Animated Batman
Quintin Downing
Batman: The Animated Series was hailed as a groundbreaking superhero show receiving praise for its writing, art design, voice acting, orchestrated soundtrack, and modernization of its title character's source material.[4][5] The acclaim led to multiple Daytime Emmy Awards,[6] as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Programming.[7]
After the series ended its original run, a follow-up titled The New Batman Adventures began airing on Kids' WB in 1997 as a continuation of the series, featuring a revamped animation style. Lasting 24 episodes, it has often been included in the same syndicated re-run packages and home media releases as the final season. Batman: The Animated Series also became the first in the continuity of the shared DC Animated Universe, which spawned further animated TV series, feature films, comic books and video games with much of the same creative talent, including the 1993 theatrical release Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.[8]
During the series' production, producer Alan Burnett wrote an episode without dialogue entitled "Silent Night" to explore more of Batman's sexual life, but this was never produced. Burnett also intended to make an episode featuring a female vampire that would bite Batman to suck his blood, but plans never materialized.[9]
The series is also notable for its supporting cast. Numerous known actors provided voices for a variety of recognizable villains. Most notable was Mark Hamill, previously famous for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy, whose prominence as a voice actor was heightened through his "cheerfully deranged" portrayal of the Joker.[10] The role was originally given to Tim Curry, but he developed bronchitis during the initial recording sessions.[11] John Glover, who later voiced the Riddler, also auditioned for the Joker role. Hamill, who found himself to be the biggest fan of the Batman comics among the cast, credited the laughs he had honed on stage in Amadeus with landing him the role. The recording sessions, under the supervision of voice director Andrea Romano, were recorded with the actors together in one studio instead of taking separate recordings, as is typical. This method would later be employed for all subsequent series in the DC Animated Universe. Al Pacino was considered to voice Two-Face in the series, but he declined the offer;[12] Richard Moll was instead cast in the role. Other actors included Ron Perlman as Clayface, Roddy McDowall as the Mad Hatter, David Warner as Ra's al Ghul, Michael York as Count Vertigo, Kate Mulgrew as Red Claw, George Murdock as Boss Biggis, Ed Asner as Roland Daggett and George Dzundza as the Ventriloquist.
One of the series' best-known inventions is the Joker's assistant, Harley Quinn, who became so popular that DC Comics later added her to mainstream comic book continuity. The Penguin underwent change for the series; his appearance was remodeled after the version seen in Batman Returns, which was in production simultaneously with the series' first season. New life was also given to lesser-known characters for the series, such as the Clock King. In addition, dramatic changes were made to other villains such as Clayface and Mr. Freeze, the latter of whom was changed from a gimmicky mad scientist to a tragic figure whose "frigid exterior [hid] a doomed love and vindictive fury".
In order to complete the first season's 65 episodes, Warner Bros. Animation outsourced the series to several different overseas animation houses: Spectrum Animation, Sunrise, Studio Junio and Tokyo Movie Shinsha in Japan, Dong Yang Animation, Koko Enterprises Ltd. and AKOM in South Korea, Jade Animation in Hong Kong, Blue Pencil in Spain and Network of Animation (NOA) in Canada.[13] TMS also animated the first season's opening theme sequence. AKOM was eventually fired due to its inconsistent animation in many episodes such as "Cat Scratch Fever" and "Moon of the Wolf".[14]
The 20 episodes of the second season were animated largely by Dong Yang, with the exception of three done by Studio Junio ("A Bullet for Bullock", "Avatar" and "Baby-Doll") and one done by Jade Animation ("The Terrible Trio").[13]
The series took influence from Tim Burton's live-action films, Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992), and the acclaimed Superman theatrical cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios in the early 1940s.[15] In designing the series, Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski emulated the Burton films' "otherworldly timelessness", incorporating period features such as black-and-white title cards, police airships and a "vintage" color scheme with film noir flourishes.[16]
