The Lego Batman Movie facts for kids
Quick facts for kids The Lego Batman Movie |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Chris McKay |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | Seth Grahame-Smith |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Lorne Balfe |
| Editing by |
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date(s) | January 29, 2017 (Dublin) February 9, 2017 (Denmark) February 10, 2017 (United States) March 30, 2017 (Australia) |
| Running time | 104 minutes |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $80 million |
| Money made | $312 million |
The Lego Batman Movie (stylized as The LEGO Batman Movie) is a 2017 computer-animated superhero comedy film produced by Warner Animation Group, DC Entertainment, RatPac Entertainment, Lego System A/S, Lin Pictures, Lord Miller Productions, and Vertigo Entertainment, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was directed by Chris McKay (in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Jared Stern, and John Whittington. Based on the characters from the DC Universe created by DC Comics and the Lego DC Super Heroes' Batman toy line, 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 the title character (Arnett) as he attempts to overcome his greatest fear to stop the Joker's (Galifianakis) latest plan.
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, while Chris McKay was hired to direct the film after being replaced by Rob Schrab to direct the sequel to The Lego Movie. He cited both The Naked Gun and Airplane! film series as his main inspirations. Casting call began in July to November 2015. The film pays homage to previous Batman films, cartoons, and comics. The film also features characters from other notable franchises and film series with them. Like The Lego Movie, the animation was provided by Animal Logic. Lorne Balfe composed the film's musical score.
The Lego Batman Movie had its world premiere in Dublin, Ireland on January 29, 2017, and was released in the United States on February 10, 2017 in RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX, IMAX 3D and 4DX formats. The film received generally positive reviews from critics for its animation, voice acting, score, visual style, and humor, and was also commercially successful, having grossed $312 million worldwide against a budget of around $80 million. A sequel, Lego Superfriends, was announced in 2018, but was cancelled after Universal Pictures acquired the Lego franchise rights.
Contents
Plot
Within the DC superhero dimension of the Lego multiverse, Batman protects Gotham City and fights crime. During his latest mission to stop the Joker and other Gotham supervillains from destroying the city, Batman succeeds, but also hurts Joker's feelings by telling him he is not as important in his life as he thinks he is, leading Joker to seek the ultimate revenge on him.
The following day, Batman's alter ego Bruce Wayne attends the city's winter gala, which is celebrating both the retirement of Police Commissioner Gordon and the ascension of his daughter Barbara to replace him. Wayne is smitten by Barbara, and this distraction results in him unwittingly agreeing to adopt the enthusiastic orphan Dick Grayson. Wayne is then infuriated by Barbara's plans to restructure the police to function without the need of Batman. Joker crashes the party with other Gotham supervillains. Joker surrenders himself to police, while capturing almost all the other Gotham supervillains for police, except Harley Quinn. With so many supervillains incarcerated, Batman becomes desolate as Gotham no longer requires his crime-fighting skills.
Suspecting that Joker is up to no good, 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 multiverse, only for Alfred to intervene and advise him to take care of Dick. Batman initially refuses, so Alfred allows Dick to enter the Batcave. Appearing as Batman before Dick, Batman states that he is also adopting Dick, and fosters Dick as Robin to help in his scheme. Batman and Robin recover the projector from the Fortress of Solitude, break into Arkham Asylum and successfully send the Joker to the Phantom Zone. Suspecting that Joker wanted to be sent there, Barbara locks up Batman and Robin.
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 multiverse's villains he had recruited in the Phantom Zone, including Sauron, who informs the Joker that Batman is Bruce Wayne. The multiverse's villains attack Gotham and take over Wayne Island. Realizing that Gotham does need Batman after all, Barbara releases Batman and Robin and teams up with them and Alfred to stop the new threat. Although his teammates achieve some success in fighting the multiverse's 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 gatekeeper, shows Batman how he has mistreated Dick, Alfred, Barbara and Joker. Batman accepts his greatest fear, being part of a family, and decides to change. 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 prisoners, and arrives in time to save his teammates, apologizing to them for leaving them and requesting their help to stop Joker. They agree, with Barbara taking on the Batgirl persona.
