DC SUPER FRIENDS THE JOKER'S PLAYHOUSE
PROMO MOVIE: The Joker's Playhouse[]
The episode starts with an under construction Hall of Justice. The announcer lets us know that it is located in Metropolis. That was surprising to me for some reason, but after looking it up I see that it has been located there in some of its other versions too. The narrator informs us that Batman and Superman are overseeing the construction while the other members of the Super Friends are out on patrol. The hall is almost finished when Batman shows Superman their hard light holographic training area. As soon as it’s mentioned you know something bad is going to happen in there.
As soon as Batman shows off these solid holograms the doors seal shut. Batman jumps on the controls while Superman tries to pry the doors open. Batman’s design here is pretty neat; there are detail lines all down his costume very similar to how he appeared in the Arkham Asylum games. Daran Norris voices Batman here and he is pretty good, but not standout. David Kaye pulls double duty on Superman and Hawkman. His Supes is okay, he knocks Hawkman out of the park though. Superman opens the doors just enough to find out the doors are lined with Kryptonite. So this episode is going to fall into that lets depower Superman quickly so we can challenge everyone trap that early Justice League episodes fell into.
Just as Superman falls back from the Kryptonite the dark room begins filling with “HA”s. That’s right, a holographic Joker appears. The animators ran with the idea that they could make anything appear since they were all holograms. John Kassir also delivers a very strong Joker. Joker lets Batman and Superman know that he has turned the Hall of Justice into the Joker’s playhouse. The blackness and the “Ha Ha”s pull away and are heroes find themselves knee deep in a holographic swamp. Joker makes a Solomon Grundy and a number of mud monsters to join them in the swamp. Batman uses his utility belt to call the rest of the Super Friends.
Flash gets the call first. He’s voiced by Eric Bauza and I have to same I’m disappointed with the voice. It just came off a little too high pitched. Hawkman is next to get the call and he flies by a billboard with Booster Gold on it!! Hawkman calls Cyborg (voice by Phil LaMarr) and is told that all the other Super Friends are currently dispatched across the globe. Cyborg asks if Green Lantern is in town and Hal is shown flying the construct jet that the DVD comes with! Very cool little nod to the toy. Phil is good as Cyborg. Grant Moninger voices Green Lantern and the Ted Knight sound-alike narrator. His Green Lantern sounds a bit off to me. In fact he still sounds a little like Ted Knight. He tells everyone to meet at the Hall of Justice’s secret entrance.
Flash is the first person to get there and we get the first indication of his personality. You probably already guessed it; he’s the jokester who rushes ahead. Green Lantern seems takes the lead and advises everyone to split up and search for Batman and Superman. Cyborg thinks it is a better idea to stick together, but before anyone can debate it Flash rushes ahead. He finds giant wrapped presents that say that are for him. Even he recognizes that it is obviously a trap. Then Jokers pop out of them like jack in the boxes and try to hit the Flash with hammers. Not being able to hit him one of them pulls out a bazooka fires a pie with a bomb in it. As Flash is running from the pies he runs into a gum trap, sticking his feet to the floor.
It appears when the Flash took off the others did split up, because the scene then switches to Hawkman flying through the garage. Hawkman is checking in with the others when he is attacked by Gorilla Grodd. Phil Lamar does a great job voicing this high-tech Grodd design. Grodd takes control over all the vehicles in the garage sending robot suits, helicopters, etc after Hawkman. Cyborg hears Joker laughing in his own room and finds himself trapped in a giant vector graphics style video game. I guess his room is also outfitted with hard light holograms? That part isn’t really ever explained.
Green Lantern is attacked by Mr. Freeze. Eric Bauza does a much better job voicing Freeze then he does on the Flash. The resulting fight is very well done with Freeze making objects out of ice while Hal creates constructs with his ring. It looks like Hal is going to win the fight when Freeze presses a button on his gauntlet and a giant yellow ball falls on Green Lantern. Hall awakes to see everything in the ball is yellow and there is a timer counting down. When the camera view cuts to the outside you see he is actually trapped in a giant Joker smiley face. The best part of this is Mr. Freeze telling Green Lantern that his powers won't work on yellow like Hal doesn't know his own weakness.
Batman and Superman have been fighting mud monsters the entire time the rest of the Super Friends have been doing other things. Superman is getting weaker and weaker as time goes by. During the fight he punches the ground so hard that the holograms flicker and Batman sees where the control panel is hidden. Solomon Grundy intercepts Batman but Superman moves in to distract the big guy while Batman goes to work.
Hawkman is still fighting Grodd when Flash calls him for help. The winged warrior proves himself to be the most competent person in the episode having not actually gotten trapped anywhere. He dispatches Grodd with ease and pulls Flash out of the gum. The two of them then break into Cyborg’s room and help him fight off the video game enemies attacking him. Flash’s jokes during these segments are atrocious. He tells Hawkman to leave the jokes to him, but they really could have just been dropped instead.
The group then uses Cyborg’s scanners to find where Green Lantern is. Mr. Freeze is walking out of the door just as the Super Friends are walking in. Freeze is encased in a block of ice and Hawkman knocks one of the eyes out of the Joker smiley face so that the Green Lantern can escape. Hal uses his ring to make a brick wall to protect everyone but the smiley face only throws confetti everywhere and leaves a sign that says, “Fooled you!” Cyborg’s scanners pick up Batman and Superman this time so the group heads over to rescue them.
Superman manages to hit the holograms hard enough that everything phases out again. Batman uses that moment to destroy the control panel. Just as all the holograms disappear the other Super Friends break into the training room. Batman states that the control room is the only place that the Joker could cause all these problems from and the gang head over there. Joker is waiting for them and uses the equipment in the control room to make a giant Joker robot!
The giant Joker-bot destroys the Super Friends one on one. Superman flies up and is hit with red sun radiation. Hawkman tries the same and is glued to the wall with another of those gum pies that the Flash was stopped with. Joker’s flower turns into a yellow saw blade and destroys the Lantern’s constructs. Flash is wrapped up tight in multi-colored streamers. Cyborg tries to short circuit the robot but is hit from a blast of water from a toy fish. Things look bleak again.
Remember how I said this cartoon makes Hawkman the bad ass of the group? He realizes they need to use teamwork to take out the robot. Hawkman flies Batman in close who then blows up the radiation ray on Superman. Superman then destroys the yellow saw blade keeping Green Lantern pinned down. Green Lantern makes a pair of scissors that cut the Flash free. Flash runs Cyborg up the robot body and makes the robot dizzy. Hawkman flies up and knocks the head off the robot! Superman opens the downed robot’s chest up and we see the Joker has been piloting it all this time.
The heroes talk about how important team work is and Batman states that’s good because they are all going to have to pitch in to clean up the mess the Joker caused. Everyone quickly make excuses and run out on the Bat, who sadly wishes Robin was there to help clean up.
Fisher-Price Super Friends[]
FISHER PRICE DC SUPER FRIENDS
The Fisher-Price Super Friends Toy Line, will get a series of 15 three-minute animated shorts. Those will launch later this spring on digital platforms and another exclusive app.......
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