This is a Dynamike Network podcast. Hey everyone, Johnny DC here at the top of the episode. With
the approaching holiday season, we're officially underway with this year's Holiday Charity Drive
in lead up to our charity dual episode this month, which is going to be Alfred Pennyworth
vs Edwin Jarvis. This year, all donations will be going once again to Pop Culture Classroom,
a non-profit organization that delivers educational resources. to school districts, teachers, and
community organizations using comics, graphic novels, and related pop culture media. Their
mission is to inspire a love of learning, increase literacy, and build community through the tools
of popular culture and the power of self-expression. To donate, visit our official store through
dynamicduel.com, where you'll find two donation options, one if you're Team DC and one if you're
Team Marvel. Or go directly... to dynamicduel.com slash donate DC one word or dynamicduel.com
slash donate Marvel, which are linked in our show notes. We're making the charity drive
a competitive duel this year, except the only stat is which side can donate the most. Everyone
who donates will receive a digital poster featuring original art of Alfred and Jarvis drawn New
Yorker style by me. One lucky random winner will also win a framed print of the Alfred
vs. Jervis art that we'll announce during that December duel episode. Which fanbase will be
the most charitable? Team DC has actually pulled ahead since last week. Who's the slackers now?
Marvel guys, it's you. Keep up the good work, Team DC. On with the show.
Hi, welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate
the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters and stat-based battle simulations.
I'm Johnny DC. And I'm his twin brother, Marvelous Joe. And in this episode, we are doing a review
of the Amazon Prime animated feature film, Merry Little Batman. I actually got the opportunity
to see this film in the movie theater with my family, and I loved the heck out of it. Yeah,
I mean, it's probably one of the better like holiday releases that Marvel and DC have ever
produced, right? I mean, there's not many, so it's not hard to do. But yeah, this is the
best of anything holiday related that Marvel or DC has put out. We're going to talk all
about the movie later on in this episode. But before that, we're going to break down the
comic book movie news items from the past week. There's not many news items. We did learn,
however, that Sean Gunn has been cast as Maxwell Lord in the DC universe. and we got a couple
of video game trailers, one for Suicide Squad Killed the Justice League, and the other is
a teaser trailer for a new Blade video game. As always, we list our segment times in our
episode description, so feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to
a particular topic. As our listeners may know, our duel simulator is so advanced that it's
gained sentience and has named itself the Artificial Lifeform for Running Extensive Duels, just
a rather very intelligent simulator 9000, or Alfred Jarvis 9000. He has a quick message
for our listeners, so listen up. Why hello there. Do you love listening and chatting about Marvel
and DC? Then become a part of the dynamic dual community on Patreon, where you can choose
from three tiers. The dynamic 2.0 tier lets you listen to this podcast without ads and
gives you access to its Discord chat group, where you can chat with Johnny DC and Marvelous
Joe. The Fantastic Four tier gives you that and more with two bonus episodes each month,
including bloopers and top ten shows where Johnny and Joe count down your favorite Marvel and
DC subjects. The X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of Dynamic Duel, where every month
you help the host choose what to review and who to fight against each other. And finally,
the Dynamite Podcast Network tier allows aspiring podcasters to create their own battle-focused
show using this Monte Carlo simulator.
Thanks AJ9K and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. Be sure to tune in to the Max
Destruction Podcast tomorrow which is part of the Dynamite where host Ken Dustin will let
us know their thoughts on the holiday classic film Die Hard. Yes, it's a Christmas film.
Everyone knows it's a Christmas film. If you disagree, then shut the hell up. Also just
released yesterday was the latest episode of the Dynamite Network's newest show, Console
Combat, in which hosts John and Dean find out who would win in fights between your favorite
video game characters. Yesterday's episode, they speculated on who would win between Luigi...
and tails.
to listen to all of the shows in the Dynamike Podcast Network. But with that out of the way,
quick to the NO Prize! A NO Prize is an award Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version,
the Dynamic Dual NO Prize, is a digital award we post on Instagram and in our email newsletter
for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week we asked,
what is your favorite alternate universe slash dimension for Marvel or DC? We only got three
answers. So we're gonna break down the two honorable mentions before revealing this week's no prize
winner. Our first honorable mention goes to Travis Herndon who said, Hey guys, Travis here.
So my favorite alternate universe or dimension would have to be the mangaverse. As a person
who loves anime and manga, I really like what they did with some of the characters in that
universe. Like Spider-Man being a ninja, Wolverine a samurai, Hulk being a kaiju, Godzilla monster
do. It seemed like a pretty cool universe and honestly, Marvel should make that into an animated
series like they're doing with Suicide Squad. So yeah, Mangaverse for me. Fantastic answer.
Yeah, I remember when the Mangaverse for Marvel came out in the early 2000s. It looked super
fascinating. There was the Spider-Man series, X-Men. There was an Avengers title, if I remember
correctly, and it was like an Iron Man Mecha style subgenre of Manga. And yeah, there was
the Hulk who was a 70 foot. Kaiju monster. It was a really cool universe. I remember like
Punisher was like a lady samurai assassin type character. It was pretty sweet. Good stuff.
Good stuff. If you haven't checked it out and you're into manga and you're into Marvel, definitely
do that. I actually don't know anything about this. I mean, I know about Spider-Man manga,
but I don't know about any of the other characters and that all sounds pretty fricking awesome.