With help from Gotham's other supervillains, who felt neglected by the Joker when he refused to break them out of Arkham, Batman and his team defeat the escaped multiverse's villains and send them back to the Phantom Zone. However, the Joker's bombs explode, tearing Gotham apart at the plates below the city. Batman convinces Joker to help him by telling him he gives him purpose to be the hero he is, and with the help of every civilian and villain, they manage to save Gotham, chain-linking themselves together to reassemble the plates.
In the aftermath, Batman reveals to Dick that he is Bruce Wayne, then goes to return to the Phantom Zone to face the consequences of his earlier behavior. Phyllis prevents Batman from entering the Phantom Zone, after realizing he is a hero and seeing how he changed to save everyone. Afterward, Batman gives Joker and Gotham's other supervillains a headstart to avoid capture, knowing they will be no match for the new Bat-family.
Voice cast
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- Will Arnett as Bruce Wayne / Batman: A billionaire by day and superhero by night, who defends Gotham City from crime. Arnett also voiced the character in The Lego Movie and later reprised his role in its sequel.
- Zach Galifianakis as 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 who is adopted by Bruce Wayne, and becomes a sidekick to Batman.
- 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, The Joker's girlfriend and accomplice.
- Héctor Elizondo as James Gordon, the retired police commissioner of Gotham and Barbara's father.
- Ellie Kemper as Phyllis, a brick who is the gatekeeper of the Phantom Zone.
- 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 the Joker at the beginning of the film.
- Brent Musburger, Ralph Garman, and Chris Hardwick make cameo appearances as three unnamed reporters.
- Mark Jonathan Davis as a fictionalized version of himself (his character Richard Cheese also appears through the use of archival recordings). Green Lantern by Jonah Hill (also reprising his role from The Lego Movie), and the Flash by Adam DeVine.
- Channing Tatum as Superman (reprising his role from The Lego Movie and its sequel)
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 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 (the character's appearance and Benson's performance are meant to satirize Tom Hardy's portrayal of Bane in The Dark Knight Rises), John Venzon as Penguin, (the character's appearance is a nod to Danny DeVito‘s portrayal of Penguin in Batman Returns), David Burrows as Mr. Freeze (Burrows also voices an anchorman), and Laura Kightlinger as Orca (Kightlinger also voices a reporter). The film also features villains from other franchises, including Sauron's Eye of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (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), King Kong from King Kong, the Swamp Creature from various monster films (both voiced by Seth Green), Medusa from Greek mythology (also voiced by Lauren White), and the Daleks from Doctor Who (voiced by Nicholas Briggs, reprising his role from the television series).
The voice of the Batcomputer (credited as 'Puter), depicted here as an artificial intelligence controlling all of Batman's gadgets and vehicles, is done by Siri.
Archive footage of Tom Cruise and Renée Zellweger from Jerry Maguire is used.
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. 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. The film itself also serves as the first theatrically released animated feature to be based on a licensed property, which explains the lack of yellow Lego figures, despite Emmet Brickowski, the main character of the Lego Movie, making a small cameo.
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:
"I was thinking that we were basically taking the Burt Ward Robin and sticking him in the Batmobile with the Zack Snyder/Ben Affleck Batman, or the Frank Miller Batman. And putting these two different energies together. Somebody who’s like the grumpiest, dark grittiest, broodiest Batman with the most positive, indefatigable kid."
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, although Bianca was alluded to as Phyllis' boss.
Casting
In July 2015, Arnett's Arrested Development co-star Michael Cera was cast to voice Robin. In August 2015, Zach Galifianakis entered final negotiations to voice the Joker. In October 2015, Rosario Dawson was cast to voice Barbara Gordon, the daughter of police commissioner James Gordon who later becomes the crime-fighting heroine Batgirl. The following month, Ralph Fiennes was cast as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler. Initial reports indicated that Mariah Carey was playing Commissioner Gordon. However, she was actually cast as Mayor McCaskill.
Music
The Lego Batman Movie is the first in the franchise not to be composed by Mark Mothersbaugh; the film score is composed by Lorne Balfe. The soundtrack album was released by WaterTower Music on February 3, 2017, through two-disc CD and for digital download, while the vinyl version was released on May 19, 2017.
