Bruce Timm. Kevin Conroy. Batman. Animated. What Else Do You Want?

It is Batman’s 75th anniversary, which means that DC and Warner Bros. are gonna spend the next several months dumping out a bunch of promotional stuff that nobody really cares about – expect a collection of “essential” Batman stories that are all one-shots that nobody needs when affordable trade paperback editions of Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns are available in every place in the world where the printed word is sold.

But the one division that gets these kind of things right is Warner Bros. Animation. For Superman’s 75th anniversary last year, they put together a killer montage showing the character as he progressed through the decades. For Batman, however, they did no such thing. They did something better.

When it comes to Batman and animation, all any discerning geek really cares about is Batman: The Animated Series and the work of animator / producer Bruce Timm. That cartoon kept Batman as The Dark Knight even as directors who will remain unnamed and unloved were facing Batman off with a punny Schwarzenegger with nothing but hard plastic molded nipples.

So it was kinda heartbreaking when word came out last year that Timm was leaving his supervisory position at Warner Bros. Animation… but he is back to supervise Batman’s animation one last time with a new short.

This one feature’s Timm’s style from the cartoon, only with a distinct feel and look of Batman from the 1930s, including short gloves, big ears, prop planes, and machine guns… and you can check out out after the jump