Western Animation / The LEGO Batman Movie

"Are you ready to follow Batman and maybe learn a few life lessons along the way?"

If you want to make the world a better place,
take a look at yourself and make a change.
Hooo

— Batman (not Michael Jackson; Batman said that. Batman is very wise.)

Description. All important trope pages start... with a topic description.

The LEGO Batman Movie is a 2017 animated comedy directed by Chris McKay. It is a Spin-Off of The LEGO Movie that focuses on the trials and tribulations of one of the secondary characters from that film: Batman.

After saving the city yet again Batman returns to the quiet solitude of his life. But little does he realize he'll soon face his greatest threat: Not the Joker trying to destroy the city but rather the prospect of letting others into his life... whether he wants them there or not.

The movie stars Will Arnett as Batman / Bruce Wayne, Ralph Fiennes as Alfred Pennyworth, Michael Cera as Robin, Rosario Dawson as Batgirl / Barbara Gordon, Zach Galifianakis as The Joker and, after 28 years, Billy Dee Williams as Harvey "Two-Face" Dent.

Previews: Batcave Teaser, Wayne Manor Teaser

Not to be confused with LEGO Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite, a Direct to Video Animated Adaptation of the LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes LEGO Adaptation Game.

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The LEGO Batman Movie provides examples of:

• Action Girl: Barbara Gordon even before becoming Batgirl was top graduate of the police academy and is a perfect replacement over her retired dad.
• Actor Allusion: After the Joker comes down from the Phantom Zone, he says all the Phantom Zone prisoners are a crew and they work for him.
• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • Chief O'Hara admits that she likes Batman's dramatic hold music.
  • Barbara looks amused after Robin accidentally rick-rolls Batman.
  • You can also hear Barbara laughing when the "snake clowns" that Batman made show up onscreen.
• Adaptational Badass: LEGO Batman goes from being a bad aim with batarangs to taking on his entire rogue's gallery like it's no big deal.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Batman’s Rogues Gallery and later the Phantom Zone prisoners (Sauron, Voldemort, the Daleks, the Kraken, etc.) are still villains, but much less ruthless than their canon counterparts.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • Nearly all of Batman’s rogues gallery, including powerhouses that would typically give him a lot of trouble like Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze, are all swiftly and single-handedly defeated by Batman, and dismissed as feeble cosplayers by the Joker.
  • In Tolkien's Legendarium, Sauron is an immortal angelic being and can only be depowered with the destruction of his One Ring. In this movie, a fireball to his Eye blows him to pieces.
• Advertised Extra: The Justice League and most of Batman’s rogue gallery as shown in the film appears in the main poster despite the former team only being in one sequence and certain members of the latter not even getting dialogue.
• Affably Evil: Pretty much all of the Rogues Gallery, since they nearly all fall under Harmless Villain, and even Joker himself considering that the major conflicts come from Batman's emotional hang-ups and his inability to work with others. Also, the Eye of Sauron is pretty cordial, especially when he dives into Gotham from the Phantom Zone, wishes them a 'good afternoon', and proceeds to drown the streets with lava.
• Affectionate Parody: Alfred has a scene in which he completely deconstructs the whole character of Batman (albeit in a gently teasing way), but the entire rest of the film is so chock-full of references and shout-outs to the mythology and history of Batman that it's extremely obvious that the writers and director put a lot of loving work into the film.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Wayne Island/Manor, and by extension the Batcave, gets taken over by the Joker and his new Legion of Doom.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: Kis-My-Ft2 contributed one of these to the Japanese dub, titled "Let's Go". The song is centered around the theme of how anyone, from children to adults, can be a hero to someone else.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: In-Universe, one of the pilots of the hijacked plane doesn't believe the villains the Joker has recruited are real, while the Joker insists they are as evidenced by a quick Google search.
• Animation Bump: Compared to The LEGO Movie, this film's animation is noticeably more complex than its predecessor, and is looser about emulating stop-motion.
  • The mini-figures more frequently move in ways that real mini-figures can't, such as turning their arms outward and inward, and bending their necks. That being said, they're still limited by the vast amount of LEGO parts that are available to them.
  • Batman's cowl is now an Expressive Mask, unlike the previous film where only the eyes painted on his mini-figure head moved.
  • Smoke and water are now rendered realistically, instead of being made of LEGO (save for fiery explosions).
• Anticlimax: Played for Laughs.
  • Batman poring over the underwater time bomb as the timer beeps down... and stops with what sounds like a little snip. Not even wire, but more like paper.
  • When the citizens of Gotham reconnect the plates under the city, instead of a loud crash, they connect with a small click.
  • Batman says goodbye to his entire supporting cast and ascends into the sky to return to the Phantom Zone, with dramatic music playing... only to abruptly smack into the sky. The dramatic music stops and he falls back to Earth.
• Arch-Enemy: A major plot point: the Joker sees himself as Batman's, only to be crushed learning Batman doesn't take their rivalry anywhere near as seriously. Basically his actions throughout the entire film amount to him trying to force Batman to call him his archenemy.
• Arc Words:
  • The lyrics to "Man in the Mirror" show up multiple times in the film. The first time it's used (quoted above) is played as a joke about Batman's selfishness, but then the lyrics are used at different points throughout the film. It pays off at the end when Phyllis repeats the quotes as why she lets Batman off the hook.
  • Batman goes out of his way during serious moments in the film to state the importance of "his totally ripped abs", with him taking about them immediately after the "Man in the Mirror" quote. It's continued to be played as a joke until the end, where it's one of the keys to reuniting the splitting Gotham back together.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Phyllis delivers one to Batman whilst he's trapped in the Phantom Zone and is being shown all his Kick the Dog moments.
    Phyllis: You even abandoned your friends...
    Batman: Wait, abandon...? No, no! I was trying to protect them!
    Phyllis: By pushing them away?
    Batman: Well... yeah...
    Phyllis: ... Are they really the ones you're protecting?
  • When Barbara calls Batman out sending the Joker into the Phantom Zone, Batman states that the Joker will never be a threat to Gotham again. Barbara counters that maybe he just did exactly what the Joker wanted, leaving Batman silent. Which turns out to be true.
• Armor-Piercing Response: After Joker's surrender, Batman attempts to still act like Batman until the press start pointing out that there’s really no need for him, even asking what he plans on doing for the rest of his life. One statement from a reporter shuts him down for a whole week:
  Reporter: You can spend some quality time with your family!
• Ascended Meme:
  • At one point, Batman uses the phrase "Because I'm Batman" to justify his actions.
  • Batman's latest theme song while beating up villains includes the line "Who never skips leg day?", a Running Gag from Honest Trailers about how much kicking there is in superhero movie fight choreography ever since Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
  • Bane is voiced by Doug Benson, who had been making fun of Bane in The Dark Knight Rises using that exact voice on his comedy show Doug Loves Movies for 5 years before this film's release.
  • Batman tells Robin that when they hit their enemies, words describing the impact will appear out of thin air, like in the '60s Batman show.
• Aside Comment: Batman tries to make these, during a conversation with Barbara, by pulling his cape up and speaking in a stage whisper. He's baffled when Barbara can hear his monologue anyway.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Two of the guys the Joker freed from the Phantom Zone, King Kong and the Kraken.
• Attentive Shade Lowering: In Barbara Gordon's introduction video, she slides across the hood of a car while chasing a criminal and the driver lowers his shades to admire her in action.
• Audible Gleam: When Joker surrenders to Barbara, he attempts Puppy-Dog Eyes and says, "Blink, blink, blink, blinkety-blink!" In other words, he's audibling an audible gleam.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Robin wears an outfit that consists of very gaudy colors and glittery cape. So when he tries to hide, it goes as well as you would expect.
• Badass Decay: invoked Many of Gotham's citizens no longer take the Joker seriously because Batman has always been able to thwart his plans. Similarly, while the various members of the Rogues Gallery have had their threat levels vary Depending on the Writer, they are usually a threat; here, Batman effortlessly beats up all of them in only a couple minutes.
  Joker: You should be terrified.
  Pilot: Why?
  Joker: Because I will be taking over the city.
  Pilot: Mmmmmm.
  Joker: What?!
  Pilot: Batman will stop you?
  Joker: Pfff.
  Pilot: He always stops you.
  Joker: No, he doesn't!
  Pilot: What about that time with the two boats?
  Joker: This is better than the two boats.
  Pilot: Mmmmmm.
• The Bad Guy Wins: In a sense. The Joker's intended goal was to get Batman to recognize him as his Arch-Enemy. Bats heart-fully confesses his hate for Joker in the end.
• Bait-and-Switch: Batman making Robin ape his exact commands before they enter the Fortress of Solitude seems like a prank at first, but later on we see Batman guiding Robin around the death traps in this same fashion.
• Batman Gambit: The Joker uses one on Batman himself. His Kansas City Shuffle hinges on Batman being paranoid enough to suspect Joker even while he's imprisoned—paranoid enough to steal the Phantom Zone projector from Superman's Fortress of Solitude, and use it to send Joker into the Phantom Zone. From there, Joker just has to win the Phantom Zone villains over to his side, then wait for Harley, who has already infiltrated the asylum, to free him and his army. And to make sure that Batman plays his part in the plan, Joker instructs Harley to pull a Glad You Thought of It on the Caped Crusader.
