Originally intended to be released on Cartoon Network and HBO Max, "Batman: Caped Crusader" eventually ended up being picked up by Amazon. Bruce Timm was approached to do a follow-up to the revered "Animated Series", he wasn't interested in any direct sequel, but instead wanted to offer an re-magined take on the material, setting the narrative in a 1940's noir setting--a perfect setting for Gotham's greatest detective. The show was developed alongside James Tucker, and ultimately Matt Reeves and J.J. Abrams joined as producers, with Ed Brubaker heading up the writing team for season one, with Hamish Linklater voicing Batman. The series goes through a number of rogues gallery, offering some revisionist takes on some characters along the way, building a compelling atmosphere and exploration of the characters, given the limited ten episode run (with a second season in development).
Joining the adventure is German composer Frederik Wiedmann, no stranger to animation, having scored several seasons of "The Dragon Prince" on Netflix, and several of the DC direct-to-video animated features. Wiedmann and the producers wanted the music in the root to be firmly rooted in the period setting and style, created something new, not beholden to previous franchise composers. Specifically he looked at Golden Age composers like Steiner, Korngold and Herrmann, with some jazz influence added in a few scenes, but all filtered through a more subtle and modern lens that wouldn't read as 'cartoony'. While the music is not as instantly memorable and action-packed as one might normally associate with the Dark Knight, the music works well at setting a mysterious and eerie mood. Batman receives a central theme, with each episode's villain getting their own theme or motif as well, each capturing their character well. Overall the score is perhaps more subtle than expected, but well conceived and executed.
WB/Watertower Music put out the soundtrack album for streaming, featuring about ninety minutes of original score. The piece of art for the cover was perfectly solid, but I thought the choice of text placement was quite an odd choice, so I created six alternative options. Covers 1-5 all use official imagery, with the final cover using a piece of fan art.
Cover 1 uses the main poster, a fantastically moody piece of hard-boiled noir. Required little editing, just deciding on placement of text and title.
Cover 2 is my edit on the official album cover. I kept the same base art, just painted out all the text on the album cover and slid the art up a bit in the frame (stretching out the bottoms of the lower buildings to give space for my text). Subtle differences mostly, but I think this is a much more logical use of the same source art than having the title shunted off into the corner and having "Season 1" in giant lettering.
Cover 3 uses a cool promotional piece of art. This is a tricky one to fit text onto, both because of the giant text on the marquee itself, and because of the diagonal angle. In the end, the only main edit of the art was moving the placement of the moon to sit more comfortably in the gap available between Batman and the top text line.
For Cover 4, I took a screenshot from the opening credits sequence, which is in moody black and white, for those who might prefer something more minimal.
Cover 5 is a still from the finale of the show, doing their variation on "TAS"'s iconic rooftop silhouette shot. I brought in both sides of the image (the buildings to his extreme left and right), which is using an even crop would have been barely visible, in order to more tightly frame the image. Just needed to cut out each side, slide both towards center as desired, re-align with the roof edge, and then cutout and blend back into the existing sky as needed.
Finally, Cover 6 uses a terrific piece of fan art created by French illustrator Julien Rico Jr., to which I simply had to expand the sides to keep as much of the art intact as possible.
Hope you enjoy, and let me know your thoughts on the show, score, or cover options!
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