Legos are near the top of the best toys ever invented. Nothing encourages imagination and ingenuity in a child better than random blocks that can be built in any manner of ways. The Lego Movie captures what is special about the toys themselves and surrounds it with a very clever, joke-filled story that gets surprisingly emotional in the last half hour. Who knew yellow men with peg heads could generate a tear or two?
The story starts when Lord Business (Will Ferrell) defeats Master Builder Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) and steals the Kragle: a device that could end the free Lego realms as we know them. However, Vitruvius gives Lord Business a prophecy that a special Master Builder will find a special piece that can stop the Kragle. Fast forward 8.5 years later, and Emmet (Chris Pratt) is a normal construction worker following his life instructions by the book. That is, until he meets WyldStyle (Elizabeth Banks), who leads Emmet to the special piece that will fulfill the prophecy. From there, Emmet/Wyldstyle recruit other masterbuilders to help stop Lord Business, among them WyldStyle’s boyfriend Batman (Will Arnett), the ever-positive Unikitty (Alison Brie) and pirate Metal Beard (Nick Offerman).
The Lego Movie embraces a world of Lego construction and Lego boundaries. Characters can’t really twist, and they can only move in right angles. They don’t have hands, they have clasps. Fire is just fire Lego pieces that appear and then diminish when the explosion ends. Waves are just blue Lego blocks that build and unbuild in patterns. Even cooler are when human artifacts make their way into the story, showing how a different perspective can spin a day-to-day object. Kragle is a common household object that is probably the most dangerous to Legos. Bubble gum and band aids is used very amusingly, and a golf ball has never been used in such an amusing way. Credit the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller for creating such a fun world.
The Lego universe also factors in the central conflict of the story: building something by following instructions versus building with complete freedom. Emmet is a normal guy stuck between what appears to be a very long war between these two ideas. The story has fun with the two worlds that can be built using both ways. Instruction world is mostly interchangeable: everyone listens to the same songs and acts the same way, but they work very well together. Whereas the freeform world is truly an amazing spectacle of imagination but also very isolating: everyone sort of works alone. Emmet has to decide which way best suits him to prevent the imminent death of the Lego worlds. His choices take a big left turn in the third act, which the movie drops hints at, and provides the big emotional payoff for Emmet and friends at the end. The boldness of the screenplay to take risks and provide uneasy answers along with a copious amount of fast-moving jokes makes the Lego Movie a truly great family film.
The voice acting uses the perfect mix of generic voices and self-parodies. Chris Pratt and Elizabeth Banks headline the generic group: Pratt’s enthusiasm infuses Emmet with fun energy and the right amount of naiveté while Banks gives Wyldstyle some bite to go along with perkiness. The self parodies will generate more laughs, especially for adults. Will Arnett gets to channel a deeper-voiced Gob Bluth from Arrested Development as Batman, the self-assured, self-important masterbuilder. Morgan Freeman gets to be wise beyond his years, and Liam Neeson gets to be a great bad cop. Will Ferrell throws a little bit of unhinged sadness into Lord Business, with the sadness and order playing a key role in the third act.
Whether discussing the power of imagination or how bad cops only appear that way because they abuse inanimate objects to appear scary, the Lego Movie succeed in the big and small ways together. The creators of the movie can be proud of the fact that they took what people find special about Lego’s and manifest that feeling onscreen. The Lego Movie got me so jazzed up I wanted to search my parents’ attic to see if any of my Legos were up there to start a brand new adventure.