• Better than a Bare Bulb: Everything about Batman is lampshaded. Not least of which is his seeming inability to keep Gotham City clear of supervillains.
• Be Yourself: ...unless you can be Batman. Averted in the film itself, as Batman's adamant refusal to change as a person, even when his actions cause himself and others harm, is a major point of his character arc.
• Big, Bulky Bomb: What the Joker attempts to use to blow up the power station, which he even refers to as "an unnecessarily overly complicated bomb."
• Blind Shoulder Toss: In the "Wayne Manor" teaser, Batman tosses the laptop he was using to check "The Twittersphere" straight over his head and into the background once he's done with it, at which point it snaps in half.
• Bookends:
  Batman: Black. All important movies start with a black screen.
  Batman: White. All important movies end with a white screen.
  
  Batman: And music... edgy, scary music that would make a parent or studio executive nervous.
  Siri: Now playing: Robin's happy, poppy music, the kind that makes parents and studio executives happy.
• Borrowed Biometric Bypass: The real reason Riddler is shown ripping off someone's arm in one of the teasers. It Makes Sense in Context indeed.
• Both Sides Have a Point: While Bruce Wayne crushes on Barbara, he's not a fan of her new initiative to deputize Batman. Yet they both make legitimate points: Barbara notes that Batman has done a lot of work for the city, but he mainly focuses on beating up criminals and hasn't caught any in the long-term, and his working alone attitude is a burden he shouldn't bear. Some of the criminals agree with the unnecessary violence when Joker surrenders. Batman retorts that sometimes you do need to beat up a criminal, and that catching a criminal doesn't mean their plots are foiled. He's proven right when the Gotham villains use brute force to stop Joker's evil army long enough to hit them with the Phantom Zone projector. In the end, the two compromise: Batman agrees that he shouldn't work alone, and makes Barbara part of his family. Barbara also admits that Arkham is a Cardboard Prison, given her reaction when the criminals break out after Batman summons them for help, and that sometimes you do have to use brute force to secure a victory. She agrees with Batman to give the Gotham criminals a Mercy Lead of thirty minutes, since they proved they had some standards about Joker screwing them over. 
• Bottomless Pit: Gotham is built over a giant one that The Joker wants to knock it into using explosives.
• Brain Bleach: Batman is utterly disgusted with Dick running around without pants.
  Batman: I can only look you in the eyes right now.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:
  • When Alfred tries to have Batman own up to his "greatest fear" early on, Batman misses the point and assumes he's talking about "snakes", "clowns", and then "snake clowns".
  • Voldemort turns people into fish, frogs and fish-frogs.
• Brick Joke:
  • Before the opening logos, Batman states that the music would "make a parent or studio executive nervous". At the end, 'Puter plays music that it describes as making "parents and studio executives happy".
  • At the end of the movie, Batman reveals the snake clowns. Barbara still thinks it's dumb, claiming that all he did was put clown wigs on snakes.
• Breaking Old Trends: This is the only theatrical LEGO movie to not have a sequence set in live-action. The few live-action peeks are the two instances where Batman watches Jerry Maguire, and in a video shown by a cop to Barbara Gordon of two dogs being friends.
• Broad Strokes: Given that this film appears to reside in a universe where every previous Batman incarnation happened, it's clear this trope is in effect.
• Broken Pedestal: Barbara locks up Batman and Robin after they send Joker to the Phantom Zone, and tells Batman that she used to look up to him. Notably, unlike the other times that he's heard this, Batman looks genuinely apologetic if stubborn.
• Built with LEGO: The characters are all LEGO minifigures and everything around them is built out of LEGO blocks.
• But Now I Must Go: Batman tries to go back to the Phantom Zone after he's redeemed himself and saved everyone. However, now that he's proved himself a good guy it doesn't allow him back in and he just ends up crashing into the sky.
• Calculator Spelling: The Calculator alludes to this trope by having "07734" printed on his helmet's visor, which spells "hello" if viewed upside-down. Zigzagged as it also displays "OUCH" when Batman attacks him, which doesn't appear to use any numbers.
• The Cameo:
  • Adam West has a line as a Gotham citizen. An uncredited role, no less.
  • Members of the International Super Friends, including Apache Chief, Samurai, Black Vulcan, El Dorado, and the Wonder Twins appear at Superman's secret Justice League party. Wonder Dog is the DJ.
  • The Condiment King, an obscure Batman: The Animated Series character, is the biggest Butt-Monkey of this movie.
  • Richard Cheese appears as a lounge singer at the Police Gala, performing "Man in the Mirror" in his usual style.
  • Egghead from the Adam West series (famously played by Vincent Price) stands out in one scene where he manages to send Commissioner Gordon into a Heroic BSoD by egging the Bat Signal so Gordon can't call Batman for help.
  • Bane here is clearly the Tom Hardy version, what with his accent.
  • LEGO versions of characters from other series and franchises include Sauron and others like King Kong, The Kraken, Medusa, Agent Smiths, xenophobic salt shakers you should ask your British nerd friends about, Gremlins, Lord Voldemort, Jaws, the Wicked Witch of the West, raptors and a T-Rex, and various Universal Monsters.
  • Crossing with Continuity Nod, Emmet appears on several TV screens as the Infinite Abyss of Nothingness is being discussed early on.
  • The Arkham guard that shares the video of a puppy and a monkey being friends is Aaron Cash.
• Canon Welding: The movie takes place in a continuity where all the previous Batman movies, TV show appearances and comics happened, including the 1966 Adam West show, Batman: The Animated Series, the Super Friends cartoon, and the comic story lines going all the way back to the 1930s.
  Alfred: Sir, I've seen you go through similar phases in 2016, and 2012, and 2008, and 2005, and 1997, and 1995, and 1992, and 1989, and that weird one in 1966.
• Cardboard Prison: Arkham Asylum, as usual, has insanely lax security. Not only do Batman and Robin manage to overpower dozens of guards all by themselves to bring in the Phantom Zone projector, Alfred just walks into the maximum security wing, and when Batman later uses his "villain signal" to summon his still imprisoned rogues gallery, the entirety of them show up in minutes with all their equipment.
• Cartoon Bomb: Many are aboard the plane at the beginning, which the pilots Lampshade.
• Casting Gag:
  • The actor who plays Voldemort, Ralph Fiennes, voices Alfred... but does not voice the actual Voldemort. This is because the producers did not want to contrive an Obligatory Joke where the two comment on their similar voices.
  • Billy Dee Williams finally gets to play Two-Face.
• Celebrity Paradox: A rare in-universe example. Alfred lists all of Batman's previous incarnations, three of which include Dick Grayson, two including Barbara Gordon. It's shown he's meeting them both for the first time in this film.
• Central Theme: According to producers Phil Lord & Chris Miller: "Can Batman be happy?" Throughout the film, Batman's neuroses from losing his parents makes it hard for him to connect with his friends, family, or enemies, as he doesn't want to lose anyone close to him ever again. But despite Alfred, Barbara Gordon, Robin, the Justice League, and even the Joker pointing this out to him throughout the film, Batman continues to refuse to admit he has a connection to anyone. In the finale, Batman is forced to realize that everyone, including him, needs others. Pretending you don't doesn't protect yourself from pain, it just hurts those you care about and you yourself.
• Chair Reveal: After Batman realizes someone has blocked his Bat-computer access, Alfred dramatically turns around from a nearby chair to reveal that someone was him.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Dick finds a can of shark repellent spray in the Batcave, which is later actually used to repel a shark.
    Batman: It wasn't so useless after all!
  • The "Bat Merch Cannon" Batman uses to give Batman swag to orphans at the start of the film later is used to give Barbara an instant Batgirl costume.
  • Alfred is seen reading "How to Deal with your Out of Control Child" at Commissioner Gordon's retirement party. It later turns out he's used it to lock Bruce out of the 'puter.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Alfred, who serves as a stoic father-figure to Batman (while Bruce himself acts like a spoiled Emo Teen at best for most of the film).
• Combining Mecha: Inverted. The Ultimate Batmobile in the final battle goes in as one large vehicle and then splits into four smaller vehicles.
• Comically Missing the Point: When Joker finds out that the Batcave is located under Wayne Manor, he immediately concludes that Batman and Bruce Wayne must be roommates. The person telling him doesn't bother to correct him.
• The Comedy Drop: When Batman falls after being rejected to go back to the Phantom Zone, Barbara Gordon catches him. Batman asks "Do you have a knife? Because someone needs to cut the tension between the two of us immediately.", and Barbara, rejecting his advances, drops him onto the ground.
• The Comically Serious:
  • "Batman can make anything funny" appears to be the movie's main hook. The trailer alone has him beatboxing, calling something "off the chain", and dramatically waiting for his lobster to finish microwaving.
