The long-awaited animated film Batman: The Killing Joke had its premiere at Comic-Con in San Diego Friday night (July 22), but the lucky 300-plus people who attended the afternoon BMI and White Bear PR panel on composers of DC and Marvel superhero movies were treated to the first public performance of the original song written for the soundtrack. Composers Michael McCuistion, Kristopher Carter and Lolita Ritmanis previewed “I Go Looney,” sung by Mark Hamill, the voice of the Joker.
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That wasn’t the only surprise for the fans. Producer James Tucker screened a clip from the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold, featuring the three female superheroes known as the Birds of Prey that had been censored by broadcast standards and deleted from the show (“Everywhere except Australia,” Tucker explained). Catwoman, the Huntress and Black Canary vocalize in the deleted scene but the sultry lyrics were too strong for the network, including lines like, “Green Arrow has heroic traits, that is when you shoot him straight (Hey! I’m just sayin’…)” and “Aquaman’s always courageous, his little fish, less outrageous.”
Tucker revealed the secret origin behind a much-lauded musical episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold that featured Neil Patrick Harris vocalizing as the villainous Music Meister. His evil super power was to force people — including Batman, Aquaman, Green Arrow and Black Canary — to sing. The episode was more like a Broadway musical and Tucker says he was lucky his cast members were all excellent vocalists, except for Diedrich Bader, who played Batman. Tucker hired actor Jeff Bennett to perform the Caped Crusader’s songs in the episode, though he was uncredited.
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McCuistion, Carter and Ritmanis explained how they work together as a team known as Dynamic Music Partners. Individually and collectively, they have composed music for many of DC and Marvel’s animated properties, including Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Batman Beyond and Spectacular Spider-Man. Their work on the new film Batman: The Killing Joke is available on a limited-edition soundtrack CD released by La-La Land Records.
The panel, titled “I Love That Song! Composing, Scoring and Singing Superhero Style,” was moderated by Anne Cecere, BMI’s director of film/TV relations, and Chandler Poling, president of White Bear PR. Cecere and Poling approached Comic-Con six years ago about producing a music-related panel. Although the response was less-than-enthusiastic, the Con staff agreed to a trial panel. The room was full of enthusiastic fans and Cecere and Poling have produced a composers panel every year since.