Batman: The Animated Series was a very popular American cartoon produced by Warner Brothers which originally aired from 1992 to 1995. It's dark atmosphere, adult themes and dramatic voice acting he...
Batman: The Animated Series was a very popular American cartoon produced by Warner Brothers which originally aired from 1992 to 1995. It's dark atmosphere, adult themes and dramatic voice acting helped make the show groundbreaking; Another very important factor that gave the series it's edge was the stunning soundtrack composed by Shirley Walker (1945 - 2006).
Batman: The Animated Series was unlike anything children had ever been presented. Instead of the cartoony and comedic Batman that had been featured in every Dark Knight television adaptation up to that point (like the famous Adam West and Burt Ward live action TV show, and the Filmation toons), this series took place in a world far more similar to Tim Burton's re-imagining of the franchise.
Not only were some ideas from the Tim Burton films directly taken into the show (like the Penguin's plan to take over the Batmobile, and the Joker's origin), the theme music composed by Danny Elfman was also present in the opening animation and heavily influenced the rest of Shirley Walker's work on the series.
The show had a very intense and dark atmosphere, not only because of the art work by producer Bruce Timm, but many of the backgrounds were painted on black paper. This created a film noir like ambient which contrasted heavily with other children animation at the time which were far more colorful and bright. The characters and their endeavors felt real, as they dealt with legitimate and adult issues like paranoia, death of loved ones, mental illness, politics, unemployment, emotional rejection and complex fears. The fantastic voice acting reflected this, with notable performances by Kevin Conroy (Batman/Bruce Wayne) and Star Wars' Luke Skywalker, Mark Hamill (The Joker).
Although there were other contributors to the music in Batman: The Animated Series, Shirley Walker is regarded as the main source of composition for the show. Walker's work featured complex orchestrations with rich melodies, and her musical creation was so perfect with themes so appropriate to each character that if we didn't know any better, we'd say the characters were created for the music, and not the other way around.
The Mad Hatter, The Joker, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow and many other characters were given the honor of exceptional musical themes. In this video, I explore Harvey Dent, ''Two Face'''s theme.
The character of Harvey Dent is presented as a strong, brave and heroic district attorney who is great friends with Bruce Wayne and an ally of Batman. However, his mental disorder and hatred for crime and corruption turn him into a villain himself, a would be anti-hero who is disturbed yet in love with his fiance Grace and this ends up making him a sympathetic character even if a villain. Because of this, Two Face is a groundbreaking villain in super hero cartoons. He is not a figure who is easy to hate. He despises crime and corruption, he is in love and he has been pushed over the edge by his split personality and the evil faces of crime that surround him.
Shirley Walker reflected this character remarkably well with this simple yet stirring melody. Like the rest of the Batman score, the Two Face episodes featured a serious dark soundtrack that is borderline horror music.
Shirley Walker died on November 30, 2006 at Washoe Medical Center in Reno, Nevada, due to complications from a stroke that she had experienced two weeks before. She passed away only eight months after the death of her husband, Don. At the time of her death, Walker had scored more major-studio motion pictures than any other American woman. A memorial service was held at the Warner Bros. Eastwood Scoring Stage, and a plaque was placed in her honor. She is survived by her two sons, Colin Walker and Ian Walker.
In 1996, Shirley Walker won her first Daytime Emmy Award as music director for Batman: The Animated Series. She won another Daytime Emmy in music-composition for Batman Beyond in 2001.
Batman: The Animated series received 3 Emmy Awards.
Batman is intellectual propriety of DC Comics and Batman: The Animated Series belongs to Warner Brothers.
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Agreed, The only true Joker is t he Mark Hamill one from the Animated Series. He was crazy/dangerous AND funny. All the other Jokers only had one of the two.
With films such as the dark knight, Joker was number 1 in my books then watching the animated series, its a cosmic clash between joker and two face, harvey dent is more trajic and his split personality is dark an psycotic!
dude, the dark knight movies of present time SUCK compared to the cartoon and even the original 2 batman movies. Yes, the effects were far more cheesey and not as great as today. but come on! they just over did everything about batman w/ christian bale as the actor. and they could've chosen a better joker, but then again only joker i can see is Jack Knicholson he's already one crazy ass mofo! and why they are re-making classics beats me. but w/e i'm just a "traditionalist" i guess.
I must agree with you about prefering the animated series to the films. I will respectfully disagree about nickolson tho, yes hes more of a charmy joker but it hamill always for me :)
every actor has added an element to the joker character
Mark Hamill is just hularious and his laugh is the one that sticks!
Jack Nicholson was a charmer and was urm... artsy, in my opinion
Heath Ledger was a joker you wouldnt want to cross, he was so dark and dangerous!
oh ofcourse Mark Hamill is always the voice of the Joker when ever i hear the name. no doubt about it. i grew up watching these shows. and its just sad to see how they've butchered the series. with this new "The Batman" crap that comes out on the CW. These toons were dark and violent. i loved them. but parents didn't and so they got the axe and now they produce mindless stupid cartoons. Uhm, i dunno man, i just didn't like Ledgers performance. i think he tried to out do "The Joker"
kind of like Christain Bale over acting the batman roll. but that's just my opinion. and probably a bunch of other peoples opinion too. now if i could only find the OST for batman t.a.s. it would make my collection a lil more complete =)
Two Face is perhaps one of the most successfully created villains of all time. Certainly tops on my list (woe ye Joker fans at the sight of those faces).
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every actor has added an element to the joker character
Mark Hamill is just hularious and his laugh is the one that sticks!
Jack Nicholson was a charmer and was urm... artsy, in my opinion
Heath Ledger was a joker you wouldnt want to cross, he was so dark and dangerous!
Kevin Michael Richardson was a tough one
Uhm, i dunno man, i just didn't like Ledgers performance. i think he tried to out do "The Joker"