Ricky Church chats with Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons director Matthew Peters…
Batman, Superman and various members of the Justice League are often the headliners in Warner Bros. Animation’s DC films, but their most recent film is turned not only on the sidekicks, but Batman and Superman’s sons Jonathan Kent and Damien Wayne. Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons follows Jon and Damian as they are the only superheroes to save their parents and the world from a dangerous alien invader.
We spoke with director Matthew Peters about the film with our discussion ranging from Jon’s first feature-film, the relationship between him and Damien and Battle of the Super Sons‘ unique style compared to other DC films with its computer-generated animation. Check out our interview below…
Ricky Church: Battle of the Super Sons focuses on Jonathan Kent and Damian Wayne. Now in Jon’s case, he’s a relatively new character. Why do you think he’s become such a popular character in so short a time?
Matthew Peters: I know that Jonathan in our movie is just this sweet kid. He actually gets to discover his superpowers so for me that’s what makes him such an interesting character in our film. I think when you get down to just being able to explore Superman from a different aspect, a Super Son essentially, I think that makes for a really interesting and dynamic character. How does a character grow up when their dad is Superman? What are their powers and what’s his personality like? It almost looks like a next generation kind of way to depict Superman. Superman’s a popular character, it just makes sense his son would be.
And Damian’s been around for longer, over a decade now. It’s funny because I remember when he was introduced he didn’t seem very well liked by some fans, but he quickly became a fan favourite. Why do you think he’s become such an endearing Robin?
I think mostly he’s kind of a nasty Robin. I mean, he’s not necessarily the hero that the other Robins have been. I think that makes for an interesting thing. Generally speaking, when it came to Batman the levity or the lighter character was generally Robin and now you got somebody who’s arguably darker and more sinister than Batman. That makes for I think an interesting dynamic that we’re not used to. I still think we can see mine some elements of levity and humour out of Damian as well though.
The two of them have such a combative relationship, not unlike how Superman and Batman would’ve been when they first met too, but up to the 10th degree. Eventually they do form this partnership. What is it that binds them in the same way as their fathers?
Superman and Batman both have the dedication to justice and they’re just approaching that from two different angles, which makes for an interesting light and dark kind of face. It’s just the same thing that gets translated down to their sons. But the thing is, when you get the two of them together as younger people there’s a sloppier aspect of it which I think is more entertaining. It actually makes for arguably a more dynamic story too. Each of them are discovering how to be, well, Jon’s discovering how to be a superhero and Damian’s discovering how to be a normal person. That makes for a very unique story.
You brought up the change of having both Batman and Superman as parents. These are two characters who have been around for over 80 years now and they’ve each gone through their different phases and changes in the comics, but actually becoming parents is one of the most major things to happen to them in recent years. What’s the potential you see in a story where they’re both parents and raising young sons, especially young sons with personalities like Jon and Damian?
I think it was really an interesting way to kind of examine what their personalities are like outside of just being superheroes. It’s one thing to be a crime fire and it’s one thing to have superpowers and save a flying plane, but it’s another thing to have to nurture and deal with another human being and deal with the relationships that are involved between parent and child. I think that’s part of what makes it really interesting, you’re getting to see the personalities that you know so well for over 80 years like you say, but you’re seeing them in an entirely new dynamic which is not something we’re used to. It’s just another way to appreciate who these characters are.
It’s especially funny seeing their different parenting styles because obviously Batman didn’t grow up for long with his parents and then he had Alfred, but Superman had Jonathan and Martha Kent who are considered to be the best parents in the DC Universe. Can you talk about that theme of parentage or parenthood in this movie? Even the way Jon’s whole personality shifts from “Oh, my dad’s a boring reporter” to “Oh my God, he’s Superman!”
Yeah. I think it’s really interesting to see Jonathan, just like you say, go from looking at his parents like typical boring parents are to discovering they’re some of the most interesting people in the world, but in the universe for that matter. It’s just fantastic. It’s a total childhood fantasy thing. The flip side of it is seeing Batman with Damian, the thing I’ve always liked about it is both Batman and Superman I think want best for their sons, but how they actually maneuver that is is really different for each of them. For Batman that’s a little bit more of a struggle. It’s a little something more that he’s not certain how to do. He doesn’t have the experience and it’s not as easy as a punching out Joker or punching out Penguin or something. I think it just makes for an interesting story to see those things develop.
The animation style in Super Sons is very unique compared to a lot of the other DC movies with the CG animation. How did you guys decide to do CG over traditional 2D animation? What advantage did that give you in presenting the characters, story and action?
I know that the Rick [Morales, producer] really wanted to move CG into a classic 2D look for a while. It was something they really wanted to do. He mentioned it to me before when we were working on LEGO projects. The two o of us really enjoyed working with CG. I think there’s a lot of fun to be mined from that technology. We also love classic 2D as well. You can still pull off a lot of fantastic stuff that way. This movie I think was always pitched as being this CG representation. It was something I know Rick was really excited about. I think the company was too because they wanted to explore what was possible to make something that really feels interesting and unique. I think it’s one of the things I liked about it. It definitely feels like it’s a different looking movie than what we’ve done before.
Yeah, for sure. I really like how styled it was. It’s a little, I don’t know if cel-shaded is the right way to describe it, but it looked really cool.
Yeah. No, I’m blown away by it. I couldn’t believe how fantastic this film looked when it was finished.
This is also the first time Jon Kent has been adapted into any of the movies. What’s it like for you to have this be his first feature length movie where he’s introduced to like a wider audience than those who follow the comics?
I think it was really exciting and fun. When I read the script, this was my first introduction to Jonathan Kent as well so I was riding along with the audience the whole time we were making it. What you guys are seeing is basically what I was experiencing when I first read the script and hopefully it be just as much excitement for you guys as it was for me.
Thank you very much to Matthew Peters for speaking with us!
Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons will be released on 4K UHD and Blu-ray October 18th.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
