Premiered November 13, 1992.
"Live from Gotham City, the show that nobody wants to see, but everyone will watch. Yes, it's Christmas with the Joker!"
-Joker
On Christmas Eve, Gotham City seems peaceful. That changes when the Joker (Mark Hamill) escapes from Arkham Asylum.
Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Robin (Loren Lester) search the city for their escaped foe. Robin doubts Joker will strike on Christmas Eve. He makes a deal with the Caped Crusader:If they don't find the Joker, they will return to Wayne Manor, have Christmas dinner, watch It's A Wonderful Life and worry about apprehending Joker when Christmas is over. After searching Gotham and coming up empty, they return home.
There seems to be a lot of goodwill in the air. Batman is suspicious of this. |
The Clown Prince of Crime has a model of Gotham City and jokes about bombing sites on the model, starting with a railroad bridge. Batman (correctly) suspects that Joker will detonate the real bridge just in time to blow up a train.
Batman rescues the train's engineer. |
Will Batman and Robin find the Joker before midnight, save the hostages, and Christmas?
J.A. Morris says:
"Christmas With the Joker" is a great episode of one of the best animated series of the 1990s.
Bruce and Dick's conversation about watching It's A Wonderful Life is great all by itself.
The inmates of Arkham Asylum decorate their tree, Joker puts on the tree-topper. |
The Joker and his "elf" Laffy watch a live remote. |
Joker taunts Harvey Bullock. |
The Batmobile drives past a Gotham City movie theater. Look what's showing on Christmas Eve! |
J.A. Morris' rating:
4 candy canes!
RigbyMel says:
This is certainly an entertaining and action-packed episode of Batman: The Animated Series. The whole of this animated series has a great film noir/expressionist look to it and this episode is no exception.
Batman surveys the wreckage of the train crash. It's good he and Robin saved everyone on board! |
The Joker is quite dementedly gleeful with his holiday mayhem, beginning with his escape from Arkham Asylum via rocket powered Christmas tree! (While singing a Batman-appropriate rendition of "Jingle Bells," no less!)
"Jingle bells, Batman smells ..." |
Festive mayhem in Gotham! |
Note the Charlie Brown Christmas type tree on the left. |
Of course, we also see that Christmas is a time for less maniacal good cheer as well. When Batman and Robin are out patrolling Gotham in the first part of the episode, some situations that look like they could be bad things about to happen turn out to be people infused with Christmas spirit instead. This comes as a relief to Robin and something of a disappointment to Batman, who is feeling a bit Scrooge-ish at the beginning of this episode.
Batman and Robin's discussions about watching It's A Wonderful Life are quite amusing as well. Batman has never seen it because he's turned off by the title and because he fears it will be "relentlessly cheerful" (like the Joker?). But Bats seems to recover from his Scrooge-y attitude by the end of the adventure.
Batman vs. Joker's toy planes. As Robin says, they don't call him "Batman" for nothing! *rimshot* |
Christmastime in Gotham City. |
RigbyMel's rating:
.5
3 and a half candy canes
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