‘The Lego Batman Movie’

Considering the dour nature of current Batman movies, you may wonder how in the world an animated feature got made of the foolish, “toxically masculine,” Lego version of the Dark Knight. Turns out, Chris McKay is apparently quite persuasive.

“I originally pitched the studio I wanted to make ‘Jerry Maguire’ as directed by Michael Mann, with a lot of Batman jokes in it. For some reason, they let me do that,” says the energetic director.

Best known for TV’s awesomely insane “Robot Chicken” on Adult Swim, McKay oversaw production of “The Lego Movie” when directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord left to work on “22 Jump Street.”

“We wanted all the movies to feel different from each other, to feel unique, like you can’t create a movie like this any place else,” he says. “Lego is a toy, but it’s also a medium. It’s associated with imagination, with creativity.

“We wanted to do a Batman movie that no one else could do, to take a look at the character and history and moral component of what Batman does, what Batman is really like — albeit a Will Arnett critique of toxic masculinity, an egotistical guy” (Arnett plays Bruce Wayne/Batman in both films).

“Lego Batman” has earned $312 million worldwide and scored a stellar 91% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Not bad for a movie that walked a tightrope with one of the most beloved of all comic-book characters (and the multibillion-dollar franchises in which he appears).

“There were definitely moments we pushed [DC, Warners and Lego] in ways they were not comfortable with, but ultimately they let us do basically everything we wanted ,” McKay says, admitting “making jokes about ‘Suicide Squad’ and ‘Batman v Superman’ was cause for concern. Taking pot shots at other companies: ‘Iron Man sucks!’ But we reached out to Marvel and they didn’t have a problem with it.

“All these things need a little bit of air deflated from the ego.”