Some of the Highlights from the BATMAN BEYOND 20th Anniversary
I really loved the Batman Beyond 20th Anniversary panel at San Diego Comic-Con. In addition to the announcement of Batman Beyond getting remastered/up-rezzed, there was a panel there to answer questions and talk about the series. The panelists included Stan Burkowitz, Kevin Conroy, Will Friedle, Bob Goodman, Glen Mirakami, Andrea Romano, Bruce Timm, and James Tucker with Gary Mireaneau serving as the moderator.
We found out that Batman Beyond came to be because Timm was called into an executive’s office (sorry, I forgot to write down the name), and the executive wanted a show geared more for kids. This was during the second season of Batman: The Animated Series, and apparently, they wanted something more for the 6-12 year old demographic. On the spot, Timm thought up the idea of “teenage Batman,” and it was immediately greenlit without an official pitch. In addition to the idea of a teenage Batman, Mirakami said that they decided to switch from an art deco and film noir style to something closer to anime. This was in part due to the growing popularity of anime among children. Interestingly enough, Goodman mentioned that he felt the show actually became more mature than BTAS.
Throughout the panel, people duscussed how they enjoyed having multiple Batmen in the show and seeing how they are so different.
One of my favorite moments was when Friedle talked about how he felt he and Conroy had a similar, albeit less violent relationship, to that of Terry and Bruce. At the same time, he and Conroy and Romano talked about how most of the episodes were recorded as an ensemble with everyone there. Romano then went on to marvel at how they could often record an episode in about two and a half hours, but then spend 4+ hours in ADR to get the grunts and other vocal sound effects right. Friedle admitted that he had a hard time doing the grunts and often was told to sound less like a pirate.
Another fun discussion was how Conroy and Friedle got their respective parts. Of course, because Timm wanted the show to maintain continuity with BTAS, he just assumed that Conroy would join. Then, it was explained that Timm and his wife would watch the old TGIF program block with Boy Meets World and Sabrina the Teenage Witch and his wife said that Friedle was attractive. She then noted how good his voice was, and when it was time to cast Terry, she said that they should get Friedle. That’s right, we can thank Timm’s wife for that fantastic casting.
The highlight of the panel for me was when Conroy sang a bar or two of “Am I Blue?” This was a beautiful moment for us fans and got a very warm reception.
During the Q&A section of the panel, fans asked some interesting questions. One person asked about the fact that Terry’s brother Matt was also a clone of Bruce Wayne to which Friedle said, “It’s nice to have a Batman on hold.” Meanwhile, Conroy said, “Bat in the pocket.” When asked about approaching the voice of an old Bruce Wayne, Conroy admitted that it was a challenge but he loved it because Bruce was still strong and passionate, he was just slower. We also found out why Big Barta was included as part of Justice League Beyond. It turns out that the studio didn’t have the rights for Wonder Woman, but they wanted a strong female character. One of my favorite questions was about creating the new villains as well as incorporating some older baddies. It was explained that they used classic villains as inspiration for some of the new ones. For example, they took the shapeshifting Clayface and then just started doodling before they came up with Inque, who is like a futuristic version of Clayface. In addition, we learned that Timm and Mirakami were the ones who thought of the idea that Terry was a clone of Bruce and Dwayne McDuffy helped the pair come up with how to make it happen.
As a bonus, we learned from Conroy and Friedle that Mark Hamill spits a lot.