  • Alfred appears to be this as well, due to taking his job as Bruce's caretaker very seriously. One scene in the fourth trailer shows him with Batman, Robin, and Barbara Gordon, as they run to their next destination, but he's walking like a Butler would at a very quick pace, and even Robin throwing his clothes on him doesn't slow his stoic walk down at all.
• Comic-Book Time:
  • Lampshaded when Alfred mentions that Batman has been going through similar phases since 1966.
  • Also lampshaded when the Justice League is shown celebrating their 57th anniversary.
  • The movie also highlights at one point that Batman has been doing this for 78 years (from Batman's first appearance to this movie's release, 1939 – 2017).
• Composite Character:
  • Batman himself, due to the fact the film takes place in a universe where all the previous incarnations happened, is one of almost every version of the character to date, but his costume is specifically based upon the first Tim Burton film, but with the glowing eyes of the DC Extended Universe incarnation.
  • Robin in the movie is Dick Grayson, but his large glasses and hairstyle are taken from The Dark Knight Returns' Carrie Kelly. His origin story throws out the circus trapeze act and instead has him already in an orphanage, where he empathizes with Bruce Wayne also being an orphan regardless of his background, just like "Robin" John Blake from The Dark Knight Rises.
  • The Joker has most of his classic design aspects, but his exaggerated grin and hair seem more influenced by his wilder design in The Batman, and his forearms have tattoos similar to Jared Leto's take on the character.
  • Harley Quinn's outfit looks like the New 52 incarnation of the character, but uses the black and red colors from the original B:TAS design, and her pigtails and bangs are much longer, more resembling a jester's hat. She also dons a nurse costume very reminiscent of her Batman: Arkham Asylum design, but it's in her classic colors and obviously isn't a Naughty Nurse Outfit. Another outfit of hers is a dress with a black and red tutu similar to her Batman: Arkham Knight outfit.
  • While Barbara Gordon is still youthful, she's now Commissioner of Gotham City, which she was in Batman Beyond. Her Batgirl suit looks like a combination of Yvonne Craig's purple Batsuit from the debut of the character and her Batgirl of Burnside redesign (particularly in the torso and boots), while her personality is taken from her time as Oracle.
  • Two-Face has the purple hair from Tommy Lee Jones' take on the character, but (half of) the face and voice of Billy Dee Williams. The left half of the suit being ruined and the skull imagery of the facial damage also bring to mind the depiction from The Dark Knight.
  • Bane's got the bomber jacket (and unique accent) of his Dark Knight trilogy incarnation, but his size and use of venom comes from the comics, while his mask is a mix of the two.
  • The Red Hood is a bizarre version. His figure is the tux and domed hood of the Joker, but under the hood, he has Jason Todd's mask. Yet he still seems to be a completely separate character. This is especially confusing since Batman in this continuity has obviously never had a sidekick before.
  • Chief O'Hara shares the name of Chief O'Hara from the '60s TV series, but her appearance and personality are much closer to that of Renee Montoya from the animated series and the comics.
  • In terms of Walking Spoiler characters, the Daleks seem to have the color scheme of blue, orange or red from their 2010 incarnations (there are no white or yellow ones, perhaps because in the actual show only one of each can exist). However, they also have flamethrowers, like the 1960s Daleks had, and their body shape seems more similar to the 2005 Daleks'.
  • Killer Croc's appearance hues pretty close to his more animal-like appearance in The Batman, but has a size more similar to his late Arkham incarnation.
• Compressed Hair: Anyone with both a headpiece and a hairpiece, given LEGO minifigs can only wear one or the other at a time.
  • Bruce's hair remains compressed for a moment before it puffs out when he takes off his cowl.
  • Barbara gets bonus points for having a hairstyle that couldn't fit under a Batgirl cowl even in live-action.
• Continuity Nod:
  • One of the reasons Joker's bombs are such an effective bargaining chip is because all of Gotham is precariously supported by a couple of flimsily connected plates, and if anything were to happen to them, all the citizens would be plunged into the Infinite Abyss of Nothingness. The scientist explaining this puts up a video of Emmet doing just that.
  • Batman makes use of "Master Building" a few times during the film and implies that he's not unfamiliar with the villains that Joker recruits to take over Gotham.
  • Superman still considers Green Lantern an Annoying Fanboy, though apparently not quite as annoying as Batman.
  • Just after arriving in Cloud Cuckoo Land in the previous film, a snake-like LEGO rolling like a Slinky followed Batman, creeping him out. So "snake-clowns" didn't come completely out of nowhere.
  • When Bruce Wayne takes off his Batman cowl, his hair is briefly in the same slicked-back style as the previous film before switching to a messier style.
• Continuity Porn: Mixed with Freeze-Frame Bonus, too. Every frame of the film features a throwaway gag or reference, such as The Iceberg Lounge being in one shot. Lampshaded by The Joker telling a pilot to Google some of the "C-List" villains like King Tut and Condiment King.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character:
  • Batman is very different from The LEGO Movie's Emmet; Emmet was another face in the crowd to the point people could barely remember him, talkative and nice, and eagerly tries to make friends. Batman is world-famous, has difficulties with communicating his feelings with anyone, and refuses to accept help.
  • Wyldstyle was a woman who based her entire identity on being a cool rebel, to the point of changing her name. Barbara Gordon is a cop who protects the system, with her past displayed literally front and center, and clear life goals instead of following some prophecy. Wyldstyle was fooled by Emmet for a while, and wasn't exactly nice to him for much of the movie, but Barbara almost knows Batman better than he does himself, and remains relatively polite even when she's angry with him.
  • Alfred is a lot more direct and less eccentric as a mentor than Vitruvius. He's not a wizard-slash-prophet, he's just a butler with the power of common sense, and is all but explicitly Batman's Parental Substitute.
  • The Master Builders were a bunch of iconoclasts who could not work together until Emmett taught them how. The Bat-Family is a group of people who would love to work together — except Batman (one of the aforementioned builders) refuses to accept their help and make himself vulnerable.
• Cool Big Sis: Barbara has this relationship with Dick. She even gives him an affectionate noogie at one point.
• Cool Plane: The Batplane, a supersonic stealth jet shaped like a bat, able to transform into a mech that crawls on the ground like a vampire bat does.
• Curbstomp Battle:
  • Batman's battle with his entire Rogues Gallery in the beginning. Joker even mentions how he's defeating them all.
  • The Joker's invasion with the other villains from the Phantom Zone leads to this, with the good majority of the Gotham Police Department turned into fish by Voldemort.
  • The final battle has the Bat Family and their Rogues Gallery wiping the floor with Joker's Phantom Zone army.
• Cursed with Awesome: Lampshaded by producer Phil Lord when discussing Bruce's life.
  Phil Lord: Wah, I'm so rich and handsome, and women like me, and I've got a McLaren! Something about my parents!
• Cute Little Fangs: Joker has shark teeth, but when he smiles with his mouth closed, you can see his adorable tiny fang.
• Dance Party Ending: Somewhat. After the story is done, Robin requests a song that he just wrote to play during the end credits; it is "Friends Are Family", which according to 'Puter is "happy poppy music [...] that makes parents and studio executives happy". The characters then dress in white-colored suits and engage in a music video performance.
• Dating Catwoman: Averted with regards to Catwoman. This is one of the few pieces of Batman-related media in which Catwoman and Batman interact where he doesn't seem to have any romantic chemistry with her whatsoever. Parodied/Played With with regards to the Joker however, where the subtext underpinning their enemy relationship is so blatant that the film essentially treats it as a romantic relationship.
• Decon-Recon Switch: To the concept of Robin.
  • Decon: Batman adopts Dick Grayson by complete accident and only takes him on a mission because it's both something he physically can't do on his own as he's too buff and that he considers the kid expendable, and his constant pushing away of Robin is clearly hurting him.
  • Recon: Robin quickly brings out a genuinely protective side in Batman, Robin himself is no load and once Batman has learnt his lessons, the two are a true Dynamic Duo and at the end, Batman accepts him as his son.
• Deconstructor Fleet: This film takes a sledgehammer to the Batman mythos and few things are left untouched:
  • The Arch-Enemy relation between Batman and Joker. Joker holds the traditional view that he and Batman have this sort of relationship, but because Batman doesn't connect with anyone emotionally, all he sees the Joker as is another villain to fight. This results in the Joker going to further and further lengths to get Batman to admit they are archenemies, but when it fails, Joker pretty much hits the Despair Event Horizon and decides to destroy Gotham instead of take it over because he has nothing else.
  • Batman's paranoia. Batman wraps himself in his vigilante lifestyle to the point that he has no-one in his life, so when Joker and the rest of Gotham's villains surrender themselves to the police, he resorts to drastic measures just to try and make himself feel useful — and ends up playing right into Joker's plan as a result. He's not paranoid from worries about his enemies, but because without crimefighting he's left Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life.
  • Batman's Awesome Egoinvoked seen in the previous film and prior adaptations gets hit hard. He's such an egotistical, selfish jerk who constantly hurts everyone that cares about him without even realizing he's doing it, and insists he can do everything on his own even when he's clearly in over his head.
