The Lego Movie

The Lego Movie might well be the most fun you’ll have at the movies this winter. That was certainly the case with the enthusiastic audience I enjoyed watching it with consisting of as many adults as children.

This is not your parents Lego. This is the new improved think-outside-the-box Lego.  No longer just square bricks that you can build into square buildings, these Legos are for a new generation and the movie goes to fantastic unconventional lengths to show us just how far Lego has evolved.

In the Lego world Emmet is an ordinary construction guy who just wants to fit in and be everyone’s friend. But his eagerness to please is not making him any friends, until a wizard, voiced by Morgan Freeman, tells him that he is the one Master Builder foretold by the prophesy who will save the universe.

Lego can now do anything you can think of but besides the great new advances being made at Lego, the movie is also a wonderful computer animated invention of its own. Its visual style is an eye popping sugar rush of colors and shapes.

Emmet wants to believe that he is special, so he goes on a quest to prove that he is the one who can save the world from the clutches of Lord Business, who is trying to keep the world straight and conventional, where everyone follows strict rules without any strange new wonkiness.

The wacky humor is hilarious with our ordinary generic worker hero, Emmet, in the classic underdog role a la Frodo or Neo from the Matrix. The theme of creativity vs. conformity, instruction manuals versus imagination, rigidity versus change and freedom are universal and especially relevant today in our constantly changing world. 

There is a mix of many popular franchises from Star Wars, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings, and a slew of other pop culture characters including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern. The star studded voice cast includes Liam Neeson, Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman, Will Arnett, and Johan Hill to name a few.

During Emmet’s heroic journey his mission is to take the mystical ‘Piece of Resistance’, find the all-powerful destructive Lord Business and somehow use it to defeat him.  Along the way he gathers a rag tag group of followers who all want to help him and all have their own unique creative ideas and abilities that will play a role in the final showdown.

The film’s creative spirit and humor is infectious and the breakneck non-stop action keeps the fun and the Lego blocks flying at a dizzying pace. 

Visually and emotionally this is the kind of movie that could have been made by PIXAR in their early days and is reminiscent of the recent animated film Wreck-It Ralph (2012), with its collection of characters from different popular video games past and present and its visually distinct themed lands.

Besides being a long advertisement for Lego, The Lego Movie captures the childhood joy of playing and inventing goofy fun toys that can be transformed into anything the imagination can conjure up and will appeal to the inner child in us all, where everything is awesome.

JP