Rated
PG (Mild Action and Rude Humor)
Running
Time: 1 Hour & 40 Minutes
Cast
(voice)-
Chris
Pratt-Emmet Brickowoski
Elizabeth
Banks-Lucy/Wyldstyle
Will
Arnett-Bruce Wayne/Batman
Morgan
Freeman-Vitruvius
Alison
Brie-Unikitty
Nick
Offerman-Metal Beard
Charlie
Day-Benny
Will
Ferrell-Lord Business/President Business/The Man Upstairs
Liam
Neeson-Bad Cop/Good Cop/Pa Cop
Channing
Tatum-Clark Kent/Superman
Cobie
Smulders-Princess Diana of Themyscira/Wonder Woman
Jonah
Hill-Hal Jordan/Green Lantern
Will
Forte-Abraham Lincoln
Todd
Hansen-Gandalf the Grey/Additional Voices
Jorma
Taccone-William Shakespeare/Additional Voices
Shaquille
O'Neal-Shaq
Keith
Ferguson-Han Solo
Anthony
Daniels-C-3PO
Billy
Dee Williams-Lando Calrissian
Directed
by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
 |
| Can anyone say "sequel"? |
Note: Screened on Saturday, February 1, 2014 at AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13.
On
January 28, 1958 at 1:58 PM, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen made a visit to the Danish
Patent and Trademark Office in Copenhagen in order to file a patent for a
little plastic brick with a stud-and-hole design. This seemingly innocuous event
not only transformed the concept of toys as we know it but would even revolutionize
childhood itself. For over fifty years, the LEGO brick has been a ubiquitous part
of our childhoods yet the popular construction toy had rather humble origins.
Born in Filskov, Denmark in 1891 to an impoverished family, Ole Kirk Christiansen
grew up to become a carpenter and purchased a modest woodworking shop in Billund
in 1916. Initially helping to construct houses and furniture, Ole decided to expand
his business and built a bigger workshop after the old one burned down in a
fire in 1924. However, the Great Depression left Ole with few customers and to keep
himself busy, he constructed miniature versions of his products as design aids.
It was these models that inspired him to produce toys. In 1934, Ole christened
his up-and-coming company with the name 'LEGO' (a self-made contraction of the
Danish phrase 'leg godt,' which meant 'play well'; coincidentally, the term can
also be loosely translated to 'I assemble' in Latin) and began making an early
version of their now famous interlocking bricks in 1949, dubbed 'Automatic Binding
Bricks.' Based in part on the Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks and manufactured
from cellulose acetate, the product was initially not well-received due to customers
preferring wooden or metal toys over plastic ones. Ole's son Godtfred, who had become
the company's junior managing director in 1954, saw the potential for creative play
in their LEGO bricks and worked to perfect its design. Four years later, the modern
LEGO brick that we know and love today was developed and while it would take until
1963 for the company to switch to an ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) polymer
when mass producing them, Godtfred had already filed a patent during a lunchtime
visit to the Danish Patent and Trademark Office. The rest, as they say, is
history.
Toy
trends rise and fall but the little LEGO brick has proven itself to be surprisingly
resilient, with the company that Ole built currently residing as the third largest
toy manufacturer in the world in terms of revenue, behind Mattel and Hasbro. Approximately
560 billion LEGO parts have been produced as of 2013, a number that is eighty
times greater than the population of the Earth and will only continue to grow.
What initially began as a simple construction toy for children now encompasses
theme parks, educational tools, video games, and by this Friday, a full-length
feature film. There have been LEGO films before but they've often been based on
licensed properties such as Batman and Star Wars. "The LEGO Movie," as
it came to be called, does not revolve around any particular toy line or
license yet the idea of a film based entirely on a branded property still felt
like an excuse to hock even more expensive play-sets when Warner Brothers green-lit
the project in 2008. Although cynical audiences probably won't be changing from
that mindset, they'll unfortunately be missing out on a truly wonderful film.
