,

have Christmas dinner, and watch It's a Wonderful

Life. You know, I've never seen that. I could

never get past the title. It's a deal, then?

Deal. Step lively there, Brucie. Look! Pianos!

I've had just about enough of this. I think the

stuff is wearing off. Can't have that. give them

another shot writer runny give me some sugar

baby no not again we are back here on day 17

of 25 days to guest around christmas and we're

gonna be talking about Batman the animated series

Batman the new adventures new adventures of Batman

and Superman whatever it is holiday nights this

was the One of the holiday episodes in the It's

actually the premiere episode of the new Batman

adventures Even though it was aired in September

it Contains three Christmas themed vignettes

all completely unrelated to one another This

actually aired September 13th, 1997. This episode

will be... Wow. I feel old. I know, right? Every

time I watch an old show, I just feel old. I

know, right? This episode will be 20 years old

next year. 20 years old? Yep. Wow. Yeah. I'm

30. I know. That's almost as old as me. I know.

Hell, I'm... I'll be... Before this episode turns

20, I'll be 37. in a row. In a row. As if there

were any other way to turn 37. I know, right?

Don't suck any batmen on the way to the... Oh,

I'm sorry. Don't suck the bat pole. Yeah, don't

suck any bat poles on the way to the bat cave.

Good lord. All right, so this one, as we said,

has three Christmas vignettes that actually do

not relate to each other at all. The first one

is December 22nd. uh... which is basically the

holly and ivy story uh... i will talk about that

here in a moment uh... the second one is the

uh... the clay face story on december twenty

fourth and the third one is the uh... joker story

on new year's eve so there's that and uh... every

now and then when i've been going back to some

of the dcau stuff on all of it but i i did do

a watch through of all i know what it was for

uh... when law and records uh... release their

uh... justice league complete series uh... animated

score for the uh... for disk release for the

for the music i got back and i watched the first

season of justice league for the first the first

series the first two seasons of justice league

and So I could listen to the music in the show

and then listen to the music outside the show

and at that time I was taking a bunch of new

screencaps inside of this, thanks to you for

last Christmas, nice new widescreen monitor from

last year that Steve got me and I'm like, oh

yeah, I can take the Justice League show pictures

in widescreen the way they're supposed to be.

And I would put them on Facebook and I would

tag Dan Reba, who is a director on... the dcm

universe stuff and i would ask him you know i

say hey you getting behind the scenes things

for this episode that episode whatever else and

I did this with with this episode as well because

you know it's Christmas and the biggest thing

I always remembered about this episode other

than the adventures was how this episode ended

with Batman and Gordon sitting in a coffee shop

you know drinking coffee together and I asked

Dan on Facebook, Dan Reba on Facebook, I said

do you have any behind -the -scenes moments that

you know you could talk about? He says, we tried

to be as faithful as we could to the comic. Harley's

shorts were too short for the board of standards

and practices, so we had to animate some retakes

to give her boxers. James Tucker boarded the

first part of based on Ronnie Del Carmen's story.

Mike Manley boarded the second story based on

Bruce's story. And Dave Bullock boarded the last

story and the bit with the Batman and Gordon.

The panel frame grab is adapted from my drawing.

He says, the barkeep was designed to look like

Baldini, and the colorist didn't know at the

time and made his hair too light. The patrons

shooed out of the bar based on Bruce Tim, Glenn

Maricami, and Shane Gillines. They were designed

by Dexter Smith. The design count was high because

of the costume change montage at the department

store. so there's some behind -the -scenes moments

for for that we are going to eventually at some

point hopefully beginning of next year after

the holidays i actually sent dan reba a message

on facebook a while ago and i asked him hey would

you like to come on for an interview and he said

yeah sure he said he's a little busy right now

so but we will have him on next year for for

an interview that's gonna be an awesome time

yeah absolutely all right so back to holiday

nights december 22nd it's uh... uh... it's harley

and ivy folks and they're on a christmas rampage

and they decide to get the most eligible richest

bachelor in gotham i think you're going to say

the most eligible richest bastard in gotham come

on now i know his parents were murdered but that

actually was sadly ironic that was sadly anticlimactic

is what that was Bad pun, bad pun. Bad Steve,

bad Steve. Bad pun, bad pun. Oh no, not bad pun,

bad. Ladies and gentlemen, bad, wow, Steve has

gone bat shit crazy. All right, so they get billionaire

playboy Bruce Wayne to basically fit the bill.

