Cartoon Network's animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold participated in a roundtable earlier today at Comic-Con in San Diego. During the event I was able to catch up with Diedrich Bader (The Drew Carey Show), who voices Batman in the series, as well as the show's iconic voice director, Andrea Romano. If you're a fan of the show, then I don't need to convince you to read on. If not, I should mention that both interviews were great for different reasons. As for Bader, he's a very funny guy who seems genuinely humbled to be voicing the man behind the cowl. In regards to Romano, she has enjoyed a stellar career as voice director on animated series' such as Animaniacs and Teen Titans. With that experience in mind, she provided interesting tidbits in regards to her work.

Featuring a noticeably lighter approach to the characters than a classic predecessor such as Batman: The Animated Series, Brave and the Bold utilizes some great Batman team-ups to create an experience all its own. The show airs on Cartoon Network Fridays at 7:30 pm EST and has a nostalgic side-scrolling video game coming out in September on Wii and DS (I saw the game on the convention floor and it looked very cool). Hit the jump for bulleted highlights from the interviews.

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Diedrich Bader:

  • Calls Kevin Conroy (of Batman: The Animated Series as well as numerous other Batman titles) the touchstone voice of Batman and said he thinks anyone who follows is basically doing a poor man's imitation of Conroy
  • Given the show's lighter approach, he attributes his previous comedic work to helping him get his foot in the door for the role initially
  • Talks about changing his voiceover work for Batman's internal dialogue...Says at first he delivered it as Bruce Wayne but disliked the results...He now delivers the lines as Batman
  • Says he believes that the show is set apart from other animated Batman incarnations by the team-up aspect of the show which brings out different sides of Batman (i.e. Batman's father-son relationship with Blue Beetle, the warmth brought out by Red Tornado, and the visible competitive edge Green Arrow pulls from Batman)
  • Admits to have not read many comics as a kid, but noted that he always enjoyed looking at X-Men comics mainly for the purpose of looking at Storm's breasts

Andrea Romano:

  • Prefers doing ensemble recordings to rehearse and record voiceover... Typically takes about four hours to record voiceovers for a half-hour show...Batman: The Brave and the Bold takes anywhere from two-and-a-half to three hours to rehearse and record
  • Voiceovers are revisited once the episodes are animated so as to correct any errors or infidelities and to re-record to screen individually
  • After studying acting in undergraduate and graduate school, began career as an agent's assistant at a voiceover agency...Before then, she had never considered the voiceover field as a potential career
  • Mentioned her voice direction work on animated series' such as Batman: The Animated Series, DuckTales, and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Note: I knew I liked this lady) and how she was responsible for finding and casting the voice talent on each of the shows
  • Said that Diederich Bader was the first name that came to her mind when approached with Batman: The Brave and the Bold

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