Bruce Timm’s iconic Superman series, Superman: The Animated Series, is one of the rare few projects to have done the character justice. The 1996 series was one of the first to make the character seem realistic, rather than boring or too self-righteous. So much so that many would call him the most accurate version of the character.
There is absolutely no doubt that Timm’s contributions helped considerably in making the show what it is today. Being excellent as both an animator and producer, the projects that he has been involved with have become some of the best in DC’s animated universe. This is why it is interesting to find out that he created the Superman series out of spite towards one of the most respected filmmakers of all time.
After Steven Spielberg ruined the vision Timm had for their superhero show, the animator had no other choice but to walk away and make something better.
Steven Spielberg Wanted To Work With Bruce Timm
In the 90s, Bruce Timm was a part of one of the most iconic Batman animated projects ever, Batman: The Animated Series. The series got a lot of love from all directions and fans could not help but fawn over how accurate it was. So much so, that Steven Spielberg, one of the most respected people in Hollywood, was mesmerized by it. He even felt the need to personally contact Timm to let him know how much he enjoyed the series, as the animator revealed to Comicology.
“Steven Spielberg, of all people, liked the Batman show, and said that he wanted to do something with us, but he didn’t know what; so we had a meeting with him, we talked about a bunch of different ideas for what we could do as an action-adventure show, and the one that he really liked was this one called Freakazoid.”
One thing led to another and the pair decided that they would make an animated superhero series together. After many meetings and conversations on the matter, it was decided that they would make a show called Freakazoid!, a story of a group of teens who get all the knowledge of the internet.
However, it would seem that the two creators had very different ideas about what they wanted to do with the series.
Bruce Timm Could Not Go With Grace
Where Bruce Timm wanted to make a serious show about young superheroes learning their way in the world, Steven Spielberg’s vision was much more centered on what stereotypical cartoons looked like. The filmmaker seemed to have had more sway on what got done with the series as with every meeting, water was being poured on Timm’s vision, and all he could do was watch.
It started out as an adventure show, but it ended up turning into more & more of a comedy show; every time we’d have a meeting with Steven, the concept would kinda change, and it kept leaning more & more towards zany comedy. It really started out almost like Spider-Man, on that level of, like, a teenage superhero. And it reached a point where it became a comedy _with the Tiny Toons/Animaniacs kind of humor.
Finally, he decided that he could not take more, and he walked away from the series, even being fin with not having it on his resume. The decision to walk away from Freakazoid! could not have been easy, but he stuck with it. However, Timm could not ignore the nagging feeling that he had to create what he wanted to in the first place; A serious superhero story being watched by a serious audience.
“So one day I had a meeting with my boss, Jean McCurdy, and she said, “Do you want to do Superman cartoons?” And that time I said “Yes!” [Laughs] After Freak-azoid, it was like, “Yes! I want to do Superman cartoons!” I didn’t even have to think about it.”
Soon after, he had a meeting with his agent, where he was asked if he wanted to be a part of a Superman project. Although Timm famously cared very little for the character, he decided, all of a sudden, that he wanted to do it. This idea led to the birth of Superman: The Animated Series as it is known today.
