Adorable animation – The Hollywood Reporter

“Fun Little Batman”

Warner Bros.

Clearly, parenthood has a way of slowing you down. Take Batman, for example. He’s clearly not at his best in the new Amazon Prime animated film, in which he looks more like a burly lumberjack than a superhero, dressed in jeans, a flannel shirt, and a bushy beard. Fortunately, he’s not the hero tasked with saving Gotham City back in the Christmas set Fun Little Batman. That would be Damian, his eight-year-old son, who clearly takes after his old man when it comes to fighting supervillains.

Damian (voiced by Jonas Kibreab) displays typical pre-teen energy, chasing his cat around the vast confines of Wayne Manor as if they were in a Tom and Jerry cartoon. His father, Bruce (Luke Wilson), is basically retired, having gotten rid of all the crime in Gotham City. But he’s still on call, which means that when he receives a message from the Justice League to deal with a “weather anomaly” in Nova Scotia, he reluctantly leaves young Damian in the hands of his trusted servant Alfred (screen veteran James Cromwell).

Eager to be left alone, Damian tricks Alfred into going on a mission to capture marshmallows for hot chocolate. A reference to a break-in by a pair of hapless thieves (Michael Fielding, Natalie Palamedes), resulting in Damian, now dressed as a makeshift Batman, fending them off with a series of pain-inducing traps that indicate he’s witnessed it. Home Alone Many times.

But when they manage to escape using his utility belt, Damian springs into action, borrowing one of his father’s real Batsuits (apparently adjustable in size) and riding his Batcycle to Gotham. There he encounters an all-star cast of Batman villains, including The Penguin (Brian George), Poison Ivy (Teresa McLaughlin), Bane (Chris Sullivan), this is us), Mr. Freeze (Dolph Adomian), and of course the Joker (David Hornsby), who no Batman movie, animated or otherwise, should be without.

Fortunately for pint-sized Damian, his father was wise enough to have an AI version of himself, dubbed “Batdad”, installed in the suit in the event of his death. He is thus able to provide his son with much-needed help when dealing with the nefarious villains, even if for some of them their best days are over (at one point, the Penguin actually takes offense when he is referred to as “incontinent”).

The Mike Roth-directed film is clearly a labor of love for everyone involved, with enough Easter eggs and jokes to satisfy even the most die-hard Batman enthusiast, including one reference to George Clooney’s nipple-featuring Batsuit and Bruce and Damian happily littering the film. Batman TV show theme. It’s very geared towards younger audiences, and is fast-paced to the point of frenetic. But it boasts a captivating visual style, and its animation owes heavily to Ronald Searle’s satirical drawings. Its stylized representations of Wayne Manor, Gotham City, and often grotesque villains share in their underground comic feel similar to modern animated films such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (I was particularly impressed by the Joker wearing what looks like a zoot suit.) A swinging score combining Christmas classics and Patrick Stamp’s originals adds even more turbulent energy.

There’s also a lot of the kind of sly humor that’s offered to adults, like when Batman, during a dark moment, reminds himself, “Remember what your therapist said about your thinking.” Or the fed-up Joker declares, “That’s what he’s doing! I’m moving to Metropolis!” Not surprisingly, the Joker gets the best lines, offering Batman this indirect compliment: “I gotta say, I like the beard. She really takes the scare game seriously. As for Bane, he’s just as obvious here as he was when Tom Hardy played him.

Acting as an unofficial pilot for Bat familyan animated series also coming to Prime, Little fun Batman is a fun introduction to the Caped Crusader for pint-sized viewers.