I'm not going to lie. Yeah, that's a fantastic answer. A fantastic other universe. If you
guys are into manga, then you should also probably be listening to the Send Your World podcast
as well. Great answer Travis! Our next honorable mention goes to... Miggy Mathengian who said...
Hey what's up guys this is Miggy and I'm gonna go with the first one, which is my favorite
ultimate mention. It's the one where DC is like medieval and there's like knights and dragons
and stuff like that. It's a pretty good story, better than I thought it'd be. I wasn't really
expecting much from medieval. alternate universe, but Tom Taylor knows what he's doing. So, thanks
guys. Yeah, Dark Knights of Steel is a comic book series written by Tom Taylor, who's also
known for writing the Injustice comic as well as Deceased. It's a high fantasy adventure,
kind of like Game of Thrones, but with DC characters. I actually haven't read anything from it. I
just know of it, and I gotta say it looks incredible art-wise. And Miggy, who's an executive producer
of the podcast, is an avid comic book reader. And I totally trust him when he says that something
is really good. If he recommends Dark Knights of Steel, that probably means I should be reading
it along with everyone else. Not me, even you. What? Yes. Great answers, guys. But that brings
us to the winner of this week's no prize, Andrew Shunk, who said, Hey, guys, Andrew Shunk here.
My favorite alternate universe. Is. Marvel because Marvel rips everything off of DC. Thanks. Have
a nice day. And yeah, this gets the win because Andrew Shunk admitted that Marvel is his favorite
and it's a great answer. Yeah. It should be your favorite because it's amazing. Um, I liked
this answer not only because it admits that Marvel is a rip off of DC, but I've also always
held the theory that Marvel is just earth six one six. Like they say it themselves. DC says
we're earth one. Marvel says they're 616. Of course DC is the true universe, the prime universe.
It doesn't matter what's the true universe, it matters what is his favorite and he clearly
is a member of Team Marvel. So I will be changing his name to Red on the Discord. Go Team Marvel.
Great answer Andrew Shunk, you win this week's no prize. If you the listener want a shot at
winning your own no prize, stay tuned to later on this episode when we'll be asking another
question of the week. And now that that's done, on to the news.
Alright, so a couple of days ago we learned that Sean Gunn, James Gunn's brother, has been
cast as Maxwell Lord in the DC universe. James Gunn, of course, being the new CEO of DC Studios.
Now this is pretty interesting because we recently saw Maxwell Lord as a villain. He was played
by Pedro Pascal. And I thought Pedro did a pretty good job, even though the character was fairly
different from who Maxwell Lord is in the comics. Now this isn't the only role that Sean Gunn
is going to be playing in the DC universe. He also plays Weasel in Creature Commandos. He's
supposed to be playing that character in both live action and do voiceover work for animation.
Well he also played the character in the Suicide Squad movie too. Right, he did mocap work for
it and I believe he was also the voice for the character. Sean Gunn of course is no stranger
to playing multiple roles within the same universe. He did mocap work for Rocket Raccoon in Guardians
of the Galaxy, and he also played the live-action version of Kraglin in the same franchise. Do
you typically view Maxwell Lord as a villain or as a hero character? I typically see him
as a villain. In the comics, you know, he's a benefactor for the Justice League, or he
was at one point. But overall, I would say throughout the character's history, he's primarily been
a villain. I think this is casting very much against type. Sean Gunn tends to play roles
of characters that aren't quite bright, usually. So for him to play a character like Maxwell
Lord, who is supposed to be hyper intelligent, you know, he's a telepath, a mind reader, a
mind controller, is something that I never thought I would see Sean Gunn play, honestly. So this
casting to me is actually pretty surprising. Well, I mean, he's a good character actor,
but a role like Maxwell Lord would give him an opportunity to showcase his range, you know?
So I can see why they did this. It's gonna be hard not to chalk this up to nepotism, which
a lot of people have been accusing James Gunn of ever since, you know, casting his wife as
a character in the Suicide Squad film and, you know, Peacemaker series. That said, Sean Gunn
is not a terrible actor. You know, he's actually pretty good. And I'll be looking forward to
seeing what he does with the role of Maxwell Lord. It's rumored that while he's not going
to appear in Superman Legacy, he will be name dropped at the very least. I wouldn't be surprised
if we saw Maxwell Lord in something like the Amanda Waller television series or maybe Peacemaker
2. We're not sure yet, but if he's been cast, I'm sure they'll be announcing what project
he's a part of relatively soon. I like to think that if I ever directed a movie, Jonathan,
I'd give you a part. Hey, man, if I'm the lead making the big bucks, I'll do it. No, you wouldn't
be the lead. God, no. What? I mean, all right. Maybe I don't want to be a part of your movie,
then. I'll let you star in my movie, it's gonna be called Joseph Sucks. It's gonna be about
how much you suck. Well, at least I'll be the star of that one. Yeah, you will be. But speaking
of how James Gunn has taken one of his Guardians of the Galaxy actors and cast them in a DC
role, that brings us to our question of the week.
