Producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have said the Lego Batman Movie is one giant
easter egg for Batman aficionados.
And the film really is totally packed with DC comics, movie and TV easter eggs, in-jokes
and references.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here, and in this video, I'm going to take a look
at all the best easter eggs and references I spotted in the movie.
I'm also giving away this awesome pair of LEGO Batman Movie books; that's The Essential
Guide plus this very cool Making Of the movie, which is stuffed with concept art, sketches
and LEGO builds.
For a chance to win, make sure you subscribe and leave a comment on this video about your
favourite easter egg or any I missed.
Just before I start, quick warning: there are spoilers ahead, so if you're not ready
for those, hail your nearest Batmobile outta here by tapping or clicking the screen for
my spoiler-free review of the movie.
Let's start with Harley Quinn, who has the word "Smylex" written on the front of her
costume, which is an easter egg to the poison the Joker used to terrorise Gotham in the
1989 Batman movie.
In that film, Jack Nicholson's Joker laced various products throughout Gotham with Smylex
which would cause victims to laugh uncontrollably until they died with a frozen grin on their
face.
And when Pilot Bill reminds the Joker that Batman has always foiled his plans like that
time with the Prince music and the parade, it's another hat tip to that first Batman
movie by Tim Burton, where the Joker plays Prince music during the parade he organised
to offer free cash to the citizens of Gotham while secretly planning to unleash Smylex
gas on everyone.
There's another reference to the 1989 Batman movie when Lego Batman says, "let's get nuts"
after the Joker challenges him at the Gotham Energy Facility, which echoes the time Michael
Keaton's Bruce Wayne flew into a rage with the Joker in the '89 Batman movie and said
those same words.
The Dark Knight movie also gets referenced by the pilot when he reminds the Clown Prince
of Crime about "that time with the two boats".
What he's talking about is the dilemma that Heath Ledger's Joker set up in that movie
when he loaded two ferries with explosives, offering each boat the choice to blow the
other up or both be destroyed.
And it was a brilliant bit of meta-humour when the pilots requesting permission to fly
over the most crime-ridden city in the world with a plane packed with explosives were working
for none other than MacGuffin Airlines!
The movie also references Batman's origins via a family photo outside the Monarch Theatre
that Bruce Wayne and his parents visited on the night that his parents were murdered.
The streets of Lego Gotham are also littered with easter eggs hidden in building names
and billboards.
First up is the Iceberg Lounge, a nightclub from the comics that's run by the Penguin
and used as a front for his illegal activities.
The Big Belly Burger chain also operates in Lego Batman's Gotham.
Big Belly Burger has featured regularly in the Arrow and The Flash TV shows and first
appeared in the Adventures of Superman comic book series in 1988.
Another sign on a building is the name Magnus which could be a nod to the comic book character
Will Magnus, a genius robotic scientist and creator of the Metal Men.
When Superman is being interviewed on TV, people are watching the programme outside
a store called Wendell's Electronics.
In the comics, Wendell Lewis was the Sewer King and operated a criminal underworld in
Gotham's sewers.
And during that Gotham City News TV broadcast, Man of Steel director Zach Synder gets a visual
shout-out when the footage being shown is credited as "courtesy of Zach Snyder and A.
Mokri".
Amir Mokri by the way was the cinematographer for Man of Steel.
Among the movies showing at the cinema in Gotham is one called Two Shades of Grey, a
joke and reference to the fact that the Fifty Shades of Grey movie sequel, Fifty Shades
Darker, is released in cinemas on the same day as The Lego Batman Movie.
Gotham's sister city Blüdhaven gets referenced in The Lego Batman Movie and there's a clever
double easter egg and joke in the name of the Bludhound Express bus.
Bludhound is not only a word-play on the Greyhound bus line, but it's also a nod to the DC Comics
intergalactic criminal Bludhound, and possibly also to Bludhaven's baseball team: the Bloodhounds.
The ad for Lazlo's ham with a picture of a butcher wearing a pig's mask is a nice reference
to Lazlo Valentin, aka Professor Pyg from the comics.
Professor Pyg is a particularly unhinged Batman villain who's obsessed with trying to make
people perfect.
In the movie, the Joker also hijacks one of Lazlo's Slaughterhouse trucks to break into
the Gotham power plant, renaming it Joker's Laughter Truck.
There's also a billboard for Zesti Cola, one of the two big soda drink manufacturers in
the DC Comics universe.
