The Lego Batman Movie
Short description
The Lego Batman Movie follows Batman, the billionaire Bruce Wayne's masked alter ego, as he faces the Joker and other villains threatening Gotham City. His solitary routine is disrupted when he discovers he has accidentally adopted an orphan, Dick Grayson, during a social event. Alfred pushes Bruce to take responsibility for the boy, who becomes Robin. Barbara Gordon, meanwhile, takes over as police commissioner and argues the city no longer needs a masked vigilante. Batman must learn to work with others rather than act alone. The film is a spin-off from The Lego Movie, where this version of the character first appeared.
Chris McKay directed, in his first feature directing credit, from a screenplay by Jared Stern, Seth Grahame-Smith and Chris McKenna. Will Arnett voices Batman, with Michael Cera as Robin, Rosario Dawson as Barbara Gordon, Ralph Fiennes as Alfred, Zach Galifianakis as Joker and Jenny Slate as Harley Quinn. The voice cast and crew together number 54 credited performers and 319 credited crew members.
Released in February 2017, the film runs 104 minutes. It was made for 80 million USD, a sizeable figure for animation, and took 312 million USD worldwide, a strong return on that investment. On IMDb it holds 7.3 out of 10 from 191,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.3 from 5,571 votes. The critics' rating stands at 7.5 from 313 reviews, slightly above the audience scores, though the two broadly align. McKay went on to direct The Tomorrow War and Renfield.
What's left behind the scenes
- A spin-off of the animated film "The Lego Movie" (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, 2014).
- This is Rosario Dawson's fourth animated film role. She has previously voiced characters in "Wonder Woman" (Lauren Montgomery, 2009), "Justice League: Throne of Atlantis" (Ethan Spalding, 2015), and "Justice League vs. Teen Titans" (Sam Liu, 2016).
- Before the action scene, Batman says: "Want to get crazy? No problem. Let's do it!". Bruce Wayne, played by Michael Keaton, uttered these exact words to the Joker in Tim Burton's "Batman" (1989).
- A few days before the film's release, the cable channel The CW Television Network aired a commercial featuring Lego figures of the superheroes Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl, voiced by Stephen Amell, Grant Gustin, and Melissa Benoist.
- A cinema marquee in Gotham displays an advertisement for the film "Fifty Shades Darker". In the US, James Foley's melodrama "Fifty Shades Darker" was released in theaters the same weekend.
- This is the second animated Batman film featuring Conan O'Brien's voice acting. The first was "The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2" (Jay Oliva, 2013).
- At the beginning of the film, an airplane belonging to McGuffin Airlines is shown. In cinema and literature, "McGuffin" is a name given to inanimate objects or even characters that are very important to the characters in a work, but whose function or actions do not play a special role in the development of the plot.
- In one episode, the Joker says his plan is “This isn’t a ferryboat trick.” This is a reference to the superhero action film *The Dark Knight* (Christopher Nolan, 2008), in which the Joker plants explosives on two passenger ferries.
- Mindy Kaling was considered for the voice acting role of Harley Quinn.
- Ralph Fiennes became the third British actor nominated for an Oscar for playing or voicing Alfred Pennyworth. Before Fiennes, this character was played by Michael Caine in Nolan's film trilogy and Jeremy Irons in Zack Snyder's superhero fantasy action film "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" (2016).
- Batman’s maniacal laughter is performed by director Chris McKay. It was recorded temporarily until the laughter of Canadian actor Will Arnett was recorded, however the director’s laughter ultimately remained in the final version of the film.
- In the French version of the cartoon, Superman and Flash are voiced by famous French national team football players: Antoine Griezmann and Blaise Matuidi.
- The Joker's line "You should look it up on Google" is a reference to the film "The Campaign" (Jay Roach, 2012). The Joker was voiced by Zach Galifianakis, who played one of the main roles in Roach's comedy.
- This is the first work by director Chris McKay created for theatrical release.
- Billy Dee Williams voices the villain Two-Face in this film. In Tim Burton's superhero film "Batman" (1989), the actor played Harvey Dent, Two-Face's alter ego. Williams Jr. dreamed of reprising the role in "Batman Forever" (1995), but Joel Schumacher became the director and chose Tommy Lee Jones for the part.
- Morgan Freeman, who starred in Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" trilogy (2005, 2008, 2012) and the computer-animated action comedy "The Lego Movie" (2014) by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, named his portrayal of the main character in "The Lego Batman Movie" his favorite.
- Initially, Guillermo del Toro and Steve Buscemi were the main contenders for voicing Bane and the Joker, respectively.
Similar movies
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