Invasion of the Secret Santas! Original Airdate - December 12th, 2008
In this week's episode, the evil Fun Haus plans
to steal Christmas with his army of robot Santas and
killer toys including Dynamite Dolly and the Presto Play
Pals! Red Tornado teams up with Batman to save the day
and in the process, finds his holiday spirit. In our
weekly teaser, Batman and Blue Beetle throw Sportsmaster
a perfect strike when he sets up a deadly game with
human bowling pins at the alley!
Written by Adam Beechen
Directed by Brandon Vietti
Animation by Lotto Animation*
Review by Andew
Media provided by Warner Bros. Animation
* - Due to Cartoon Network's squishing of the
credits, the animation studio for this episode is not
confirmed; it's our best guess out of the smudgy mess
they left on the screen.
Cast
Diedrich Bader as Batman
Corey Burton as Red Tornado
Will Friedle as Blue Beetle
Zachary Gordon as Young Bruce Wayne / Kid #1
James Arnold Taylor as Father
Gary Anthony Williams as Fun Haus
Music
Theme Written and Performed by Andy Strumer
Music by Michael McCuistion, Lolita Ritmanis, Kristopher Carter
Media
Review
In what is a surprisingly rare occurrence within the DC
animated universe, we have been treated to a
Christmas-themed episode to give us a superhero-inspired
warm and fuzzy feeling. Did this episode pull it off
well? Let's evaluate!
The episode starts off with a bowling tournament that
gets interrupted by a random masked villain named
Sports-Master who enjoys his afternoons by reading, long
walks on the beach, oh, and bowling bombs towards people
in oversized glass pins. This of course is disturbed by
Batman's spoil-sport entrance in which he oddly decides
to push away a bomb with yet another bomb! That...really
didn't make much sense to me, but it's perhaps a minor
nit to pick. Helping Batman on this athletic escapade is
the lanky Blue Beetle and his Goober of a suit.
Blue Beetle's inclusion was random, but I felt they made
him into a fun character - although he seems to talk a
bit too much. Quickly his bantering with his suit causes
him to (from Batman's perspective) refer to Batman as a
goober. If someone had described that to me without
seeing this episode I would have balked and ranted at
the ridiculousness, however, it was actually handled
quite well that left me chuckling. The scene goes on
with further quips by the obviously young Blue Beetle,
but Batman stayed mostly silent. This was quite
surprising to me as this episode is my introduction to
the show and I was sure Batman would be constantly
speaking one-liners, but fortunately I was quite wrong.
After the awkward athletics are taken out of the game,
Blue Beetle invites Batman over for Christmas dinner,
but Batman refuses insisting in a decently Batmanish
tone that he has work to do. This struck me as very
surprising to me as it's a Christmas episode for a
child-oriented show, and yet they have made Batman
obviously unsentimental towards Christmas. I was quite
certain from the look of this show that they would never
take Batman -that- seriously.
Slightly disappointingly, however, when returning from
the commercial break the following scenes do not involve
Batman. Rather, they introduce us to a new hero to the
show; Red Tornado. Or, rather, his professor persona
that is leading a lecture only to be interrupted by a
student making a quite subtle hint at Indiana Jones.
Despite noticing an out-of-control truck tearing through
the snow-covered streets, he non-challantly excuses
himself from the class room and proceeds to...tear off his
human face. That was a new one for me. After rescuing
two children nearly pillaged by the truck on amuck,
their father goes on to mention Christmas spirit.
Red Tornado, being a robot - as harshly pointed out by
one of the children - has no idea what this is. So, in a
plot similar to Justice League's "Comfort and Joy," the
non-human hero is determined to learn about Christmas.
He attempts a mathematics explanation (what a
nightmare...before Christmas!), then proceeds to deck his
halls quite thoroughly only to come up empty-handed. Or,
I suppose, empty hearted. He even attempts to sing
Christmas carols under his human disguise to the
children he had saved earlier in the day. Although this
premise for a children's show episode could have ended
up campy, you actually feel the serious atmosphere and
feel for Red Tornado's internal torture.