And Zesti's main rival, Soder Cola, also pops up later on another billboard.
There's a tiny little ad for Kessel Coffee on the top of a yellow cab, a reference to
the DC Comics writer and inker Karl Kessel.
Kessel worked on numerous Superman titles and created the modern version of Superboy.
And there's also a sign for Shondra's, which could be an easter egg to metahuman Shondra
Kinsolving's clinic which Bruce Wayne attended in the comics.
Teen band The Flips, who've appeared in a number of Teen Titans comics, show up on a
billboard in Gotham City.
Ferris Air, the aviation company that employs Hal Jordan, aka Green Lantern, appears numerous
times in the movie.
There are billboards and ads for the company throughout Gotham as well as Ferris Air aeroplanes
at the airport.
The villain Plastique seems to have her own perfume range in the Lego universe with a
billboard for Plastique Parfum!
There's also a nice wink to the upcoming Lego Ninjago Movie via the billboard for "Ninjagotown."
The name and design is also a very cool homage to the 1974 movie Chinatown which, of course,
starred Jack Nicholson, the Joker in 1989's Batman.
Batman also carries a pair of Ninjago Jadeblades which have appeared on Lego's Ninjago TV series.
And Batman's excessive utility belt, which has been poked fun at over the years, gets
a funny moment when he unloads it before going through Arkham Asylum's security system.
As well as a huge utility belt, Lego Batman also has a huge ego which extends to a rivalry
with Iron Man, perhaps one of his greatest current cinematic rivals, both being billionaire,
playboy, philanthropists with a shed-load of high-tech gear at their disposal.
Hilariously, the password for access to the Batcave is none other than "Iron Man Sucks".
There's a few times in the movie when Batman refers to Bruce Wayne as Bruno rather than
Bruce, which is a nod to how, in numerous Spanish-speaking countries, Bruce Wayne is
actually called Bruno Diaz.
As you'd expect, the Batcave is filled to bursting with easter eggs, references, and
jokes.
Starting with the batsuits, White Bat is Batman's camouflaged batsuit from the comics that he's
used in snowy places like the North Pole.
Tears of a Bat is a pun on Smokey Robison's song Tears of a Clown.
And Bat By Gaslight is a nod to the single issue comic book Gotham by Gaslight.
Krampus Bat is a play on the half-demon half-goat mythological figure that punishes badly-behaved
children around Christmas time.
Raging Bat comes complete with boxing gloves and is a reference to Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning
movie Raging Bull, starring Robert De Niro as the boxer Jake LaMotta.
And the Night Terror suit is likely a nod to the Batman Knight Terrors series in The
New 52.
The Batcave is also full of Batman's crazy vehicles including the Bat-Sub, the Bat Space
Shuttle, the Bat Zeppelin, the Bat Train, the Bat Kayak and the Bat Dune Buggy.
There are stacks of Batmobiles in the Batcave and there's an easter egg to Batmobile designer
George Barris via the ad for Barris Automotives on the back of the Brick!
magazine that Bruce Wayne pulls out at the police gala event.
George Barris created the first design of the 60s TV show Batmobile.
The Bat Garage also includes some crafty easter eggs.
For example, there's a plaque for the Ovel Oil company which sponsored the comic book
superhero team The Conglomerate.
And there's a funny moment in the Batcave when Dick Grayson spots the Bat Shark Repellent
which Batman says is completely useless.
It's a little joke about the Shark Repellent Bat Spray from the 1966 Batman movie.
The shark repellent from that movie has been lampooned many times, however, later in The
Lego Batman Movie the spray does actually work when Lego Jaws attacks Batman.
And the 1960s Batman TV show gets tons of fun references, homages, and jokes all the
way through Lego Batman.
The iconic theme tune is referenced throughout, for example Lego Batman's opening song "Who's
the Batman?"
has the "Batman!"
refrain sung by the backing singers as well as the repeated line "Na na na na na na Batman!".
And there's more riffs later on, for example, when Batman refuses to go to the police gala
with a string of "no no no no no no-s".
I also loved hearing Batman say "To the batmobile" with Robin responding "Hot Diggidy Dog!"
followed up with a Lego version of the TV show's Bat logo scene transition.
Robin's cheesy "Holy Batman" phrases from the TV show also get a nod with Robin's "Holy
family photo" after his selfie with Batman, Batgirl and Alfred.
