Thankfully, the original PG-13 cut eventually saw the light of day two years after the G-rated version. In an interview with World’s Finest and Toon Zone, Bruce Timm looked back at the whole controversy and the events leading to the film’s original cut making its way to home video. Hindsight is 20/20, so now knowing that both versions of the film were released, Timm believed that after all the ordeals with the movie he should maybe have been more flexible with the suits at Warner Bros. who wanted to market the movie to a younger audience. He shared, “Well, I’d probably be a little less adamant about pushing for such edgy material … the bottom line is that the home video dept. markets their cartoons directly at children.”
No matter the case, Timm is adamant that “Return of the Joker” is not a “kid-friendly” film, no matter who in charge of the home video wanted to market it to. Everything surrounding the Joker’s death in the movie is darker than anything seen in the original “Batman: The Animated Series” or “Batman Beyond.” Even the toned-down version that was first released had dark implications when you take a closer look at it. Moreover, releasing the uncut version of “Return of the Joker” didn’t change the fact that Timm and his team had to take apart their original vision in the first place.
