There are plenty of Batman Christmas stories out there, but the upcoming animated film, Merry Little Batman, still manages to stand out from the crowd. Regular Show writer Mike Roth is in the director’s chair and is bringing the same wacky antics and stylized animation we come to expect from that show and delivers it to the heart of Gotham City, as the freshly released trailer shows.

Merry Little Batman follows the adventures of young Damian Wayne as he seeks to save Christmas from a host of classic Batman villains while his father is out of Gotham to help the Justice League. As perilous as that all sounds, nothing in the trailer is taken quite that seriously. This is a more laidback, chilled Bruce Wayne, reveling in his role as Bat-Dad. He's got a proper dad beard going on under his cowl, complete with bits of doughnut, and his primary concern, above anything else, seems to be to be a good father to his son.

It is an unusual role for Batman, who usually doesn’t have enough time to be a dad with his chaotic crime-fighting and brooding schedule, but we’re not upset about that. We’ve seen countless stories about Bruce’s relentless pursuit of justice, so it is about time we got something more light-hearted and whimsical from the Caped Crusader for a change. He's constantly teaming up with other heroes, after all.

We don’t doubt that the art style is going to take some getting used to for fans, but the wobbly arms and exaggerated features actually work for a story about a young Damian Wayne desperate for adventure. We’ve had so many dark, serious Batman stories over the years – we can have a bit of whimsy for a change. It is Christmas, after all.

Merry Little Batman is coming to Amazon Prime on 8 December, just in time for a holiday viewing.

Want to know what's coming up next in pop culture? Check out our guides to upcoming movies, upcoming TV shows, upcoming comics, and upcoming comic conventions. If you're looking for specific franchises or genres, we have all the upcoming MCU, upcoming Star Wars, upcoming Star Trek, and upcoming DC movies & TV for you. If you're a fan of superheroes and not specific to just Marvel or DC, we have overall guides to all the upcoming superhero movies and upcoming superhero TV shows (and new seasons) as well.