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The History of Danny Elfman's Batman Theme


We go into the history and legacy of Danny Elfman's Batman theme, from how Elfman almost didn't work on the 1989 film to its origin story to ALL the times it's been used across different versions of Batman.


Chapters:


0:14 Episode Introduction- Danny Elfman


4:20 Elfman vs. Peters- How Elfman Walked Away


Elfman recounted the story of how he almost walked away from Batman in his Master Class, which was reported by Yahoo here:

https://www.yahoo.com/video/batman-composer-danny-elfman-says-turning-down-prince-was-biggest-most-stressful-gamble-of-his-career-192951834.html


11:28 The Origin of the Batman Theme & The Bernard Herrmann Influence

Elfman recounted the origin of the theme on the Marc Maron podcast, but it was reported by outlets later, like SyFy here:

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/danny-elfman-batman-movie-score-airplane-bathroom


The Bernard Herrman score for Journey to the Center of the Earth has the track "Mountain Top / Sunrise / Rope / Torch / March," which you can listen to here for the Batman theme similarity:



You can check out Andrew's reaction to Ben playing this track in our $10 tier episode where we ranked the different Batman themes, which is also where Elfman's theme won the S tier:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/ranking-batman-58935370


Elfman hating the sound mix of the soundtrack comes from this article:

https://screenrant.com/batman-1989-composer-danny-elfman-score-music-reaction/?fbclid=IwAR0qPXBeY45WcpI9zp1b5sHMNEmVOqTkWwK98k_-WK2GSLApTIBLEerXk8A


22:53 Batman Returns, BTAS, and Six Flags


28:01 The Schumacher Trailers, Subzero, and the Onstar Commercials


You can check out the use of the Elfman theme in the Schumacher trailers here:



You can also check out this compilation of the different uses of Elfman's theme in Subzero as well as the other times we've mentioned it- Gotham, The Rise of Sin Tzu, Multiversus, and the Lego Batman videogames:


33:30 Scooby Doo Trailer

You can check out the Scooby Doo trailer here:




36:30 Break: Ben's Upcoming Writing Projects & April Charity- AFSP https://afsp.org/

Ben Wan's "Shortcut to Happily Ever After" Available on Kindle and Paperback

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BWX33PKT


Available on the Metaphorosis website on April 7th

https://magazine.metaphorosis.com/toc/2023/april-2023/


Check out our friends at Neuverse Creative, who will be producing Ben's adaptations of the Batman 89: Shadows comic and Batman 3, based on the early drafts of Batman Forever:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NEUVERSECREATIVE


Check out our link for Barkbox here.


45:35 Return from Break: The Other DCAU Uses of the Theme


49:41 Lego Batman Video Games


54:04 Justice League 2017 and Elfman's Controversial Comments

The quotes from Elfman come from these interviews:

https://batman-news.com/2017/11/01/danny-elfman-1989-batman-theme-justice-league/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/justice-league-danny-elfman-hates-reboots-scrap-classic-themes-1059632/

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/danny-elfman-justice-league-joss-whedon-gus-van-sant-interview-7981630/


1:02:36 The Elfman Theme on TV: Justice League Action, Gotham, Gotham Knights, Crisis on Infinite Earths


1:07:46 2022: League of Super Pets & Multiversus


1:12:03 Return of Keaton: The Flash & The Cancelled Batgirl Film


1:16:56 Closing: Fan Comments & Shoutouts


Big thanks to our research assistant Dan Yamat for providing the visuals for this YouTube experience, as well as the usual QC and chapter time codes. Dan also helped find the different interviews with Danny Elfman

Thumbnail by Dan as well

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