With "The LEGO Movie," directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have
crafted a hilarious and endearing picture that not only celebrates the eponymous
construction toy's long history but also the creativity it continues to inspire
in both children and adults all around the world. Everything may be awesome but
"The LEGO Movie" is even more awesome and is the first truly great
film of 2014.
In
the LEGO universe, the evil Lord Business (Will Ferrell) steals a magical artifact
called the 'Kragle' in order to remake everything in his own image but the great
wizard Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) warns him that one day a citizen would be revealed
as the 'Special'—the one person that is interesting and important enough to wield
the mythical 'Piece of Resistance' and put a stop to the mad tyrant's plans.
Lord Business, however, dismisses Vitruvius' ridiculous prophecy, believing the
wizard is making it up. Reinventing himself as the benevolent 'President Business,'
the power-hungry micro-manager tightly confines the citizens of the LEGO universe
to their respective realms while enforcing a strict set of instructions to maintain
control. He distracts the populace with a line of products from his massive company,
the Octan Corporation, and keeps them docile using the catchy song Everything is Awesome. Emmet Brickowoski
(Chris Pratt) is an ordinary construction worker who is happy to follow the
instructions but his life is turned upside down when he stumbles upon the fabled
Piece of Resistance. Mistaken as the 'Special,' Emmet is joined by tough-as-nails
freedom fighter Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), the crime-fighter Batman (Will
Arnett), the adorable Unikitty (Alison Brie), 1980-Something Space Guy Benny
(Charlie Day), robotic pirate Metal Beard (Nick Offerman), and the now-blind Vitruvius
on a quest to save the LEGO universe from being destroyed by Lord Business.
There's
never a dull moment in "The LEGO Movie" as directors Phil Lord and
Christopher Miller, along with the incredibly talented animators at Sydney-based
studio Animal Logic, have created a film that's bursting at the seams with eye-popping
color and silly, irreverent humor. Following a prologue where the comically tall
Lord Business steals the magical artifact known as the 'Kragle' (I'll leave it up
to you to discover what that really is), we are introduced to construction worker
Emmet, an utter nobody who is happy to wake up every morning and follow 'the
instructions,' which is literally a LEGO instruction manual. He watches the same
television show that everyone watches, drinks the same expensive coffee that
everyone drinks, and listens to the same song that everyone listens to but in spite
of his jovial personality, no one wants anything to do with him. As he prepares
to go home after a hard day's work, Emmet runs into Wyldstyle and immediately becomes
smitten with her. However, he clumsily trips and falls down a freshly excavated
pit, where he accidentally stumbles upon the long-lost Piece of Resistance. Touching
it causes him to lose consciousness and witness a strange vision. When Emmet wakes
up, he finds himself in an interrogation room with the Piece of Resistance now glued
to his back. What follows is a thrilling adventure that's equal-parts bizarre and
hilarious. With the help of the animators, Lord and Miller utilize the famous
LEGO bricks in clever ways, such as having the characters frantically build complex
vehicles or special items in their fight against Lord Business. The 3D itself
feels rather perfunctory but the way Animal Logic has brought the LEGO universe
to life is unlike anything you've ever seen in an animated film before. The
movement of the various figures is intentionally jerky and stilted, as if the
entire experience had been painstakingly created by repositioning the plastic
toys and photographing them one frame at a time, like stop-motion. Elements like
smoke and water swirl around as a mass of solid bricks, with the rough animation
giving the film a lovingly handmade quality that will surely conjure up nostalgic
childhood memories of our own experiences with LEGO.
Written
by Lord and Miller with the help of Dan and Kevin Hageman, the overall plot in "The
LEGO Movie" is the same-old hero's journey that we've seen dozens of times
before. It's basically a riff on the Wachowski siblings' first "Matrix"
film with a dash of "Star Wars" thrown in but what elevates the story
is the humor as the directors poke fun at the construction toy's history by positioning
popular LEGO play-sets like the 'Wild West' and the Tolkien-esque 'Middle Zealand'
as one of many infinite realms. Cameos abound as DC characters like Superman (Channing
Tatum) and Wonder Woman (Cobie Smulders) make an appearance, with Jonah Hill's
Green Lantern depicted as a needy crime-fighter who wants to be friends with
the cool heroes on the block. Not surprisingly, Batman is given the most
screen-time as Will Arnett hilariously parodies Christian Bale's infamous 'Bat-growl.'