  • The Ineffectual Loner trope is once again played straight with Batman refusing not only all outside help, but also just not wanting to have any friends or family, because he's terrified of reliving the pain of his parents' death again. Batman getting over this mindset is a crux of his Character Development, leading to the creation of the Bat Family.
  • The duality of Batman's character, torn between being Batman and being Bruce Wayne, is tossed aside; Batman is the same type of person in his civilian life as in his crimefighting. Then it becomes increasingly apparent this is because he has no identity as Bruce Wayne. Even when lounging about his mansion in private he keeps the cowl on, he has no real personal life to speak of, and has no friends or family outside of Alfred. He's so utterly consumed by his life as Batman that he has nothing else once the villain is stopped and he gets to go home.
    Dick: Does Batman live in Bruce Wayne's basement?
    Batman: No, Bruce Wayne lives in Batman's attic!
  • Comic-Book Time and Status Quo Is God are taken a look at. The film hints that all Batman incarnations are canonical, all the way back to his debut. When Barbara Gordon becomes commissioner for Gotham police, she points out that Batman has been operating for decades, but has failed to permanently bring any major criminals to justice or even done anything to lower the crime rate, thus proving he's ultimately ineffective at his job, something the guests at the Gala agree with.
• Denser and Wackier: Probably the most lighthearted of all the Batman incarnations in a feature film. This version is obviously just as nuts as The Joker.
• Determinator: Batman, of course, as it's part of his character (he is completely undeterred when the Batcomputer tells him his plan has a 110% chance of failure). But Alfred, Dick and Barbara count as well, as not even Batman can stop them.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: The Fortress' doorbell is the Superman theme.
• Distinction Without a Difference:
  • Batman doesn't exactly deny that Bruce Wayne's home is above the Batcave.
    Dick Grayson: Does Batman live in Bruce Wayne's basement?
    Batman: No, Bruce Wayne lives in Batman's attic!
  • The teasers show Dick stumbling into the Batcave, while in the movie it is a bit more deliberate.
    Batman: You can't let him into the Batcave!
    Alfred: I'm not. I'm letting him into your life... via the Batcave.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Bruce Wayne is so infatuated by Barbara that he accidentally agrees to adopt Dick and doesn't even realize it until a week later.
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Batman and friends defeat the Joker and his allies! The day is saved, right? ...except that the Joker's bomb then goes off and begins destroying the entire world. Oops.
• Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That!: For instance, Batman reflexively kicks Alfred across the room and into a piano.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Invoked by Phyllis, who says The Joker seems to be a very bad guy, "but with vulnerabilities."
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Downplayed, Batman was gotten off rather easily for causing the whole mess, but it took the Caped Crusader realizing the error of his ways and getting called out by Barbara to do so.
  • Played with The Joker and his fellow villains, for the latter welcoming the former back despite stabbing them all in the back. Though, the Rogues Gallery did form an Enemy Mine with Batman later on, and Batman does give them a Mercy Lead.
• Elaborate Underground Base: The Batcave, natch. Big enough to store all of Batman's outfits, trophies, and wonderful toys.
• Empathic Weapon: A couple of scenes has the Batplane's "pointed ears" and "body language" expressing what Batman's feeling at those moments; dismay at one point, and sadness at another.
• Enemy Mine: Batman's Rogues team up with the newly formed Bat Family to take on the Joker and his evil army. Mainly because the Joker just threw them aside for said evil army.
• Environment-Specific Action Figure: Batman's many alternate suits are pretty much a gigantic parody of this trope and how frequent it is in the Batman toylines. No surprise, given the video game also acknowledged and parodied this.
• Establishing Series Moment: Batman's narration "Black screen. All important movies start with a black screen", immediately tells the audience that this is going to be one very meta movie even before the logos have appeared — (and then Batman continues to describe how cool said logos look in his iconic growl with ultra-dramatic music.)
• Even Evil Has Standards: When the Joker recruits the other villains in the Phantom Zone, Sauron asks him if they should make the streets of Gotham "run red" with Batman's blood. The Joker is clearly uncomfortable going that far against Batman, and is much more receptive when Sauron suggests using lava instead.
• Eviler than Thou: The villains in the Phantom Zone aren't really impressed by the Joker and are prepared to kill him. That is until he reveals he deliberately got sent to the Phantom Zone so he could break them all out to humiliate his enemy.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family:
  • Played straight with Joker and the rest of Batman's Rogue's Gallery who all cooperate fantastically for the first act. Subverted later when Joker dumps them all, minus Harley Quinn, for the villains in the Phantom Zone, leading to them joining Batman's side to defeat Joker as payback. Played straight again with Joker and the Rogues come the finale.
  • The Phantom Zone supervillains seem to really get into Joker's quest to get Batman to admit they're arch-nemeses, and are audibly disappointed when it seems he never will.
    Dalek: HE IS NOT WORTH IT.
• Evil Is Petty: The Joker launches on an elaborate plot to get sent to the Phantom Zone so he can recruit and free all the inmates as part of a Legion of Doom with which to lay waste to Gotham just because Batman refused to call him his Arch-Enemy.
• Eye Lights Out: Emphasized on the Kraken after Clayface and Mr. Freeze take him down.
• Eye Scream: During the first assault against Joker's (new) Legion of Doom, Batman tricks the Kraken into launching an atomic fireball into Sauron's eye.
• Facial Horror: Naturally provided by Two-Face, but here, instead of having damaged skin, his flesh has melted off, revealing his skull.
• Failed Attempt at Scaring: In the film's opening, where the Joker and his crew hijack a plane full of explosives, the Joker tries to intimidate Pilot Bill by telling him his copilot Captain Dale was ejected and giving him a Slasher Smile. However, Pilot Bill is not intimidated as he's confident that Batman will be able to foil his plans like always.
• Fanboy: Robin is a huge Batman fan, and reacts with childish enthusiasm constantly while around him.
  Robin: IT'S THE BATCAVE!
• Fatal Flaw: Batman's is shown to be his refusal to get close to others. Virtually every negative trait he has stems from either his desire to avoid forming emotional connections to others for fear of being hurt again or from the fact that he's so wrapped up in his vigilantism that he can't function outside of it because he lacks anyone else in his life.
• Faux Affably Evil: The Joker always acts polite and friendly before he attacks people. [[spoiler:He segues into Affably Evil territory near the end.
• Firing in the Air a Lot: After Batman stops the Joker's first bomb, many Gothamites take to the streets and shoot their guns in the air to celebrate. Including the police, who really should know better.
• Foe Romance Subtext: Invoked to the point of being a Plot Point and possibly skipping the "subtext" part. Batman and The Joker are Like an Old Married Couple, with Joker acting like Batman's dumped boyfriend for much of the film complete with other villains telling Joker how he's better than Batman and doesn't need him. Joker even treats Batman's refusal to say "I hate you" to Joker like he was a boyfriend who refused to say "I love you". The climax even has Batman give a heartfelt apology to Joker and has the two get very close to each other. It's almost a surprise that they don't kiss!
• Foreshadowing:
  • Barbara Gordon is wearing a purple dress during Jim Gordon's retirement ceremony, which foreshadows the color of her Batsuit later on.
  • When we first see Dick, he is sitting on top of the "R" on the "Orphanage" sign.
  • Bruce watches the "You had me at 'hello'" scene from Jerry Maguire — he repeats a variation of the speech to The Joker at the climax, who responds, "You had me at 'shut up'!"
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • When Batman keeps making Poison Ivy kiss penguins, each of the penguins turn green and apparently die.
  • Any DC character that either couldn't find a way to be included into the story or was too adult for a children's movie is given a quick background reference at various points in the film (for instance, a billboard for a butcher shop owned by Lazlo Valentin, who also happens to be wearing his pig mask).
  • The Calculator's visor spells out "OUCH" when Batman lays a smackdown on him.
  • Alfred's Bat-suit has a pocket watch.
  • Robin's shorts briefly transform into a ballerina's tutu when Batman gives him ballet dance instructions.
  • The news B-Roll of Superman fighting Zod is credited to Z. Snyder and A. Mokri, the director and cinematographer (respectively) of Man of Steel.
• Friendly Enemy: True to his character, Joker's 78-year war with Batman is portrayed as the closest relationship he has with anyone, and he is positively heartbroken when Batman bluntly tells him he does not even think about him, much less hate him back. Though judging by how their relationship is played, one could see this as overlapping with Dating Catwoman.
• Funny Background Event:
  • When Joker is sulking and watching TV in his lair, one villain is passed out while the other tries to toss food into his mouth. Polka-Dot Man can also be seen pole-dancing while Dr. Phosphorus watches.
  • When Joker and the other Phantom Zone villains are going through Batman's movie collection, as Joker tosses Marley & Me behind his back, it flies away like a frisbee and a random dog can be seen catching it.
  • When Batman saves the city in the opening, the helicopters do celebratory backflips.
  • When the press asks Batman about what he's going to do now that there's no more crime, The Joker keeps popping his head into frame and grinning maniacally.
