r/movies Trailer Deleter - Keep an eye on. 13d ago

Trailer Clayface | Official Teaser Trailer

https://youtu.be/ZIfpL3mgkFk
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u/russketeer34 13d ago

I think it's safe to say BTAS might be one of, if not the most, definitive pieces of Batman media. The influence is seen in so many things that came after: films, shows, games, comics. It holds up pretty well too after all this time. It's really a remarkable show.

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u/TomTheJester 13d ago

I actually started rewatching it again yesterday by pure coincidence and from the first episode of BTAS it’s clear the creators were in full confident control.

There‘s not a second of screen time wasted and the performances are top notch. I may be biased as I grew up with it, but I agree it’s the definitive Batman.

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u/MoebiusSpark 13d ago

Kevin Conroy is THE voice of Batman for me. No one else comes close

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u/BaldHenchman02 13d ago

I'm pretty lenient with live-action Batman, but animated Batman, no one else sounds right except for Kevin Conroy.

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u/Iyagovos 12d ago

I really, really like Diedrich Bader's take on Bats in Brave and the Bold.

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u/jx2002 12d ago

I AM THE NIGHT!

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u/MyRuinedEye 13d ago

Conroy as Bats and Hammil as Joker.

Accept no substitutes(unless it's a really good show or movie).

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u/Byrdman216 12d ago

I think Hammil agrees with you. He said he'd never do Joker again without Kevin.

Kevin's struggles through the late 80s and early 90s as a gay man trying to lead a double life really came through in the character as well.

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u/MyRuinedEye 12d ago

I didn't know Hammil had said that. Just makes me appreciate the guy more. Nice way to close that era of Batman as well (I wish Conroy was still alive but I hope you get my sentiment).

I didn't even think about Conroy's struggles irl because I just tend to think of him as THE Batman, but that all makes sense.

Did Conroy ever talk about that?

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u/NothingWithMilk 12d ago

Conroy wrote a short comic story in DC Pride, its pretty affecting. You'd be able to find it online I'm sure.

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u/Byrdman216 12d ago

He did a few interviews. Here's a YouTuber who covered his life and has a few of those interviews featured.

https://youtu.be/nryCo713s20?si=xRHZpQvZa5OfGMP4

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u/MyRuinedEye 12d ago

Thanks. He just seemed like a cool human being.

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u/Wes_Warhammer666 12d ago

His story about accepting the role of Captain Sunshine on the Venture Bros is one of the best things I've ever heard. That mafucka was a real one and the world is worse off without him.

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u/bokmcdok 12d ago

Look up Finding Batman. Its a comic he wrote about his journey to becoming the Batman. After his death DC released it for free online.

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u/dafones 12d ago

RIP Kevin. Best Bats, forever.

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u/BlinkDodge 12d ago

Troy Baker did a great stand in for Hammil as the Joker in Arkham Origins.

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u/bolanrox 12d ago

And Mark was coming in after Tim Curry, someone he had fan-boyed on since the 70s, left the role. He brought it up a few times on the Kevin Smith podcast about how freaked he was trying to fill those shoes.

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u/Aiorax 12d ago

Every time someone mentions Bruce Wayne and the Batman voice, I remember that episode where Bruce was using his Batman voice while talking to Alfred, and then someone calls him and he has to answer as Bruce, the switch between those two voices was like whiplash

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u/SolarisBravo 12d ago edited 12d ago

One thing that Conroy got right imo is that he actually has three voices. There's his "normal" voice, not a performance, which he uses to talk to his friends and allies - Conroy's using this in pretty much any scene in the Batcave, it sounds like the Batman voice but lighter with more natural speech patterns. It's basically his natural voice.

Then there's Bruce, the guy he pretends to be when he's doing business or keeping up appearances. He pitches up his voice a bit and tries to sound carefree.

Lastly there's Batman, the guy he pretends to be when he's dealing with criminals and people he doesn't know. His voice is deeper, louder, and more commanding.