The Bat-Fight words from the 60s show and movie also pop up as Batman and Robin say
they're going to 'hit the bad guys so hard it will make words appear on the screen'.
And when Alfred puts on a Lego version of Adam West's blue and grey Batsuit he says
it's because he misses the 60s.
Later, Alfred reveals that he used to be a tail gunner, which is a nod to both the time
he served in the Royal Air Force in the comics and also to the fact that Alfred in the upcoming
Justice League movie will be a tail gunner on the Flying Fox.
By the way, when Alfred and Robin have to take out the Gremlins trying to destroy their
craft, it's a hat tip to the origin of the word "gremlin" in RAF pilot slang as the pilots
attributed faults in their planes to impish little creatures that sabotaged aircraft (and
who they called gremlins).
Barbara Gordon also references many of the major moments in Batman's lengthy history
when she says in her speech that Batman's been on the job a very long time.
A series of pictures from all the major Batman films show up, including the 1940s serials
and also various iconic comic book covers such as Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.
And Barbara Gordon herself gets a brand new backstory in Lego Batman which the filmmakers
have said "deviates from the DC canon to a ridiculous degree".
It turns out Barbara Gordon trained at Harvard For Police and then cleaned up the crime-ridden
Blüdhaven with statistics.
To suit up Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, Batman uses his Bat Merch gun, trying out a number
of costumes on her.
One of them is Bat Lady which could be a reference to the fictional Bat Lady comic book character
from the 1955 musical comedy Artists and Models which starred Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
The Bat Merch gun then hits Barbara Gordon with a pink Batarina outfit and then a Soccer
Mom costume both of which she hates.
Eventually, she gets a cool costume that has the feel of Yvonne Craig's costume from the
60s TV series.
The Lego Batman Movie also plays fast and loose with the history of Batgirl's relationship
with Batman in the comics, with Batman saying at the end of the movie that Batgirl is his
platonic, co-worker buddy, who's a girl, but just a friend.
For the wonder boy Robin, there are plenty of nods and easter eggs to his comic book
and screen history.
When Dick Grayson approaches Bruce Wayne to ask what qualities will get him adopted, two
which he mentions are cooking and gymnastic abilities.
On the Teen Titans TV series, Dick Grayson is a great sandwich maker, and his acrobatic
skills and circus background are mentioned in both the comics and on screen, for instance,
in Batman Forever.
If you look closely, you'll also spot a line of robins on Dick Grayson's jumper, a nice
bit of detail ahead of his later suggestion that he take on the superhero nickname of
Robin.
Robin's transformation into Nightwing later in the movie, while Batman is stuck in the
Phantom Zone, reflects how he grew out of being Batman's sidekick in the comics and
into that new role.
Michael Cera, who plays Robin, also starred alongside Lego Batman's Will Arnett in the
TV comedy series Arrested Development and there's a nice shout-out to Cera's character
on that TV show, George Michael Bluth.
When Robin suggests various superhero theme songs, he plays Wham's Wake Me Up Before You
Go Go which was written, produced and sung by George Michael.
One of the roles which Zach Galifianakis, who voices the Joker, is most famous for is
Alan in The Hangover movie trilogy.
And there's a subtle nod to that character when Robin kicks a guy just outside the Joker's
cell in Arkham Asylum saying, "take that Alan!"
Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever gets quite a lot of shout-outs in The Lego Batman Movie,
from fireworks, to a Batman Forever batsuit, and a Batman Forever placard.
And Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy also gets numerous references.
For example, when Batman is doing a series of push-ups while Alfred lectures him, it's
very similar to when Alfred is lecturing Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne while he's does push-ups
in Batman Begins.
And the reference to Bruce Wayne and Russian ballerinas is a nod to the time in The Dark
Knight when Bruce Wayne went off on a ship with the Russian ballet as a cover for his
planned operation in Hong Kong.
Batgirl in Lego Batman tips her hat to the brutal magic trick that Heath Ledger's Joker
performed with a pencil when she says to Voldemort, "Wanna see a magic trick?
I'm gonna make you disappear" as she sends him back to the Phantom Zone.
And Bane in the movie not only sounds like Tom Hardy's Bane from The Dark Knight Rises,
but he also riffs on one of Bane's lines when he cries, "we will be the Joker's reckoning!"
By the way, the hijacking of MacGuffin Airlines at the beginning of the movie has shades of
the opening to The Dark Knight Rises where Bane's henchmen hijack the plane where he's
being held.
