LEGO DC: Batman - Family Matters

The latest LEGO DC straight-to-video offers two storylines intertwined by the common theme of family. The more interesting of the two centers around the sudden appearance of the Red Hood (Jason Spisak) who picks off the Bat-Family one-by-one while enlisting the help of several other Bat-Villains including the Penguin (Tom Kenny), Riddler (André Sogliuzzo), Killer Croc (Nolan North), and Scarecrow (Steve Blum). Less deadly in LEGO form, the Red Hood still works fairly well as DC LEGO takes more family-friendly approach to the former Robin becoming a super-villain.

The other storyline involves Batman (Troy Baker) growing weary of being Bruce Wayne and deciding to sell off the company whose new invention Brother Eye falls into the hands of Two-Face (Christian Lanz) and becomes a problem the Bat-Family, with the Red Hood's help, will need to solve. Just as Jason Todd will reconsider his revenge and reclaim a role within the Bat-Family, Batman will reconsider the importance of his alter-ego to Gotham City.

Despite it's short running time, the movie looks great as DC and Warner Bros. seem to have fallen into a grove in designing these LEGO features. Once the Red Hood storyline ends the movie suffers, although there's still fun to be had when Bruce Wayne and Batman are required to show up at the same time to stop Brother Eye from destroying the city. The movie offers several nods and jokes longtime Batman fans will no doubt enjoy (including the original Robin costume, the Batman TV-series style entrance to the Batcave, the appearance of The Grey Ghost, and Todd stealing the tires off the Batmobile). There are also recurring cameos from Billy Batson (Zach Callison) as the movie teases a possible next project for LEGO DC and Warner Bros. featuring the World's Mightiest Mortal. While the on-screen extras are scarce, both the DVD and Blu-ray versions do come with a mini LEGO Batmobile to build.

[Warner Bros., DVD $19.98 / Blu-ray $24.98]