Check out PCU’s recap of the world premiere of the new Lego DC Comics movie!

This past Sunday, Warner Bros. Animation debuted its new cartoon Lego DC Superheroes: Justice League—Gotham City Breakout at the Director’s Guild of America in New York City. Although the film will be released July 12, a special early screening was held for select families and members of the press.

PCU was in attendance and had the opportunity to speak with some of the creators and voice actors about the movie.  We previously brought you our interviews with two of the voice actors, Jason Spisak (the Joker) and John DiMaggio (Deathstroke the Terminator). But we also spoke with the film’s creators: screenwriter Jim Krieg, director Matt Peters, and producer Brandon Vietti. Here’s what they had to tell us about the movie.

Jim Krieg described the cartoon’s plot as “What happens when Batman takes a vacation?” and if he has to go, “what happens to Gotham City?  And what happens to Batman on vacation? And that’s basically our story.”  Director Matt Peters agreed that Gotham City Breakout is “a little fish out of water story for both Batman and for Superman. So we’ve got Batman being told that it’s his birthday and it’s time for him to take a little time away from crimefighting, which is something that he absolutely hates, and since he’s going to take time off someone has to take care of Gotham City. So Superman is very confident that he can handle this for him and we find out that it’s maybe not as simple as he thinks.”

When we asked about how the movie team gets into the Justice League’s heads, Krieg agreed “it’s hard at first before you hear them.” But with Gotham City Breakout being Warner Bros.’ fifth Lego movie, it’s gotten easier. “Nolan North is Superman and he’s very earnest and naïve, and once you have that voice in your head it’s very easy to write him.  And then Troy Baker is Batman and he’s just so wonderfully paranoid.  I don’t think anyone’s pulled off paranoid and adorable at the same time, but I think this guy has done it, and so that’s how you do it.  And once you hear those voices you’re always going to hear them.”

With 2017’s big-screen The Lego Batman Movie coming, we asked how the creators keep their Lego DC movies distinct from the upcoming project. Peters confessed: “It’s always fun when I tell people that I work on the Lego movie, and they’re like ‘That one?’ and I have to tell them, ‘No.’” Peters admits that The Lego Movie and the upcoming Lego Batman Movie are wonderful, but he made the distinction that the big-screen Lego films are more play- and toy-centric. Warner Animation’s films are more “being more about the characters, more about DC and Superman and those guys. So I feel that what we do is we try to make it feel as if it’s Superman and Batman but they just happen to be Lego characters, while I feel the other movie is a little bit more the other way around, a Lego toy that thinks it’s a little bit bigger than it actually is.”

We also asked the creators if they had any dream Lego DC projects they’d like to produce. Krieg admitted that one of his favorite Silver Age stories involved Lois Lane having to kiss every member of the Justice League in order to signal that Superman had been corrupted by Red Kryptonite. Peters said he’d love to produce a 12-part Netflix series which adapts Crisis on Infinite Earths into Lego form. Vietti said he’d love to focus more on DC’s magical characters, but also pulled the discussion back towards Gotham City Breakout, emphasizing “we have an underworld adventure which we haven’t done before, so we’re exploring hidden areas of the Earth, ancient civilizations, and we’re only scratching the surface there of the DC universe.”

After the press interview, the show moved upstairs for the premiere showing of Gotham City Breakout. While we won’t spoil the entire movie, it generally featured a split plot. Half the movie concerned Batman, Nightwing, and Batgirl going on a vacation that turned into a quest to rescue Batman’s old master from Deathstroke and Bane. The other half featured Superman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg having to learn that their clean-cut superheroics doesn’t necessarily work in the weird underworld of Gotham City.

The laughter and applause of the audience throughout the 1 hour and 20 minutes of film indicated that the movie is a success. Key moments that fans howled at included the origin of Deathstroke’s name, Batman’s repeated ability to quickly figure out any situation, Batman’s secret weapon (a familiar Lego item which we won’t spoil), and Superman’s unorthodox interactions with Commissioner Gordon.

After the movie ended, the film’s production crew came back on stage for a panel discussion along with voice actors DiMaggio and Spisak. Brandon Vietti and Matt Peters talked about their collaboration on bringing Lego Deathstroke to life, which included tying his origin to Batman through a very silly plot involving “papier machie masks.” Vietti said that the fun of the job of making these Lego films is that a lot of these ideas come out through the team just joking around with each other, trying to one-up each other. The entire idea of Batman going on vacation came from a joke about Batman “left a note on the bat-refrigerator with instructions for who Superman should call.”

The crew also discussed creating new characters for Gotham City Breakout, including Batman’s mentor Madame Mantis, and an underground race called the Troglowogs. Vietti stated that the Troglowogs were inspired by the old Looney Tunes characters, “the Goofy Gophers,” for their witty dialogue. The team credited Amy Hill (known for her role as Mah Mah on American Dad) for bringing the new character Madame Mantis to life.

Jason Spisak talked again about playing the Joker, describing it as like “a great big present that you get to unwrap on Christmas” and said that “you can never go too far” with the role. Spisak was particularly excited for the opportunity to play the Joker’s spoon and having to devise separate voices for himself and “Spoony.” The audience was again delighted when Spisak demonstrated his voiceover skills and held an impromptu conversation between his Joker and “Spoony” voices.

John DiMaggio also spoke about the opportunity to play a “fun” version of Deathstroke the Terminator. “When your villain can deliver punchlines, that’s the best.” Of particular fun was his opportunity to play Deathstroke as both a child and an adult and demonstrated how he modulated his voice to reflect both ages.

Getting back to the movie, the producers talked about the fun of taking Superman out of his usual environment and dropping him into Gotham City. Vietti talked about how “Superman’s not really a good fit in Gotham” which included recurring gags where the hero is made uncomfortable by rats, fish, and other dirty-but-silly aspects of the city. “How do you fight crazy? How do you fight vermin?” One of Krieg’s favorite scenes involved Superman very awkwardly calling the Hall of Justice for help in dealing with Gotham’s villains.

After the Q&A session, the panel took questions from the audience exclusively from children and gave autographed movie posters to the kids with the best ones. One child asked whether Spisak practiced his role with an actual spoon, to which he replied “not during filming…but since then I’ve enjoyed many times talking to a spoon.” Another asked about an apparent continuity error in the dialogue, which caused tremendous laugher onstage with the Krieg laughing at himself in embarrassment. Still another asked how voice actor Will Friedle (Nightwing) enjoyed coming back to Batman cartoons. Friedle was unable to attend the panel due to a wedding, but everyone had a great time working with him.

After the session, guests had the opportunity to get autographs from the entire panel, and all attendees were given a free Lego set.

Lego DC Comics: Justice League—Gotham City Breakout is available now for digital download for $14.99, or will be available on July 12 on Blu-Ray for $17.99 or DVD for $14.99. The physical release includes a Lego Nightwing minifigure.