Merry Little Batman, on Amazon
Amazon MGM Studios; Batman Wiki; Christmas Specials Wiki; DC; IMDb; Rotten Tomatoes; TV Tropes; Warner Bros.; Wikia; Wikipedia
other streaming sites: Fandango; Google Play; Movies Anywhere; YouTube

Caution: spoilers.

This was originally supposed to premiere on Cartoon Network and HBO Max, in which case I probably would have put it in my TV movies section, but instead it premiered on Amazon Prime Video. That was in December 2023, but I didn't see it until a year later. The animation is... interesting. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but I could understand some people liking it more than I did and others disliking it. It's kind of out there. There are some cool background songs. The movie is mostly geared toward younger audiences, though there are things about it that I think would appeal more to older audiences. I found it fairly cute and amusing.

Bruce Wayne (voiced by Luke Wilson) is raising his eight-year-old son, Damian, who wants to be a superhero like his dad. But Bruce hasn't been Batman for years, because he had worked really hard to eliminate crime from Gotham City, in order to make it safe for Damian. On Christmas Eve, Bruce gives Damian an early Christmas present: a utility belt. Then, when Bruce gets called away from Gotham by the Justice League to deal with some sort of anomaly, Damian wants to go with him, but his father refuses, leaving Damian in the care of his butler, Alfred Pennyworth (James Cromwell). Because Damian misbehaves, Bruce gives the utility belt to Alfred to hold onto for the time being. After Batman leaves, Damian tricks Alfred into going shopping for marshmallows. While Damian is home alone, a pair of burglars named Terry and Francine break into the mansion, and Damian stops them from stealing much of anything, but they do get away with his utility belt. (His battle with them reminded me of Home Alone.)

Damian then goes down to the Batcave, where he finds a superhero suit made for him. (It's too big, because he wasn't meant to get it until he's older, but when he puts it on it shrinks to fit him.) He tries to take the Batmobile, but can't reach the pedals. So instead he takes a motorcycle, to go looking for the thieves. Meanwhile, Terry and Francine return to their boss, who turns out to be the Joker. Terry had recorded their encounter with Damian on his phone, and when Joker sees the video, he comes up with a plan to lure "Little Batman" in a chase to get his belt back, and in the process wreak all sorts of damage on the city. Joker teams up with a bunch of other villains, whom Damian does his best to fight, but Joker's plan works out perfectly. He and his allies then steal all the presents from Gotham's families (which reminded me of How the Grinch Stole Christmas). Joker invites Damian to join them as a supervillain, because of all the havoc he'd caused, but Damian refuses.

Meanwhile, Batman's jet crashes in a snowstorm, and he finds there's no anomaly, and the Justice League hadn't actually called him. That was just a trick the Joker used to get him out of Gotham. Batman is then attacked by Mr. Freeze. He eventually returns to Gotham, though we never get to know how he managed that. But anyway, he and Damian fight all the villains together. And of course, the good guys win in the end.

I feel like I've given an awful lot of the plot away, but I've also left out tons of details. I definitely enjoyed it for a lot of reasons, but it's not among my favorite Batman stories.

In 2025, there's going to be a follow-up web series called "Bat-Family", which I wouldn't mind checking out, but I don't know if I'll even have Amazon Prime when it comes out.