What other actor from the Guardians of the Galaxy would you like to see cast in the DC universe
and in what role? Record your answer at dynamic duel.com by clicking on the red microphone
button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a
voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long. And don't forget to leave your name in
case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a
dynamic duel no prize that will post to Instagram and our email newsletter. Be sure to answer
before December 13th. We're recording the next episode a little bit earlier, so you guys don't
have as much time this week. Yeah, get your answers in right away. In other DC news, Suicide
Squad Kill the Justice League recently released a new trailer titled the official Justice League
trailer. Of course, it seems like we've been waiting for this game forever. I've personally
really been looking forward to this because just the concept of it is really interesting.
The fact that the Justice League characters are going to be possessed by Brainiac and be
the bad guys is kind of awesome. And we got some really good looks at them, some for the
first time in this trailer. Yeah, the Suicide Squad is going to be going up against Green
Lantern, the Flash, Batman and Superman and also Wonder Woman. Although it looks like she's
not possessed by Brainiac in the same way that the others are, at least initially. What intrigues
me about this is that this game is supposed to be set in the same universe as the Arkham
video games. And yet, spoiler alert, Batman died at the end of Arkham Knight. So it kind
of seems like this game takes place before that. I don't know, there's like a big demon version
of Batman sporadically throughout this trailer. Maybe that has something to do with it. Like
the Suicide Squad goes to hell or something like that. Oh shit, Batman's in hell? That's
crazy. Yeah, dude, he beats up poor people. Of course, that's a one way ticket to hell.
Wow. I hate Saturday Night Live. They suck.
There's quite a bit of gameplay footage in this trailer and it still looks as awesome as ever
did. Apparently, the game is in beta testing right now. One of our executive producers,
the host of Sanjo World, Zachary Hepburn, is actually playing the beta right now. And he
says it's just incredible. And I'm inclined to believe him. It does look like a fun game.
I like how each player has their own kind of gameplay style. where Harley Quinn almost feels
like a Spider-Man type game. You know, King Shark is your bruiser. Deadshot is like your
third person shooter. And then you have Captain Boomerang, who's like, I don't know, like the
speedster. Everyone's gonna have their favorite character to play with. It looks like it's
gonna be a blast. And actually it's not gonna be limited to just these four characters. Data
miners have been going through the code of the game and found out that you can play as Killer
Croc as an alternate skin for King Shark, I believe. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it really
makes me wonder what other alternate skins you'll get to play as. Which member of the Justice
League do you think is going to be the hardest boss to beat? It should be Superman. He should
be like the final boss. Absolutely. And I think they kind of imply that much just with like
the Suicide Squad's reaction to him in this trailer. That said, the giant demon version
of Batman does look like it's going to be hella tough to get through. The new official release
date for this game is February 2nd of next year. I'm. somehow going to have to get my hands
on a Xbox or PlayStation five before that time or a PC. Yeah, no, that's not happening. I'm
an Apple guy. So here's hoping that I've been good this year and Santa brings me one. Well,
I hope you get it. I hope you have a lot of fun with it. Rocksteady is a solid studio for
video games, as is Bethesda, who just announced that they are working on a Blade game. Now,
Bethesda is the video game studio behind such titles as The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom,
Dishonored, a bunch of great, well-received games. And so this is some pretty exciting
news that they're working on a Blade game. The announcement trailer is not really much of
anything. It's basically just Blade getting a shave and then some kind of alarm goes off
and he's like, the knife's just getting started and he, you know, looks like he's going to
take out his sword. The style of it is pretty cool though. There's some pretty interesting
music in it and the graphics look pretty damn good. Yeah, the world that they establish just
in this teaser reminds me very much of the very first Blade movie, with like the time lapse
of the skyscraper, skyline shadows moving across the city. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know what city
this is. It does appear to be some kind of European city, which makes sense because the character
of Blade, Eric Brooks, is from London. I'm always a little bit disappointed when they don't give
the character a British accent. He does not have a British accent in this trailer. It's
definitely American. But yeah, it looks like he's going international with his vampire hunting.
Yeah, whatever city it is, it's definitely a melting pot. You have like Spanish, you have,
I believe Arabic. You have a number of languages scrawled across the city walls. But it also
seems like vampires have taken over the city and the government has issued like a curfew
for people to be indoors once the sun sets. So that's an interesting setup for the story.
Yeah, people in this world definitely know that vampires exist. It's not really a secret. They're
not like underground or anything when Blade's barber nicks himself with the shaving razor,
he gets nervous that Blade is going to attack him. But of course, as Blade says, he doesn't
fight. So there you go. Yeah, it's not much of a trailer and we have no idea what the gameplay
is going to be like. I assume it might be like some kind of hack and slash thing like God
of War or Devil May Cry. And that would be awesome. I'm already sold. Already sold. Well, I played
a Blade video game way back in the day on the PS2. It was the Blade 2 movie tie-in video
And man, that game was a piece of shit. It was so weird that the fighting system was bizarre
because you would use the second joystick controller to attack. You just point it in a direction
and he would like kick in that direction because in the game you would often be surrounded by
vampires. So you wouldn't hit buttons to attack. The joystick literally would attack in the
direction that you pointed at. So it was a little bit awkward. Maybe it sounds cool in theory,
but it just didn't pan out in practice. Well, I feel like video games have come a long way,
like, you know, with the Arkham games and that battle system. And, you know, I'm sure Spider-Man
is very similar to it. Yeah. So I feel like for sure you could really nail a Blade video
game nowadays. We'll see if we get the video game before the movie. It's cool to know that
Blade really seems to be coming back into the spotlight now, though. Can't wait.
