Plot summary: The New Batman Adventures kick off as the Bat Family have to contend with Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Clayface and Joker in a series of short Christmas capers.

(Originally published on The Reel World May 29th, 2021)

The New Batman Adventures

Let’s nip something in the bud right now: The New Batman Adventures is technically a different television show to Batman: The Animated Series. BUT, given it’s a direct continuation, I’m going to keep adding to the existing rankings. There will be a TNBA-only list in the season review.

On that note, this series is notable for its revamped art style intended to make life easier on the animators, reduce the budget, and better match the new Superman: The Animated Series, which the creative team were enjoying making, with no desire to return to Batman until the network insisted. Anachronistic Art Deco is out, with Gotham lightened up and modernised. Most of the heroes and villains got modified appearances with even Bruce Wayne’s face getting an overhaul. Plus the sky is almost always red for some reason, which really irks me.

Writing wise, it’s set roughly 3 years after BTAS and is now firmly an ensemble show, with Tim Drake replacing Dick Grayson as Robin, and Batgirl elevated to become Bruce’s main sidekick. The toy companies and production staff were VERY into the expanded cast, particularly Barbara, who had a big role in Batman & Robin.

Finally, the show moved from Fox to WB Kids, who were dramatically more laid back about censorship than their predecessors. Heck, they even gave them the old opening credits back. No more Title Cards though, which is maybe neck and neck with Joker’s redesign for me in terms of the show’s biggest sins.

Notes

Original Air Date: September 13^th, 1997

Directed: Dan Riba (11)

Written: Paul Dini (25)

Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD (2) & Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (44)

Music: Shirley Walker (35 )

This episode is a direct adaptation of Dini’s The Batman Adventures Holiday Special which is very good. Notable by its absence is Mr. Freeze’s story, because of the events of Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero, which ended with Nora Fries revived, making his story about her dying redundant.

The timeline is a very wonky here, as the events of upcoming episodes ‘Sins of the Father’ and ‘Growing Pains’ must have taken place first.

The trio singing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ are send-ups of Bruce Timm and artists Glen Murakami and Shane Glines.

I’m not linking you to it. I’m not telling you to go look at it. But Bruce Timm really wanted Barbara to get changed in the middle of the busy crowd of shoppers in both the comic and the cartoon. The comic publishers refused, so she ran into a changing room. WB Kids allowed them to go for ducking out of sight but still being somewhat open. But Timm decided to draw a version where she does indeed get naked in the crowd. Nips and all. Some ideas are allowed to stay in your head. Just saying.

Recap

We open on December 22^nd with Harley lamenting the lack of Christmas spirit she feels hiding out with Poison Ivy, who promises to improve the situation, but naturally objects to getting a Christmas tree. (In the comic she also pointed out Harley is Jewish)

Bruce Wayne fends off a group of admirers at a Christmas party but a shadowy figure manages to plant one on him. It was Poison Ivy, and just like Batman & Robin, Bruce is now under her control.

Ivy forces the billionaire to take her and her ~~girlfriend~~ gal pal on an enormous spending spree. No Bat-Credit Card, but you know what that means: fashion montage!!!!

The effects begin to wear off and Bruce falls down an elevator shaft. Emerging shortly after as Batman, he chases the femme fatales to an empty toy store. Harley & Ivy nearly murder him but he’s able to knock an enormous Christmas tree onto them.

On December 24^th, Barbara Gordon is shopping at a mall where Harvey Bullock and Rene Montoya are working undercover trying to catch whoever has been hitting the stores so hard lately.

Babs notices a small child shoplifting and tries to grab his hand… which comes clean off and turns to goo!

Sure enough, a series of light-fingered kids converge and become Clayface who makes short work of the cops. Barbara takes cover to perform a quick change into her excellent new costume.

Taking things outside, Batgirl tries to beat Clayface up the old fashioned way, before instructing Bullock & Montoya to shoot out some hanging lights so that they fall on and electrocute the villain.

Next, on New Year’s Eve, Joker hijacks a TV broadcasts to reveal his resolution: no murders for a whole year! However, to compensate, he’s going to kill as many people by midnight as possible!