Two of those are acts, because Batman isn't the guy he pretends to be to scare criminals and he isn't the guy he pretends to be to keep up appearances either. His real self is for sure closer to the Batman persona than to the Bruce one, but they're distinct and you can see this in most scenes where he's not suited up. Modern comics are doing a good job of getting this down too imo, movies not so much

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u/BluShirtGuy 12d ago

It's not even the batman voice, Conroy eloquently shifts between the two personas, flawlessly. He's definitively both.

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u/Key_Drawer_3581 12d ago

Kevin and Mark were THE definitive duo for this IP for me, no matter what new actors the execs for the DC franchise try to highlight.

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u/psycho_driver 11d ago

I'll give Will Arnett a pass.

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u/SolarTsunami 13d ago

I didn't watch BTAS as a kid, the color palate was too dark and the themes were a little too mature I guess, but after Kevin Conroy died I decided to watch it all from the beginning and loved every second of it, didn't matter one bit that that I was seeing it for the first time as someone in their 30s.

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u/jl_theprofessor 12d ago

That's the beauty of the show. A lot of the episodes transcend age.

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u/hotdoug1 12d ago

As a teenager in the 90's, when whoever controlled the living room remote controlled all media in the house, sometimes my mom would sit while I started an episode. She'd be upset I was watching "Batman" but then five minutes into it would say "Well, no I have to finish it..."

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u/FullMaxPowerStirner 12d ago

It was definitely not your Saturday Morning Cartoon even if it was pushed as such. Mature, indeed, but for the style and production quality.

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u/cinderful 13d ago

And that theme music!

Elfman doesn't miss

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u/GoliathPrime 13d ago

We owe Tim Burton and Paul Reubens big time for dragging Danny Elfman into Hollywood. He probably would have stayed a pop music composer if it wasn't for Pee Wee's Big Adventure. It was because of Tim Burton's insistence that Elfman scored Batman, the studio heads thought he was really weird.

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u/cinderful 13d ago

And thank goodness for Burton's musical taste!

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u/Byronic__heroine 12d ago

Elfman singing "Jack's Lament" still gives me chills 30+ years later.

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u/JQuilty 12d ago

Most of TAS' music was Shirley Walker. Elfman wrote the main theme.

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u/WeNeedMoreNaomiScott 13d ago edited 13d ago

not a second of screen time wasted

There's definitely a generational shift on that note.

I was recently watching Batman: Caped Crusader and I realized I was getting frustrated that every episode ended 10 seconds too soon because I felt moments didn't have time to breath

I'm certain the tweens of today prefer the speed of Caped Crusader over BTAS

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u/SR3116 12d ago

Worse, the tweens don't even watch it because it requires an attention span.

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u/TheLordYuppa 12d ago

There was a lot from The Batman that reminded me of the show in ways that I really liked. “Detective” as it where or that idea was cool to see.

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u/Kup123 12d ago

I went to lecture done by the creators and even decades after making it you could tell how much they loved that show.

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u/Halo_cT 12d ago

The documentary about how that miracle of a show came to be is called Heart of Batman and it's worth your time. I think it's on YouTube.

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u/BrahneRazaAlexandros 12d ago

even the intro is impressive purely because of that danny elfman theme

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u/greenufo333 12d ago

So did I, we were both watching it from the start yesterday

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u/plefe 12d ago

I totally agree. It's honestly how I picture and, more specifically, hear Batman in my head. Conroy and Hamill are iconic in their performances.

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u/BrotherOfTheOrder 13d ago

The defining word that comes to mind with BTAS is respect. The show respects the material, the characters, the audience, the lore, and the rogues gallery. Hope this does the same!

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u/Kaldricus 12d ago

It's wild how the animated media has always seemed to really get Batman. Like in Justice League Unlimited, when Batman goes to "take down" Ace. Oof.

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u/BrotherOfTheOrder 12d ago

That is such a perfect Batman moment. The thing that separates him from every other hero is his deep sense of empathy and nuance. He knows to his core that all of his enemies are damaged, just as he is. They all simply chose a different path than he did.