The cool thing about how they do this is Ivy

basically doses him with one of her lipstick

poison things. It didn't actually poison him,

it's more of a controlling thing. Like normally

when Ivy uses her feminine wiles, it's to poison

people and kill them, but this is basically just

her having control over him. The awesome part

about it is that he knows that it's going, like

he's trying to resist several... And then she

just keeps re -dosing him. She's like, drugs,

it's for you. Well, at one point she gives the

lipstick to Harley and Harley, you know, puts

it on and says, come here sugar, give me some

sugar. Like, oh my god, Harley. But this is just

fun. I love the costume change montage. That

is so, so fun. It's just a fun little story that

eventually, obviously, is gonna catch up to the

two of them. What did you think of this one overall

this part of the episode I mean I enjoyed it

for what it was. I didn't really care for it

really Yeah, it's more so it wasn't that I hated

or anything because I didn't hate it I just I

just didn't I don't care for like the super girly

story of You know time to You know time to buy

this time to buy that uh... so on the sound christmas

eve at mayfield's department store barbara is

purchasing a new time for her father when all

of a sudden ear -piercing with an ear -piercing

whale cuts through the air interrupting well

yes it's not the same as interrupting cow moon

interupting moon uh... the shop attendant comments

on how they've been uh... Crying all day at which

point we see why Harvey Bullock is playing Santa

Claus with his partner Montoya. He's on stakeout

Bullock showing rare sensitivity around this

time and So this turns into a clay face story

and all the all the kids that have been shoplifting

in the in the department store basically all

parts of clay face and and You know he begins

to tear up the place and Of course Barbara goes

behind some clothing Racks and basically changes

into her back girl outfit. I I almost Wonder

like obviously she undressed completely behind

there But there's a point where she pops up and

we see her putting her gloves on and it doesn't

look like she actually has a bra on I'm like,

oh my god Yeah This one was alright. I like it

for the fact that it's Batgirl But I don't know

It's a little strange Did you have any overall

thoughts on this on the Christmas Eve block?

I generally don't like clay face, but I like

Batgirl, so you know It kind of counterbalances

out then finally we have Joker making a New Year's

Eve resolution and he's setting up Batman for

the fall because he's going to basically drink

scotch he's gonna drink scotch and he's going

to kill everybody at Gotham Square on New Year's

Eve at midnight So much for people saying metropolis

is New York and Gotham is New Jersey if there's

a Gotham Square And there's a Times Square there

must be similarities So there is a time to be

square So if you're if you'd be there never mind,

yeah, I I got bad jokes, man You're in rare form

tonight. It's one of them one of them days. I

don't think you've had your medicine yet today.

Have you? haven't had my cola drinking it now

but I love this one this one's funny and that

you know what I love about this one really doesn't

really it doesn't really hit me until 65 years

in the future when they use part of this as the

voice match in return of the Joker you know A

countdown of victims leading up to midnight unless

our dear Dark Knight stops me first. Our dearly

departed Dark Knight stops me first. Ha ha ha

ha ha ha. Absolutely. They used that line in

Batman Beyond. Yes, yes they do. Although it

was re -recorded and edited. Oh, was it? Yes.

It wasn't the original, but they wanted it to

look like the original. Yeah, they wanted it

to look like the original. I do really enjoy

this. I think it's a fun overall episode. It's

fun three little stories in here With the last

one here, it's it's Batman versus the Joker and

there's so many awesome Notes and puns. I mean

the whole ending with the bell falling on him

and it cracking Obviously the Liberty Bell. I

mean come on now Was just a bad pun. Yeah, it

was done really well on animation. Yes, it was

It was kind of punny Stop stealing my lines I've

gotten to be 30 years old. I've earned that right

What would we give I enjoyed I enjoyed this one

a lot better. Yeah plus You know, it's it's It's

the freaking Joker so I can't go wrong whenever

he shows up, but that's cuz I'm biased Yeah,

absolutely Absolutely love this one. So that's

our our Batman Christmas episode here folks on

25 days to guess around Christmas The animation

in both of these these episodes is is spot -on

amazing obviously two different eras of btas

because this this holiday nights was a Was the

launching point of the new event new Batman adventures,

but I still love both of them it's still so fun

and Yeah, that's going to do it for day 17 here.

Anything you want to say before we get the joke

out of here? Where's Captain Clown? You shot

him. You killed Captain Clown. We'll catch you

tomorrow, folks, when we head on over to Justice

League. Only on 2CastBeyondz. Twenty -five days

of Christmas. It was nice of Commissioner Gordon

to give you that recording of It's a Wonderful

Life. And it is a Wonderful Life. It has its

moments. We brought the entire convention center

to the brink of an intergenre geek war. Okay,

Michael, if we're going to tackle this podcast

thing, we've got to do something really special.

It has to be cool. daily, in audio form, and

undetectable by radar. Something that screams

summer. I know, let's do a Phineas and Ferb review

podcast. We'll call it the Podcast Organization

Without Equal Acronym, or Pauka for short. What

do you think? I think if we're not careful, Candice

is gonna bust us. You can find Pauka on the GeekCast,

Radio Network, iTunes, Blog Talk Radio, and all

of the other methods you find podcasts. We'll

give you the whole seat, but you'll only need

the head. Happy New Year, Commish. I heard your

buddy had a rough night. I wouldn't be surprised

if he didn't show this time. And break our tradition?

In fact, unless I miss my guess, that's him now.

How's that arm? Better than the Joker's. Close

one this time. They're all close ones. Well,

here's to survival. Hopefully we'll be doing

this again next New Year's Eve. Hopefully. And

now, Joe, if I could get one of your famous cheese

steaks to go, I'll be ready to call it a night.

Anything for you? One of these years, I'm going

to beat him to the check.