Sure everyone has their favorite live action Batman. Some still have a soft spot for Adam West‘s stoic-yet-comedic portrayal from the 1960s. Michael Keaton brought a slightly campy, but deadly serious post-‘Dark Knight Returns’ spin in his two two appearances. Even though the film was poorly received, few found fault with Ben Affleck‘s portrayal in ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’. Oh and Val Kilmer and George Clooney… tried it.
But when you open the field to other interpretations including animation… no offense to the many voice actors including (but not limited to) West himself, Olan Soule, Frank Welker, Diedrich Bader, Jason O’Mara and most recently Will Arnett, there really is only one TRUE voice of The Bat: Kevin Conroy.
In fact, one of the biggest complaints about Bale’s live action depiction in Christopher Nolan’s otherwise beloved ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy was his… questionable voice which sounded more like he was imitating a panther.
Now someone’s done something about it. While appearing on ‘Talkin Toons’ with Rob Paulson, who voiced Commissioner Gordon on ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ opposite Conroy, the pair re-dubbed the iconic speech from ‘The Dark Knight’ in which Batman convinces Gordon to exonerate Harvey Dent of all wrongdoing and lay the blame on Batman, himself.
Check it out below:
Conroy first voiced Batman/Bruce Wayne in 1992 as well as in the various spin-off shows and movies and though he has relinquished the role in later projects, he has returned in recent years in the ‘Batman: Arkham’ console games, the ‘DC Universe Online’ PC game, films like ‘Batman: The Killing Joke’ and the upcoming ‘Batman and Harley Quinn’and the pre-teen series ‘Justice League Action’.