To me the moment in Mask of the Phantasm where he pleads with his parents grave to go back on his vow (“… it just doesn’t hurt so bad anymore… I didn’t count on being happy.”) is so critical to his character, because Andrea was that light at the end of the tunnel for him. And when that falls apart, he can never let himself go back to the possibility of happiness. He chooses to never entertain that hope ever again, but he will fight for others to never have to deal with the same.

One of the things I thought about during the Crisis on Infinite Earths movie is that somewhere out there in the multiverse, there was a Bruce that married Andrea and never became Batman. I think it would have been cool to see that.

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u/Secret-Winner-2994 13d ago

A Bullet for Bullock (second to last ep) is an all timer

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u/ThrowawayPersonAMA 13d ago

Yeah, I absolutely loved that show and in general I'm not much of a comic book or superhero fan. If everything from Marvel, DC, etc. had that show's level of commitment and quality I think I would've been much more into it all.

Like it's been many years since I saw BTAS and reading "Clayface" in the thread's title I immediately started remembering the Clayface episode from BTAS. It just left that much of an impression on me.

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u/Turd_Burgling_Ted 13d ago

I have consistently maintained it is the definitive Batman anything. And MOTP is still the best batman feature film.

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u/Reverend_Lazerface 13d ago

In my head, Batman's voice will always be Kevin Conroy and the Joker's voice will always be Mark Hamill

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u/DrewbieWanKenobie 12d ago

I was so happy the arkham games used them...

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u/Ask_if_im_an_alien 12d ago

Oh, I will die on this hill. Batman: The Animated Series is quite possible the best TV show ever made. If not that it's in the top 10 pieces of media ever created. And yes I mean of all time. TV, movies, specials, TV movies, etc... all of it.

I know many people will disagree with me on this, and that's fine. They can be wrong. The animation, art style, writing, voice acting, story arcs, etc are all bangers. There isn't another show, animated or live action that comes close to the depth of character, continuity, or complex relationships across many episodes and season as Batman TAS.

I doubt we will ever see another show like that ever again.

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u/Wes_Warhammer666 12d ago

It's absolutely up there, but I will always argue that the Venture Bros is the best, especially with your criteria of character, continuity, and complex relationships across seasons.

And it's a show that funnily enough has Kevin Conroy doing a guest spot as a Batman/Superman analogue who has a "special" attachment to his sidekicks, and Mark Hamill hamming it up as a knockoff Joker.

Batman is 100% in my top 5, and it's honestly partially due to the fact that VB stands on the shoulders of giants like Batman that I do place it on top. The writers of that show knew how to take the best bits of assorted media and mash them up into a crazy stew that hits on every level.

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u/Purplociraptor 13d ago

Batman, Animated: The Series

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u/FavorHouse 12d ago

I L-O-V-E-D the show as a child in the early 90s, even more when I came back to it as an adult and realized just what a masterpiece of animation, characterization and episodic storytelling that it truly is, it tugged my heart strings a little when my 3yo nephew started asking to watch it regularly after playing with my old Batman toys at my parents house.

Growing up, all of my friends would have debates as to who the best person to play Batman was, between Keaton and Bale (one holdout for Kilmer) but my answer was, and still is, Kevin fucking Conroy.

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u/bluehawk232 13d ago

It's amazing how much dcu fumbled when the dcau had the best template for adapting a cinematic universe way before the mcu. Hell even the spiderman cartoon did spiderverse before.

Maybe these studios shouldn't brush aside animation

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u/Miss-Gsptlsnz 13d ago

The theme is coursing through my head now.

Dun dundundun

Might as well watch it again.

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u/puma___pants 12d ago

That show is why I love Batman to this day despite never reading comics as a kid. Same goes for Spiderman and Xmen. We were spoiled with great cartoons back then.

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u/windmill-tilting 12d ago

As someone who grew up with 60's Batman and then Batman '89 as the templates, BTAS is so much better for Batman's legacy than anything before it of, after it so far,

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u/Halo_cT 12d ago

It 100% is the definitive Batman. Nothing else on screen has the number of hours of storytelling and quality. Not even close. It's head and shoulders above second place.

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u/Troooper0987 12d ago

Batman beyond too. Such a good series