Lego DC Batman: Family Matters | |
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Directed by | Matt Peters [1] |
Written by | Jeremy Adams [2] |
Based on | Batman by Bob Kane and Bill Finger |
Produced by | Rick Morales Jim Krieg (co-producer) Michael Uslan Sam Register Jason Cosler & Jill Wilfert (executive producer) |
Starring | |
Music by | Tim Kelly |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Home Entertainment |
Release dates |
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Running time | 72 minutes [4] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Lego DC Batman: Family Matters is a 2019 American animated superhero comedy film. It is a superhero action-adventure comedy based on the DC Comics and Lego brands produced by DC Entertainment, The Lego Group and Warner Bros. Animation, and distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, it premiered at San Diego Comic-Con on July 21, 2019 [5] and was released on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital on August 20, 2019. [6] It is the ninth Lego DC Comics film. The DVD release includes a free 84-piece LEGO set. [7] The film received positive reviews, with praise for the humor and action, although the consumerism was criticized. [8]
After foiling Solomon Grundy, Batman heads off to his company Wayne Enterprises in his civilian identity where his employees discuss a new AI system named Brother Eye. While Bruce likes the idea of the system's OMAC drones doing work for others, he later dismisses the system as he goes home.
Believing that time in his civilian identity cuts out time as a vigilante, Batman decides to sell Wayne Enterprises. Two-Face discovers this and teams up with Red Hood to get revenge on Batman for overshadowing him and to increase his reputation.
Batman, Nightwing, Batgirl and Batwoman each receive a message to meet at a particular alleyway. Batman agrees to this with Robin eventually joining in with the rest of the Bat Family, despite Batman's demands.
After defeating Red Hood's robot minions, Red Hood reveals that he knows the Bat-Family's secret identities and has placed bombs across Gotham, one of which will only be revealed if the rest are disarmed. The Bat Family split up to disarm the bombs, with Nightwing taking Robin with him and telling Batman to be less overprotective.
Batwoman disarms a bomb at the GCPD while facing Killer Croc, Batgirl finds a bomb at the Fairgrounds guarded by Scarecrow, and Nightwing and Robin battle Penguin and Riddler in a railway yard. They successfully defeat their respective opponents, but are apprehended by Red Hood.
Batman arrives at the Monarch theater and meets Billy Batson, an orphan who wants to have Bruce solve the financial problems of his orphanage. At that moment, Two-Face shows up and reveals the fourth bomb. As Batman fights Two-Face, Billy disarms the bomb with help from a mysterious voice. Two-Face is defeated but manages to escape. Red Hood then tells Batman to return to the Batcave.
At the Batcave, Batman deduces that Red Hood is his former protégé Jason Todd, who left after believing that Batman did not care for him. Batman apologizes and then reveals that after Jason left, he attempted to find him but ultimately lost track. Accepting Batman's apology, Red Hood releases the Bat Family and reveals that the bombs are harmless. However, Two-Face informs via video that he bought Wayne Enterprises and proceeds to cause havoc and unleash the OMAC drones in Gotham. He then demands to see Batman to exact revenge, threatening to use Brother Eye to destroy the city if they do not show up. Batman leaves to face Two-Face while the rest of the Bat-Family fight the OMAC drones.
At Wayne Industries, Batman struggles to keep his identity secret until Red Hood arrives disguised as him. As Red Hood is locked inside the OMAC factory and fights Brother Eye, Batman (in his civilian identity) fights and defeats Two-Face, apologizing for overshadowing him.
The Bat Family is initially overwhelmed by the OMAC drones until Robin gains the idea to combine their vehicles, allowing them to gain an advantage. Red Hood outwits Brother Eye and tricks him into cutting off his power supply, after which he falls out of orbit.
Having dealt with Two-Face, Batman joins Red Hood and the two reconcile until Brother Eye attempts to destroy Wayne Enterprises' power core. When Brother Eye denies Batman's request to stop, Batman apologizes and admits that he failed to see the good Wayne Enterprises was doing to Gotham. Batman states that he should be more open to other people rather than pushing them away, realizing that doing so caused Jason to go rogue. Moved by Batman's words, Brother Eye shuts down and halts his attempt to blow up the power core.
Following this, Batman decides to be more considerate towards his protégés, and Red Hood moves back into the Batcave. In a mid-credit scene, Billy enters a subway station and finds a bizarre-looking train. The voice who helped him earlier tells him to board the train for the journey of a lifetime, to which he agrees.