Batman and the new Robin, Tim Drake, learn from Jim Gordon that Mistah J has thus far only bumped off a man who pioneered a ‘sonic bomb.’ Bats thus deduces Joker’s plan is to unleash the sonic device during the countdown to midnight.

As predicted, the Clown Prince and his henchmen make final preparations by handing out hundreds of Joker masks to the drunken crowd, making him impossible to spot… if not for the fact the genuine article is sitting on a stage playing a damn piano flanked by three heavies, all wearing earmuffs…

The Dynamic Duo take out the goons and Batman fires a champagne cork into Joker’s freakin’ eye before spraying the control console for the device with booze, disabling it. Oh, and a giant bell falls on Joker for good measure.

Finally, Batman meets Commissioner Gordon at a little bar near Harley & Ivy’s hideout from the start of the episode for their annual tradition of a New Year’s coffee at the end of Jim’s shift.

Naturally, Batman vanishes almost as quickly as he arrives, leaving behind the money to cover their order, much to Gordon’s chagrin. Cute.

Best Performance

This is the last time Kevin Conroy was asked to make Bruce and Batman sound distinct from each other, so pour one out that strong tradition as well.

It’s difficult to pick an MVP in an anthology style episode as the usual heavy hitters like Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, Diane Pershing, Ron Perlman and even Mark Hamill don’t feature for long enough to stand out. Hamill comes the closest of course.

But I have to give it up to Robert Costanza for his portrayal of a disgruntled Harvey Bullock forced to work as a Mall Santa and doing an utterly terrible job, scaring the kids, belching and drawing attention to his gun. Best of all, when confronted with the daughter of the imprisoned ‘Mad Dog’ (presumably the same one from ‘Shadow of the Bat’), he can’t find the right words and eventually caves and gives her some cash. It’s among the strongest character moments in the episode, and Costanza crams a lot of range into a short space of time.

Also of note, Tara Strong makes her debut as Batgirl, replacing Melissa Gilbert and Mary Kay Bergman. It’s an incredibly brief first appearance, but so far the acting isn’t up to snuff yet, though she does sound younger… which is great, given where this is unfortunately heading later…

Episode Ranking

What a bizarre choice for a first episode, given it’s set after two later episodes AND didn’t premiere at Christmas. And not to be that guy, but the comic is better. They do a decent job adapting it, but the short runtime was never going to make it an easy task.

Harley & Ivy’s section got a disproportionate amount of the runtime, but their shopping montage and general shenanigans are the most iconic part of the episode. In fact, Paul Dini has a framed still from said montage on his wall. Such a weird coincidence that we keep catching these just-good-friends in their underwear…

I adore the concept of the Clayface segment, and it gives Bullock and Montoya a chance to steal the show (with fan favourite Babs’ help of course!), as well as putting a neat little twist on the villain. I only wish it got more time.

Joker’s story having such a simple resolution was the only real way to pull off a mystery in five minutes, though long-time viewers may have been shocked to see Joker brandishing a regular-ass gun and actually winging Batman with a shot. Welcome to The WB, Kids!

Finally, the little epilogue is wonderful, and is one of the most shared moments from the entire series. I think it worked better as a comic, though of course the voices of Conroy and Hastings add warmth.

Overall it’s probably stronger as a collection than any of its individual segments, and it would have been nice to see them try and make anthologies an annual tradition.

