Baby Doll (Batman: The Animated Series)

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Mary Louise Dahl, aka Baby Doll, is a fictional character in the Batman universe, invented exclusively for Batman: The Animated Series. Alison LaPlaca initially provided Baby Doll's voice. In her second appearance, Baby Doll's voice was supplied by Saturday Night Live alumna Laraine Newman. She has only appeared in two episodes of the series.

[edit] Biography

Baby Doll suffers from a disorder called systemic hypoplasia, which causes its victims to cease aging at a certain point in childhood. Dahl stopped aging at approximately the age of six. As a result, she has the mental and emotional capacity of an adult, but the body of a child. At one point, Dahl was a successful actress on a family sitcom, That's Our Baby, but her fading stardom as well as the fact that no one takes her seriously as an adult drives her criminally insane.

Baby Doll first appears in an episode that ran towards the end of the first run of Batman: The Animated Series in an episode called "Baby Doll." In it, Batman and Robin are investigating the kidnapping of several actors, all of whom once starred on the sitcom That's Our Baby. She played a toddler whose catchline was "I didn't mean to." Initially, Mary Dahl is viewed as a possible target, but Batman soon learns that the woman may be more villainous than she looks.

After her sitcom was cancelled, Dahl tried legitimate acting, but her efforts were critically panned. Twenty years later, Dahl — adopting her former show persona, Baby Doll — returns to kidnap her former co-stars and return them to the abandoned set where That's Our Baby was filmed in an attempt to recapture the happiness she had when she was on the show. Batman frees the actors from Baby Doll and chases her to a carnival. There, they enter a house of mirrors where Baby is confronted with a distorted reflection of herself that, in her mind, resembles what she would look like if she had a normal body. She makes this observation to herself in the voice of an adult woman, in contrast to the childish, high pitched voice she had in the Baby Doll persona. Instead of attacking Batman, Baby Doll shoots the mirror. She then breaks down, sobbing "...I didn't mean to."

After Batman: The Animated Series completed its run, a new and slightly re-vamped show called The New Batman Adventures aired. Baby Doll shows up in one episode of this series as well: "Love Is a Croc," in which she teams up with Killer Croc, whom she believed to be a kindred spirit. In the end, Baby Doll betrays Croc when she realizes he was only using her.

[edit] Powers and Abilities

Baby Doll's main features are a series of dangerous devices designed to look like toys; in addition to her doll gun, she has been known to use bouncing balls with smoke-screens in them, a baby's bottle filled with knock-out gas, and explosive jacks. Unlike most rogues, however, Doll's insanity is a hindrance to her genius; she never makes her hide-outs hard to find and never even seems to factor Batman into her plans. She once attempted to detonate a nuclear plant as revenge on Killer Croc, well aware that it would kill her and thousands of other people.

Dahl uses two voices to express herself. Her predominant voice is that of her character, Baby Doll, a happy, chipper young girl. Of course, the happy child-like tone is rather contradictory to her true nature; at any time, she can attempt to murder someone while still sounding like a child. Her true voice — that of an adult woman — is one she only uses when she is deathly serious. As such, she usually speaks in it when she is close to having a psychological breakdown.

[edit] Trivia

• Baby Doll's appearance is inspired by an Infinity Inc. villain named "Baby Boom", a woman whose body stopped aging at childhood due to genetic experimentation on her as a fetus. They both dress alike and even have the same hair.
• Doll is the only Batman villain (aside from the Sewer King and Red Claw) made exclusively for the first run of the show who has not, to date, moved on to the comics.
• The reason behind the cancellation of her sitcom - the introduction of a cute kid cousin who stole the audience's attention - parodies the TV phenomenon known as "Cousin Oliver Syndrome", in which a cute kid is introduced to a show to boost sagging ratings. The fact that That's Our Baby was starting what would become its last season when "Cousin Spunky" was introduced parodies the belief that "Cousin Oliver Syndrome" is a sign of a show jumping the shark.