Unfortunately, he is interrupted in his Christmas
investigation by an... alien attack? Despite being the
classical little green men, they are supposedly
Neptunean and demanding Santa Clause. Obviously this
takes place before the creation of Robot Santa.
I assumed that this was the inevitable point where
things got incredibly corny, maybe even campy. I was
surprised, however, to see they had Batman fighting the
little UFOs by hand rather than via Batwing. Eventually
he activates a glider which forms out of his cape which
connects it slightly to "Batman Begins," but strangely
the glider is very metal looking in its appearance.
Despite this oddity, the action sequence is quite
thrilling as Red Tornado shows up, and he discovers a
non-ridiculous explanation for the invasion!
The UFOs are actually toys created by a grinning villain
known as Fun House, who is allowed to deliver a villainy
speech as to why he's on such a rampage as Batman and
Red Tornado patiently stand there. Fun House then
proceeds to throw a baby doll towards them and flies
off, and guess what? Yeah, it's a bomb. A bomb with 10
seconds that strangely Batman and Red Tornado continue
to stand there and watch, until Red Tornado uses a
tornadic funnel to launch it into the sky. This was the
weakest part of the episode as it feels like simple
filler.
After the bomb is destroyed, instead of pursuing the
freaky Fun House, Red Tornado proceeds to give Batman a
present; a World's #1 Detective mug. This shockingly
sparks a flashback to a past Wayne Christmas as young
Bruce analyzes a present, cuing his father to say "Our
little detective." This was a very nice scene, and
nicely ended it with a fun quip from Batman towards Red
Torando. As they're patrolling along looking for Fun
House, they come across a rude and runaway Santa that
turns out to be a robot, and Batman proceeds to fry it
in a manner that… was actually rather disturbing. Fun
House claims it won't give kids nightmares, but I think
it was actually far more disturbing than his plan with
the automated Santas.
Sadly we're forced to listen to a child cry over not
getting the most popular toy of the season, but it
sparks yet another flashback for Batman as we learn in
his pre-troubled days, he was quite a brat. This is then
followed shortly by a flashback sparked by a movie
theater in which we're put into the incredibly familiar
scenario; young Bruce and his parents outside a theater.
As I was watching this, I was certain they wouldn't dare
put his actual origin into this show, and yet… Not only
did they show his origin in a shocking yet subtle
manner, they pushed the envelope by placing it during
Christmas AND still leaving him to be a brat. That
easily and delightfully flushed away the rest of my
assumptions for the writing of this show.
Incredibly strangely, though, they move on from that to
revealing Fun House's true plan; to recreate the movie
"Small Soldiers." Well, okay, not really. But, it is
similar in that the popular toy actually turns out to be
an action figure-sized robot that is controlled by Fun
House, and not only holds the various families at bay,
but they can also form into one large seamless Mecha. I
assume he had these made in Japan. Batman strangely
doesn't do much but stand there and watch Red Tornado
handle the oversized threat, which results in Red
Tornado overloading his circuits and exploding.
Relax, our newfound hero doesn't die - but it is
incredibly shocking they would show Batman picking up
his severed head. Of course, in the very next scene we
see Red Tornado's head back on his armless and legless
torso getting loaded up into an ambulance. Still, it was
pretty serious thing to do in what surely is geared
towards children. Ignoring the timeslot, of course. This
seems the end of the episode, but we're left with one
interesting treat as Batman gets into the
retina-provocative Batmobile and finds a present, from
Alfred. The present turns out to be the object that
turned pre-Batman into Bratboy during the flashbacks,
and will leave you to see the episode to understand.
Overall, I probably should have had a more opened mind
when watching this show, but despite my stubborn
assumptions I was still immensely shocked at how
enjoyable this episode - and show - turned out. Growing
up with the epic and beloved creation that is "Batman:
The Animated Series," I have a very pre-set idea as to
what an animated Batman should be, and shockingly this
show comes close to the quality of writing that made
B:TAS so enjoyable - well, at least the lighthearted
episodes of B:TAS. I highly suggest anyone with
inhibitions towards this show to give it a try -
especially this episode. No one episode is going to be
perfect and it has its flaws, but it was highly
enjoyable.
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