It's a shame that Warner Brothers couldn't work something out with Disney and
include some Marvel characters. Lord and Miller could've took the lazy route by
cramming their film with celebrity voices and post-modern humor but fortunately,
they go one step further and inject their story with a heartwarming third act
that perfectly encapsulates the enduring appeal of LEGO. While it's easy to
follow the instructions and build whatever is on the box, the reason that LEGO
has continued to flourish for almost sixty years is that you literally can create anything with them. The joy
of playing with LEGOs, regardless of whether you're a child or adult, is the
creativity it inspires and what's great about that sentiment is that it can be applied
to life in general. "The LEGO Movie" celebrates an idea that is distinctly
American, that each and every one of us has the ability to create something unique
if given the chance. Creativity fosters innovation and to stifle that like Lord
Business does is not only detrimental but destructive to a society. Sometimes,
you have to break a rule and just think outside the box but that's okay; it's
what makes everyone and everything special, and yes, even awesome too.
The
ensemble voice cast is absolutely wonderful in their individual roles. Chris Pratt,
whose career has been steadily on the rise thanks to his starring role on the
NBC mockumentary "Parks and Recreation" and a number of memorable supporting
turns in various films, proves to be the perfect choice as the lovably dim-witted
construction worker Emmet. The likable actor maintains a wide-eyed enthusiasm and
sincerity to the character despite being thrust in an extraordinary situation
where the entire fate of the LEGO universe is in his hands. Pratt will be appearing
as Star-Lord in Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" (set to come out
this August) and I can't wait to see him finally tackle a big-budget blockbuster
of his own. Elizabeth Banks is excellent as the tough-as-nails yet insecure Wyldstyle
(and no, she's not a DJ) while Will Arnett is clearly having a ball lampooning
Christian Bale's performance as Batman in "The Dark Knight" trilogy.
Morgan Freeman is equally hilarious as the blind wizard Vitruvius, where he uses
the character to mock the gravitas of his own voice and of course there's Liam
Neeson, who plays a schizophrenic police officer that just can't decide whether
he's good or bad. Nick Offerman completely disappears into his role as the transforming
robot pirate Metal Beard and rounding out the main supporting cast is the always-adorable
Alison Brie and the eternally-hyperactive Charlie Day. However, the real surprise
is Will Ferrell, whose turn as the evil Lord Business stands as one of his funniest
roles to date but he also ends up being part of the film's overall message,
which is something I did not see coming. I won't spoil how and why but
Ferrell's performance is the catalyst that re-contextualizes "The LEGO
Movie" in a new light. Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, and Cobie Smulders make
up a few of the cameos that audiences will encounter, which also includes a familiar
duo from a galaxy far, far away.
To
be released on February 7, 2014, "The LEGO Movie" has received
overwhelmingly positive reviews so far with a whopping 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Critics praised it as 'colorful fun for all ages' thanks to its 'beautiful animation,
a charming voice cast, laugh-a-minute gags, and a surprisingly thoughtful story.'
Despite the advance screening being held at 10 AM on a Saturday morning, the
film still drew a huge crowd and was met with a universally enthusiastic response,
especially from kids. Box office success is all but assured yet I can't help
feeling that Warner Brothers made a mistake in releasing the film in February.
Given all the praise it's already received, "The LEGO Movie" could've
easily grossed at least $300 million if it came out during the summer or fall. Regardless,
the studio should be happy all the same. "The LEGO Movie" may be based
on a familiar brand but in the hands of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, it's a
hilarious and touching reminder of every person's potential to be 'special.'
Final
Rating: 5 out of 5
Emmet:
I'm not the Special. I'm just a regular, normal guy.
Wyldstyle:
You have the ability to be the Special because I believe in you.
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