The 2017 LEGO Batman Movie showed once and for all that it's possible to make a Batman film that isn't all gloom and doom. In this film, Batman still faces problems, but he does so with a lot more jokes and funny moments that are lacking in most of his previous movies, both live-action and animated ones.
Voiced by Will Arnett, Batman has to deal not only with learning how to create a new family but most importantly, stop the villains who are threatening to destroy Gotham. The film offered plenty of references, easter eggs, and deep cuts that only comic book fans or those who know previous Batman films well might have noticed. Let's take a look at 10 of them.
Superman's Kryptonite
Almost every comic book fan knows that Superman's greatest weakness is Kryptonite. That's a fact even a lot of people who don't read the comics will know, at least if they watched any Superman film or a TV show. But what the general audience might not know that when Batman calls himself the Superman's Kryptonite in The LEGO Batman Movie, he's not kidding.
Batman and Superman have been friends in the comics for decades now but they also fought multiple times and Batman was never scared to use the Kryptonite against Superman when the situation called for it, proving once and for all that he will do almost anything to achieve his goals.
Crime Alley
Bruce Wayne's life changed forever when he was just a small boy and his parents were robbed and murdered in a street later known as the Crime Alley. That's where Batman was born, even though he didn't know it yet at the time.
In The LEGO Batman Movie, Batman misses his parents and he talks to a family photo of himself, Martha and Thomas. In the photo behind his parents, there's a street sign saying Crime Alley, referencing the infamous street which saw the death of Bruce's closest family.
Broken Inside
In a way, The LEGO Batman Movie is one of the darkest Batman films, at least when it comes to Batman's psychology. Yes, the film is full of great jokes, but it also portrays Batman as a person who's desperately lonely, talks to a picture of his dead parents, and feels fulfilled only when he can fight crime.
In the comics, Bruce is also often incapable of finding another direction in life for himself, and being Batman feels more real for him than being Bruce Wayne.
Ferris Air
Another detail that is easy to miss, just like the sign Crime Alley in the above-mentioned photo, points out to an important character in the DC Comics and one of Batman's allies. Batman decides to get into Superman's Fortress of Solitude and steal the Phantom Zone Projector from him to trap Joker in the Phantom Zone.
While he and Dick Grayson are flying to the Fortress, there's a poster behind them that says Ferris Air. As all DC comic books fans will know, Ferris is the surname of Carol Ferris, Hal Jordan also known as the Green Lantern's girlfriend, and also his boss who later becomes a superhero as well. Hal Jordan and Batman didn't interact in the film, but they often work together in the comics.
Group Of Villains
When Batman realizes that he can't save Gotham alone in The LEGO Batman Movie, Barbara Gordon suggests that they should join forces with the Arkham inmates, such as Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Bane, Mr. Freeze, and others.
Batman refuses her idea with the words that getting a group of villains together to fight villains is a bad idea. This sentence is a clever reference to the team Suicide Squad which is all about villains fighting other villains.
Magic Trick
Batman isn't the only one who fights crime in The LEGO Batman Movie. So does Barbara Gordon who becomes the new commissioner after her dad retires. Barbara and Batman don't see eye to eye at first but then join forces in the end.
Barbara becomes Batgirl and she ends up fighting Voldemort, of all villains. Before she knocks him down, Barbara asks him, "You wanna see a magic trick? I'm gonna make you disappear." That's a clever reference to the 2008 film The Dark Knight where Joker used a similar statement, "I'm gonna make this pencil disappear."
Batman Goes Nuts
Long before Will Arnett's Batman took on Joker in The LEGO Batman Movie, another version of the caped crusader fought the Clown Prince of Gotham. It was Michael Keaton's Batman in the 1989 Tim Burton's Batman. In the film, when Bruce Wayne meets Joker, who threatens his girlfriend, he tries to attack him with the words, "Let's go nuts!"
In the animated Batman film, Batman has a playlist named "Let's Get Nuts Mix" ready at his disposal when he's taking on his villains. It seems that no matter what the decade is, Batman always goes nuts.
Batman's Museum
You might think that Batman isn't the type of person to get sentimental. You would be correct, most of the time, anyway. But Batman has a Batman Museum in his Batcave and even has a special section dedicated to bombs he confiscated from his enemies.
In the comics, Batman also stores artifacts reminding him of his past and the battles fought and won in his Batcave, such as a giant coin or the T-Rex.
Plenty Of Batmobiles
Why should you have a mobile when you can have a batmobile? And why have only one when you can have several of them? When Batman goes into his Batcave in the film, it is revealed that he has several batmobiles stored there, just like he does in the comics.
He uses the car to transport himself around Gotham while he's fighting crime when he's not going on foot. What's even more interesting is that some of the batmobiles in the animated LEGO Batman are directly taken from older live-action movies. It seems that even Batman can't forget his film history.
Crush On Barbara
In The LEGO Batman Movie, both Bruce Wayne and Batman end up falling for Barbara Gordon who later becomes Batgirl. The relationship doesn't blossom into romance, though, and they become friends instead. Barbara is most often romantically linked to Dick Grayson who's only a kid in the film.
But what some people might not know that Batman and Batgirl also had a brief romantic relationship in the comics, despite their age gap. And let's not forget the infamous scene in the animated Batman film Batman: The Killing Joke where the two took their relationship to another level.