The Batman series took a new focus with Batwheels, the first series with a preschool audience in mind, promising to keep Batman cool.
The series debuted on Cartoon Network and HBO Max, and will focus on the Batmobile and other cars.
While the audience is toddlers, Bruce Wayne will not act differently. Batman is Batman with Joker and Penguin, the villains as ever.
Batman Is Batman
Keeping Batman as Batman, which means in this series he will be the same cool guy, is a priority, Co-Executive Michael G. Stern and Supervising Producer Simon J. Smith said. Ethan Hawke is the voice for Batman,
In Batwheels, Stern said the main superhero would be kept cool, saying Batman is to be in his element. The trick was that Batwheels was going to have "other characters for the audience to see the world through."
Batwheels could be exciting, thinking how the series managed to marry cars with superheroes and still have this combination exciting.
Batwheels Is Toy-Story Like
Focusing on automobile characters, the new Batman series takes on the Toy-Story approach.
The lineup of characters includes Bam the Batmobile (Jacob Bertrand's voice), Buff the Bat-Truck (Noah Bentley), Redbird, Robin's race car (Jordan Reed), and Batwing the Bat-plane (Lilimar).
Like the Cars, the automobiles in this series can talk to each other. These characters can also talk to Moe, the robot mechanic (Mick Wingert), and Batcomputer (Kimberly D. Brooks). But they cannot speak to humans in the series.
Bruce Wayne (Batman) designed all the vehicles. With that, the production has to ensure each member of the Batwheels team has consistent character development.
The appearance of a Bat-bell was the idea of the producer, Steve Fink. So it is both fun with a sense of reality seeing these characters display their concealed gadgets and talents.
The preschool audience will find it exciting to see in every automobile a Bat utility belt in them.
Bam has this belt placed in front of his windshield. Once it opens up, all the gadgets will be in full display, Smith said
Some of the abilities to expect are Bam shooting the Baterang while Buff the Bat-truck uses his wrench.
Read Also: The 5 Best Batman Gadgets We've Seen in Movies
Batman Is Like a Father, While Batcomputer is a Mother
All the automobile characters see Batman as their mentor, though.
Batman is like a father to the automobile characters. The Batcomputer for them is mom. That in every way, Stern said, the automobile character will always seek Batman's approval.
The need for a father and mom in the show is important for a preschool audience. Stereotyping a mother like she is important was necessary to keep everything in the right perspective, he said.
Vehicle Character And Designs
The series has to strike a balance in creating the character of each vehicle. This means the vehicle characters are developed in a way they can express themselves while having gadgets put on their body.
And the vehicle designs are developed for them to look cool.
Smith said they don't want automobiles expressing any emotion, especially vehicles that have mouths and windshields as eyes. Overall, the designs of the automobile were finalized after designers worked through the designs of fun cars and realistic cars.
The final look, Smith said, is the combination of these two types of designs.
Rethinking Batman's World
Rethinking Batman's world was necessary for the production to develop a natural transition focusing on the automobiles in this series.
They alone had affected the design of the Batcave. In this series, Batman's home features a number of different levels to become pathways for the characters to drive around while talking to each other.
Smith said they found it very challenging to make it appear the Batcave is home to these vehicles and maintain the concept of a Batcave that is cool.
Other DC Characters
The series will focus on Batwheels. But the production team is not closing the door for other DC characters to join. If that happens, Smith said these superheroes would have similar vehicle twists.
It is not impossible for Wonder Woman in a jet to make a visit to the Batwheels. It will be natural to expect Aquaman in a submarine in the show.
For now, Batwheels is streaming the "Secret Origin" of the Batwheels on HBO Max.
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