“They tended to work better in animation”: Bruce Timm Loves Robert Pattinson’s Batman But Still Believes Live-Action Can Never Match Up to Animation for 1 Reason

Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson’s collaboration on The Batman (2022) resulted in a film that would go on to become one of the best in the Batman franchise – from cinematography to acting, everything was pitch perfect. And while the Batman veteran may be a fan of the film, he still believes that live-action has nothing on animation.

According to Bruce Timm, it’s a lot easier to translate iconic comic book looks and moments into animation than live-action. While he does acknowledge that things have gotten better over time with the advancement of technology and actors no longer have to wear questionable costumes, he still believes animation trumps it all.

It’s Animation Over Live-action Any Day for Bruce Timm

From Christian Bale to Robert Pattinson, Batman has had a ton of actors bring him to the world of live-action, showcasing their brilliant talents as an actor and doing complete justice to everyone’s favorite superhero. Of course, not every live-action project has been up to the mark but a good chunk of it sure is.

Fans of the superhero genre have been participating in the animation vs. live-action debate since time immemorial and Bruce Timm also has an opinion on it. Given his contributions to Batman and DC in general, we would say that his opinion holds immense value.

To no one’s surprise, Timm will choose animation over live-action any day and he has a pretty solid reason to do so. During an interview with the Television Academy, he stated that while “a lot of” live-action superhero films “are really good,” the superhero genre has worked best in animation for the longest time.

Why? Well, in animation, there is a lot more scope to be comic-accurate and bring these larger-than-life storylines to the screen. This is both easier to accomplish and more convincing, as per Timm.

He gave an example of Adam West’s cloth Batman suit in the live-action television series, Batman (1966-68). Of course, things have changed drastically since the 1960s and technology has allowed live-action to reach great heights in terms of costumes and VFX.

He stated,

Not to knock any of the live-action Batman movies — a lot of them are really good. But superhero movies in general, at least for the longest time, they tended to work better in animation than in live-action movies because there was a limitation in the special effects, as well as with costuming the characters. You could get away with Adam West wearing a cloth costume back in the day, and it was kind of silly. But everybody was in on the joke.

In animation, they can look much more like their comic book counterparts and be animated convincingly. It’s like Batman throwing a rope across the street and swinging across the chasm of the streets is more convincing in animation, or at least easier to accomplish.

Timm also acknowledged the improvement in technology over the years and how things have changed since his beloved Batman: The Animated Series was released.

The Verdict: “Animation Rules”!

In the interview, Timm was joined by Batman: Caped Crusader’s co-executive producer James Tucker. When Timm stated that “effects technology has really caught up, and the same thing with the costuming” since BTAS, Tucker chimed in stating that while this is true, studios still need the help of animation to enhance live-action and “make it more believable.”

According to Timm, hand-drawn animation contains the spirit of comic books, and the adaptations are not miles away from the source material.

He stated,

I think hand-drawn animation is much closer in spirit to the comic books themselves, which are also hand-drawn. It’s not a million miles away.

In the end, the final verdict was given by Tucker who claimed that “animation rules” and that it’s “obvious” studios should do superhero projects in animation, and only animation.

Animation rules. It’s the best. Like Bruce says, it’s the most one-to-one comparison to comics you can get, and everything else is one more step removed, and that makes it harder for them to pull off the believability. It’s kind of an obvious thing to do superheroes in animation.

What team are you on? Do you prefer the two-dimensional world of superheroes or would you rather sit in a theatre with 3D glasses ready to hop into film?

Stream The Batman on Max and Batman: Caped Crusader on Prime Video.