The Lego Batman Movie is a 2017 animated superhero comedy film based on characters created by DC Comics and the Lego Batman toy line. It was directed by Chris McKay from a screenplay that is based on a Seth Grahame-Smith story. The film is a collaboration between production houses from the United States, Australia and Denmark, the first spin-off in The Lego Movie franchise and the second installment overall. The film features Will Arnett reprising his role as Batman from The Lego Movie alongside Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson and Ralph Fiennes. The story follows Batman as he attempts to overcome his greatest fear while saving Gotham City from the Joker's latest scheme.
Development of The Lego Batman Movie started in October 2014, after Warner Bros. announced several Lego films, following the critical and commercial success of The Lego Movie. Chris McKay was hired to direct after being replaced by Rob Schrab as director of the sequel to The Lego Movie, who then cited both The Naked Gun and Airplane! film series as his main inspirations while casting calls began in July to November 2015. The film pays homage to previous Batman media and additionally features characters from other notable franchises and film series with them. Like The Lego Movie, the animation was provided by Animal Logic, while Lorne Balfe composed the musical score.
The Lego Batman Movie had its world premiere in Dublin, Ireland on January 29, 2017 and was released by Warner Bros. Pictures in U.S. theaters on February 10. The film received positive reviews from critics for its animation, voice acting, music, visual style and humor and was also commercially successful, having grossed $312 million worldwide against a budget of $80 million. The film later gained a cult following over the years and is widely considered to be one of the best Batman adaptations. A sequel, Lego Superfriends, was announced in 2018, but was cancelled after Universal Pictures acquired the film rights to the Lego brand in 2020.
Plot
Within the DC-centric portion of the Lego universe, Batman protects Gotham City and fights crime. During his latest mission to stop the Joker and his cronies from destroying the city, Batman succeeds, but additionally hurts Joker's feelings when he deems him a perfunctory presence in his life, leading the villain to develop a plot for revenge.
The following day, Bruce Wayne attends a gala celebrating both the retirement of Commissioner Gordon and the ascension of his daughter, Barbara Gordon, to replace him. While smitten by Barbara, Bruce absent-mindedly agrees to adopt enthusiastic orphan Dick Grayson. He is then infuriated by Barbara's plans to restructure the police to function without Batman. Joker crashes the party with his cronies, but with the exception of Harley Quinn, they abruptly surrender to the police. With so many villains incarcerated, Batman becomes despondent as Gotham no longer requires his crime-fighting skills.
Believing Joker is up to something, Batman plans to steal Superman's Phantom Zone projector, a device that can banish anyone to the Phantom Zone, which houses some of the most dangerous villains in the Lego universe, only for Alfred Pennyworth to intervene and advise him to care for Dick. Batman initially refuses, so Alfred allows Dick to enter the Batcave. Appearing as Batman before Dick, Bruce states that he is additionally adopting him and christens him as Robin. Batman and Robin recover the projector from the Atomic Cauldron in the Fortress of Solitude, break into Arkham Asylum and successfully send Joker to the Phantom Zone. Suspecting that Joker wanted to be sent there, Barbara detains the duo.
While the projector is being seized as evidence, Harley steals it back as part of Joker's plan and frees him, allowing him to return to Gotham with all the villains he had recruited in the Phantom Zone as they ravage the city and conquer Wayne Manor. Realizing that Gotham does need Batman after all, Barbara releases him and Robin and teams up with them and Alfred to stop the new threat. Although his teammates achieve some success in fighting the villains, Batman forcibly sends them away and confronts Joker alone, fearing that he might lose them just like his parents.
Believing that Batman is incapable of changing his ways, Joker sends him to the Phantom Zone before stealing the Batcave's stash of confiscated bombs to destroy Gotham. Meanwhile, Phyllis, the Phantom Zone's prison warden, shows Batman his constant mistreatment of those closest to him; he finally accepts his greatest fear of being part of a family and vows to better himself. Batman's teammates return to the fight to help him, but are endangered themselves. Batman makes a deal with Phyllis to temporarily return to Gotham to retrieve the Zone's escaped villains and arrives in time to save his teammates, apologizing to them for leaving them and requesting their help to defeat Joker. They agree, with Barbara taking on the mantle of Batgirl.
With help from Joker's former team, Batman and his team defeat the escaped villains and send them back to the Phantom Zone. Unfortunately, Joker's bombs detonate, causing the plates below Gotham to divide in half and tear apart. Batman convinces Joker to help him by telling him he gives him purpose to be the hero he is. With the help of every civilian and villain, they manage to save Gotham, chain-linking themselves to reattach the plates.
Batman reveals to Robin that he is Bruce, then goes to return to the Phantom Zone to face the consequences of his earlier behavior. However, Phyllis allows him to stay after realizing he is a hero and seeing how he changed to save everyone. Afterward, Batman gives their adversaries a head start, knowing they will be no match for his team.
