Andrea Romano, the legendary voiceover and casting director for the DC Animated Universe (DCAU) announced her retirement last week. While her resume includes over 40 TV shows and 70 animated films and video games, she’s probably best known for her work on the animated Batman, Superman and Justice League series.
Voice actors humanize the bits of ink, paper and paint we call animation. But it’s the voice director who give these characters humanity and no one was better at it than Romano.
Whether it was comedy or drama, Romano’s direction gave voice and character to all of the animated DCAU heroes we saw and came to love. While there are literally thousands of defining character moments, I have picked four that I think show the range of emotions she was able to elicit from the voice actors who performed the characters.
1. In the Justice League episode, Starcrossed, Hawkgirl (Maria Canals-Barrera) has betrayed the League to her people, the Thanagarians. However, when she discovers that their intention is to blow up the Earth, she helps the Justice League defeat them. In the 3 minute clip below, Romano is able to get Canals-Barrera, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (as Alfred Pennyworth) and Phil LaMarr (as Green Lantern John Stewart) to run the gamut of emotions that tug on our heartstrings. These powerful scenes don’t work without Romano’s direction.
2. In the New Batman Adventures episode, Mad Love, Harley (Arleen Sorkin) has captured Batman (Kevin Conroy) using a plan that the Joker (Mark Hamil) created, but abandoned. In this 4 minute clip, Romano draws excellent performances from all three actors, but Sorkin really creates a character that we feel sorry for at the end of the scene…because she didn’t get the joke.
3. In the Justice League episode, A Better World, in another dimension Superman (George Newbern) and his fellow Leaguers have taken over the world and call themselves, The Justice Lords. In this dimension, Superman is having lunch with Lois Lane (Dana Delaney). It’s an intense two minute scene that is well directed by Romano.
4. In the Batman: The Animated Series episode, The Man Who Killed Batman, small time crook Sid the Squid (Matt Frewer) who was a lookout in a burglary accidently seemed to kill Batman (Kevin Conroy). No one is more upset by this news than the Joker (Mark Hamil) and Harley (Arleen Sorkin). Romano give Hamil the latitude to chew up the proverbial scenery and he doesn’t disappoint.
Andrea Romano took good scripts from skilled writers like Dwayne McDuffie, Stan Berkowitz and Paul Dini and made them stellar by getting great performances from talented voice actors that are now only a DVD away.