  • When the characters celebrate saving Gotham City in the end, Poison Ivy kisses another rogue, only to be surprised when he drops on the ground.
  • When Batman speaks to Phyllis at the end, The Joker smiles and waves "hello" to her, while The Riddler and The Penguin act confused about who she is.
  • When Joker mockingly says "Tut, tut, tut, tut" to Barbara, one might notice the villain immediately behind him just then is...King Tut.
• Fun with Acronyms:
  • "A.B.R.: Always Be Recording." (This one is trailer only.)
  • Also the "BAT" in Batman stands for "Best at Teamwork." Or so "Best at Teamwork Man" claims at one point.
• Glad You Thought of It: With Batman already stewing in paranoia over Joker's Kansas City Shuffle, an incognito Harley then drops hints to him of sending Joker to the Phantom Zone by making sure Batman just happens to see her van labeled "Phantom's Own Laundry", and calling out "Phantom's Own" in earshot of him.
• Glowing Eyes: Batman has glowing white eyes, reminiscent of his armor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
• Good is Not Nice: Batman may be a hero, but he mostly fights crime and saves the world to make himself look good rather than genuinely altruistic reasons. Getting past this and the trauma that instigated it is the focus of his arc.
• Goofy Print Underwear: Two-Face's damage reveals the heart-patterned boxers he's wearing underneath his suit.
• Gosh Darn It to Heck!:
  • Joker uses the word "Heckhole" after being freed from the Phantom Zone.
  • One of the pilots exclaims "Dear gosh" in the beginning of the film.
  • Robin cries "O.M.Gosh" when he is in the Fortress of Solitude.
• Griping About Gremlins: The Gremlins plague the Batjet midflight with their destructive antics. Although obviously originating from the namesake movie, this is more in line with what would be expected from the traditional gremlins that inspired them.
• HA HA HA—No: Batman's reaction to being called Batboy by Batgirl in the trailer and to Superman saying that he'd destroy Batman in a fight in the movie itself.
• Hammerspace: Characters frequently pull unfeasibly large items out of here. Most notably Played for Laughs when Batman surrenders a vast quantity of bizarre weapons (and a live dolphin) at the entrance to Arkham Asylum.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Phyllis points out that Batman is "not a traditional bad guy, but not exactly a good guy either", because of his obsession with getting rid of The Joker and his refusal to form personal connections with anybody.
• Hilarious Outtakes: Like the preceding film, with full animation as if the LEGO world is a soundstage.
• Holding Out for a Hero: Appears to have been Jim Gordon's modus operandi, to the point of seemingly ignoring his own police force and carrying the button to activate the bat-signal at all times. He pantomimes pressing it when accepting applause, indicating that he was famous for this action. When Barbara becomes the new commissioner, she points out that Batman has not been able to prevent Gotham from achieving the highest crime-rate in the world.
• Homoerotic Subtext: Has its own page.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • How do the people of Gotham celebrate the drop in crime? By rioting in the streets!
  • Batman find the idea of using criminals to fight other criminals stupid, despite mentioning Suicide Squad moments before, which is essentially the same thing.
• "I Am Great!" Song: "Who's The (Bat)Man", sung as he takes out almost his entire Rogues Gallery.
• Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment:
  • Dick Grayson gets his Robin costume from Batman's Reggae Man Batsuit (minus the pants) when he decides he needs one for their mission to put the Joker in the Phantom Zone and he comes up with the Robin codename while trying to obtain the Phantom Zone Projector from the Atomic Cauldron.
  • Barbara Gordon gets her Batgirl costume and codename from Batman and his Bat Merch Gun near the film's climax.
• Idea Bulb: The Joker comes up with his plan just as a giant lightbulb is being carried behind him. It lights up with a "ting!"
• The "I Love You" Stigma: Parodied with Joker being upset that Batman won't tell him "I hate you".
• I'm Okay!: A cat gets roasted by lava, yet still squeaks, "I'm okay!"
• Inexplicably Awesome: Barbara is a highly-qualified graduate of "Harvard for Police". Alfred is ex-military. Batman is Batman. Robin is just that good.
• Informed Deformity: Inverted and played for laughs. Batman is apparently so buff and ripped he can't fit in the vent to the Fortress of Solitude while Robin can but both are exactly the same size as they're LEGO figures.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Two-Face and Mayor McCaskill take elements of their voice actors' likenesses, such as Billy Dee Williams' race, hairstyle, and mustache, and Mariah Carey's beauty mark. Other characters tweaked to resemble their voice actors include Catwoman's skin tone made to match Zoë Kravitz and The Riddler sharing his hair color with Conan O'Brien.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • Batman doesn't wear a "cowl", it's an "armored face costume".
  • He also isn't Robin's "dad", or any possible synonym thereupon. Until the end of the film.
• Island Base: Uniquely (for now) in the Bat-mythos, this movie portrays Wayne Manor/the Batcave as one.
• I Surrender, Suckers: An integral component of the Joker's Batman Gambit.
• It's All About Me: Batman. Perfectly encapsulated by how he has to create a vehicle for four on the fly and instinctively only installs one seat.
• Ivy League for Everyone: Parodied; Barbara Gordon "was top of her class at Harvard for Police." No, that's not comparing her training to Harvard, that's literally the name of the school. It says so on her shirt.
• Jerkass Realization: Batman when he's in the Phantom Zone and realizing that he needs to go back and save his friends after he abandoned them.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Sending the Joker to the Phantom Zone causes him (and Robin) to get arrested. After receiving a Broken Pedestal speech from Barbara, he tries to justify his actions by saying that he sent him to "the one place where he can't cause anyone any harm." While he ultimately turns out to be wrong, the Joker's first act in the film was to blow up Gotham City (and manages to do so when he inevitably gets out), on top of his other equally villainous acts if the other Batman films being canon to this one are any indication. Barbara does concede the point but still counters that the Joker could have counted on this (which he was).
• Jerk Jock: Batman mentions his intense workout regiment and acts like a jerkass in this movie.
• Joker Immunity: Deconstructed. Batman is unable to reduce crime rates because the villains keep coming back for more.
• Kansas City Shuffle: Joker's scheme is to get into the Phantom Zone and recruit the worst villains there. So he willingly surrenders to the police, convincing Batman that he has a big scheme that he's going to pull off from Arkham Asylum. Batman decides the only way to foil the Joker is to send him to an even more secure prison—the Phantom Zone, thus playing right into Joker's plan.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Deconstructed. While Batman may stop criminals in the short-term, the bigger ones always end up bouncing back thanks to the shoddy security of Arkham Asylum allowing them to basically walk out the front door and resume their villainy. As such, Barbara elects to actually deal with them long-term.
  • At the end of it all, The Joker pretty much gets off scot-free, even after he unleashed all the Phantom Zone's villains and even nearly destroyed the entire city with all the bombs stolen from the Batcave, and has even succeeded in getting Batman to confess that he's his greatest enemy.
  • Harley Quinn, the Joker's accomplice, qualifies as this as well.
  • Basically all of Batman's rogue gallery are freed from Arkham and allowed to leave, albeit given a thirty minute head start before Batman and his friends go after them again.
• Kick the Dog: Batman gets a number of them throughout the film, from treating Alfred like garbage to using Robin as an expendable lackey which all get played right back to him by Phyllis.
• Kiss of Death: During the big opening battle, Poison Ivy snags Batman with a vine and tries to give him a poisonous kiss. Batman defends himself by hooking one of The Penguin's penguins and having her kiss it instead. Five more deflective penguins follow.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Alfred flees Wayne Manor when Joker's new army invades. He leaves just as they were about to murder him.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo:
  • The Daleks are prominently featured but never referred to by name — the closest we get is Joker calling them "British robots." They did get permission from the Terry Nation estate to use the term "Daleks", but it was thought funnier if the Joker didn't know what they were.
  • "The Sea Serpent" is likely the Kraken from the original Clash of the Titans, albeit borrowing Godzilla's flame breath. There's also Agent Smith from The Matrix although he's never named. Both those films are also owned by Warner.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Two-Face's scarring takes the form of melted plastic.
  • When Batman is taking out his weapons to get through the Arkham security check, he ends up stripping down to his briefs and bare feet. He mentions that his pants are part of his shoes, riffing on how many LEGO minifigs don't have actual shoes printed on their leg pieces.
  • Alfred calls one of the Gremlins an "animatronic fiend."
• Legion of Doom: Joker forms TWO of these during the course of the film, both led by him.
  • The first consist of numerous members of the villains that have opposed the Bat Family throughout the years, including the Joker himself, Harley Quinn, the Riddler, Scarecrow, Bane, Two-Face, Catwoman, Clayface, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Penguin, Crazy Quilt, Eraser, Calculator, Red Hood, Man-Bat, Egghead, Polka Dot Man, Mime, Hugo Strange, Tarantula, King Tut, Doctor Phosphorus, Captain Boomerang, the Kabuki Twins, the Mutant Leader, Killer Moth, Orca, March Harriet, Magpie, Zodiac Master, Gentleman Ghost, Clock King, Calendar Man, Kite Man, Catman, Zebra Man, and the Condiment King.
