(YouTube/Screen Capture)

A new Batman animated movie features a scene implying that Batman has sex with Batgirl.

The film, “The Killing Joke,” is being released on video and streaming July 25, and also playing in theaters for two days, July 25-26. It is rated R.

Based on the 1988 graphic novel of the same name, the film depicts Batman (voiced by Kevin Conroy) pursuing the Joker after the Joker (Mark Hamill) goes on a crime spree, including shooting Barbara Gordon, whose alter ego is Batgirl (Tara Strong). Gordon is the daughter of Police Commissioner Jim Gordon.

In a scene that is not included in the original comic, the film shows Batgirl and Batman arguing on a rooftop. She then gets on top of him, kisses him, and removes an article of clothing. The scene then fades out.

In an interview with Abraham Riesman from the website Vulture.com, the film's executive producer Bruce Timm explained why the scene was put in the film:

I'm guessing there will be a lot of conversation after the movie's release about the sex scene. At what point in the creative process did you come up with that idea?

It came from a three-way conversation between [co-producer] Alan Burnett, [screenwriter] Brian Azzarello, and myself. I don't remember who initially came up with the idea, but we all kind of jumped on it all at the same time and said, Yeah, that's kind of where we need to go. My memory kind of says it was Brian, maybe, who came up with the idea. But I'm not sure. But why include it? The two characters have a pretty strong father-daughter-ish relationship bond by that point, not a romantic one.

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 Alan and Brian, it was all very fascinating to us to explore that angle.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that when the footage was recently shown at the recent San Diego Comic-Con, the reaction was largely negative. "It's totally out of character for both of them," one woman is quoted as saying. "They're supposed to have a father/daughter relationship."

The Hollywood Reporter’s Aaron Couch writes: