8

In the first few seasons of Batman: The Animated Series, Kevin Conroy gave Bruce Wayne and Batman separate voices. When the series later became The New Batman Adventures, it gave up on that and had Bruce Wayne speak in the Batman voice. Why?

The Bruce Wayne voice is Kevin Conroy's normal voice, so it's not because he was no longer able to perform that voice. Were the show's creators concerned that viewers would not understand that Bruce Wayne and Batman were the same person?

1
  • Today I Learned...
    – cde
    Commented Sep 4, 2016 at 4:07

1 Answer 1

3

The following interview (a longer version of the video you linked to) explains the reason for both the dual voices (which was actually Kevin Conroy's idea and had only been done before once by Michael Keaton) and that he ultimately had to tone the Bruce Wayne voice down. It doesn't mention him ditching the voice completely but it seems likely that this decision came even later from the creators due to the points he brings up in the interview.

Transcript starting around 4:26 but I recommend listening to the whole thing.

When the first group of shows came back they realized it was much darker than they had anticipated, and they loved that, but that the voice I had been using for Bruce Wayne, which was sort of like the voice I'm using right now, was very, you know, kind of charming guy, you know, just me, um wa a little too light. It just seemed too funny. I was actually using a lot of humor, I was doing things, a lot of sarcasm, um, he had a real sarcastic edge to him. Which I thought was great to contrast the Batman character, um, and it was, but it didn't work in this noir dark world that they created. So I actually had to go back and rerecord the first like six episodes, uh, just the Bruce Wayne voice, just to tone him down, to make him closer to the Batman voice, because they liked the distinction idea but it just had to be very subtle.

2
  • That part seems like it's referring to making adjustments to the early Bruce Wayne voice (since it mentions re-recording the first six episodes). It doesn't seem related to ditching the separate Bruce Wayne voice entirely when the series because The New Batman Adventures.
    – jamesdlin
    Commented Sep 4, 2016 at 8:19
  • 1
    @jamesdlin it sets a precedent for the creators of the show asking him to tone down the Bruce Wayne voice in favor of making it "more like the Batman voice".
    – sanpaco
    Commented Sep 6, 2016 at 17:16

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .