Batman: The Animated Series
Reviewed by Justin Bielawa
February 26, 2009

Following hot on the heels of Burton's original Batman film, the animated series would be hard pressed to match the blockbuster appeal of the original movie. Surprisingly, in many respects, the Animated Series far surpassed all the live action movies before and since - no mean feat in the age of modern action movies! A large part of this was the serious nature of the series - gone was the Dick Sprang
goofiness (however great it was on its own merits) and a grittier detective was put in place. Perhaps the biggest selling point of the show's drama was the weekly score by Shirley Walker and fellow composers.

To cover each score would be an exhaustive exercise. Instead it may be safest to say this: Batman has never been better defined musically. While Elfman may have gotten the ball rolling with his immense pseudo-gothic approach, the animated series is what fleshed it out and made it real. No better example can be given than the fourteen minute suite that starts off LaLaLand's two disc set. Constructed and edited by Walker before her untimely passing, its a suite of hero and villian themes showing the daring expanse of themes used through several of the episodes. Whereas cartoons for the small screen have a history of used library music or simply recycling original music over and over, Batman had the good fortune of a new score for every episode.

Ranging from the styles of Korngold swashbucklers and Rozsa marches, Walker's thematic approach is a tip of the hat to the hallmarks of golden age film music. And what music she wrote! The detail, care and craftsmanship in any particular episode found in this set equals or surpasses that of most of Hollywood's recent blockbusters. Written with a very wide scope for a limited orchestra, Walker and company bleed the players dry with a size and weight that could rival most larger orchestras recorded on album. A special mention should be made of Lolita Ritmanis and Michael McCuistion who also not only write great music featured on this set - but music that gels perfectly for what Walker established as the series's sound.

Covering the entire two discs in proper detail would be an act of futility; a good reviewer could do it over many pages and still not explain fully why it works as well as it does. "On Leather Wings" establishes the action serial feel of the show with a breathtaking, wildly detailed score that at a mere twelve minutes leaves all sense of subtlety at the door. Followed by the tongue-in-cheek score to "The Last Laugh" with its carnival-gone-wrong theme for the Joker backed by (of all things!) a hip-hop funk beat, and "Its Never Too Late" where Lolita Ritmanis crafts a oily noir drama.

However, the highlight between both discs would have to be the score to the two-part episode "Two Face". Walker is able to spread the musical ideas out over twice the normal time allotted, and gives the villain a horribly disjointed sing-song motif on recorder. Add to that a reflective love motif and some of the most driving b-themes the series ever had (especially as Batman blasts across Gotham City on his motorcycle), and you have what may be the tightest and most epic twenty-two minutes of scoring you'll ever hear.

And as the series owes much to Tim Burton's original 1989 movie, the music owes a lot to Danny Elfman's score which was co-orchestrated and conducted by Walker. Elfman writes a title retread of the 1989 march with an even larger emphasis on thematic momentum, spurning on a half-minute's worth of breakneck action. The theme has become basically iconic in the animation world, though it was eventually (and tastefully) phased out of use early on in the episodic material. Walker's alternate title uses her own theme and while its not as gung-ho as Elfman's, it suits the series overall tone more appropriately.

The finale of the set is a bittersweet one - an audio interview with Shirley Walker, explaining how the two Batman themes work and intertwine in the series. Such an addition to the disc shows the amount of love and care taken to ensure it was the best possible release.

LaLaLand's set is masterful, with details from the likes of composers and series writers and producers. The thought, time and artistic quality of the set raises the bar even further for the label; the great care given to treat the material right is an obvious valentine to fans of film score, the series its self and Shirley Walker, whom the set is dedicated to.

In the end, Batman: The Animated Series is not only one of the biggest surprises of last year but probably the best amongst a very long list of 2008's new, old, rerecorded and rediscovered music. Don't let the fact that its from a cartoon fool you; the music is as "adult" and refined as anything you can hope to find in film or television.

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