Bruce Timm is an iconic American artist and animator who has been credited with creating the DCAU as we know it today. With a plethora of animated shows to his name, Timm is also one of the creators of Batman: The Animated Series!
With aging characters in the animated show, Bruce Timm was asked a question about why characters in Batman: The Animated Series aged. To answer, Timm simply said that aging the character was the simplest solution in introducing another character while keeping the fan favorites in their spot!
Why Bruce Timm Aged His Characters In Batman: The Animated Series
In animated shows, characters often do not age so that the series can continue for a longer time. On the other hand, DCAU legend Bruce Timm decided to do exactly the opposite of that and slowly aged his characters while making Batman: The Animated Series.
In an interview with The World’s Finest, Bruce Timm sat down for a chat and talked about his career through the years. When the interviewer asked him about why he aged his characters in Batman: TAS, here’s what Timm had for an answer:
“It’s not so much that we wanted the characters to age, it’s just that when we re-booted “Batman” for TNBA, we’d re-thought our position on Robin, and decided we’d like to have him be a kid, rather than a young adult; having Dick “grow up” slightly to become Nightwing, and leaving a space open to introduce Tim Drake as the new Robin just seemed to be the simplest solution.”
He further continued,
“I have to say I was pretty pleased with the results, overall. I liked the goofy, feisty “Kid Robin” MUCH more than the twenty-something Robin, who always struck me as “neither fish nor fowl.” Also, I thought the disillusioned, somewhat bitter Dick/Nightwing himself was much more interesting as a character in TNBA. Two birds, one stone”
In a separate interview, Bruce Timm talked about how they wanted the Justice League animated show to stand on its own but couldn’t help themselves in bringing villains from other shows!
The Justice League Was Meant To Be Stand On Its Own!
With Batman and Superman: The Animated Series making it big with the DCAU, the animated version of Justice League was also released. Wanting it to stand on its own, Bruce Timm revealed that the second season introduced characters from other DCAU shows that weren’t supposed to be there!
“It just happened. We intentionally avoided using STAS and BTAS supporting cast members for the first season of JL, because we wanted to make JL stand on its own as much as possible….”
He further continued,
“By the time we started season 2, we thought he would be a great way to kick off the new season, and incidentally, start re-introducing elements of the previous series as well.”
With 2 seasons to its name, Justice League received a rating of 8.6/10 on IMDB and a whopping 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. Having Bruce Timm as one of the producers of the show, Justice League is available to stream on Max in the U.S.