Lego DC Batman: Family Matters earned $373,527 from domestic DVD sales and $257,140 from domestic Blu-ray sales, bringing its total domestic home video earnings to $630,667. [9]
Renee Longstreet for Common Sense Media gave the film a three out of five star rating and commented, "This entry in the Lego DC partnership has a nice balance of fun, emotional tugs, and comic action; the villains, robot armies, rockets, and explosions come fast and often, and so do the twists. The story, though heavily populated, is easy to follow and sticks to the basic DC formula: old villains rise up, bring on the battles, get defeated, and the superheroes celebrate. Batman's role as a parent is part of the tale, as he has dealings with all three young people that he's mentored, one in a surprise appearance. The two female 'members of the family,' Batgirl (Alyson Stoner) and Batwoman (Tara Strong), have lots to do, and keep up with the male members of the team. Lego DC Comics Batman: Family Matters is entertaining for kids as long as they understand cartoon action is different from real danger." [10] Renee did make a small mistake here, in calling the three Robins 'all three (...) that he's mentored'. Of course, Tim Drake was the third Robin, his suit is shown and his name is mentioned, but he doesn't appear.
Robin is the alias of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and Jerry Robinson to serve as a junior counterpart and the sidekick to the superhero Batman. As a team, Batman and Robin have commonly been referred to as the Caped Crusaders and the Dynamic Duo. The character's first incarnation, Dick Grayson, debuted in Detective Comics #38. Conceived as a way to attract young readership, Robin garnered overwhelmingly positive critical reception, doubling the sales of the Batman titles. Robin's early adventures included Star Spangled Comics #65–130 (1947–1952), the character's first solo feature. He made regular appearances in Batman-related comic books and other DC Comics publications from 1940 through the early 1980s, until the character set aside the Robin identity and became the independent superhero Nightwing.
The Batcave is a subterranean location appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. It is the headquarters of the superhero Batman, whose secret identity is Bruce Wayne and his partners, consisting of caves beneath his personal residence, Wayne Manor.
Richard John "Dick" Grayson is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Batman, Teen Titans and Justice League. Created by writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane, he first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940 as the original and most popular incarnation of Robin, Batman's crime-fighting partner. He is the eldest child of Bruce Wayne, Batman's alter ego, the first child to be adopted by Batman. In Tales of the Teen Titans #44, the character, after becoming an adult, retires his role as Robin and assumes the persona of Nightwing. Grayson has donned the cape and cowl to replace Wayne as Batman; his most notable spell followed Wayne's supposed death in Final Crisis, and sees Grayson adopt Damian Wayne, Bruce's biological son and his adoptive younger brother, as his Robin.
Timothy Jackson "Tim" Drake is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with the superhero Batman. Created by Marv Wolfman and Pat Broderick, he first appeared in Batman #436 as the third character to assume the role of Batman's crime-fighting partner and sidekick Robin. Following the events of Batman: Battle for the Cowl in 2009, Drake adopted the identity of Red Robin. In 2019, Tim returned to his original Robin persona and briefly used the mononym "Drake".
Jason Peter Todd is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. First appearing in Batman #357 in March 1983, he was created to succeed Dick Grayson as Robin, Batman's partner and sidekick. He initially shared a similar origin to Grayson, being the son of circus acrobats who are killed by criminals in Gotham and adopted by Bruce Wayne, Batman's alter ego, as his son and protege. Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths event and the rebooting of DC's main comics universe, Jason's origin was changed to being a pre-teen street urchin and petty thief who Bruce adopted and mentored after finding the boy attempting to steal the tires off of the Batmobile. This origin has since become the standard for subsequent iterations of the character.
Stephanie Brown is a fictional superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, most commonly in association with Batman. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #647, and was created by Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle.
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Caroline Keene "Carrie" Kelley is a superheroine from Frank Miller's graphic novels The Dark Knight Returns (1986) and its sequels The Dark Knight Strikes Again (2001–2002) and The Dark Knight III: The Master Race (2015–2017). She becomes the new Robin in The Dark Knight Returns when she saves Batman's life. Later in The Dark Knight Strikes Again, she adopts the identity Catgirl, and in The Dark Knight III: The Master Race, she adopts the identity Batwoman. She was the first full-time female Robin in the history of the Batman franchise, though Julie Madison had passed off as Robin for a brief time in a Bob Kane story published in Detective Comics #49 in March 1941.
The OMACs are a fictional type of cyborg appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. They are based on the character of the same name created by Jack Kirby.
A batarang is a roughly bat-shaped throwing weapon used by the DC Comics superhero Batman. The name is a portmanteau of bat and boomerang, and was originally spelled baterang. Although they are named after boomerangs, batarangs have become more like shuriken in recent interpretations. They have since become a staple of Batman's arsenal, appearing in every major Batman television and film adaptation to date. Recent interpretations of the character find additional motivation to use the batarang as a ranged attack and is used primarily to knock guns out of an assailant's hand. They also serve as Batman's calling cards to alert criminal elements of his presence and props to create an illusion to the superstitious that he commands bats when he throws them.
"Bruce Wayne: Fugitive" is a storyline that ran through the Batman comic books in 2002. The story directly follows the "Bruce Wayne: Murderer?" story.
In addition to DC Comics books, the superhero Robin also appears in other media, such as films, television and radio. Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne are examples of the characters who use the name Robin.
Originally created in 1967, the fictional comic book character Barbara Gordon has been adapted into various other forms of media. The character has appeared in both live action and animated television series and films, as well as in video games in her alter-egos as both Batgirl and Oracle.
Batman and Robin is an American comic book ongoing series, created by Grant Morrison and featuring Batman and Robin. The debut of the series followed the events of "Batman R.I.P.", Final Crisis, and "Battle for the Cowl" in which the original Batman, Bruce Wayne, apparently died at the hands of DC Comics villain Darkseid and features the winner of the "Battle for the Cowl" as the new Batman. The conclusion of Battle for the Cowl shows Dick Grayson ascending to the role of Batman, while Damian Wayne becomes the new Robin.
Batman Beyond is a comic book series featuring the fictional character Terry McGinnis as Batman and based on the animated television series of the same name. It has appeared in various DC Comics publications, including a six-issue miniseries from 1999, a 24-issue series running from 1999 to 2001, the "Hush" arc by DC Comics in 2010, and an eight-issue miniseries in 2011. A short-running series titled Batman Beyond Unlimited was later released, followed by Batman Beyond 2.0 in 2013.
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Batwoman is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. She is the first DC character to bear the name "Batwoman". She was created by writer Edmond Hamilton and artist Sheldon Moldoff under the direction of editor Jack Schiff, as part of an ongoing effort to expand Batman's cast of supporting characters. Batwoman began appearing in DC Comics stories beginning with Detective Comics #233 (1956), in which she was introduced as a love interest for Batman in order to combat the allegations of Batman's homosexuality arising from the controversial book Seduction of the Innocent (1954). When Julius Schwartz became editor of the Batman-related comic in 1964, he removed non-essential characters including Kathy Kane, Bat-Girl, Bat-Mite, and Ace the Bat-Hound. Later, the 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths retroactively established that Batwoman's existence was on an Earth separate from DC's main continuity.
"Batman: Death of the Family" is a 23-issue comic book story arc first published by DC Comics in 2012 featuring the fictional superhero Batman and his family of supporting characters. The arc spans several titles featuring characters of the Batman family including: Batman, Batgirl, Batman and Robin, Catwoman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, Red Hood and the Outlaws, Suicide Squad, and Teen Titans. The story involves the return of Batman's archenemy, the Joker, and his plan to destroy all of the people Batman has come to rely on over the years: the multiple Robins, Batgirl, Catwoman, Alfred Pennyworth, and Commissioner James Gordon. The title is a reference to the classic Batman story arc "A Death in the Family" (1988), in which the Joker murders Jason Todd.
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Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League – Gotham City Breakout is a 2016 American animated superhero comedy film based on the Lego and DC Comics brands, which was released on June 21, 2016 in Digital HD and on July 12, 2016 on Blu-ray and DVD. It is the sixth Lego DC Comics film following Lego Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite, Lego DC Comics: Batman Be-Leaguered, Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League vs. Bizarro League, Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League – Attack of the Legion of Doom and Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League – Cosmic Clash. Some actors from various DC properties reprise their respective roles, including Nolan North as Superman, Grey DeLisle as Wonder Woman and Troy Baker as Batman. The film received positive reviews, with praise for the action, although the consumerism was criticized.