Return to the Continuum home page

Clicking on images provides larger ones.
Stylin Online - T-Shirts

MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 2008

BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD -- TOM KENNY

SAN DIEGO -- Tom Kenny is providing the voice of Plastic Man in Cartoon Network's upcoming Batman: The Brave and the Bold, but it's not the first time he's voiced the character.

During a brief interview with The Continuum at Comic-Con International, Kenny -- whose many credits include SpongeBob SquarePants and The Batman's Penguin -- explained his history with and passion for Plastic Man, as well as how the character will be presented in the new Batman series.

The Continuum: So you actually have a history with this character?

Kenny: Yeah, it was really fun to do Plastic Man again in The Brave and the Bold. For one thing, he's my favorite super-hero character of all time. I have a Plastic Man obsession. I love Jack Cole, the 40's one. And Andy Suriano, an animator/designer, and myself did a seven-minute pilot for Warner Bros. a couple of years ago, that they didn't pick up. And I voiced Plastic Man in that.

So I thought, "Well, that's the last that I'll be voicing Plastic Man in my life." And then they brought him back in Brave and the Bold and they brought me into do the voice. I didn't even have to audition. It was great. I didn't even have to try it out.

The Continuum: And now you get to officially be seen as the character...

Kenny: Yeah. The Warner Bros. lawyers don't like it, but our Plastic Man cartoon has a way of popping up on YouTube once in a while.

The Continuum: What do you like about The Brave and the Bold incarnation?

Kenny: It's great. They capture his craziness and his malleability very well. You know, I never really understood that 80s Plastic Man cartoon series, the Ruby-Spears one, because the most kinetic character ever done in extremely limited animation seems like kind of a dumb idea.

But this Plastic Man is very fun. One change that they made is that they've done a thing with Batman to be instrumental to Plastic Man's origin. He kind of winds up being his de facto parole officer. Because, as all of us comics fans know, Plastic Man used to be a bad guy.

That's what I always found fascinating about him. He was this gangster who had this accident and came close to death. He kind of had this ephipany, where he says, "I've been on the wrong side. I don't want to be a sleazebag any more. I can stretch. I'm going to have fun and be on the good guys' side."

I always thought that set him apart. He seems to be having a lot more fun than most other comic-book super-heroes. I've had it with nihilism and angst.



E-mail the Continuum at RobAlls@aol.com



Return to the Continuum home page


Copyright © 2008 The Comics Continuum