The LEGO Batman Movie is packed with all sorts of Easter eggs and references, and while some are obvious, there’s a surprising amount of deep cuts you might have missed.
Warning: this article contains full spoilers for The LEGO Batman Movie!
Alfred recalls Batman’s history by referring to all of the live-action Batman movies: Batman v Superman, The Dark Knight Rises, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Batman and Robin, Batman Forever, Batman Returns, and Batman (1989). All get LEGO-ized as Alfred lists them off, save for 1966’s Batman: The Movie which shows live-action Adam West.
Speaking of Adam West’s Batman, Robin finds the Bat-Shark Repellant while exploring the cave. When Batman and Robin fight together, they hit the bad guys so hard that words describing the impact materialize in the air, a throwback to the signature onomatopoeia used during fight scenes.
When the Joker hijacks the plane (humorously called "McGuffin Airlines," a plot device used to move the story forward), the pilot brings up how Batman always beats him by mentioning the “two boats” from the end of The Dark Knight and “the time with the parade and the Prince music?” from the Joker parade float sequence in Batman (1989).
There’s a couple more Tim Burton Batman references. Batman’s playlist is titled "Let's Get Nuts,” referencing what Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne said to Jack Nicholson’s Joker. LEGO Joker uses a line borrowed from Jack Nicholson's Joker, "Where does he get all those wonderful toys?" When Batman and Robin are speeding around in the Batmobile and screech to a halt to avoid hitting an elderly lady crossing the street, it’s a nod to a hijacked Batmobile almost doing the same thing in Batman Returns. And Shreck’s Department Store from Batman Returns can be glimpsed in the city.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice gets a nod when Batman names Superman as his greatest enemy.
When Batman remarks that recruiting a group of criminals to fight other criminals is a stupid idea, he’s taking a swipe at Suicide Squad. Another Suicide Squad dig comes when Killer Croc swims underwater to simply push a button, a joke about how there wasn’t much point to his role in the movie.
There are a lot of custom Batmobiles and other Bat-vehicles in the cave, but there’s also recreations of movie Batmobiles like the Tumbler from Christopher Nolan movies and the Batmobiles from Batman (1989) and Batman Forever.
While talking about crime in Gotham City, Barbara Gordon’s presentation includes images of Batman: The Animated Series and one of its animated movies, The Mask of the Phantasm, not to mention an image from Frank Miller’s iconic The Dark Knight Returns comic, the cover to Batman’s first comic appearance in Detective Comics #27, and even the Lewis Wilson serials, Batman’s first-ever on-screen appearance
You’ll notice that when Alfred suits up, he first wears Adam West’s Bat-suit and then switches to the same domino mask that Alan Napier’s Alfred would wear when he went on missions during the show.
And continuing the Adam West Batman love, we hear the theme song a couple times like when we hear the Batmobile’s horn and when Batman beatboxes.
There’s also the inclusion of the villain Egghead, a bad guy created for the show played by Vincent Price.
Commissioner Gordon's partner is named O'Hara, a nod to Chief O'Hara in the show.
The back of a magazine has an ad for "Barris Automotive" which is a tribute to the show's Batmobile designer George Barris.
When starting up the Batmobile we hear "Atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed!" which the same thing Burt Ward's Robin would say in the show.
The Batcave has racks full of alternate Batsuits, including the Batman Beyond suit. And the show’s bad guy Blight can also be seen among the villains.
The family picture of Bruce and his parents is taken in front of the Monarch theater, the same place as in the comics.
Iron Man is a genius-billionaire-superhero just like Batman, and so the film’s one dig at Marvel comes when Batman shouts “Iron Man sucks!” as the voice command to enter the Batcave. The Bat-team shouts it together later in the film, too.
The depiction of all Superman elements pull from the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, including the crystallized Fortress of Solitude, Jor-El resembling Marlon Brando, Zod resembling Terence Stamp, and Superman’s doorbell playing the John Williams movie score.