  • The second consists of villains from various other franchises that Joker springs from the Phantom Zone. Joker only retains himself and Harley Quinn from his first crew, recruiting instead King Kong, Sauron, Lord Voldemort, the Daleks, the Gremlins, Agent Smiths, the Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys, Medusa, the Kraken, the LEGO Dino T. rex and Velociraptors, Count Dracula, Jaws, the Mummy, Zod, Skeletons, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
• Leitmotif:
  • The Bat-Family has a theme that plays in moments such as Batman staring at his parents' photo, him shooing his family away near Joker Manor, and him convincing the Joker to help him save Gotham.
  • Robin's theme is an instrumental of "I Found You".
• Leitmotif upon Death: Subverted. The Bat-Family's leitmotif plays when Alfred gets knocked off the Batwing, and it seems like he'll fall to his death into the lava below. However, Barbara Gordon decides to go back to rescue him and he gets saved just in time.
• Lighter and Softer: Than any other big-screen Batman movie, with the possible exception of the one based off the '66 show. Nobody (except maybe a few Red Shirt cops) dies, the Wayne and Grayson murders are only implied, and most of the rogues gallery borders on Harmless Villain.
• Logo Joke: Batman talks about the logos and describes how they set the edgy mood for the film. In an added Mythology Gag, the film itself uses the dark blue tinted Warner Bros. logo from The Dark Knight Trilogy.
• Lonely at the Top: In addition to his usual badassery, this version of Batman is an outright celebrity Loved by All of Gotham's civilians (even Barbara admits to admiring him, if not his methods). The whole image deflates about fifteen minutes into the movie, where we see what his home life's like. Lampshaded by "One Is the Loneliest Number" after The Joker surrenders and there's no crime anymore.
  Batman: Hey computer! I'M HOME! I'm home! I'm home! I'm home! I'm home!
• Loners Are Freaks: Deconstructed, as Batman has isolated himself so much the Justice League doesn't invite him to any parties.
• Macguffin Delivery Service: The pilot of the planeload of explosives states he is flying for MacGuffin Air.
• Magic Countdown: Batman snags the Joker with his grappling hook when there are only 57 seconds left on the bomb's countdown. They then argue about whether or not Joker is Batman's greatest enemy for nearly a full minute. Then Batman lets Joker go, and he still reaches the bomb with 17 seconds left on the timer.
• Manchild: Batman, if his response to having to attend the Gotham City's Police Gala is any indication. One of the running themes is his lack of emotional maturity. Alfred even uses advice from a parenting book on spoiled children to deal with Batman.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": Somewhat of one when Joker unexpectedly announces he's turning all of Gotham City's villains in behind him.
• May–December Romance: Batman tries to flirt with Barbara Gordon. That said, in this continuity, Wayne's at least 80 years old. Downplayed in the movie proper where he just has a crush on her while she seems to think of him as a friend, and in the end he refers to her as a "platonic friend who is a girl".
• Meaningful Echo:
  • A visual variant. After the opening fight, Bruce microwaves and eats some lobster and watches romantic comedies like Jerry Maguire completely alone, with the scene going on for as long as possible to hammer in just how sad and pathetic his life really is. At the end, Bruce does the same things, but now he gets to do it with the new Bat-Family he's a part of.
  • Also the phrase "It's Spanish for Dad/Son." First from Dick after his and Batman's first mission together, then from Batman at the end when he wholeheartedly accepts Dick as his family.
• Medium-Shift Gag: Unlike its predecessor, this movie doesn't really make the "real" world a core plot point, and relegates the few moments of live-action to this instead. Said moments include clips of Jerry Maguire, the 1966 Batman series, and a brief shot of Bat-Nipples when Alfred mentions Batman's "phase" from 1997.
• The Merch: In-Universe — in one of the movie's most self-aware moments, Batman whips out a Merch Gun™ for the children at the orphanage, containing T-shirts, baseball caps, and more. Bonus points for "THE MERCH" being emblazoned on the side of his gun.
• Mercy Lead: When all of Batman's rogues walk off at the end, Barbara questions if they're just going to let them go, and Batman replies that's he's just giving them a thirty-minute head start so they can go get a snack first.
• Mic Drop:
  • Batman drops the microphone he's been beat-boxing on after announcing his movie in the first teaser.
  • The Joker drops his walkie-talkie in a similar manner after stating his exigences to Commissioner Gordon.
• Missing Trailer Scene:
  • From the Batcave teaser trailer:
    • Two shots of a scene where Batman kicks Captain Boomerang from the air.
    • That scene of Batman running down the street with the rest of the Justice League. In the movie proper, the Justice League only appears at the Fortress of Solitude scene.
  • From the Wayne Manor Teaser Trailer, two shots of a scene where Batman launches batarangs to some villains.
  • From the third trailer, a shot of Batman swimming in a pool with a dolphin.
• Mood Whiplash: Near the end of the movie Batman is about to depart back to the Phantom Zone and bids his farewells to his friends. They all tearfully watch him ascend into the sky as emotional music plays... before Batman suddenly slams onto the entrance with a loud BONK! noise and all of the music stops instantly.
• Mordor: On the final battle against The Joker's new interdimensional villain team, Gotham city becomes a hellish, chaos-driven wasteland with black, foggy skies; and also lava rivers. It's even funnier when you consider that the Eye of Sauron itself is involved in this mess.
• Motion Blur: The Animators up their game with their LEGO-styled animation smears in this film.
• My God, What Have I Done?: While not said outright, but when Batman was in the Phantom Zone, the look on his face says it all when Phyllis shows Batman how he treated the others that care for him like crap. Giving him the Jerkass Realization mentioned above before going back to save them.
• Mythology Gag: Has its own page.
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • The Batcave Teaser Trailer has Batman eating langoste on top of the Batwing and talking about how much he deserves it. In the actual movie, he eats it in a Bat-boat in a completely different location on the Batcave and doesn't say the above line.
  • In the Wayne Manor teaser trailer, when Alfred mentions every year in which a Batman movie was released, the only footage of said films shown is (in live-action, instead of in Lego like in the actual movie) from The Dark Knight Rises, Batman & Robin, and Batman: The Movie.
  • Also in that trailer, the context of Batman's Rapid-Fire "No!" is completely different; in the movie, he says it to Alfred when the latter asks about Jim Gordon's retirement party. In the trailer, Batman seems to say it when asked to talk about his feelings. And in the trailer, after Batman finishes saying no, he asks Alfred if he was recording, before then pulling a board to explain to Alfred "ABR: Always Be Recording."
  • The password to the Batcave is "Iron Man sucks", not "Na-Na-Na-Na-Batman".
  • Batman's response to "raising the orphan he adopted" is completely different (the trailers have him saying "I was being sarcastic" and "I thought that was a joke", where in the actual movie, he adopted him by accident.)
  • A lot of the scenes in the trailer were either alternate takes or lines recorded for the trailer so as not to spoil the movie. For example, Batman's Rapid-Fire "No!" becomes a moment of beatboxing in the movie; plus, the line "I have aged phenomenally" became "He has..." and was put into a different scene.
• No Honor Among Thieves: Batman might be the one getting call-outs for not being a team player, but the Joker's honestly not that much better, betraying every single Gotham villain (except Harley) to the authorities and later explicitly refusing to break them out of Arkham. He seems to have been Easily Forgiven by the end though.
• Non-Standard Character Design:
  • Bane and Killer Croc are both LEGO Big Figures, making them larger than the predominantly Minifigure cast, and noticeably less articulate in areas that aren't their arms and hands. Killer Croc takes it a slight step further, having a movable head and fingers.
  • Clayface is completely brickbuilt, lacking any Minifigure parts or any real distinct textures, except for his eyes.
• No Ontological Inertia: At the end, the Phantom Zone Projector disappears after it is used for the final time. Though it's through Batman's efforts that it was taken out of the Fortress of Solitude in the first place.
• No Seat Belts: Batman doesn't have any in the Batmobile, as "Life doesn't give you seatbelts!" Though he changes his mind after Robin flies forward off his seat.
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: When the Joker reveals several less-impressive villains for the fight, the plane pilot asks if they're made-up. Joker assures him that they are completely real and advises him to Google them. Viewers who do just that will find that they are indeed real characters.
• Now Allowed to Hug: Batman stops Robin from hugging him twice throughout the movie, the first time he misinterprets as an attack. However, when Batman says goodbye to his family as he believes he has to go back to the Phantom Zone, he finally allows Robin to hug him.
• Official Parody: As is LEGO standard.
• Older Than They Look: Batman appears to be his usual age, even though his maturity has shriveled to that of a child, but Alfred lists off every time he's gone through a phase about his parents, which consists of a variety of Batman medias reaching back all the way to the '60s cartoon, which means Bruce is in his 80s.
• Ominous Chanting: Plays over the Establishing Shot of the Phantom Zone. It's a choir just singing, "The Phantooooom Zoooone! The Phantooooom Zoooone!"
