I was a little bitter the first time I saw the trailer for Lego Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite, a direct-to-video animated movie which pulls the cut-scenes from the video game Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes and slaps them together with some new animation to form a movie. I had just spent hours playing through that game, the first in the franchise to feature any dialog. It depicts a Troy Baker-voiced Batman and Charlie Schlatter-voiced Robin teaming up with the Justice League to defeat the Joker (Christopher Corey Smith) and Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown), and once you get to the part of the game where you play as Superman the iconic John Williams score plays whenever you fly. It’s awesome, but I wasn’t going to pay for the same thing twice. Still, it was nice that they made a movie for anyone who couldn’t play the game.
The video games and movies have now diverged. Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham is its own thing, and the Lego DC movies continued on with a 2014 Cartoon Network special, Lego DC Comics: Batman Be-Leaguered, revolving around Batman’s investigation into the mysterious disappearances of Superman and other members of the Justice League. That was followed by the direct-to-video movie Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League vs. Bizarro League, and now there is a trailer out for the next installment in this on-going series of kids movies, LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes – Justice League: Attack of the Legion of Doom!.
Wow, these titles just keep getting longer, huh? There is a lot of branding going on there, and many can criticize these movies as merely being excuses to sell toys, especially when the box for Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League vs. Bizarro League actually came with a Batman Lego toy. These lighthearted films are clearly targeted at younger audiences, but they can be enjoyed by just about anyone. The films make a consistent point of following The LEGO Movie’s lead in presenting a Batman who’s a parody of himself, and there’s plenty of knowing nods toward easily mockable parts of the comic book lore. The latest looks like it will be no different. Here’s the trailer, which kicks of with a pretty good joke about Superman’s new suit:
Here’s the plot synopsis:
Crime is on the run as the newly formed Justice League keeps Metropolis safe and this makes evil genius Lex Luthor very unhappy. Together with Black Manta, Sinestro and a gang of ruthless recruits, Lex builds his own league and declares them the Legion of Doom. With this super powered team of terror and a plan to attack the top-secret government site, Area 52, can Lex finally be on the verge of victory? Sound the alarm and get ready for the bricks to fly when Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest of the Justice League face off against the world’s greatest Super-Villains! It’s the next all-new original movie from LEGO® and DC Comics.
Here’s the voice cast (and, yes, that’s the same guy from Teen Titans Go! doing the voice for Cyborg):
Troy Baker (Batman), Nolan North (Superman), Josh Keaton (Green Lantern), Khary Payton (Cyborg), James Arnold Taylor (The Flash), Grey Griffin (Wonder Woman, Lois Lane), Dee Bradley Baker (Martian Manhunter, Man-Bat), Mark Hamill (The Trickster, Sinestro), John DiMaggio (Lex Luthor, Joker), Kevin Michael Richardson (Captain Cold, Gorilla Grodd, Black Manta), Tom Kenny (Penguin), Cree Summer (Cheetah) and Tony Todd (Darkseid).
Here’s the direct-to-video release date:
August 25th, 2015
Source: FlickeringMyth