The most recent live-action Batman movie was, of course, Batman v Superman, and there are
some hilarious nods to that film.
First up is the music during the opening titles, which has a definite touch of the dramatic
drum theme from BvS, as Batman pokes fun at the various logos.
The Batman-Superman rivalry is played up when the DC logo appears and Batman brags "DC – The
House That Batman Built."
And in the movie, Batman even taunts Superman saying "come at me bro, I'm your kryptonite."
There's also a funny flashback that is a Lego recreation of the confrontation between Batman
and Superman in Dawn of Justice.
Despite this rivalry, Batman still ends up paying Superman a visit as he needs to steal
the Phantom Zone Projector from the Fortress of Solitude.
And there's a brilliant audio easter egg when Batman rings Superman's doorbell and it plays
the Superman theme by John Williams.
If you were wondering about the large arrow symbol on the entrance to the Fortress of
Solitude, well it's a little joke about the big arrow-shaped key that Superman has sometimes
used to secure access to the Fortress of Solitude in the comics.
Once inside, Batman discovers Superman is having a Justice League 57th Anniversary Party,
a reference the fact that the Justice League first appeared 57 years ago in 1960 in issue
28 of The Brave And The Bold comic book.
And when Batman takes a photo of the Justice League they all say "Super Friends", a reference
to the animated TV series that aired in the 1970s and 80s and which adapted the Justice
League characters for TV.
By the way, Wonder Dog, who DJs at the party, has a green cape just like Wonder Dog from
the Super Friends animated series.
Inside the fortress, Batman accidentally activates a hologram of Superman's father Jor-El in
a hilarious moment as Batman just ignores Jor-El's message about the crystals that he's
destroying containing irreplaceable knowledge.
The Atomic Cauldron is a nod to the cauldron which powers the Fortress in the comics.
Batman has a jab at the recent Suicide Squad movie when he scoffs at why he would use one
group of criminals to defeat another group of criminals.
And there's a shout out to Harley Quinn's alter ego, psychiatrist Dr Harleen Quinzel,
on the Phantom's Own laundry truck which reads "operated by Quinzel" on one of the doors.
Talking of psychiatrists, the author of the book, "Setting Limits For Your Out of Control
Child", which Alfred is reading, is none other than Dr Bartholomew Wolper.
Dr Wolper appeared in Frank Miller's graphic novels The Dark Knight Returns as a doctor
who claimed that Batman's extreme vigilantism and disregard of criminals' rights was the
cause of the Joker's insanity.
Ironically, Wolper met his end at the hands of the Joker when he tried to prove this live
on TV.
And when Batman has to confront the Joker in a hall of mirrors back at Wayne Manor,
which the Joker has converted into a theme park, it's to nod to The Dark Knight Returns
comic and the showdown between Batman and the Joker which occurs in a house of mirrors
at an amusement park.
Michael Jackson's song Man In The Mirror appears and forms the basis of numerous gags throughout
the movie.
It's interesting that a Michael Jackson track plays such an important part in the Lego Batman
Movie as Jackson and Prince, who were both big Batman fans, were actually supposed to
collaborate on the music for Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film.
Lego Batman's favourite movie seems to be Jerry Maguire and he loves laughing at the
line "you complete me", which relates to the theme of Batman finding friendship and family,
and also to his dysfunctional relationship with the Joker!
On top of that, it's also a wink at the Joker's "you complete me" line to Batman in The Dark
Knight, which itself was a nod to Jerry Maguire.
Indeed, Renée Zellweger's famous line, "you had me at hello", is also parodied at the
end of Lego Batman when the Joker says to Batman, "You had me at shut up."
And the Lego Movie's Infinite Abyss of Nothingness gets a shout-out when Dr Quivers comes on
TV and explains how Gotham is built on a bunch of flimsy plates that are stuck together and
under which is an infinite abyss.
Now, I'd love to hear what other easter eggs, in-jokes or references you spotted in The
Lego Batman Movie.
And which was your favourite?
Don't forget to leave a comment and subscribe for a chance to win this awesome pair of Lego
Batman Movie books.
And if you're wondering about all those Batman villain and Justice League cameos, click or
tap here to check out my guide to all the celebrity and hidden cameos in the movie or
take a look at some of my other videos you might like.
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Yippee ki-yay movie lovers!