• One-Man Army: The fight scene in the beginning of the movie firmly puts Batman as one as he fights his entire Rogues Gallery at once. Lampshaded by the Joker:
  Joker: How is he beating all of you again?
• Out of Focus:
  • Jim Gordon has very little to do compared to the other Batman movies. Justified since he has retired from being commissioner and his daughter Barbara has taken his place.
  • Most of the more established rogues get virtually no screentime or dialogue to avoid getting in the way of the main plot, while obscure C-listers (some of who haven't appeared in any other adaptations, period) are often highlighted as a running joke.
• Outside-Context Problem: The result of sending the Joker to the Phantom Zone. For a moment, it looks like Joker himself has bitten off more than he can chew, but he talks them into his plan and Gotham City ends up at ground zero of a loosely organized army of villains from other works in widely varying metaphorical weight classes.
• Overly Long Gag:
  • Alfred listing the years in which Batman has gone through the "dead parents" phase.
  • There's also Batman waiting for his lobster to cook in the microwave. And then an overly long gag of him eating it.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Nobody in Gotham recognizes Batman as Bruce Wayne despite blatant evidence staring them in the face (unlike The LEGO Movie where all the heroes knew who he is.)
  • While un-costumed, Bruce uses a normal voice, but when protesting Barbara Gordon's plan to legalize Batman, he slips back into the Bat-Growl and nobody notices anything weird about it.
  • When let into the Batcave, Dick continues to assume that Bruce Wayne and Batman are separate people, and is under the impression for most of the film that he has two dads.
  • When the Joker returns from the Phantom Zone, the Eye of Sauron tells him the Batcave is under Wayne Manor. Joker hereby assumes Batman and Bruce Wayne are roommates, and doesn't find it weird at all that Bruce doesn't show up at all as Joker reassembles the entire place.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Batman's Rogues gallery strap up the co-pilot of the hijacked plane with a parachute before booting him into the sky. Once they steal the bombs, Joker lets the pilot live after the latter admits that Joker thought of everything in his plan.
  • Voldemort, Muggle murderer and bigot, is surprisingly sympathetic to Joker's plight about wanting Batman to acknowledge him as his greatest enemy, and happily serves as his second in command.
• Police Are Useless:
  • At least for the first part of the film. Commissioner Gordon is presented as being too reliant on Batman and starts panicking when neither the Batsignal or the Batphone work. When Joker attacks his retirement party, Gordon snatches the Batsignal button from Barbara and presses it with glee.
  • Later in the film, Voldemort turns the entire police force into fish rather quickly.
  • Though subtle, this is one of the other main plot points of the movie, as the first act shows the citizens and police are far too reliant on Batman to fix all their problems. This is one of the major things Barbara wants to change when she takes over the police force. Barbara herself is a notable aversion in that she is a hands-on commissioner that wants to ally with Batman to reduce crime permanently.
• Portal Slam: At the end, when Batman is ascending into the Phantom Zone, he hits an invisible barrier and falls back to Earth. Because of his actions in the film's climax, Phyllis no longer sees him as a villain.
• Potty Emergency: During the chase scene, Robin tells Batman, "Your #2 needs to #1".
• Potty Failure: After the Batwing gets hit multiple times and loses its engines. Robin says, "Good news. Our bathroom problem is solved."
• Power of Trust: The theme of the movie is Batman learning to trust others and not rely on solely himself all the time. Trusting Barbara saves Alfred's life.
• Product Placement: Batman uses an iPhone, which probably explains why the Bat-Computer is voiced by Siri.
• Properly Paranoid: Neither Batman nor Barbara buy it that the Joker willingly surrendered and know he must be up to something. Unfortunately for Batman, the Joker's ENTIRE plan is banking on this.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Dick, aided by his goggles. Lampshaded when Dick asks if he should get experimental surgery to make his eyes even larger and doe-like to help him get adopted.
• Put on a Bus: Jim Gordon leaves for a South African jungle safari after his retirement party and doesn't reappear until the credits.
• Quality over Quantity: The Joker's second Legion of Doom has fewer individual villains as members (with the exception of the Wicked Witch's army of flying monkeys) than his first one, but they're all Big Bad level threats unto themselves and thus far more dangerous, to the point Batman needs a lot of back-up to beat them, as opposed to the first far larger Legion of Doom that he singlehandedly curbstomped.
• Race Lift: As with her father, Barbara Gordon is now black instead of white. But she still has red hair, implying mixed heritage.
  • invoked Two-Face is also black, likely to reference that Billy Dee Williams is voicing him (in reference to his role as Harvey Dent in the past).
  • Catwoman also appears to be black, which may be a Mythology Gag as one of the many women who portrayed Catwoman in the original live-action Batman series was Eartha Kitt (or Halle Berry, if such a thing can be considered a Batman film).
• Rapid-Fire Comedy: Not quite to the same extent as The LEGO Movie, but it is still a very dense film in terms of gags.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": When Alfred asks if Batman wants to talk about his feelings, the response is "No! No! No!No!No!No!" in the tune of the 1960's theme, complete with him rolling and squirming on the floor.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Barbara Gordon as the new commissioner. Brutally Honest about how Batman isn't effective at reducing crime, but also wanting to work with him to reduce crime lawfully with his experience and her education. Unfortunately, she makes the mistake of insulting Batman accidentally, which leads to him stubbornly refusing her help. She locks him up for using the Phantom Zone projector on an Arkham inmate, but lets him out when said inmate escapes with an army and threatens the city.
  • Phyllis proves to be this. Her job is to keep the bad guys accounted for in the Zone, but she makes sure to scan them first, compliment their good sides, and keep a watch. When Batman honors his promise to return to the Phantom Zone willingly, since she had found a lot of badness emanating from him, she lets him off the hook for changing himself to save his new family.
• Rogues Gallery: A good chunk of Batman's iconic villains show up at one point. Aside from the Joker, there's The Riddler, the Penguin, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Bane, among many others. Joker's not just sticking with his pals, though: he seems intent on bringing other LEGO villains into Gotham.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Among the various Batman villains are Captain Boomerang, Tarantula, and Gentleman Ghost. Exaggerated when the Joker releases the villains from the Phantom Zone, who include characters from all sorts of media completely unrelated to Batman.
• Rules Lawyer: The Bat-Computer uses some Exact Words to get around Batman telling it to send Alfred, Dick and Barbara far away.
• Sad Clown: The Joker admits that he yearns to "smile on the inside" as opposed to just "smiling on the outside."
• Sarcasm-Blind: The people at the gala, considering Bruce Wayne didn't really want to adopt Dick Grayson.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud:
  • Whenever anyone shoots a gun, it's almost always with them making "pew pew!" noises. This includes vehicle-mounted weapons too.
  • The Joker sounds out his "oh so innocent" blinking, as he's surrendering himself to Barbara. Naturally, Batman calls him out on it.
• Scary Teeth: Joker has jagged shark teeth in this movie instead of flat human ones.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Phantom Zone, where the world's greatest evils are imprisoned, is a major plot point. Joker lets all of them out as his new Legion of Doom.
• Self-Deprecation: For Warner Bros. and DC comics.
  • The entire movie is more or less a friendly ribbing of the last 20 years of the franchise's focus on Darker and Edgier, True Art Is Angsty and I Work Alone, with its repeated mocking of those tropes.
  • During a major battle scene, Batman says the idea of a team of villains sent to fight other villains is stupid. About 20 minutes later, however, Batman has apparently changed his mind and is fine with all of the Joker's previous allies (the B-list villains) tagging along to get revenge on the Joker for basically abandoning them. The film has a further jab at the movie; Killer Croc's only significant role in this film is swimming underwater to activate a bomb.
    Killer Croc: I DID SOMETHING!
  • When Joker asks Batman who his greatest nemesis is, Batman immediately says it's Superman. Joker then points out that doesn't make any sense since Superman is a superhero like him.
  • During Alfred's gag-referencing of all the Batman films, Batman & Robin is depicted using an image of Batnipples.
  • The various Stripperific Batsuits Barbara gets before finally getting her purple one is a jab at how the majority of Batgirl Halloween costumes have been really skimpy and show way more skin than they need to... or are pink. In addition, the last costume she gets which consists of only a hoodie that says "Batman Fan Club" is likely a reference to the infamous controversy over a very sexist Batman shirt for women that said "Training to Be Batman's Wife."
  • The Riddler has similar hair to Lex Luthor as a nod to all the comparisons that went around in 2016.
  • The Joker's obsession with being Batman's arch-enemy is a nod to how in recent years most writers who get to use the Joker will hammer this point into the ground.
  • The Ship Tease between Batman and Barbara that's eventually shot down by Batman himself could be a jab at how Batman: The Killing Joke was seen as little more than an excuse for the writers to do a sex scene between Batman and Batgirl.
• Ship Sinking: Batman even invokes the Trope when he says "I don't do 'ships'" when he tells the Joker they have no relationship.
• Shoo the Dog: Played for Laughs (kinda) when Batman has to physically send the Scuttler 2.0 away with Robin, Barbara and Alfred in it.