Marketing
The first teaser trailer for The Lego Batman Movie was released on March 24, 2016, and features the song "Black and Yellow" by Wiz Khalifa. It was attached to showings of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in theatres. A second teaser trailer was released on March 28, 2016, and features references to all live-action iterations of Batman, from the 1960s Batman TV series to Batman v Superman. A third trailer was released on July 23, 2016. A fourth trailer was released on November 4, 2016. Over twenty Lego sets inspired by scenes from the film were released for the film including two sets of Collectible Minifigures. A Story Pack for the toys-to-life video game Lego Dimensions based on The Lego Batman Movie was released on February 10, 2017, alongside the film. The pack adds a six-level story campaign adapting the events of the film, and includes playable figures of Robin and Batgirl, a driveable Batwing, and a constructible gateway model based on the Batcomputer. A Fun Pack including Excalibur Batman and his Bionic Steed was also released the same day.
On January 14, 2017, at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Chevrolet unveiled a life-sized Lego Batmobile inspired by the design featured in the film, constructed from around 350,000 Lego pieces. As a related promotion, a Bat-Signal (alternating between Batman's emblem and the Chevrolet logo) was projected on the Renaissance Center over the weekend, and Chevrolet released a new television commercial tying into the film, featuring the Batmobile as a crossover with its ongoing "Real People, Not Actors" campaign.
Warner Bros. released several promotional tie-ins on the week of the movie's release. LEGO billboard versions of several TV shows were shown outside of the studio lot, that took 300 hours to make out of 10,000 bricks. The Big Bang Theory included a LEGO version of the opening sequence in the episode "The Locomotion Reverberation" that first aired on CBS. In addition, the network aired two LEGO commercials featuring Batman and the cast.
The CW featured LEGO end cards for Supergirl, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Arrow, respectively, on the week of the movie's release. All four DC shows also include a special variant of the Berlanti Productions logo that featured Batman's cameo and a new recording from Greg Berlanti's real-life father who says "Batman, move your head." instead of the usual "Greg, move your head." In addition, the network aired two commercials where Batman interacts with the characters from each show.
Release
Theatrical
The film's world premiere was conducted in Dublin, Ireland on January 29, 2017, where upon it went into general release from February 8; it was released in Denmark on February 9, and in the United States and the United Kingdom on February 10. Its overall release saw movie theatres displaying the film in 3D, RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX 3D and 4DX. though the latter format was restricted to 3D for North America, while international countries were able to view it in IMAX.
The Lego Batman Movie is notably the first animated movie based on Batman to receive a full theatrical release since Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993).
Home media
The LEGO Batman Movie was released on Digital HD on May 19, 2017. The release included the theatrical short film The Master: A LEGO Ninjago Short, as well as four new short films: Dark Hoser, Batman is Just Not That Into You, Cooking with Alfred and Movie Sound Effects: How Do They Do That?. The LEGO Batman Movie was released on DVD, Blu-ray (2D and 3D), and Ultra HD Blu-ray by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on June 13, 2017. The film debuted at No. 3 on the NPD VideoScan overall disc sales chart.
Video games
Lego Dimensions includes characters from various franchises, including The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie. The game's Starter Pack includes Wyldstyle, while Emmet, Benny, Bad Cop, and Unikitty are included in Fun Packs. From The Lego Batman Movie, Robin and Batgirl are included in a Story Pack while Excalibur Batman is included in a Fun Pack. However, Robin gets his voice actor changed in the game to Robbie Daymond and can also use his appearance from Teen Titans Go! if he is used in the Teen Titans Go! World.
Based on The Lego Batman Movie, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released the endless-runner game coinciding with the release of the film. It was released for Android and iOS.
Cancelled sequel
On December 5, 2018, McKay announced a sequel to the film was in the works, with him returning to direct. The film was set for release in 2022. However, while the rights of DC Comics are owned by Warner Bros, Universal Pictures acquired the film rights to The Lego Movie franchise in 2020, effectively cancelling the sequel.
In June 2021, McKay revealed that the script was being written by Michael Waldron and Dan Harmon. It would have focused on Batman's relationship with the Justice League, particularly Superman, and the main villains would have been Lex Luthor and OMAC. Waldron revealed that the film was tentatively titled Lego Superfriends.
See also
In Spanish: The Lego Batman Movie para niños
