We're all going to pretend that we're actively working in the animation
industry for a moment. It's sometime in the mid to late 1990's. We're
in a meeting, discussing the future of the animated Batman property.
We're going to "freshen up" the franchise with a "teen-aged" Batman.
Our demographic is going to be kids 6-11. Oh, before I forget, we're
going to set it in the future.
Awesome, right?
My initial reaction to hearing the above would be to run. I would run far and I would run fast. Batman Beyond had all the elements of a train wreck. Instead, what we ended up with
was a show that was much better than it had any right to be. It hits
fast and hard, right from the opening theme as you're treated to about
a minute's worth fantastic visuals with a really energetic, hard
sounding theme song.
Sometimes having less material available to work with opens up a ton of
other creative possibilities. There was no animation from the show
available at the time the creative team began work on the theme. Most
of the animated bits found in the opening were done specifically for it
and by in-house guys, Adam van Wyck, Curt Geda and Darwyn Cooke.
Shots you might have sworn to be 3D were actually sculptures done by
Glen Wong that were shot with a Hi-8 video camera and then treated
until they achieved the distressed look they were going for. There's a
shot of Batman, surrounded by villains, that was actually a makeshift
action figure on a turntable. Some animation from the show was inserted
into the background when it became available, but you'll see that the
opening relies heavily on iconic imagery, quick cuts and music to
convey its message and get you hyped up for the episode to follow.
Instead of story boarding the intro, they took a less linear approach.
They created a large pool of footage to pull from and treated it as if
this was a trailer they were creating. Even though the opening was not
created in an A-B-C manner and consists of numerous quick cuts, it is
not entirely abstract and does tell a story. Location is established
immediately with a shot of future Gotham. It shows us the state of the
city by flashing the words "apathy", "greed" and "corruption",
inter-cut with images that are loosely connected with those themes.
We're introduced to an elderly Bruce Wayne, as the word "power" is then
flashed on screen. This is followed by a shot of Terry McGinnis that
conveys a sense of loss by having a graveyard in the background and
then the word, "hope". That's right. You just witnessed a big moment in
the animated Batman mythos. That little bit of abstract storytelling is
the passing of the torch. This is cemented further into the opening as
a shadow streaks across the screen and over Terry to then reveal him as
the Batman.
The rest of the opening is less linear and more about communicating the
ideals of Batman and creating an atmosphere. We're shown the words
"courage", "honor", and "justice"; a mix of shots with Terry's Batman
being awesome; and some of the other characters we'll be meeting in the
series. The intro barrels towards the finish line by flashing a shot of
Bruce, followed by some shots of Terry in action to symbolize their new
found partnership, and then visually climaxes with one last shot of
Terry's Batman as he thrusts his arms to the sky. The background
transitions from dark purple to white so that your focus is on his
figure, and particularly on the bat symbol that graces his chest.
If the Batman Beyond opening theme had a lesser soundtrack to accompany those visuals, it
would still be good. The fact that it does have a song and sound that
marries well with the imagery elevates it well beyond your standard
cartoon intro. Bruce Timm had a good idea of what he wanted of the
music for the show. It had to have a much harder sound and he wasn't
sure that Shirley Walker and her team were up to the task. She asked
for the opportunity to prove him wrong and he agreed. Timm gave her
examples of the vibe he was going for. Amongst the bands mentioned were White Zombie, Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction.
Those were a distinct departure from anything they had previously
produced for the DC Animated Universe shows, making the reservations
more than understandable.
It would be kind to say that most attempts at inserting the rock sound
into American-based animated television scores prior to this show were
misguided at best. It would be less nice, though still accurate, to say
that they were often quite terrible and aurally off-putting. We can
credit Shirley Walker's team of Kristopher Carter, Lolita Ritmanis and
Michael McCuistion with having been the first to have effectively
crafted an industrial rock/electronica atmosphere for an American
television-based animated series. One review accurately described the
show's soundtrack as "audio steroids".
Here's one last bit of trivia. According to the liner notes of the Batman Beyondsoundtrack, one of the temp tracks submitted to Timm and created by
Carter evolved into the theme song used in the opening. The track was
entitled, Smells like Creamed Spinach -- a play on the title of Nirvana song, Smells Like Teen Spirit.
Enough backdrop. Get yourself pumped for some angry, grungy sounding
guitars, a great bass line, cool drums and excellent visuals in the Batman Beyond intro.
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