Voicing 'The Lego Batman Movie' physically drained Will Arnett

Comedian and actor Will Arnett reprises voicing Batman in The Lego Batman Movie, a role he said took a toll on his vocal chords with long sessions in the booth performing the superhero's well-known deep gravelly voice.

The animated adventure film, showing a world based on the colourful toy building bricks, sees the Batman/Bruce Wayne character from 2014's The Lego movie fighting crime in Gotham City before going home to self-imposed solitude.

"Vocally, physically, it would get hard. After four hours of doing it, I'd be pretty spent," Arnett said in an interview. "Because... it doesn't feel great to constantly be talking like this," he added, while adopting Batman's voice.

With a production budget of $60 million, The Lego Movie grossed some $469 million at the box office worldwide, according to website Box Office Mojo.

In The Lego Batman Movie, the character's loneliness is a focus for a lot of the film's humour.

"He is a billionaire and he's handsome and he has got this great house and he's got all these great gadgets - why is he so upset?," Arnett said. "And it really made us laugh, we were thinking: 'What is it about his life that he feels is incomplete, we should get into that'.

The Lego Batman Movie hits cinemas worldwide from February 8.