Well, I think that does it for all of the news for this episode. So now let's move on to the
main event where we review Amazon Prime's holiday animated film, Merry Little Batman.
Alright, Merry Little Batman is an animated feature released on the Amazon Prime streaming
platform just in time for the holiday season. Directed by Mike Roth of regular show fame,
in his film directorial debut, the film follows Damian Wayne, Batman's son, as he aspires to
become a superhero like his father during Christmas. It's super cute, super made for kids, but the
best most nostalgic holiday films usually are. And that's what I like about it. If you're
looking for something new this holiday season to watch with the kids, I definitely recommend
Mary Little Batman. And if you want to go in fresh with the family, I also recommend skipping
this review altogether as it contains spoilers. Yeah, definitely check out Mary Little Batman.
If you have Amazon Prime, it's an easy watch. It's a quick watch. If you like Batman or your
family loves superheroes, I highly recommend it for this holiday season. gets a crisp 92
minute film. So almost exactly an hour and a half. You won't regret it. Now the holiday
season truly is the most wonderful time of the year for my two daughters. Their birthdays
fall on December 22nd and 23rd. I tell people that in my family, it's like having four full
days of Christmas each year. But honestly, the excitement and festivities for Christmas ramp
up exponentially after Thanksgiving. beginning with holiday music on the radio and Christmas
movies after dinner. Films like How the Grinch Stole Christmas Home Alone. These and more
have become annual viewing traditions, as they are for many families, I'm sure. And after
getting the chance to see Merry Little Batman on the theater big screen, my family all easily
agreed that this movie should be a part of our annual rotation, which it's already become,
because we've actually watched it again since it came out on Amazon Prime. Now the movie
was inspired visually by the artwork of English cartoonist Ronald Cyril, who inspired the character
design for quite a few animated films such as 101 Dalmatians and Despicable Me. This film
though I think captures the charm and humor of his aesthetic more than any other film.
From Alfred to Joker to Selena the Cat, the Cyril-esque character design is one of the
highlights of the film. And watching the way these awkward bodies move... particularly in
the case of the Joker, contributed to the humor of the film. Oh yeah, the art style is so silly,
but perfectly in keeping with the whimsical attitude of the film. I was actually really
impressed because I think that this is the best version of that art style ever done in a full
length feature. Oh yeah, I agree. Everything from like the line work to even the coloring
and the way it was like constantly shifting, almost like a little kid drew it. It was really
charming. It was like an animated comic strip. And, you know, being a big fan of like Calvin
and Hobbes and a bunch of other comic book strips growing up, I really appreciated that. Yeah,
I thought it was fantastic. I'm actually kind of sad that this film debuted on a streaming
platform and people didn't get the opportunity to watch it on the big screen, because I think
this could have easily been a theatrical release. I think families would have got to see it.
I mean, this past weekend, Miyazaki animated film The Boy and His Heron won the weekend.
Like, if this would have been released at the same time. I think it could have been a contender
to get the number one box office spot for this week. Yeah, I mean, like I liked this movie
more than the Lego Batman movie, both in terms of story and animation style. So yeah, I could
totally see this working in theaters. The movie is just silly and funny. And I think a lot
of that has to do with the writers for the movie, Morgan Evans and Jace Ricci, who have written
for Teen Titans Go and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, respectively. But there's
a third writer as well. who wrote Tropic Thunder, and who I think leveled up the humor to a point
where adults could find it funny as well. That's actually surprising to me because the humor
isn't terribly adult, it's actually quite childish, but charming. I wouldn't say it's dumbed down
for kids, but it's definitely not raunched up for adults or anything. It's at that perfect
level where I think both kids and adults can enjoy it. I agree, it's like that sweet spot
right in the middle, especially for a holiday film. The writers also injected tons of holiday
homages into the film as well, from the obvious like Home Alone and how the Grinch stole Christmas,
but also deep cuts like Die Hard when we see Damien shuffling through air ducts. For DC
fans, there were also homages to Batman films of the past, primarily when it came to the
villains, but also things like Batnipples and the Batpod. Yeah, I saw references to Batman
and Robin, Batman Returns, The Dark Knight, yeah a bunch of them. And those are things
that you could kind of appreciate as an adult, especially as an adult fan of DC Comics, because,
you know, a lot of kids watching the movie aren't going to get the Batnipples reference. Now,
while some can knock the film's unoriginality, I actually think that's the worst thing you
could say about the movie. And ultimately, it was all put together in a funny, heartwarming
package. Apparently, a spinoff series called Bat Family is in the works for Amazon Prime.
with Mike Roth to serve as the showrunner. And I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, I could totally
see a series based off of this. This type of content is perfect for an animated show. And
the world that they built is so rich that it would be a shame not to continue it. Right,
yeah, and I also think there were enough references to the larger world, like Damien's mom, for
example, that there's enough to explore there for an animated series. I just want to make
one more point that the songs used in this film were awesome. Like the opening with Father
Christmas by the Kinks, All I Really Want for Christmas by Little John Later On, along with
Don De Esta Santa Claus, and at the very end, just another Christmas song, This Time I'll
Sing Along. These aren't typical songs you hear in family Christmas movies, but they had me
dancing in my seat and singing on the car ride home. They were all great songs, yeah. And
Patrick Stump from Followboy is the one who did the music. I knew I recognized that name
from somewhere. That's awesome. I was listening to the score for this film earlier and yeah,
it was really good. He's a great composer. Yeah, I didn't even know he did film work until this
movie, but he's done some work for Marvel too, including the Spidey and His Amazing Friends
television series. Did not know that. That's pretty cool. I definitely recommend checking
out the soundtrack to this if anyone hasn't already. But moving on to the character breakdown,
let's start with Damien Wayne, AKA Little Batman for this movie. Surprisingly not Robin. Yeah,
surprisingly. I thought that was an interesting choice. The character was voiced by Jonas Kibrib.
