‘The Lego Batman Movie’ review (4K UHD)

Director Chris McKay’s block-building and block-busting, computer-animated movie starring the not-so-Dark Knight arrives on home, ultra high-definition screens to thrill young superhero fans in The Lego Batman Movie (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, rated PG, 104 minutes, 2.39:1 aspect ratio, $44.95).

An all-star, voice-over cast brings the tale about a legendary, occasional tax-paying crime fighter who battles super villains and loneliness to colorful life.

After Batman (Will Arnett) once again stops the Joker (Zach Galifianakis) and a cavalcade of enemies from causing mayhem in Gotham City, the Clown Prince of Crime rethinks his strategy and decides to surrender to authorities.

His incarceration leads to the hero looking for a more permanent way to get rid of his archenemy that will require a device used by Superman to banish villains to the Phantom Zone.

The clever Joker uses Batman’s eventual strategic blunder to unleash a master plan that will threaten to destroy all of Gotham.

Our caped hero must band together with his new ward Robin (Michael Cera), Batgirl (Rosario Dawson) and Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) to stop the mayhem while learning about the importance of teamwork and family.

The film does not just pop from the screen; it bathes in pop culture throughout with funny dialogue from the cast along with the amusing odes to Batman and movie universes. The cast includes Jenny Slate as Harley Quinn, Billy Dee Williams as Two-Face, Channing Tatum as Superman and Jonah Hill as the Green Lantern.

For example, Barbara Gordon describes Batman as “an unsupervised adult man karate-chopping poor people in a Halloween costume,” or Batman’s password for entering the Batcave is “Iron Man sucks.”

Fans will also savor a look at unusual vehicles stored in the Batcave including the Bat Kayak, Bat Dune Buggy, Bat Zeppelin and Bat Space Shuttle as well as watching the Scuttler (a multistory, Bat-shaped mech walking on its wings) in action.

In addition, appearances by a cavalcade of Batman’s more unusual villains such as Egghead, Bane, Clayface, King Tut and the dreaded Condiment King, combined with walk-ons from such icons as Sauron, the Wicked Witch of the East, Count Dracula, Lord Voldemort, Agent Smith and even King Kong will make hardcore fans giddy.

The movie is now even poignant due to the recent passing of actor Adam West. The animated effort offers many an ode to the live-action “Batman” television show and film from the 1960s that starred West in the title role.

A few moments include Robin grabbing a can of shark repellent, an image displayed of Batman carrying a giant bomb above his head, Alfred actually wearing the classic TV costume and the team punching guys so hard that, paraphrasing Batman, “words describing their impact spontaneously materialize out of thin air.”

Note: I fondly remember getting to play this film earlier in the year via the video game series Lego Dimensions that includes a story pack devoted to the “Lego Batman Movie.”

It gleefully requires building real mini-block figures of Batgirl and Robin and magically porting them into the action via a hub peripheral. This companion adventure for gamers who love the movie will be all consuming.

4K UHD in action: A computer-generated world literally built from virtual Lego blocks, piece-by-piece, really shines under the spotlight of 2160p resolution while greatly benefiting from high dynamic range that makes colors practically scorch the eyes, and dark and light levels more extreme.

The excellent transfer is especially notable during any action scene sporting a near-florescent color pallet — more specifically, in Batman’s tuxedo dress-up party, a group fight in a body scanner, and a more artsy segment where the color desaturates from Gotham City and only remains on a depressed Batman’s costume.

As far as detail, viewers will relish the heroes’ textured, dimpled capes with even tattered fibers on the edges, the glistening of plastic hair (with even the molding seams visible), and a star-studded 57th Annual Justice League Party that highlights costuming such as Hawkman’s headdress.

Overall, I’d swear that the digital artisans used stop-motion animation to bring Lego mini-block characters to life, ripped from the shelf of a child’s bedroom.

Best extras: In a first that I can recall, the optional commentary track offers a large group of individuals all in one room who are responsible for crafting the magic of the film.

Mr. McKay acts as moderator and sets the number of possible commenters at around 20. It’s impossible to identify everyone talking, some of the accents make it difficult, but I can confirm insight from editor David Burrows, assistant editor Nicole Thorn and production designer Grant Freckelton.

I think I would have preferred multiple commentary tracks as the potential for so much information to discuss on the meticulous animation process on a film, that took over two years to complete, could be endlessly informative.

Viewers will need to switch over to the Blu-ray disc to find the rest of the content that includes a much-too-short, 16-minute overview on the making of the movie.

It focuses on the voice-over work, the animated design, use of a digital brick library (think of it as an infinite Lego toy box with almost 4,000 brick variations available), and the mission to make almost everything animated have a real-Lego counterpart (yes, that’s a toy store bonanza).

The other extras worth watching are a quartet of animated shorts (averaging two minutes each).

They include “Dark Hoser” (was Batman stuck in the Canadian Justice League?); “Batman Is Just Not That Into You” (Harley Quinn’s local talk show); “Cooking with Alfred” (co-starring Batman, Robin and the mysterious Batmonkey); and “Movie Sound Effects: How Do They Do That?” (Bane, Riddler, Poison Ivy, Catwoman and Two-Face make silly sounds).