ANI-MOVIES, *Lego Batman: The Move-DC Super Heroes Unite

Acting as a slight animated adaptation of the Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, this also was its own separate direct-to-video movie. It features some footage from the actual video game, but largely contained original material. It was directed by Lego regular creator Jon Burton, no relation to Tim Burton, even though the movie features an opening similar to the first Batman movie from 1989. There's also music from this and the original Superman played throughout the film.

After an homage to Batman '89, Batman and Superman walk right into Lex Luthor's rotating pyramid HQ, and are flat out bested by him after using some Kryptonite on Supes and crashing a load on Bats. The story then jumps back to two days prior where Bruce Wayne wins a Man of the Year award over Luthor, when Joker and a few other Gotham City baddies crash the party. Batman and Robin round them up, but Luthor busts Joker out of jail to help him win his campaign for President. Luthor uses a special Kryptonite-powered device called the Deconstructor which works on black Lego products only, making most of Batman's gear inoperable. Joker-Luthor Incorporated leave a piece of fake Kryptonite for Batman to take back to the Batcave, and actually find the place! They trash all of the Bat-toys, steal all of his Kryptonite stash, and leave a big hole above the cave. The stupid part though is that they see that the Batcave is right next to Wayne Manor and for some reason don't figure out Batman's secret identity! Anyway, Superman shows up to help save the Dynamic Duo, and the World's Finest head to Luthor's place like at the beginning of the movie. The strange thing is that this reshot of the opening is sort of a "director's cut" with completely different material and lines added in, either that or the original opening was a Cliff Notes version. Joker and Luthor use a Kryptonite-powered Joker-Mecha to seemingly kill off the World's Finest, but it turns out Bats and Supes traded outfits(Captain Action would be proud). Luthor had Joker use his patented Joker Gas to spray a handful of Gothamites into voting for him, although Joker doublecrosses Luthor by making them want to make Joker the Prez instead, which isn't how the Joker Gas is supposed to work. The rest of the Justice League is called into to stop the Joker-Devastator, but not without wrecking a good part of the Wayne office building. For some reason, Martian Manhunter just stays up on the Watchtower eating cookies while the rest of the League put their lives on the line. After stopping Lex and Joker, Green Lantern for some reason shoots a blast of energy into the sky which gets the attention of Braniac several light years away, thus setting up the third video game.

This was a decent flick for kids, with some fair animation that ranks a little better than what Lego used in Ninjago and Legends Of Chima, although it could've used some better writing. This is a somewhat separate storyline than what was in The Lego Movie, but is connected to the Lego Batman: Be-Leaguered TV special that aired on Cartoon Network, although no word yet of its home video release. If you want to have something from DC to entertain the children to, this is worth a spin, although it could've totally stood to have Adam West make a cameo!