Invasion of the Secret Santas!

Directed by:	Brandon Vietti
Written by:	Adam Beechen
Release date:	December 12, 2008
Running time:	22 minutes
Rating:	TV-Y7
Available on:	DVD Blu-ray Apple TV Google TV Amazon Video

“	Crime doesn't take a holiday, and neither do I.	”
— Batman

"Invasion of the Secret Santas!" is the Christmas episode of the Warner Bros. Animation/DC Comics series Batman: The Brave and the Bold, aired as the fourth episode of its first season (though it is actually the fifth episode in production order).

Synopsis

The episode opens at the Professional Bowling League's Christmas Tournament, which is suddenly crashed by Sportsmaster and his goons. Just as he has taken the contestants hostage, though, Batman and Blue Beetle show up to stop him. Batman goes after Sportsmaster while Blue Beetle takes care of the minions. After Batman defeats Sportsmaster by tossing a bowling pin and causing him to trip up, Blue Beetle invites Batman over to his house for Christmas dinner, but the Dark Knight declines the offer.

After the title sequence, android superhero Red Tornado, in his human disguise as college professor John Ulthoon, is teaching his students about archeology when he suddenly sees a truck swerving out-of-control outside and excuses himself. Removing his costume, he quickly rescues a pair of kids from being hit by the oncoming truck and brings them to their father. The kids' father thanks Red Tornado, saying his heroics have filled their family with the Christmas spirit. Red Tornado, being a robot, is a little confused about what the kids and their father are talking about. Curious, he reads a book about Christmas by Stuart Martha that night, and after doing so, decorates his house makes presents, and goes caroling, though he still does not quite feel the Christmas spirit. When looking to an old movie on TV for an answer, he gets a news report saying that the city is being attacked by flying saucers supposedly from Neptune, out to abduct Santa Claus. Batman is already on the scene to stop the Neptunians, so Red Tornado heads off to help him.

Red Tornado arrives to assist Batman in taking down the saucers, pointing out that Neptune is actually uninhabited, and that the alien transmission shown on the TV report was actually a clip from the 1954 film Holiday for Neptunians. After they take down the saucers, Batman inspects a piece of one of them and finds that these saucers are actually plastic toys, made by none other than the villainous Fun Haus, who tosses a bomb (disguised as a doll) at them before flying off in his own saucer. Batman and Tornado promptly throw the bomb up into the sky where it explodes without harming anyone. Tornado says that he will not allow Fun Haus to ruin Christmas, saying he wishes to experience Christmas spirit, though Batman says it is overrated. Tornado then presents him with a gift - a "World's Greatest Detective" mug; Batman admits he does not have anything for Tornado, but the robot does not mind, since he knows that it is better to give than receive. However, he still does not feel he has the Christmas spirit yet. With that, the two heroes go looking for where Fun Haus ran off to.

Batman and Red Tornado confront the robot Santas.

As the two heroes fly over the city, Red Tornado asks Batman why exactly he does not seem to like Christmas, though Batman says he does not dislike Christmas. They then spot a robot resembling Santa Claus running about and fly down in front of it, only for the Santa to punch the both of them. After Batman tosses a Batarang at the Santa robot and shorts it out, a whole army of robot Santas appear (hence this episode's title). Batman and Tornado proceed to fight off the Santa robots, one of which is in control of a reindeer-pulled sleigh that two kids are currently trapped in. Batman goes after the sleigh and takes out the Santa robot (telling the kids "pretend you didn't see that") right as the sleigh goes off a cliff, but fortunately Tornado rescues them. Afterward, they find a video message from Fun Haus attached to one of the fallen robots; he claims that he has hidden a bomb somewhere in the city.

The two heroes search all over for the bomb for the whole night, but find no bomb anywhere. Come the next morning, Red Tornado concludes that this search was all a distraction. Batman, looking at a theater nearby, then has a flashback to his origins. In his flashback, young Bruce Wayne was unhappy that he did not receive a swashbuckler toy for Christmas, and after his parents tried to cheer him up by taking him to see a Zorro movie, they ended up walking down that alleyway where they were shot by a mugger, to Bruce's horror. Back in the present, Batman, admitting to Red Tornado that he can never have what he wants most, then notices Fun Haus' logo on a poster for the most popular toy of the season, Presto Playpal, and figures out what Fun Haus is up to.

Sure enough, as kids all over are opening their presents that morning, their newly-received Presto Playpals break out of their packaging to steal the families' valuables and bring them to Fun Haus. When Batman and Red Tornado show up, Fun Huas combines all the small soldiers into one giant robot mech. Batman evacuates the civilians while Red Tornado battles the giant robot as best as he can. Red Tornado manages to take down Fun Haus and his mech, right before he explodes from all the pressure he just endured. Later, as the police arrive to arrest Fun Haus, Red Tornado's parts are led away to be repaired by the scientists at Star Labs. Before being loaded into their van, Red Tornado says he felt a wonderful sensation and Batman wishes him a merry Christmas. Batman then jumps into the Batmobile when he finds a present on the passenger seat, left there by his butler Alfred - the toy soldier that Bruce's father had given him for Christmas in his youth.

Trivia

• The fictional movie Holiday For Neptunians appears to be a reference to Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
• The bomb that Fun Haus throws to Batman and Red Tornado resembles Baby Doll from Batman: The Animated Series.

Availability

Warner Home Video made the episode available on home video for the first time on the Batman: The Brave and the Bold: Volume 1 DVD, released on August 25, 2009. It was later included on the Batman: The Brave and the Bold: Season 1, Part 1 DVD set, released on August 17, 2010. It was featured on the Batman: The Brave and the Bold: The Complete First Season manufacture-on-demand Blu-ray set, released by Warner Archive on November 5, 2013, and again on the DVD set of the same name, released on May 20, 2014.

Cast

Voice actor	Character
Diedrich Bader	Batman
Corey Burton	Red Tornado Professor Ulthoon Thomas Wayne
Will Friedle	Blue Beetle
Gary Anthony Williams	Fun Haus
Thomas F. Wilson	Sportsmaster Santa Claus robots
Zachary Gordon	Young Bruce Wayne Kid #1
Liliana Mumy	Doll Kid #2
James Arnold Taylor	Father

See also

• "The Duo is Slumming"
• Batman Returns
• "Christmas With the Joker"
• "Holiday Knights"
• Merry Little Batman

External links

• Batman Wiki: Invasion of the Secret Santas!
• DC Database: Invasion of the Secret Santas!
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold Wiki: Invasion of the Secret Santas!
• Episode review at World's Finest Online
• "Invasion of the Secret Santas!" at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• "Invasion of the Secret Santas!" at the Internet Movie Database