The Lego Movie

I cannot overstate how much I love love loved this film. I was uninterested in seeing it at first – I was afraid it was going to be too pandering to the glaze-eyed masses of consumers who kept asking “yeah why ISN’T there a Lego film??” Maybe cuz it’s a sacrosanct franchise you crazy fools!! You know there was a gigantic team of people making sure this film was perfect in every possible way. And in my honest opinion, it was. From the casting to the production design to the acting to the plot to the direction, this film was absolutely flawless. 

My favorite part about it was the visual feast of the production design. There’s a documentary about the production designer of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse – his name is Wayne White (and the doc is Beauty Is Embarrassing) and as someone acutely points out in the film, Wayne’s visual “look” will subconsciously impact a generation. Well they say something along the lines of that, and personally I think they’re right. Actually it’s more of how much I enjoy seeing a frame stuffed full of design than the real saturation of that idea in modern film and TV. If you haven’t seen it, Pee-Wee’s literal Playhouse is covered in tchotchke’s, patterns, colors, and design from floor to ceiling. (Seriously, Google Image that shit right now and it might give you a seizure, it’s so good.) The Lego Movie is that precisely. Every single centimeter of the screen has something to absorb and see. It’s bright, colorful, (as Legos are, naturally,) interesting, and just pure spectacle. In the current world of modernity where simplification is king, this film really stuffs each shot with something to behold. I need to re-watch it in slow-mo just to be able to really respect how thoroughly designed it was. Did you guys notice the fingerprints on the Legos? CUZ THEY WERE THERE. AND THIS WAS MOSTLY CGI. Part of me wonders if this has to do with filmmaking in a frame-by-frame sense – as animation is? There is clearly more thought, or at least a different thought, that goes into the imagery on the screen when it is built on a frame-by-frame level. Another good example of this technique is from auteur Wes Anderson – he’s a master at it. Each image is so thoroughly composed it’s bordering on overwrought. 

In order to have a successful Lego film, there has to be a certain amount of self-awareness injected. Meta is becoming a common thing, methinks. (Any Community fans out there? YAS.) I first fully grasped it during my Josie and the Pussycats obsession, circa 2001. “Who paid who to get these girls drinking Coca Cola on screen??” my dad would ask. If you don’t know, the film was about consumption and marketing and blah blah blah. ANYWAY. The idea of self-awareness is present in The Lego Movie on every scale, from Emmet Brickowski’s (THAT’S HIS REAL NAME) dopey and uber-lovable “I’m just an idiot simpleton builder and could never be the prophesied” shtick to the ultimate breaking of the forth wall scene where we learn who the real Master Builder(s) of this universe is, this movie gets it right. Like, Wild Style is a builder in this world someone else has built. COOL. I like to imagine the list of check-offs the filmmakers had to use. How do you not fuck up a Lego film? Here is what you must include, in this order: Legos, exploitation of the franchise licensing (see: Batman, Star Wars), humor (“My name is Wild Style.” “Are you a DJ??”), color, different settings and worlds, reference to Lego users, the dichotomy of those who follow directions and those who create, and more Legos. (Admittedly I could not play with my Sand Beach Café set unless it was built just so.) 

This film was made just so freaking well. Every aspect of it satisfied me exactly how I wanted to be satisfied. The only way they could ruin it is by segueing their bloated sense of self-importance into a sequel – which as Google tells me, they are!! OH GOODY. “This sequel, Lego Movie 2 was planned even before the first film was released, so sure was Warner Bros. of its success. As it turns out, they were right. The original Lego Movie was a massive critical and financial success, making The Lego Movie 2 an easy commitment.” Geez, that even reads as self-righteous egotistical bullshit. Have they no integrity??? :Sigh: Welp, we shall see. For the record, if it were up to me, the second film would have nothing to do with the first. Why recycle that world? ….Isn’t that the point of Legos? To build, destroy, rebuild…….. at least that's what I tell that to my daughter every time her brother ruins a tower she’s been so painstakingly working on.