“Bale’s Batman voice too much?”

While I’ve yet to see The Dark Knight (sacrilege, I know) I have been reading tons of articles about it and how it’s totally pwning all other movies at the box office.

In one particularly interesting find, I noticed an article titled “Bale’s Batman voice too much?” which asks:

Why does Batman talk like the offspring of Clint Eastwood and a grizzly bear?

Now, far be it for me to say an unkind word about the most popular movie in the universe, but I too have noticed this weird performance choice and been a bit mystified by it.

As the article says:

As Bruce Wayne, his voice is as smooth as his finely pressed suits. But once he puts the cape on, the transformation of his vocal chords is just as dramatic as his costume change.

And on critical reception to the voice:

Though much of the voice effect is Bale’s own doing, under the guidance of director Christopher Nolan and supervising sound editor Richard King, the frequency of his Batman voice was modulated to exaggerate the effect.

Critics and fans have noticed.

“His Batman rasps his lines in a voice that’s deeper and hammier than ever,” said NPR’s David Edelstein.

The New Yorker’s David Denby praised the urgency of Bale’s Batman, but lamented that he “delivers his lines in a hoarse voice with an unvarying inflection.”

Reviewing the film for MSNBC, Alonso Duralde wrote that Bale’s Batman in “Batman Begins” “sounded absurdly deep, like a 10-year-old putting on an `adult’ voice to make prank phone calls. This time, Bale affects an eerie rasp, somewhat akin to Brenda Vaccaro doing a Miles Davis impression.”

The article also gives a few possible explanations as to the origin of raspy Batman by explaining that, in the past, actors like Adam West or Michael Keaton chose to use the same voice for Batman and Bruce Wayne.

But it was a lesser-known actor who, a few years after Burton’s film, made perhaps the most distinct imprint on Batman’s voice. Kevin Conroy, as the voice of the animated Batman in various projects from 1992’s “Batman: The Animated Series” right up until this year’s “Batman: Gotham Knight,” brought a darker, raspier vocalization to Batman.

The rest of the article is definitely worth a read.

And again, I’m NOT dissing The Dark Knight, so no need to send me hate mail or comments.