Asked about his approach to “Superman: The Animated Series” in a ScreenRant interview, Bruce Timm highlighted the challenge of reinventing such an iconic figure for a new generation — especially a figure whose origin story differed so wildly from Batman’s. The Man of Steel had been a constant pop culture presence for decades, which provided ample source material from which to pull. But Timm and his team didn’t necessarily want to simply run through a checklist of Superman staples. In fact, they wanted to pick the very best parts of the character’s history, whether they were considered staples or not. As the show creator explained it:
“There’s been so many different versions of [Superman] previously, and just as we did with the Batman show we kind of cherry-picked parts of different Superman shows and cartoons and live-action and movies and everything, just the things that we liked, so it’s kind of ‘The Princess Bride’ way of doing it, like we leave out all the boring parts, we just give you the good stuff.”
“The Princess Bride,” Rob Reiner’s 1987 fantasy adventure based on William Goldman’s novel, has gained a cult following due to its unique blend of comedy, romance, action, and adventure. As Timm would put it, Goldman and Reiner “cherry-picked” the best elements of fantasy adventure literature and mythology to create a wholly original story that remains a beloved favorite of many. Goldman told EW that even the name of his book was a concatenation of two ideas. Before he’d even written a single word, he asked his daughters what his story should be about. As he recalled, “One of them said ‘a princess’ and the other one said ‘a bride.’ I said, ‘That’ll be the title.'”