It can be a tricky affair at times to successfully adapt the story of a character into an animated movie, especially if the story has some dark aspects because these movies are usually made with kids as the target audience. The creator of DC Animated Universe, Bruce Timm once also opened up about the same in an interview and talked about how he had to give up on a Catwoman movie idea because of its dark storyline.
Bruce Timm opens up about his Catwoman movie idea that never made it to the big screen
Batman Beyond was considered one of the most popular animated series back in the day. The series revolves around the story of Terry McGinnis, a teenage boy who is being trained by Bruce Wayne aka Batman himself to become his successor and watch over Gotham City. This is because The Caped Crusader has become too old himself.
Batman Beyond was first released in 1999 and quickly gained massive critical acclaim. Although the fans initially doubted if the story would be any good if the focus was shifted from Bruce Wayne, they were eventually proven wrong.
Although Batman Beyond was a massive success among the fans, only one movie of the franchise, Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker, was released back in 2000. The movie faced a lot of problems before its release and as a result, many parts had to be heavily edited to make it appropriate for kids.
Bruce Timm once talked about how he also had an idea for a movie involving Catwoman but the project was delayed and eventually canceled after the controversies faced by Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker. Timm opened up about the same in an interview with The World’s Finest, and said,
“I could easily go back and do some more B-Beyonds, sure. There was this one DTV story idea that Glen Murakami and I were toying with involving Catwoman, but it was pretty dark….I mean PITCH BLACK. So, after what happened with ROTJ, I don’t think THAT one’s gonna happen any time soon.”
Although fans would’ve absolutely loved Catwoman in a major role, considering the trouble the studio had to face before the release of Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker, abandoning the project seemed like a good idea.
Bruce Timm hated every single minute of editing Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker
The state of pop culture was a bit bleak back in the early 2000s after the massive shooting tragedy that took place at the Columbine High School in 1999. The incident involved two teenagers in twelfth grade killing 12 students and one teacher, while injuring multiple others. The theory was that teenagers were allegedly influenced a lot by television programs and video games, which which turned them violent.
Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker, had some dark themes and violent fight sequences that could’ve backfired at Warner Bros Studio had they released the unedited version of the film. As a result, the film was heavily edited before it was eventually released in December 2000.
Bruce Timm once opened up about editing Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker in an interview with The World’s Finest, and revealed that he hated every minute of it. He said,
“Well, I’d probably be a little less adamant about pushing for such edgy material…bottom line is that the home video dept. markets their cartoons directly at children. I’m very proud of ROTJ, but a ‘kid-friendly’ movie it definitely isn’t!
I mean, ultimately, it all worked out; they got the ‘age-appropriate’ version they wanted (kind of!), and we fans eventually got the nastier version WE wanted, but that whole editing and Re-editing process that we went through was torture. Like cutting the fingers off your own baby.”
Although an uncut version of Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker was released a few years later in 2002, it surely wasn’t an easy task for the creators of the movie to heavily edit the original draft of the movie to make it ‘kid-friendly‘.
However, the decision to edit the film eventually turned out in their favor as Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker went on to become a massive critical success among fans and critics alike.
Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker is currently available for rent on Apple TV+.
