Warner Bros. Once Rejected A Battle Between The Powerpuff Girls And Batman's Arch-Nemesis

Early Cartoon Network was a wild time for imagination in animation. After being created mostly to just air classic Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Hanna-Barbera cartoons, the mid-'90s saw Cartoon Network get into original programming with the introduction of Cartoon Cartoons. These were animated shorts that later got turned into full animated series like "Dexter's Laboratory," "Johnny Bravo," "Cow and Chicken," "Courage the Cowardly Dog," and "The Powerpuff Girls" — shows that remain some of the best of the past 30 years. It was a time of great experimentation without a house style or a formula that allows for a series of cartoons that pushed the medium forward in visual style, tone, kineticism, and characters.

Many of these shows shared a lot of the same crew, with the very first Cartoon Cartoon, "Dexter's Laboratory," staffing future legends of the medium like Rob Renzetti, Seth MacFarlane, Butch Hartman, and "The Powerpuff Girls" creator Craig McCracken – whose show became a hit in part thanks to "Dexter's Lab."

"The Powerpuff Girls" centers on three kindergarten-aged girls created in a lab by a professor that raises them as his kids, but they also happen to have superpowers that allow them to fight crime. At the time, it was a fantastic, humorous, heartwarming superhero alternative to the darker and more grown-up Bruce Timm superhero shows of the time like "Batman: The Animated Series."

Speaking of "Batman: The Animated Series," remember what I said earlier about wild experimentation and imagination in early Cartoon Cartoons? Turns out we could have had a bizarre crossover between the Timm's Batman universe and the Powerpuff Girls, as Craig McCracken tried to get his girls to fight the Joker himself.

Back in 2016, McCracken took to Tumblr to drop the huge reveal that he not only wanted a crossover between "The Powerpuff Girls" and the DC universe, but he actually tried to make it happen. McCracken wrote:

"When we did the original series I really wanted to do an episode where the Joker came to town and started committing crimes. The idea was that The Mayor was so excited to have a celebrity villain in town that he actually tried to thwart The Girls from stopping him because The Joker was finally putting Townsville on the map! We wanted to use Bruce Timm's designs from Batman the animated series and get Mark Hammil to do the voice. Unfortunately Warner Brothers said no."

The idea of the Powerpuff Girls fighting Joker is already funny, but the fact that the Mayor would not allow them to do so because Joker is a celebrity putting Townsville on the map is outright hilarious and the best case scenario for a gimmicky crossover like this. It's not like it was uncommon to have cartoon crossovers at the time. Johnny Bravo once solved a crime with the Scooby-Doo gang, Billy and Mandy went on an adventure with the Kids Next Door, and Jimmy Neutron and Timmy Turner went on a multiverse ride years before "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse."

When it comes down to it, the Powerpuff Girls had already met DC heroes too. Back in the day there were commercials featuring both the "Super Friends" and "The Powerpuff Girls," with the girls rescuing Wonder Woman and Aquaman from certain doom. Those were hilarious, creative, and it should have been a big hint that a proper crossover could work.

Even if a crossover didn't happen during the show's original run, we do know there's a "Powerpuff Girls" revival on the way, so maybe McCracken can get his dream this time.