I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly at all. I'm not familiar with Jonas's work,
but I thought he pulled off the role as perfect as you can get. You know, he nailed the emotion
and the humor needed for the character. Just a great like little kid voice, essentially.
Yeah, I was actually surprised at his level of range and comedic timing. Great delivery.
Yeah, now this of course is not the first time we've seen Damien in animated form. We've seen
him as Robin, of course in the past. But this is the first time that I can recall that we've
seen him this young. You know, I have an eight year old and it's a pretty fun imaginative
age. In this film, Damien imagines being like his father Batman, though he doesn't realize
the hardship that comes with being a superhero because his father rid Gotham of crime when
Damien was just a baby. Damien was told what to do in any emergency except for crime. So
when the burglars break into his house, he's forced to jump into the role of a superhero
on his own. When his utility belt, the gift his father gave him for Christmas, is stolen,
he makes a vow to get it back. That's the focus part of the lesson his father told him, that
crime fighting requires focus, responsibility, and sacrifice. By the end of Damien's adventure,
he accepts responsibility for the chaos he caused across Gotham and sacrifices his prized possession,
his utility belt, to make things right. The entire film, Damien was trying to prove to
his father that he wasn't a baby and that he was ready to be a superhero and he thought
that by losing his utility belt, his dad would think that he wasn't ready for that. But that
wasn't going to prove anything, as the Bat Dad AI explained. It wasn't until Damien proved
himself capable in battle that Batman rewarded Damien with a real utility belt and accepted
him as his partner. I'm consistently surprised how many different ways writers can take the
character of Damien Wayne, who is relatively new to the world of comics. But we recently
saw an adaptation of Damien Wayne in an animated feature film as recently as last year in the
Battle of the Supersuns, where he was also used to great effect. And then you see how he was
done here, and you just... realize how versatile the character is, you can go super dark with
him, you can go super light with him, it all works. Definitely one of the best characters
to be introduced within the past couple decades. Yeah, he's sort of like his father in that
regard. I know a lot of people don't like bright and cheerful Batman sort of like he was in
this movie, but the character still works somehow in that regard. I definitely prefer my Batman
very, very dark, but I also don't mind when they adapt him into like new worlds like this.
Yeah, I mean, it just all depends on the world that he exists in, right? In a world as light
and cheery as this one, a lighter, cheerier Batman makes sense. Right. Speaking of Batman,
let's move on to him, aka Bruce Wayne, who is voiced by Luke Wilson. Now, Luke Wilson would
never have been my first choice for Batman, but in this lighter I thought he brought the
right amount of brightness to the role, along with familiarity. He's really the only voice
you hear in this film where it's like, hey, I know that voice. Yeah, it's cool to hear
him, especially considering we just got off of Loki Season 2, which stars his brother Owen
Wilson. So to see the Wilson bros getting in on the Marvel and DC content is pretty neat.
That is cool. That's really cool. Now, like I mentioned earlier, this is very much an Elseworlds
Batman. which may in fact piss off fans of Batman, but I'm guessing those people don't have children
or a life. In this film, Batman learns about Damien much earlier than in the comics and
works overtime to rid Gotham of crime and villains so that the city is a good one to raise a child
in. Bruce is overprotective you could say, but as Alfred tells Damien, Bruce wants to give
his son the one thing he never had, a childhood. which means Damien gets foam batarangs before
metal ones. Bruce knows, however, that Damien's destined to take up his mantle one day, so
it was nice to see that the master of prep time would be prepared with Damien's batsuit way
early. A high-tech version that not only sizes itself to Damien's body, but also comes with
a built-in artificial intelligence called Bat Dad. that was based on Bruce's mind so that
his son would never be alone like he was growing up. Yeah that was really touching. The AI was
cool too, I thought that was a pretty neat concept. Yeah, it's something I think that all fathers
wish that they could leave their children in some way. When Batman returns to Gotham to
help his son, initially he holds Damian back, protecting him from his villains. But the years
without crime apparently made him soft because he gets knocked out only to witness his son's
awesome ninja skills in action when he awakens and decides that Damien is a capable and worthwhile
partner after all. That's pretty much his whole arc and it's nice that he found a way to connect
to his son in a way that he was never able to with his own father, his parents. Basically,
he comes to terms with the idea that his preconceived notions of his son aren't necessarily what
he thought and he is surprised Which I assume happens a lot in parenthood Do you ever find
yourself being like overly cautious only to realize that the kids are a little bit more
Capable than you thought they were? Not really, honestly I'm surprised by them in ways that
like when they draw a picture above the skill typical of their age range I'm surprised when
you know, they know how to do something on their iPad that like, I didn't even know it's things
like that. Right, right. I did get a roundhouse kick to the chest one time for my oldest daughter
that actually hurt. I guess that was surprising. We were just horsing around and I think she
didn't know her own strength or her dad's own weakness.
I mean, who among you can take a roundhouse kick to the chest? Like a jumping one. It's
not an easy thing to take. I do have to ask, what did you think of the bat beard? I like
the bat beard. I think it was a way to distinguish the superhero Batman from the father Batman.
So it was clear that like this was not like Batman as he normally is. This is like Batman
very much in dad mode. I understand why they did it. They just kind of wanted to show that
Batman had become relaxed and more comfortable having not to deal with crime in some time.
I didn't like it, though. I don't think I would hate it for Superman, but I don't think Batman
should ever have any facial hair. Moving on to the Joker, he was voiced by David Hornsby.
This was definitely more of a shrill Tony Hale-like performance than a menacing Mark Hamill, but
again, it was appropriate for the project and actually pretty funny, I thought. Which like
no matter the medium, if your Joker's not funny... Even in a dark, like, I can't believe I'm laughing
at this kind of funny. I questioned whether it was a successful Joker. Yeah. And I like
how this one loved the Jingle Bells Batman Smell song. I love how this one would just like do
the most random things. Like he's talking to someone on the phone, then all of a sudden
he's like typing on a keyboard, ha ha. That was a great gag. It was just bizarre. It was
a bizarre Joker. I think that's, you know, I also made for a fairly good Joker as well though.
In that he was like unpredictable. Now in this universe, the Joker seemingly retired from
super villainy and has taken up residence in a candy making factory. In his own words, Joker
grew lonely, missing the laughter he had with his villainous allies and crimes, so he concocted
a plan to steal Christmas from Gotham and bring back crime to the city. Damien's actions, however,
as a little Batman changed his plans, and upon realizing the destructive potential of Damien,
Joker used him as a distraction for Gotham, while Poison Ivy, Penguin, and Bane stole everyone's
presents. Joker thought he had another ally in Little Batman, but he was proven wrong in
the end. Still, the pitiful nature of the Joker story here touched Damian's heart, and at the
end, Joker ended up spending Christmas dinner with the Bat Family, which holy crap, that's
nothing we've ever seen in the comics, but was a heartwarming touch to end the story with,
sort of a love your enemies type of message. Well Batman clearly didn't want to be there.
I think it was only done because of Damien's insistence. I liked how this is not only a
funny joker, but also a smart joker. Like he was able to outwit this little eight year old
kid and was always a few steps ahead of the game. It makes sense that he wouldn't be outwitted
by a kid. Right. I like how he was able to manipulate Damien into villainy of sorts, because like
in the comics, Damien is such like an asshole little kid that you're never quite sure if
he's going to grow up to be like the world's greatest superhero. or worst supervillain.
You've seen it go both ways, sort of like in the Injustice comics compared to like Deceased.
In the former, he becomes fairly villainous and in the latter becomes like the greatest
superhero. There's always kind of that flirtation with villainy, especially because of his mother
Talia El-Ghul and Ras El-Ghul, his grandfather, the whole League of Assassins thing. I thought
this was an interesting way to sort of play up on that ambiguity with the character. But
yeah. Damien, Batman, Joker, those are really the three main characters of the movie. Of
course, Alfred also plays a fairly major role, although there's not too much to discuss there.
He was voiced by James Cromwell, who I didn't even recognize his voice in this movie. I thought
he did a fantastic job in the role. He was an adorable Alfred, I gotta say. So cute! And
very much inspired visually, I think, by the Alfred from the 60s television series. I think.
At least that was the impression I got. But let's move on to the story highlights.
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Thank you guys so much. Playing superhero, Damien chases his cat Selena through Wayne Manor and
ends up in the basement where his father Bruce reminds Damien that upon learning that he was
going to be a father, Batman worked overtime to bring down crime in Gotham City, locking
up all of the supervillains or forcing them to retire. Gotham City has since become a crime-free
haven for the past eight years. The whole eight years without crime thing, that reminded me
a lot of The Dark Knight Rises. It was the same amount of time. where Gotham was apparently
like crime free. Now at breakfast on Christmas Eve, Bruce lets Damien open a Christmas present
early, which turns out to be a utility belt full of safety gear, which Damien has mixed
feelings about. When the emergency bat phone begins ringing, Bruce learns from the Justice
League that he's needed on a case in Nova Scotia, though he promises Damien to be back before
Christmas. After Damien gets caught trying to stow away aboard the bat plane, Bruce punishes
Damian by taking back the utility belt, which he gives to Alfred. I like the items that Batman
included in his utility belt, like band-aids, a whistle, things like that. Just things to
protect him. Yeah, the way they animated the foam battering just like floating down, I just
found that hilarious. I don't know why. There are also some other pretty funny things that
happened during these scenes, like when Batman and Damian were fighting over the utility belts.
