The Lego Movie

Let me put this simply: if you can’t find something to like about The Lego Movie, you’ve either grown beyond animation or it’s very possible you just don’t like movies.

When I was a kid, Legos came in about three colors and six shapes. To make a swinging door, we interlocked alternative long bricks with the base. It wouldn’t swing more than 30 degrees and it looked like a vertical prison, but hey, “functioning” door. You want a car? You took a brick and pretended it was a car. Wheels were kind of a big deal. Slowly, Lego evolved. The pieces grew curves; the imagination grew with it. And then it became specialized. Now there are kits. You don’t have 600 blocks and “build it yourself.” You have one specialized set of blocks uniquely designed to make The Millennium Falcon or Gollum’s Lair in Moria, or the rehearsal studio of Black Swan. The pieces are intricate; the imagination is not.

The Lego Movie is fully aware of how Legos have both enhanced and crippled our individual imaginations. The plot is about getting a plastic-mold-half-full shallow-but-lovable bozo, Emmet (voice of Chris Pratt), to embrace the idea of thinking outside the box. In this case, it’s almost literal – Emmet is a Lego construction worker. Far as I can tell, “Construction worker” constitutes about 95% of employment in the Lego world, which is one of about 4,000 tongue-in-cheek jokes in the film.  Why wouldn’t Lego employees all be construction workers? And you can see the foreman with the “blueprints,” which are exactly the same booklet diagrams that come in a modern Lego set. Emmet questions nothing. His routine is a blueprint; he does little but follow instructions through his adorable little Lego life, that is, until he stumbles upon the secret weapon (the “Piece of Resistance” — another of the 4,000) to defeat the mysterious Kragl.

At that point, Emmet acquires a completely new life and all new friends starting with exciting-girlfriend-material Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks). Unfortunately for Emmet, she’s attached to self-centered, dismissive, obnoxious Batman (Will Arnett). If I’m being honest, I like Arnett’s Batman better than Christian Bale‘s. “Do you have any black pieces? I only work in black. And sometimes very, very dark gray.” And with the good, also comes the bad in the form of Lord Business (Will Ferrell) and good cop/bad cop in one (Liam Neeson). In the Lego world, of course, it’s fairly easy for a character to be, literally, two-faced.

Lego Movie makes fun of itself constantly. When an officer needs fingers for a task, the direction and dialogue points out the hook hands all lego figures have; in the next moment an APB goes out for Emmet, but the profile photo doesn’t help — “we’re on the lookout for this man! Unfortunately, we all look like this.” The film is almost unnecessarily cruel to outdated Lego sets like the so-easily-foiled NBA All Star set from the 90s and makes a running gag of the now tragically outdated 1980s spaceship an astronaut keeps wanting to build. And only Lego would dare deliberately mistake Gandalf for Dumbledore fully knowing the Lego company has made a small fortune already selling the pair.

This is among the most imaginative films ever made — from any perspective you care to name — the feel of the picture, so completely lost in the understanding of how to entertain an audience, is not unlike the original Toy Story, and yet, it has good feel for timeless message as well — all told through … legos. The goofy energy here is mesmerizing. I challenge you not to get lost in it.

A simpleton in quite a stew
Challenged by what he should do
Emmet, you see
Is like you and me
Ok, he’s a bit more like you

Rated PG, 100 Minutes
D: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
W: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Genre: Welcome, franchise
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Just about anybody who gives it a chance
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Eeeek, color!