Voice cast
Will Arnett as Bruce Wayne / Batman: A billionaire by day and superhero by night, who defends Gotham City from crime. Arnett previously portrayed the character in The Lego Movie and later reprised his role in its sequel. Zach Galifianakis as The Joker: A clown-themed villain in Gotham City and Batman's archenemy, who defines himself by his conflict with him. Michael Cera as Dick Grayson / Robin: An orphan and Batman's adopted son and sidekick. Rosario Dawson as Barbara Gordon / Batgirl: The newly elected police commissioner of Gotham, who hopes to restructure the Gotham City Police Department so that the city could defend itself without Batman. She eventually comes to trust Batman and becomes Batgirl. Ralph Fiennes as Alfred Pennyworth: The Wayne family's butler, and Bruce's father figure and only confidant. Fiennes later reprised his role in The Lego Movie 2. Jenny Slate as Harley Quinn, Joker's partner in crime. Héctor Elizondo as James Gordon, the retired police commissioner of Gotham and Barbara's father. Ellie Kemper as Phyllis, the Phantom Zone's warden. Mariah Carey as Mayor McCaskill, the mayor of Gotham. Lauren White as Chief O'Hara, the police chief of Gotham. Todd Hansen and Chris McKay respectively as Captain Dale and Pilot Bill, the two pilots of the airplane hijacked by Joker at the beginning of the film. Brent Musburger, Ralph Garman and Chris Hardwick make cameo appearances as a trio of unnamed reporters. Mark Jonathan Davis as a fictionalized version of himself (his character Richard Cheese also appears through the use of archival recordings). Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill as Superman and Green Lantern, both reprising their respective roles from The Lego Movie. Adam DeVine as The Flash. Adam West as Batman (stock footage from the 1966-1968 television series)
Several actors voice the various villains from Batman's rogues gallery, including Billy Dee Williams as Two-Face (as a nod to his role as Harvey Dent, Two-Face's former identity, in the 1989 Batman film), Riki Lindhome as Poison Ivy, Conan O'Brien as the Riddler, Jason Mantzoukas as the Scarecrow, Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman (she would later portray Catwoman in The Batman), Matt Villa as Killer Croc, Kate Micucci as Clayface, Doug Benson as Bane (Benson's performance is a nod to Tom Hardy's portrayal of the character in The Dark Knight Rises), John Venzon as the Penguin (the character's appearance is a nod to Danny DeVito's portrayal of the character in Batman Returns), David Burrows as Mr. Freeze (Burrows additionally voices an anchorman) and Laura Kightlinger as Orca (Kightlinger also voices a reporter). The film also features villains from other franchises, including Sauron from the Middle-earth mythos (voiced by Jemaine Clement), the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz (also voiced by Riki Lindhome), Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter (voiced by Eddie Izzard; Fiennes did not reprise his role despite starring in the films), King Kong from the franchise of the same name, Agent Smith and his bodyguard agents from the Matrix movie franchise, the Swamp Creature from Lego Monster Fighters (both voiced by Seth Green), Medusa from Lego Minifigures (also voiced by Lauren White) and the Daleks from the Doctor Who franchise (voiced by Nicholas Briggs, reprising his role from said franchise).
The voice of the Batcomputer (credited as 'Puter), depicted here as an artificial intelligence controlling all of Batman's gadgets and vehicles, is courtesy of Siri, the digital assistant service from Apple Inc.
Production
Development In October 2014, following the success of The Lego Movie, Warner Bros. greenlit multiple Lego films, including The Lego Batman Movie, a spin-off starring Batman. Warner Bros. Pictures scheduled the release of The Lego Batman Movie for May 26, 2017, moving the release date for The Lego Movie 2 (later titled as The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part) to May 25, 2018. Chris McKay, who co-directed The Lego Movie, was brought on board to direct the film, making it his solo directorial debut. Will Arnett returned to voice Batman, with the story written by Seth Grahame-Smith, and the film produced by Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. On April 20, 2015, Warner Bros. moved up The Lego Batman Movie to a February 10, 2017, release.
According to Lin, he conceived The Lego Batman Movie to be a family-friendly version of Deadpool, although he described The Lego Movie as The Matrix for children. In an interview about his work on the film, McKay stated that working on the film was "a very mixed blessing" owing partly to the film's hectic time schedule for its production, remarking that the two-and-a-half years allocated to the film made it difficult to fit in everything that he wanted for the movie, considering his earlier work on The Lego Movie. His work on The Lego Batman Movie was influenced by the comedy portrayed in both The Naked Gun and Airplane! film series, with his pitch for the film to the studios being described as like "Jerry Maguire as directed by Michael Mann". His proposal to combine all the Batman eras featured in the comic book series and various media formats, including movies and comic series, despite a couple of issues—the total inconsistency inherent to such a task, and Lego rejecting some of the characters he proposed to include in the film—was based on his desire of how to portray Robin within the film's setting. In an interview regarding his version of the superhero duo, McKay stated:
In 2019, prior to the release of The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, Chris Miller stated that all of the Lego movies are based on the imagination of a child character, with The Lego Movie events happening in young Finn's mind. Miller affirmed that The Lego Batman Movie was also from the imagination of Finn and Bianca, though the characters did not appear within the film.
Casting