• Shout-Out:
  • The first teaser paraphrases the famous AC/DC song "Back in Black", and Wiz Khalifa's "Black and Yellow", which serves as a song in the movie's trailers.
    Teaser: He's back in black... and yellow.
  • In the "Wayne Manor" teaser, Batman mentions "The Twittersphere."
  • At the beginning, the airplane's flight number is 1138.
  • During Batman's introductory scene, Shirley Walker's theme from Batman: The Animated Series is swelling dramatically in the background.
  • When Commissioner Gordon suggests getting a team together to stop the Joker and his army of Phantom Zone villains, Batman mentions Fox Force Five.
  • Practically every villain LEGO owns the license to shows up in the film, and even a few they haven't used before.
  • Robin says that he knows Gymkata at one point.
  • Alfred falling from the Batplane, seen in slow-motion from Batman and Robin's point-of-view, is like Hans Gruber's fall from the tall building.
  • Orca jumps directly over Barbara Gordon's head near the end, as in Free Willy.
  • The ending montage has a segment that resembles the infamous Crystal Light Aerobic Championship video. You know the one.
  • "The BIONICLE Movie◊"
  • The same marquee also lists "Two Shades of Black". In the previous movie, Batman says he only works with two shades (of LEGO pieces) — black and very dark gray.
  • In regards to one of the Walking Spoiler characters, Agent Smith's arrival in Gotham is preceded by two black cats, in reference to the "deja vu" scene in The Matrix.
  • Catwoman saying "Meow, meow" before and after her lines is a reference to the old "Meow Meow Kitty" cat food television ads.
  • The "ABR: Always Be Recording" joke listed under Fun with Acronyms is a reference to Glengarry Glen Ross.
• Sky Face: The Joker temporarily becomes one when he's let out of The Phantom Zone.
• Smooch of Victory: After Gotham is saved, Poison Ivy kisses a man in glee, but being who she is, she accidentally kills him.
• Smug Super: Batman. From what we see of him, Superman doesn't exactly seem overburdened with modesty either, although he is a bit more affable about it.
• Spin-Off: The film focuses on the version of Batman from The LEGO Movie.
• Spit Take: Batman as Bruce Wayne takes a drink from a server in order to dramatically spit it out after hearing Barbara Gordon's thoughts on Batman. And then he does it again later.
• Splash of Color: After The Joker's surrender, when Batman realizes that there's no one left for him to fight, everything goes grayscale except for Batman himself. In the last part of that montage, The Joker also appears in color, highlighting Batman's obsession.
• Sssssnaketalk: The Eye of Sauron likes to emphasize the "s" sound when he speaks.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Although this is usually his signature move, it's a Running Gag that people are able to keep sneaking up on Batman. First with Alfred suddenly appearing right behind him while he's contemplating the portraits in Wayne Manor and continuing at various times with Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, and Phyllis.
• Stealth Sequel: Alfred references all the previous Batman movies, including mentioning them happening in the same years they were made in real life.
• Storyboarding the Apocalypse: During the Joker's caper in the beginning, a TV expert explains that if the Joker's bomb blows up the power plant, it would plunge Gotham City (built on fragile plates with nothing under them) into the abyss below, and thus would be a very bad thing. This ends up happening at the climax.
• Summon Bigger Fish: Rare moment where it's the villain who does this: realizing the Rogues he was teaming up with are no match for Batman, he decides to trick Batman into sending him to the Phantom Zone so he can form a much more effective Legion of Doom out of the far more dangerous inmates.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Primarily because the JLA is having a 57th anniversary party, and don't bother to help out Bats with Joker's second army.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Batman and Robin steal the Phantom Zone Projector from Superman with intention of sending Joker into the Phantom Zone. They get arrested for trying to sneak an illegal weapon into Arkham Asylum and using it on someone.
  • Because the movie exists in a continuity where every previous incarnation of Batman happened, it means that no matter what good he did for Gotham, Batman wasn't able to defeat any of the villains permanently. Barbara points that out, which even the citizens who have nothing but admiration for Batman agrees.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Sung by Batman during the open.
  Batman: I one hundred percent am not Bruce Wayne!
• Tagline: "Always Be Yourself. Unless you can be Batman."
• Take That!:
  • Batman's secret password to the Batcave? "Iron Man sucks"!
  • "...losers dressed in cosplay!"
  • The idea of using villains to fight villains comes up. Batman dismisses it out of hand as ridiculous. Of course, eventually the Godzilla Threshold is crossed to the point that he resorts to this.
  • When Gotham's villains agree to help Batman save the city, Barbara asks them what their gimmicks are. The Riddler simply says that he's "irritating".
  • When Alfred discusses the "phases" he's seen Batman go through, every live-action Batman movie is represented through a LEGO-ized version of an iconic scene from said film with the sole exception of Batman & Robin, which is instead represented by a screencap of invokedthe Bat-Nipples.
• Taking Up the Mantle: Barbara Gordon is Gotham's new police commissioner, essentially taking up her father's mantle.
• Talking Is a Free Action: In the opening fight scene, the Joker points out that the bomb will explode in minutes — Batman has enough time to capture him, or to defuse the bomb, but not both. Batman, however, takes offense at Joker calling himself "your greatest enemy", and they wind up arguing about that instead of doing anything. In spite of the argument, Batman still reaches the bomb with just enough time to defuse it.
• Team Member in the Adaptation: Inverted. Batman has been a founding member of the Justice League in every iteration of the franchise, but here he was never invited to join or even informed of the team's existence due to being The Friend No One Likes in the superhero community.
• Teleport Gun: The Phantom Zone projector.
• Theme Music Power-Up: Lampshaded by the Joker in the opening act.
  Joker: Stop [Batman] before he starts singing!
  [Batman grins, starts singing]
• Took a Level in Kindness: Batman starts out as a selfish jerk who enjoys working alone, but he eventually learns to trust his friends and to bond with them properly, becoming a lot nicer by the end of the film.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Lobster Thermidor is often mentioned by Batman and Alfred and is the food of choice at the Batman Family film fest shown at the end of the movie.
• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: The Final Battle consists of the Bat Family and their entire Rogues Gallery versus Joker and an army of villains from across fiction, such as King Kong, The Kraken, Medusa, several Agent Smiths, Sauron, the Daleks, Gremlins, Lord Voldemort, Jaws, the Wicked Witch of the West, and the Universal Monsters.
• Underwear of Power: Superman has while Batman does not. But Batman does wear briefs underneath and does fight in them once.
• Uninvited to the Party: Batman pops in at Superman's place only to discover that Superman is hosting a party for all the superheroes...except Batman wasn't invited.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: A Deconstructed example with Batman.
• Vague Age: We don't know exactly how old Robin is in this version; it's possible he could be at least in his early teens.
• Victory Is Boring: Batman after Joker and the rest of the rogues are all locked up. Though part of this is him being Properly Paranoid that the Joker is up to something, but seemingly nothing is happening.
• Villain Decay: Discussed in the opening scene when Joker hijacks a plane:
  Joker: ... You should be terrified.
  Captain Bill: Why?
  Joker: Because... I will be taking over the city!
  Captain Bill: Mmm...
  Joker: What?
  Captain Bill: Batman will stop you.
  Joker: Pffft!
  Captain Bill: He always stops you.
  Joker: No he doesn't!
• Visual Pun: After a bomb blows up the foundations of Gotham, the citizens have to literally use their heads and stick together to save the city.
• Vocal Dissonance:
  • Bane looks like the hulking giant that he is in the comics but he talks in a high-pitched Tom Hardy impression without any vocal distortion to make his voice sound deeper.
  • Clayface is a menacing blob-like monster, with the voice of a young woman.
• Virtuous Character Copy: Phyllis really does remind you of Portal's GLADOS if she wasn't evil and crazy.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: There is no information about what happens to the GCPD after Voldemort turns them into fish, frogs and frog-fish.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?:
  • Batman puts several of the Penguin Commandos in front of Poison Ivy's poisoned kiss.
  • Likewise he has no qualms about seemingly killing Sauron, a monstrous angelic being, with a fireball to his Eye.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Batman was called out for his selfishness several times, the most prominent example is when Barbara calling Batman out for bringing the Phantom Zone Projector to Gotham City.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Joker takes over the Batcave and exclaims he's found all of Batman's wonderful toys.
• Worthy Opponent: Joker's raison d'être in this film is to earn Batman's approval (and respectful hatred) as his "Greatest Enemy"; he was driven to tears when Batman could not be bothered to be annoyed by him, much less hate him.
• Written Sound Effect: Invoked as a homage to the 1960s Batman TV series:
  Batman: Together, we're gonna punch these guys so hard, words describing the impact are gonna spontaneously materialize out of thin air!
• You Don't Look Like You:
  • Robin's redesign shifts away from his original minifigure's more traditional look. Here, he sports light brown hair and green goggles, giving him a strong resemblance to Carrie Kelley.
  • The Daleks and Flying Monkeys have much more intricate models than they did in LEGO Dimensions (specifically as playable vehicles).

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Stinger. All important trope pages end... with The Stinger.