My Review of Lego DC Batman: Family Matters (2019)

 

Written by Jeremy Adams

Directed by Matt Peters

Batman: "It's time to end this, Red Hood. Or should I say, Jason Todd."

Robin: "The second Robin? I thought you were dead."

Jason (to Batman): "You said I was dead?"

I've not watched many of the DC Lego movies and that's something I do want to rectify. With The Brave And The Bold in development, it really has been up to animation and Lego to give us anything in relation to the Batfamily.

This movie in general has Batman (Troy Baker) and the Damian Wayne version of Robin (Scott Menville) front and centre. The latter desperately wanted to be taken more seriously but Batman was more interested in having Damian looking after Ace the Bat-Hound than fighting criminals.

Then there's Bruce Wayne, whose lack of interest in Wayne Enterprises had him sell off his own company, which even Alfred Pennyworth (Nolan North) thought was a bad idea. Alfred of course would be proven right as the movie progressed.

Of course the problem would pile on as a vengeful Red Hood (Jason Spisak) would take Robin, Alfred, Nightwing (Will Friedle), Batgirl (Alyson Stoner) and Batwoman (Tara Strong) hostage in order to settle an old score with Batman. Red Hood here would be more misguided than outright villainous and even ended up back in the Batfamily during the third act.

Like most of these animated movies, there's no lack of villains but the main ones pulling the strings wasn't Red Hood. Instead, it was both Two-Face (Christian Lanz) and Brother Eye (Cam Clarke) along with some OMAC drones. Baddie wise, it's a good use of villains.

The Batfamily worked together to defeat both sets of villains. In particular the way that Brother Eye was defeated saw some personal growth on Batman's part. It's the type of growth that Batman would then use towards his protégés by the end of the movie as well.

- There's a nice use of Billy Batson (Zach Callison) in a supporting role. He encountered the Wizard (Ralph Garman) in a post credit scene.

- Other villains to appear in the movie included Riddler (André Sogliuzzo), Penguin (Tom Kenny), Killer Croc (Nolan North), Scarecrow (Steve Blum) and Solomon Grundy (Fred Tatasciore). The Joker's also referenced.

- Nightwing and Batgirl had a relationship that was on thin ice but they seemingly got back together during the end of the movie.

- Chronology: Present Day Gotham City.

I really liked Lego DC Batman: Family Matters. It's a fun, diverting family adventure with a good selection of villains. Family matters were brought to the fire but solved quickly and movies like this really do make me want to see the Batfamily properly in live action sooner than later.

Rating: 7 out of 10