The Lego Movie (Feb 2014)

"Everything is awesome!" (<-- click me!)

I don't know how I'm going to write this little review with that song stuck in my head.  I think it deserves an Academy Award for putting such a smile on my face.  Unless How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a surprise success during the summer, I think Lego is already the frontrunner for the Best Animated Movie.  It's only February.

The Lego Movie is directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the same team responsible for Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (written and directed) and its 2013 sequel (written).  Both were box office hits, each grossing roughly $125 million just domestically.  The Lego Movie, with a budget of only $60 million - half of the first Cloudy - is toying proudly with breaking even in its first domestic weekend alone.  No wonder the studio already has plans for its sequel!  To keep the monetary comparisons going, Disney's Frozen, an absolute juggernaut, also made a little over $60 million in it's opening US weekend... BUT cost almost $150 million to make.  We'll see what happens when the worldwide numbers are accounted, but if you smell profit around The Lego Movie, you're not wrong.  At all.

This movie is straight-up fun!  It's exactly what an animated blockbuster should be nowadays - smart, funny, colorful, engaging and quick... but not too quick (100 minutes)!  The plot is wonderfully basic: our very ordinary Emmet is living a very ordinary life in a very ordinary town governed by the evil Lord Business, whose ultimate plan is to use his secret weapon, The Kragle, to freeze the world in place to prevent any non-conformity.  Little does Emmet know, he has the power within himself as a Master Builder, to stop The Kragle and Lord Business, freeing everyone from their ordinary lives.  But it'll take other Master Builders, like WyldStyle, Vitruvius, and Batman (yes!) to convince him that he can truly make a difference.  Also, there's Unikitty.  I loved Unikitty.

The animation in the film was wonderful, a blast of stop-motion style CGI, and it never stopped moving.  Things didn't necessarily need to explode in order to feel like there was plenty of action on-screen.  Driving to the coffee shop or dropping off dry cleaning felt somewhat frantic.  But it was in no way similar to the seizure-provoking scene changes that we're used to in children's cartoons these days (Spongebob comes to mind).  And it was all true to the spirit and accuracy of building Legos - to ride a horse, the holes in Emmet's behind had to interlock with the pegs in the horse's back (he missed, leaving him to bounce around awkwardly on his trip); when something did explode, plastic Lego flames bits were used rather than real fire; ocean waves were choppy as the animators built and rebuilt the pieces to give them an ebb and flow effect.  Constant, but fun, movement.

It didn't take long for me to start laughing - picture a Lego, no elbows and no knees, trying to perform jumping jacks.  Or walking around a construction site with a Lego croissant in one hand and a Lego hot dog in the other (who does that?).  But I did worry during the first third of the movie that maybe this wasn't as clever as I had hoped it would be.  Some of the early jokes were drawn out, aiming to engage kids rather than parents (not all... Emmet's commute to work was wonderful).  I started to fear that I might have stumbled into a Despicable Me 2... loved the Minions, hated the fart jokes.  That wasn't the case, however.  By the time the movie really started progressing, there was plenty of humor, some nostalgic, for the older audience.  All of the old Lego sets were in the movie, in their entirety, and many figures that we played with as kids had either cameos or starring roles (80's Lego space man!).  I also was impressed with the time they took to include bits like Lego model numbers.  When the Master Builders were assembling new sets, model numbers would appear on-screen in CGI white near them - something that kids might not understand, but parents who dropped a good deal of money on them for Christmas might (I know I heard more than one chuckle and groan).

I would love to talk about the end of the movie... slap a *spoiler* alert and give it all away.  I won't.  But it's the end of the movie that is going to make it completely rewatchable.  That's where everything came together, especially humor and heart.  Where I felt like the beginning of the film was a little more childish (not immature, but for kids), the end was tailored more for the parents.  Little kids will appreciate the climactic action in Bricksburg, but may get bored with the other dramatic cutscenes that transform the movie into one on par with the Toy Story franchise.  For us, it all comes together into something so wonderful, I wanted to buy a ticket for the next screening.

This was a great animated film and the voice casting was like the cherry on top.  I generally don't care beforehand who's cast in these roles.  Unless it's a travesty of a casting job, you get used to the voice actors or actresses within a few minutes of seeing their alter-egos on-screen.  This was a real treat, though, like John C. Reilly playing Wreck-It Ralph.  There wasn't a single miscast on the entire list (I would have paid money to see Morgan Freeman or Will Arnett do their lines).  And to the genius who gave the villain role to Will Ferrell, you deserve a bonus.  You'll all understand when you see... bah, I can't spoil it!

This will, no doubt, be in my movie collection - for me and my son.  I can't think of the last time I've wanted to rewatch an animated movie so soon.  It will also be on the 'white noise' list - that list of movies my son has that we can replay over and over in a single day without making me insane.  Without delay, hop in line for The Lego Movie.  It's a great little escape.

Everything is awesome!