“You’re not going to find orgies in a Scooby Doo movie”: Harley Quinn’s producers on the show's adult nature

The DC Universe is a funny place. The iconic heroes and villains have so many incarnations across multiple forms of media, which can lead to some interesting comparisons. For example, look at Harley Quinn. Harleen frequently appeared in the 2015 incarnation of DC Super Hero Girls, where she was portrayed as a manic, but well-meaning girl.

Then there’s the Max animated series Harley Quinn, where Harley is violent and raunchy. If one didn’t know any better, you would almost think they were two different people. For Cecilia Aranovich Hamilton, the contrast couldn’t be more surreal. The animator did extensive work on DC Super Hero Girls, and now she serves as a supervising producer for Harley Quinn, along with her husband Ian Hamilton. During a San Diego Comic-Con panel previewing Harley Quinn season 4, Hamilton spoke about the interesting learning curve.

“You go from a show with a very young audience to a show with a very adult audience. Obviously for me, adult shows are a lot more fun. You get to push the envelope, and you get to do a lot of things that you cannot do on a children’s show. You’re not going to find any orgies in a Scooby Doo movie. A lot less violence, a lot less nudity and profanity,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton continued to muse about the differences between animation for kids and adults, noting the differences in color pallet choice, pacing, and more. “The visual storytelling is very different for children shows and adult cartoons,” Hamilton recalled.

According to Hamilton, season 4 of Harley Quinn will feature lots of other things you won’t find in Scooby Doo, like a penis-shaped rocket, a running joke about Nightwing’s butt, plenty of sex, and gratuitous violence.

No word on a talking dog though, so Scooby Doo has Harley beat there.

Harley Quinn season 4 debuts July 27 on Max.

Nightwing and the battle over his plump butt inside the DC animated series Harley Quinn on Max.