And Damien accidentally knocks Alfred over and Alfred's like, Oh, my good hip. I was like,
Oh no. To lift Damien's spirits, Alfred prepares a meticulous cup of hot cocoa, though Damien
eats all of the marshmallows before it's completed, forcing Alfred to leave to the store and allowing
Damien to steal back his utility belt. En route to the store, Alfred nearly has a car accident
with a couple of burglars stealing Christmas presents from the neighborhood. while Damien
trains recklessly throughout the mansion. Meanwhile, Batman becomes stranded on a Canadian mountain
during a snowstorm after the Batplane malfunctions. I'm glad now that I have Alfred's recipe for
hot cocoa. I thought it was hilarious how Damien was just eating all of the marshmallows. Like,
marshmallows are not an easy thing to eat. I feel like after a couple, I just felt sick.
So the fact that he was eating like entire bags full, I was like... Oh, that's, I felt that.
He also like carb loaded during his training montage. All right. It's so gross. Yeah. Way
too much. That was kind of like Home Alone 2. I was actually surprised when we saw the two
bandits going around stealing from all the different mansions in the Wayne Manor area, because I
didn't know they were going to have this Home Alone sequence where he actually went up against
burglars, but that's coming up later in the story. Right. After Damien accidentally causes
a short that disables the manor's main gate, he's forced to defend his home from the burglars.
After succumbing to Damien's torture and traps, the burglars flee the mansion, albeit with
Damien's utility belt to his dismay. Vowing to get it back, Damien races to the Batcave,
where he finds an AI-powered bat suit that Bruce designed for Damien and programmed himself
into in case he ever died and crime returned to Gotham. After stealing the suit and the
bat pod cycle, Damien races into the city to find the burglars who took his utility belts.
The burglar characters were hilarious, and Damien was such a badass during the whole scene where
he was terrorizing him. Those are my favorite parts of the movie. Yeah, I went a little over
the top with like the grease fire thing. I was like, holy shit. But I mean, I guess it was
as bad as a Home Alone movie. Right. Yeah, he totally would have murdered these guys. I like
when Damien, when the pre-recorded video of Bruce talking to Damien actually accounted
for the possibility that Damien might be stealing the suit. That was pretty funny. He's like,
either I'm dead or you're stealing the suit, in which case you're in big trouble, mister.
Yeah, that was great. I also love how long it took to get into the Batcave. Like there was
this whole really elaborate sequence that included everything from multiple elevators to like
rappelling down the side of a waterfall. It was great. It went on longer than it should
have, but that was the gag. I like the gag where he didn't know how to work the clutch on the
Batmobile, but somehow he hit a button that ejected the Batpod. It was just hilarious,
especially when he hit the turbo button. And basically, he was driving the motorcycle by
barely hanging on to the handlebars. Yeah. All while listening to little John sing All I Really
Want for Christmas was freaking great. Now, the burglars returned to their boss, the Joker.
having lost all of the gifts that they had stolen except for Damian's utility belt. The Joker
reveals that he was responsible for tricking Batman into leaving the city so that his henchmen
could ruin Christmas. And after witnessing video evidence of the chaos Damian was able to cause
to his henchmen while dressed as a little Batman, Joker recruits other villains to help Damian
cause destruction across the city. Meanwhile Batman discovers Mr. Freeze was responsible
for sabotaging his Batplane while trying to fix it. Now it's never really made clear how
Mr. Freeze was able to sabotage the Batplane. There's a lot of instances in the film where
I'm like, do the bad guys know that Batman is Bruce Wayne? It's never really made clear.
Well you would think they would at least be able to deduce it at this point when they realize
that the kid from Wayne Manor is little Batman. Well, I think Joker just thought it was a little
kid in a bat costume. It's not until the very end that Joker learns that Batman has a son
and even makes a point of scolding Batman for not telling him saying that, Hey, I thought
we were friends at that point. I think they could have been able to deduce that Bruce Wayne
was Batman, especially at the very end in the diner when Joker's having Christmas dinner
with freaking Alfred. That's the big clue. That's true. Determining Santa Claus would know where
his utility belt is, Damien visits Santa at the mall only to discover Santa is the villain
Bane in disguise. Ambushed by Bane and Poison Ivy, Damien manages to accidentally bring down
the city's giant Christmas tree, turning the press and public sentiment against him, while
the Penguin manages to escape with the utility belt. The Joker, thrilled with Damien's success,
expresses a desire to meet and speak with Meanwhile, Batman and Mr. Freeze face off in a blizzard
in the Canadian wilderness, where Batman learns that Damien is taking on Gotham's villains
as a little Batman. Isn't it strange that they aged up the villains so drastically in this
movie? They were all almost geriatric. Poison Ivy had the white hair and the penguin was
on a scooter and everything like that. I always assumed that Batman's villains were roughly
around the same age as Batman himself, but here it appeared that they were like 20 to 30 years
older. So this wasn't something I realized the first time I watched the movie. I thought the
white hair on Ivy was just a design choice and the whole glasses thing on Bane's I thought
that was just you know something that was left over from him wearing the Santa Claus costume.
Penguin has always been old in my opinion but yeah I guess the characters were aged up to
a point where I think it kind of almost justified them retiring from supervillainy and that's
why they were like outside of Arkham to begin with. Yeah maybe. Damien and his Bat-Dad AI
contemplate Bruce's relationship with his own parents at the Gotham Zoo before falling into
a trap set by the Penguin, who taunts Damien with his utility belt. During a battle between
the two, Penguin manages to damage the Bat-Dad AI before attempting to flee on a giant balloon
during a Christmas parade. While in freefall, Bat-Dad sacrifices itself to save Damien's
life by directing power to its inflation capability. With Gotham City on fire from the ruined parade,
Commissioner Gordon turns on the bat signal. As Damien flees from the angry Gotham citizens,
he has a panic attack, but is eventually discovered by Alfred, who offers him some cocoa. Now the
panic attack scene was kind of weird. It went black and white and very grainy. It was kind
of spooky. I initially thought this was the result of Damien being exposed to Scarecrow,
but that turned out to not be the case. I like it for its artistic choice. Apparently an entirely
different artist worked on this woodcutout style. I think it was just meant to visually portray
Damien in his darkest moment. Yeah it was kind of dark. I'm glad it ended up being Alfred
and not the Scarecrow because then things would have gotten a lot scarier. Now Damien encounters
a balloon with a card from the Joker asking to meet. The card gases Damien and he wakes
up at a candy factory where he finds Joker and his allies celebrating Christmas. The villains
congratulate Damian on helping them bring crime back to Gotham. As the city was focused on
little Batman's destruction, they were able to steal everyone's presence. As Damian languishes
that he's become a villain, the villains present him with his utility belt, now armed with dangerous,
sharp, and explosive gear. Taking responsibility for his actions, Damian throws his belt into
the fireplace, blowing up the Joker's party globe before taking on all of the villains,
single-handedly. This was probably the most important scene in that it's where Damien really
came to take full responsibility for his actions and sacrifice the one thing that he really
loved which was his utility belt even now that was equipped with all the things he originally
wanted it to be equipped with. Yeah it was a great moment of character growth. During the
fight Batman comes to Damien's aid and together they bring down the Joker and his allies. Though
Batman is reluctant Damien improves himself during the battle and is rewarded with Batman's
own utility belt. One of my favorite scenes in the movie for some reason was when the Batarangs
miss the Joker and he forgets about it and then he gets hit with them and that sets off his
rocket launcher that creates this massive explosion like way bigger than it should have been and
he just like flies backwards in slow motion. Again it's a scene that goes on for longer
than it should but because of that There's just a lot of humor in it. I found it quite funny.
I thought it was really touching when Batman saw Damien protecting him. And like Damien
was like, I'll protect you dad. And that moment of realization where you could tell he was
really proud of his son for the little hero that he had become. It was just very touching.
Yeah, honestly, all I've ever wanted my dad to tell me was, wow, sweet ninja skills, son.
I have yet to hear that. And so I think that's why it was so touching when I heard it in this
movie. There's still hope. Maybe. Now Batman, Damien, and Alfred use the Bat Jet to return
everything that the Joker and his allies stole, flying across the city and dropping presents,
returning Christmas to Gotham City. When Damien expresses pity over how the Joker simply expressed
loneliness, they end up sharing Christmas dinner with him at a local diner, to Batman's chagrin.
And that's the end of the movie. I gotta say, Gotham City is not Whoville. The citizens of
Gotham are not Whovians. Because in the Grinch movie, the Hoos of Whoville realized that it
was more than just the physical gifts that made Christmas, and it was the time spent together
as friends and family. And, you know, they were singing around that Christmas tree at the end
of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. But the citizens of Gotham were like depressed and down and
really sad until the moment they got their presents back. So somebody needs to teach Gotham City
the true meaning of Christmas or something. That's that's fair. I didn't even realize that
until you said that. That's probably not the best lesson. But yeah, I mean, I walked out
of the movie theater just really happy with this movie. And I don't know if it's just the
holiday season or whatever, but I just enjoyed the heck out of it. Did you like the ending
line, like the way it ended on the joke where Batman just says, I'm not your friend, it was
a little bit abrupt for my taste. I thought it was fine. I mean, the music that came right
after that line, I thought helped sell the joke a little bit and how abrupt it was. Yeah, it
didn't bother me. I had fun with the film. It was time worth spending, especially around
this Christmas season. You mentioned earlier how a criticism of the film could be that it's
unoriginal because it borrows from so many other holiday movies. But I actually like that about
it, how it kind of plays like a greatest hits of all these awesome Christmas moments from
other media packaged in a cute little Batman film. I agree with that, that's why I think
it'll definitely come on at least on an annual rotation in my household. But borrowing from
nostalgic holiday classics, the film appeals to adults and children alike thanks to its
charming visuals, fun action, and laugh out loud humor. I thought the movie was immensely
fun and funny, and I'm giving it 4 out of 5 stars a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Yeah,
I think four stars is a great rating. I actually like this movie more than the Guardians of
the Galaxy holiday special that we got last year, which I believe I gave three and a half
stars. I think if I remember correctly, my issue with the Guardian special was that it didn't
evoke those feelings that the best holiday specials did, whereas Merry Little Batman, I think definitely
does. Right. Yeah, I remember you saying that and I would agree with that. Like we said at
the top of the episode, there aren't many holiday focused films from Marvel or DC. Merry Little
Batman is obviously the most overt holiday project for the two companies. So there wasn't much
competition in it being the best holiday project. But yeah, it definitely is. But that does it
for this review. Let us know what you thought about Merry Little Batman by writing to us
at dynamicduelpodcast.gmail.com or by visiting us on Instagram or X. You can find links to
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Absolutely. But that does it for this episode, we want to give a big thanks to our executive
producers Ken Johnson, John Storowski, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcom, Miggy Matanguian, Brandon
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