Written by Jonah

At Comic Con, I had the chance to talk with upcoming animated series BATMAN : THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD voice director Andrea Romano. Romano had plenty to say about casting BATMAN for a seventh time! (BAMAN TAS, THE BATMAN, NEW FRONTEIR… ) She gushed about the talent of new BAT Diedrich Bader. And Collider’s own Nico hijacks the interview with his secret agenda—that Andre seems to agree with—of a possible ANIMANIACS return to the small screen….

Jonah: So… casting a new Batman?

Andrea Romano: Again, again. Y’know, someone told me the other day I’ve done it seven times now. And it’s hard every single time ‘cause it’s an awesome responsibility the first time you do it. That was a three month process finding Kevin Conroy the first time. This one was a little bit easier, again I know the character better, certainly, and they gave me a better idea up front of what they were gonna do with this and how it was gonna be more comic: a lighter twist on the Batman, which is nice because if you keep repeating yourself you don’t grow as an artist or a person or whatever. So I felt like, “Great, let’s do something different.” And frankly, when they told me what it needed to be, I thought that I still needed someone with that bass in their voice. I still need someone that has got that strength to scare criminals. But, I need someone who’s got those comic overtones as well. And my gut instinct was, “Y’know, Diedrich Bader could do this. I know he can do this.” Then after going through the whole artist process that I do, everybody else decided Diedrich Bader was the right guy. So that was a good thing.

Jonah: When did you first work with him?

Andrea Romano: Zeta. The Zeta project. And of course I knew his on camera work. You know what I loved him in too? It’s funny; I’ve known him for a long time and one of my favorite movies from the last few years and was just sort of one of those wild things was NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. And I’m watching it and I’m looking at this character thinking, “Oh my god that’s SUCH a great character! So funny!” And then we were all talking about it a couple of weeks later and he (Diedrich) goes, “Oh yeah. When I was playing…” And I said,” What?!?” And he (Diedrich) said, “When I was playing…” And I said, “THAT was you?” I had no idea it was Diedrich. I just didn’t put it together. And I’d know him for years. It was just such a different voice he was using, such a different physicality he was using and I was so impressed because that movie s so silly and wonderful. I have a VOTE FOR PEDRO T-shirt myself.

Jonah: What’s next on tap for you?

Andrea Romano: I’ve got a bunch of things. I just finished AVATAR. Wrapped for Nickelodeon, which was great fun. I’m still doing SPONEBOB SQUAREPANTS, which I’ve been doing for only about two years. And it is just one of the joys of my life. It was amazing compliment when they came to me and said, “Will you take over our number series and be the voice director.” And I had missed that kind of silly, fun show. I’ve been doing a lot of action, and I missed that laughing, silly, musical aspect too so it was fun to have that. So, there’s SPONGEBOB, I’m doing some game work with WIZARD ENTERTAINMENT for SATRCRAFT 2. I’m working on that one and there’s always a bunch of different ancillary projects. There’s a LEGO BATMAN project that I’m working on and always the DC COMICS direct to video projects, whether it’s WONDER WOMAN or DOOMSDAY or the ones that are coming up: GREEN LANTERN, whatever is coming up. I keep busy. It keeps me out of trouble.

Jonah: How many episodes are confirmed for BATMAN : THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD?

Andrea Romano: They have 26 episodes which I believe will only be one season.

Jonah: As opposed to the new 13 episode half seasons?

Andrea Romano: But you never know. It’s one of those odd things. Until it hits the air, you never know what’s really going to happen. Once it hits the air, and they realize that the audience wants more, sooner and you’re holding them up by not giving them more and they change their plans. Then they air more which is the way I like to see them.

Jonah: Last question, what other animated series on TV that you are NOT voice directing is done well?

Andrea Romano: I love THE SIMPSONS. They are so creative. I quote THE SIMPSONS constantly. My husband and I, in any given situation we’ll have a reaction that is actually a line from an episode. They’re stunning. I know almost every one of the actors on there and I’ve worked with some of them on different things and I’m so happy for them, for their success, because they deserve it all. It’s remarkable. That’s probably my favorite animated show.

Jonah: Thanks again.

Andrea Romano: My pleasure.

Nico: I loved ANIMANIACS.

Andrea Romano: Oh I do too. And I miss it. And I miss PINKY AND THE BRAIN too. You know what? There’s this thing in animation that I’m noticing where the fans actually begin such a program of bombarding a network. “We want. We want! Like… FAMILY GUY.” That they started bringing back series. So get your friends to write e-mails…

Jonah: The ANIMANIACS DVD is selling like hotcakes.

Andrea Romano: It is but, AIMANIACS is all tied up with STEVEN SPEILBERG and I think Steven is a great guy and if the fans REALLY wanted it then he would do it. Thank you guys.

Jonah and Nico: Thank you.

So there. BATMAN : B&B sounds good, and Nico’s interference with the interview belies his secret agenda. And, who am I to argue? Send e-mails, and maybe we’ll get more Bill Clinton sax….