Rino Romano
Rino Romano is an actor, born 1969.
Two of the most recognisable superhero voices in cartoons belong to the same Canadian actor. Romano was Spider-Man in Spider-Man Unlimited in 1999, and from 2004 he was Batman in The Batman, plus the feature-length The Batman vs. Dracula. His Batman was a deliberate break with the version audiences had learned: younger, lighter, less of a growl, a Bruce Wayne still working the job out rather than a monument to it. Opinions on that were divided then and remain divided now, which is the fate of anyone following a definitive performance.
He started on camera in the 1990s, on series like Hang Time and Time of Your Life, and moved into voice work in the following decade, where the face does not matter and the instrument does everything.
The rest of the resume is a tour of two decades of animation: Johnnie Rico in Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, Eduardo Rivera in Extreme Ghostbusters, Rain in Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, Randy in Godzilla: The Series, Caramon Majere in Dragonlance, Luis Sera in the Resident Evil offshoot Biohazard 4: Incubate. Alongside all of it he has narrated Curious George since the series began, a warm unhurried register with no trace of the Batman in it, and he recently turned up as Uncle Tony in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Movies (11)
- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026)
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
- Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild (2005)
- The Batman vs. Dracula (2005)
- Halloweentown (1998)
- Curious George: A Halloween Boo Fest (2013)
- Batman Beyond: The Movie (1999)
- Biohazard 4: Incubate (2006)
- Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight (2008)
- Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas (2009)
- The Conspiracy of Fear (1996)
TV (18)
- Curious George (2006)
- What's New, Scooby-Doo? (2002)
- The Batman (2004)
- Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles (1999)
- Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (2003)
- Hang Time (1995)
- Boomtown (2002)
- Ozzy & Drix (2002)
- Godzilla: The Series (1998)
- Oh Yeah! Cartoons (1998)
- Evil Con Carne (2003)
- Spider-Man Unlimited (1999)
- Max Steel (2000)
- Extreme Ghostbusters (1997)
- Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm (1996)
- Dog City (1992)
- Time of Your Life (1999)
- NASCAR Racers (1999)
Where to start with Rino Romano
Argue about The Batman by all means, but watch it first. It is fast, heavily stylised, has excellent action, and Romano's Bruce Wayne is a young man improvising rather than a legend intoning. The Batman vs. Dracula is its best single outing, a genuinely gothic feature made for children and slightly too frightening for them.
For the other half of his range, put on Curious George. Hearing the same actor narrate it with that much gentleness is a small pleasure.
Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles is the cult pick, a surprisingly grim military science fiction series, and Extreme Ghostbusters holds up better than a late-1990s sequel cartoon has any right to. Spider-Man Unlimited is for completists only, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie is simply where his voice has most recently reached the largest room.
Two icons, one voice
He has voiced both Batman and Spider-Man, which almost nobody can say. His Bruce Wayne is younger and more brittle than the versions on either side of it, and the Spider-Man work is the late-nineties incarnation.
Saturday morning, at its peak
The action-cartoon run that a specific generation grew up on, from Godzilla to Starship Troopers to Extreme Ghostbusters. Roughnecks is the underrated one and much darker than its slot suggested.
The gentle jobs
The complete opposite instrument: narration and comedy for small children. Curious George is years of it, and the recent Mario films put him back in front of the largest audience of his career.