The visual style of the series was based on the artwork of Radomski, and the gothic look of Gotham City was derived from his initial designs.[17] In addition, Radomski issued a standing order to the animation department that all backgrounds be painted using light colors on black paper (as opposed to the industry standard of dark colors on white paper).[16] The distinctive visual combination of "noir" imagery and Art Deco design was dubbed "Dark Deco" by the producers.[18] The series initially took a variation of music written by Danny Elfman for the Burton films as its theme; later episodes of the series used a new theme with a similar style by Shirley Walker, an occasional collaborator of Elfman. The score of the series was influenced by Elfman's work on the Burton films, as well as music of 1940s film noir.[19] The show depicts outright physical violence against antagonists, including realistic firearms (though only one character, Commissioner Gordon, was ever depicted as having been shot, in the episode "I Am the Night"). First-time producers Timm and Radomski reportedly encountered resistance from studio executives, but the success of Burton's first film allowed the embryonic series to survive long enough to produce a pilot episode, "On Leather Wings", which, according to Timm, "got a lot of people off our backs".[16]
Sixteen minutes of animated segments in the video game The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Sega CD are sometimes referred to as a "lost episode" of the series. These segments are intended to be interspersed between gameplay elements of an early-1990s video game and as such, the sound, color and story are not quite of the same quality of the actual television program. And because Sega did not have to follow the censorship rules of the show, the fights are also a little more violent. Many of the shows voice actors reprised their roles for the game, and are thus in the lost episode as well. Similar cutscenes appear throughout the video games Batman: Vengeance and Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu.[21]
Produced by Warner Bros, Batman: The Animated Series's episodes are typically 22 minutes in length and occupy half-hour time slots.[22] Season 1 included a total of 65 episodes.[23] It initially aired in prime time on the Fox network, beginning with a special broadcast of the first episode, "On Leather Wings," on September 5, 1992, to promote its upcoming debut on Fox Kids. The regular prime-time schedule then commenced on December 13, 1992, with the episode "I Am the Night," airing Sundays at 7 PM ET.[24] Ultimately, the first season concluded on September 16, 1993.[23]
After the series produced its 65th episode, the minimum required for syndication, Fox Network executives ordered a second season of 20 more episodes. This was later reduced to airing weekly on Saturday mornings. The second season, which featured Robin more prominently, was retitled The Adventures of Batman & Robin in the title credits. This run of episodes included two new opening sequences and ending credits.[25] In 1997, following the end of Fox Kids' five-year exclusive broadcast contract, the series began airing in reruns on The WB Network's children's block Kids' WB. Later that year, The New Batman Adventures premiered on Kids' WB, airing alongside Superman: The Animated Series as part of an hour-long program titled The New Batman/Superman Adventures.[26]
The series later began airing on Toon Disney's Jetix line-up on September 30, 2007, again alongside Superman: The Animated Series (despite Warner Bros. being one of Disney's biggest competitors).[27] The show aired on Teletoon Retro, debuting on January 8, 2010. The first 65 episodes were confirmed, with the first being "The Cat and Claw, Part 1". The show was scheduled to air on a weekly basis, airing at 7:00 am, 6:00 pm, and midnight. All times are Eastern.[28]
The Hub Network aired the series from September 6, 2011, to November 29, 2013. The channel aired a 10-episode marathon of the series on July 20, 2012, to coincide with the theatrical release of The Dark Knight Rises and even created an animated version of one of the film's trailers, featuring Kevin Conroy and Adrienne Barbeau re-dubbing Batman and Catwoman's dialogue from the trailer.[29]
Batman: The Animated Series featured a strong musical score written by several different composers throughout the course of the series. The main theme of the show, which was heard during the opening and ending credits of each episode, was composed by Danny Elfman. At first, Elfman turned down Bruce Timm's offer to compose the theme for the show and so Timm hired Shirley Walker to do so. However, Elfman later changed his mind and composed a variation of his 1989 Batman film theme for the series. Walker's unused theme went on to become the main theme for the second season of the show, when the name was changed to The Adventures of Batman & Robin.[30]
In 1996, Walker won her first Daytime Emmy Award for her music direction of the episode "A Bullet for Bullock" (scored by Harvey R. Cohen). She would then go on to win another Daytime Emmy Award in the category of music-composition for Batman Beyond in 2001.[31]
Although at least twenty-four different composers worked on the series,[32] Walker, Lolita Ritmanis, and Michael McCuistion are regarded as the main contributors. After the series finished up in 1995, the three then went on to score Superman: The Animated Series (which also featured a theme by Walker) in 1996, The New Batman Adventures in 1997 and Batman Beyond in 1999. Television composer Kristopher Carter scored alongside Walker, Ritmanis, and McCuistion throughout the many DCAU series and later filled in for Walker after her death in 2006.[citation needed]
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