Bruce Timm Responds To Controversial Batgirl & Batman Scene From The Killing Joke

As if studios needed another reminder that R-rated adult animated films have an important place in the market, Batman: The Killing Joke scored an amazing $3.175 million in its first day of limited release on Monday. However, many fans have disapproved of a certain sex scene between Batman and Batgirl that was not in Alan Moore’s original comic. Now Bruce Timm, in an interview with Vulture, has officially commented on the issue.

“We were aware that it’s a little risky. There’s definitely some stuff in that first part of the movie that’s going to be controversial.

Here’s where we came down on that specific issue: It was really important to us to show that both of the characters make some pretty big mistakes. I mean, his “parental skills” aren’t that great. Maybe never having had any kids of his own, he doesn’t realize that if you tell a kid to not do something, they’re going to want to do it even more. And then she makes some mistakes and then he kind of overreacts to her mistakes and then she overreacts to his overreaction.

So it’s very human; it’s a very understandable story. It’s tricky because it’s messy, because relationships are sometimes messy. But to me and to [co-producer] Alan Burnett and to [screenwriter] Brian Azzarello, Alan and Brian, it was all very fascinating to us to explore that angle”.

Personally, I’m not sure what the issue is here. It’s an R-rated animated film. It’s not something that doesn’t make sense. In fact, it makes total sense. Anyone roaming the streets at night fighting crime doesn’t have it all together. They are broken people. Like we explained in our review of Batman: The Killing Joke, “It’s an angle avoided for long, but it works in strengthening the overall storyline and motive. By instilling romantic feelings between the two, Batman has even more reason to cross the line with the Joker.”