The Justice League of America members are celebrating their 57th anniversary because the comic debuted 57 years ago in 1960. The Joker also mentions his 70 some-odd years fighting Batman, referring to how he's been around since 1940.
There’s iconic members like Aquaman, Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman; newer member Cyborg; and more obscure heroes from the JLA’s long history, including Samurai, El Dorado, Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, and the Wonder Twins, who were all created for the cheesy Hanna-Barbaera Super Friends cartoon. The green-caped Wonder Dog, not Krypto, is the party DJ.
In The LEGO Batman Movie, Barbara Gordon hails from Bludhaven, which is city that Robin eventually grows up to protect as the hero Nightwing in the comics. Robin even dons a costume with the Nightwing label to hint at his future alias.
Curiously, Dick Grayson traditionally has black hair, but in the movie he has brown hair and green goggles...
..which makes him the spitting image of Carrie Kelley, Batman's Robin in The Dark Knight Returns.
There are a bunch of silly Bat-suits like Scu-Bat and a Comic-Con Exclusive suit, but there’s also Bat by Gaslight, a nod to the Batman steampunk comic Gotham by Gaslight by Brian Augustyn and Hellboy’s Mike Mignola.
Barbara Gordon gets a Batgirl suit and makes a joke that implies if she’s Batgirl instead of Batwoman then she should call Batman “Batboy.” Batwoman is a completely different character named Kate Kane who currently co-leads a team of Gotham-based heroes alongside Batman in Detective Comics.
Batgirl is usually younger and trains under Batman without any attraction between the two like in the movie, but in the Batman Beyond continuity, she goes on to become commissioner, like in the movie, and had a failed romance with Batman. The animated movie adaption of The Killing Joke also saw Batman and Batgirl hook up.
Every Batman villain is real, believe it or not, even the Condiment King, who debuted in Batman: The Animated Series.
The Mutant Leader from The Dark Knight Returns can be seen early on getting beat up when Batman saves the city.
Two-Face is voiced by Billy Dee Williams, which is a long time coming considering he was cast as Harvey Dent in Batman (1989) but the role went to Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever, so now he’s finally getting to play Two-Face.
Bane was wearing his wrestling mask and Venom tubes, but was also squeezed into a tight coat with a fur collar and had Tom Hardy’s peculiar voice like in The Dark Knight Rises.
We see a sign for the "Iceberg Lounge," which is a club owned by the Penguin.
Early on we see "Ferris Air" on a plane, which is the company owned by Carol Ferris aka super villain-turned-superhero Star Sapphire aka Green Lantern Hal Jordan's love interest.
A couple notable voice actors and cameos include Conan O’Brien as The Riddler, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill reprising their LEGO Movie roles as Superman and Green Lantern (respectively), and Eddie Izzard as Voldemort, which is funny considering Voldemort actor Ralph Finnes is in the movie as the voice of Alfred. And the voice of Siri plays the role of ‘Puter, fittingly enough.
There are a couple more bits of continuity that link this to The LEGO Movie, like how the city rests over an infinite abyss, as in the Infinite Abyss of Nothingness that leads Emmet to the real world. There’s also mention of being a Master Builder and multiple sequences where inventive new vehicles are cobbled together from LEGOs pulled together from the environment.
And like in The Lego Movie, the world is home to characters from numerous franchises (nearly all owned by Warner Bros.) including Voldemort from Harry Potter, the Eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings, King Kong, some Gremlins, Agent Smith from The Matrix, the Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz, the Jaws shark, a T-Rex and a raptor, Dracula, and even the Daleks from Doctor Who.
And finally, this one is a stretch, but we see Batman watching Jerry Maguire’s signature scene where Tom Cruise tells Renee Zellweger “You complete me,” which totally has to be a nod to the interrogation scene in The Dark Knight where the Joker says the same thing to Batman.
That's everything we found in The LEGO Batman movie. Let us know anything we missed in the comments.
Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire