B:TAS "Christmas With The Joker" Talkback (Spoilers)

[James Harvey]

"Christmas With The Joker" Talkback (Spoilers)

Discuss this classic Batman: The Animated Series episode!

Episode #002 - Christmas With The Joker
Original Airdate - November 13th, 1992.

The Joker takes over Gotham's airwaves and terrorizes the city during Christmas. Holding Commissioner Gordon, Detective Bullock, and Summer Gleason hostage, he challenges Batman to find him before midnight, or else the hostages will have a very un-merry Christmas.

Comments?

 

[Maxie Zeus]

So, comments & thoughts?

"Oooh, look what the dog left under the Christmas tree."

 

[The Green Hornet]

im stunned by how bad the characters look

maybe its because we see this AFTER S:TAS

i dont remember TNBA looking like this

maybe its just the original BTAS

 

[Heehaw]

The reason why everything looks bad is because Akom did the animation. They are the worst company, for this type of thing, and are responsible for all of the really terrible animation in BTAS. This episode is my personal choice for worst episode of the entire BTAS/TNBA series. Bad animation, bad acting, even worse dialogue, and absurd situations.

 

[Terminatah]

The pie was hilarious. I love Joker.

-Terminatah

 

[JTurner954]

The pie in the face was great. C'mon, who wouldn't like it. I think this episode shows how cruel (and cool) The Joker can be. I have nothing bad to say about this episode.

 

[Salvor]

The animation was definitely poor, that's a fact. Still I loved the story. Very classic.

 

[The Guard]

Lesse...

Lame plot.

Lame Alfred voice.

Lame dialogue:

"Careful, Robin. There may be more to this than meets the eye."

I hated the earlier BTAS episodes. All I liked was watching the Batmobile's cockpit open and close. This was just...lame. I love the later ones, like AVATAR, and PERCHANCE TO DREAM, but CHRISTMAS WITH THE JOKER IS LAME. All of a sudden Robin is there, but we get no explanation. Just didn't like it.

 

[Joe Tully]

I really liked this episode when I first saw it, but now I can see more of the problems with it, probably because I am older and have realized how to be more critical (for better or worse ) Some of the ideas are too absurd, even for the Joker, poor dialogue in spots, and poor animation. The pie was great though. You expect it to be a bomb or something and then it just splats him in the face.

Also, Robin's voice seemed weak, esp. at the beginning of the episode. And we had to deal with the poorer version of Alfred. Still, I think that if you don't let these things bother you too much, you can enjoy the story. I thought that all of the Joker on TV segments were funny. I still wound up giving the episode 3.5 stars....maybe that was a little too generous, but it's hard for me to hate an episode that has such a sense of fun, even if it is weak in the other categories.

 

[JusticeLeagueLegion]

Jingle bells
Batman smells
Robin laid an egg
Batmobile
lost a wheel
And Joker got away!

Hey!!

 

[Failure]

Poor dialogue, cruddy animation, a plotline that doesn't make too much sense, original Alfred's crappy voice, but still strangely entertaining. Maybe I'd think differently after seeing it several more times, but since this was the first time I'd seen this ep in years, I thoroughly enjoyed it. 2.5 stars.

It's definitely cool to hear how much Hamill and Conroy have improved in their voice acting. Hamill had the Joker down pretty well except for the laugh, which is now perfect. Meanwhile Conroy seemed like he was trying to be too soft, but now he's 100% gruff.

 

[JohnStewart-GL]

it was an ok ep i gave it 2 1/2 stars.

 

[The Game]

I thought I was the only one that thought the dialogue was a little lame... Glad to see I'm not alone.

I'm not a good judge of what "good animation" is vs. "bad animation" as I thought the animation was okay. I don't know, I always like that episode.

Of course, we did have "ghetto Alfred". Ah well. What's next week- Nothing to Fear right? Now there's an episode I haven't seen in a long time...

-The Game

 

[Terminatah]

Christmas With The Joker

I don't blame it for being primitive in areas like voice work, dialogue, animation or even plot. This was an early episode and the Timm group was still feeling their way out. Now we have so much more to compare it to, but it's been about 8 months short of a DECADE since it originally aired. When you strip it down, the premise was a good idea and there were hints of what would be classic moments if this episode were done today (probably sleeker, scarier, funnier). But you can see what they were going for, and that's what I kept in mind.

-Terminatah

 

[Heehaw]

I don't blame it for being primitive in areas like voice work, dialogue, animation or even plot.

On Leather Wings was earlier than Xmas(1 episode) and it looks fantastic on all fronts.

Giant jack in the boxes, pies, giant toy soldiers, toy planes, rocket ship Xmas trees, and all around silliness make for good cheer and fun!!! What a lame plot.

 

[Salvor]

Originally posted by Heehaw
Giant jack in the boxes, pies, giant toy soldiers, toy planes, rocket ship Xmas trees, and all around silliness make for good cheer and fun!!! What a lame plot.

Yeah well I'm not ashamed of liking it. I mean, I usually have fun watching this ep, so I don't care about boring technical aspects. Actually it reminds of the Bill Finger/Dick Sprang era: lame plot, but crazy enough to be enjoyable.

Besides it's a Christmas special. And I like Christmas specials.

 

[The Dark Knight]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the ending with the Joker singing "Deck the Halls" in his cell and slowly evolving into maniacal laughter, lit only by the moonlight through his barred window (incidentally, lunacy gets its name from the moon). It's pretty powerful in the way it highlights how deep into his insanity he is in an otherwise silly episode, and it's one of the creepiest moments in the series.

 

[The Flash]

I gave it 3 1/2. The animation sucked, but the story rocked. ...it was one of my favs when I was a lil kid and still is. I always get out my tape and watch it on Christmas.

 

[The Penguin]

****1/2

"Live from Gotham City! The show that nobody wants to see, but everyone will watch! Yes, it's 'Christmas With The Joker'!!!" -The Joker, Christmas With The Joker

I thought this was pretty good episode. I'm not an animation quality debater so I'm going to get into that. (Although even I could pretty easily with parts of this one.)

Robin's sarcasm can really be a lot of fun and this episode is a great example. The pie in the face was just classic. That's a true hallmark of the Joker, it made pretty much no sense. I also liked BATman hitting those Joker planes with the bat, that was priceless. Still waiting on the good Alfred.

 

[Mattashell]

I thought the series went a while before Robin was introduced, but here he is in episode two as if he'd always been there (sigh). Well if Joker blew up that brdge on live tv, and gave B&R enough time to save everyone, you'd think someone would have radioed the conductor and told him to stop the train. I guess no one really cares that much. Okay it was a poorly animated ep, but the drawings were fine and that's all I think really matters to me. Joker was presented very well, (but how did he sneak that rocket into Arkam) He was great being his nutty, homicidal self on tv, and as everyone has said, the pie in the face worked quite well. I guess if this amounted to the sum of its parts it would pretty much suck, but I actually found it very entertaining. I think it's just the Joker being crazy that did it. In the end the Joker alone in Arkam singing was so sad. Poor Joker has no family to spend Christmas with. I feel so sorry for him.

I set my vcr to start even earlier this time and it still missed the beginning! How is cartoon network starting these so early. In case your wondering why it was only set for Christmas with the Joker, I already have the first three STAS on tape.