If Batman: Caped Crusader‘s Gotham City looks like something out of classic Hollywood, it’s because Rob McIntyre designed it using some early Hollywood filming techniques.

Speaking to IndieWire, the animated series’ sound editor talked about the challenges of not only building a noir-inspired world for Batman and his allies but making audiences fully believe in this universe’s 40s aesthetic. This meant mixing audio and diagetic sound much differently from previous DC cartoons or even modern films, with McIntyre explaining, “There are times where you might not hear [the characters] footsteps at all — like they might just walk through space — but if someone’s running down an alleyway, you might hear the footsteps, like, bam bam bam bam as they run away. We’re imitating that old Hollywood style. Then there’s [dialogue scenes] where they’re just getting up from chairs or clothes rustling, and you barely hear any of that detail.”

This mix of retro and unsettling audio was specifically applied to Batman’s gadgets to amplify his mystique, including the sound of Caped Crusader‘s noir Batmobile. Along with 1940s car noises, McIntyre revealed that Caped Crusader‘s sound team threw in “some elephant growls because, you know, I’ve done a lot of work on the Jurassic World series, and so we were mimicking some T-Rex stuff there with those elephant growls, some thunder and lightning.” Additionally, when swinging across Gotham City with his grapple gun, they likened its firing noise to “the sound of a starter pistol, like for a race, and used that phooof sound with a little bit of rope trail to it. I thought that fit with the whole idea of the ’40s period.”

We’re imitating that old Hollywood style.

In addition to homaging Batman’s earliest comic run, showrunner Bruce Timm drew inspiration for Caped Crusader from other major 30s and 40s movie genres like Universal monster films and gangster pictures. Developed by Timm — who helped create the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series — with J.J. Abrams, and The Batman director Matt Reeves serving as executive producers, the show follows Batman during his early weeks as a crimefighter, battling mobsters, supervillains, and even Gotham City Police Department members despite officers like Commissioner Gordon and Renee Montoya trying to keep order in Gotham City. The show also reimagined several classic Batman characters from a gender-flipped Penguin to horror-themed interpretations of Harley Quinn and Clayface, along with a few supernatural DC villains like Gentleman Ghost.

Batman: Caped Crusader Was Originally Set for Max

Originally created for Max, Batman: Caped Crusader was later dropped by the streaming platform before getting picked up by Amazon. A release date for season 2 hasn’t been announced yet, though the finale’s closing scenes teased more confrontations between Batman and the mob, as well as this universe’s version of the Joker.

Batman: Caped Crusader season 1 is currently streaming on Prime Video.

Source: IndieWire