The Laughing Fish
Mask of the Phantasm
Almost Got ‘im
Heart of Ice
Harlequinade
The Trial
Riddler’s Reform
Shadow of the Bat Part I
I Am the Night
Robin’s Reckoning Part I
Baby-Doll
Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero
The Man Who Killed Batman
Perchance to Dream
Two-Face Part I
Bane
Batgirl Returns
A Bullet For Bullock
Joker’s Favor
Read My Lips
Feat of Clay Part II
Catwalk
The Demon’s Quest Part II
Harley and Ivy
Robin’s Reckoning Part II
House & Garden
Beware the Gray Ghost
Holiday Knights (NEW ENTRY)
Second Chance
Mad as a Hatter
Heart of Steel Part II
Appointment In Crime Alley
Two-Face Part II
Pretty Poison
Deep Freeze
Harley’s Holiday
Lock-Up
Shadow of the Bat Part II
Feat of Clay Part I
His Silicon Soul
Off Balance
Vendetta
Birds of a Feather
Heart of Steel Part I
On Leather Wings
See No Evil
The Clock King
It’s Never Too Late
Make ‘Em Laugh
Joker’s Wild
Eternal Youth
The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
The Cat and the Claw Part I
Zatanna
Day of the Samurai
Avatar
The Demon’s Quest Part I
The Mechanic
The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
Terror in the Sky
P.O.V.
Christmas with the Joker
Fear of Victory
Be a Clown
The Worry Men
What is Reality?
Fire From Olympus
Night of the Ninja
Mudslide
The Cat and the Claw Part II
Nothing to Fear
The Lion and the Unicorn
Prophecy of Doom
Tyger, Tyger
Blind as a Bat
If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
Dreams In Darkness
The Last Laugh
Cat Scratch Fever
Moon of the Wolf
Paging the Crime Doctor
Time Out of Joint
Sideshow
The Under-Dwellers
The Forgotten
Showdown
The Terrible Trio
I’ve Got Batman in My Basement

Rogues Roundup

Poison Ivy (Diane Pershing) (seventh appearance)

Enjoying one of the stronger redesigns, Ivy’s skin tone makes her look a little less human, and her costume is a touch less campy.

Props to Riba & Dini for finding a way to condense half the plot of Batman & Robin into such a short amount of time! Ivy mind controlling hapless men into doing her bidding is an enormous amount of the character’s appeal, and she continues to come across as an underrated criminal genius, though for now she’s remaining in fourth.

Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin) (ninth appearance)

Sliding into more of a sidekick role while Ivy takes the lead, Harley still gets in her yucks and almost murders Batman in the toy store, so props there. She’s also one of the few characters to maintain their look from BTAS, which I have to imagine is due to her being an original creation.

Clayface (Ron Perlman) (first/fourth appearance)

You may be wondering how on earth did he survive the end of Mudslide. Well, we’re going to find out later, but I’d also point out Joker has survived certain death more than once, soooo…

The ability to split into multiple pieces, each doing his bidding was an interesting direction to push Clayface’s wildly diverse power-set, and it opens the door to all manner of future applications. But he is taken out pretty easily, so his spot is unaffected overall.

The Joker (Mark Hamill) (first/fifteenth appearance)

The redesign of Gotham’s number one Murder Clown is nothing short of a tragedy; the complete opposite of a glow-up. The eyes. The lips. The hair. All terrible. I can live with the subtle changes to his iconic purple suit, but I will never get used to his face.

Anyway, it’s a fun plan by him, and it’s one of his most effective appearances (knocking Batman out with a bottle and then shooting him)… until it isn’t. It’s nothing to lower his overall ranking, but I think I prefer Ivy in this episode.

(This is also the debut of his Three Stooges inspired henchmen. More recurring henchmen, IMO!)

The Joker (-)
Harley Quinn (-)
Mr. Freeze
Poison Ivy (-)
Two-Face
The Ventriloquist
Catwoman
The Riddler
The Phantasm
Baby-Doll
Bane
Mad Hatter
Penguin
HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
Clayface (-)
Ra’s al Ghul
Lock-Up
Lloyd Ventrix
Killer Croc
Rupert Thorne
Count Vertigo
Clock King
Nivens
Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
Josiah Wormwood
Scarecrow
Talia al Ghul
Sid the Squid
Queen Thoth Khepera
Maxie Zeus
Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
Tony Zucco
Man-Bat
Hugo Strange
Red Claw
Arnold Stromwell
Mad Bomber
Tygrus
Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
Kyodai Ken
Condiment King/Pack Rat/Mighty Mom
Grant Walker
Gil Mason
Nostromos (and Lucas!)
Cameron Kaiser
Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
Mad Dog
Ubu
Professor Milo
Romulus
Arkady Duvall
Sewer King
Boss Biggis
Montague Kane
The Terrible Trio