THE LEGO MOVIE

2014, Warner Brothers

Animation

Rating: PG

Approx. 100 mins.

THE STORY:

Emmet (Chris Pratt) is a construction worker Lego piece who does, thinks and builds what he is told to. His greatest skill appears to be following the rules, but this leaves him lonely and completely unmemorable to his coworkers and acquaintances. His safe, anonymous life is turned upside down one day, though, when he discovers a strange non-Lego piece, the Piece of Resistance, which becomes attached to him. Before he knows it, Emmet has been mistaken for The Special, a great Master Builder hero prophesied to save the Lego world from destruction at the hands of the evil Lord Business (Will Ferrell).

It soon becomes apparent that Emmet is no Master Builder, yet he still manages, alongside heroine Wyldstyle/ Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), god-like Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) and flawed super-hero Batman (Will Arnett) to lead the campaign to save everyone from the dreaded Kragle, a weapon that threatens to paralyze everyone and everything.

While the others are at first disappointed by Emmet and dismissive of his abilities, he proves himself an invaluable member whose out-of-the-box thinking leads the team to victory over Lord Business.

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• butt
• hate
• Oh my God
• stupid
• loser

VIOLENCE:

•  lots of shooting, explosions and other action-- but they are Lego pieces

TEACHING POINTS:

• Full of references to the potential that lies within all of us, the power that we all have to break free from the labels and expectations others apply to us
• Have faith in yourself; if you don't believe in yourself no one else will
• Rules are not always black and white: there are times when it's best not to follow rules

THE UPSHOT:

Given my past few experiences with kids' movies at the theatre, I was not expecting much. The promo I saw a few weeks ago just made me think of Robot Chicken and the like, and the whole corporate tie-in left a nasty taste in my mouth. So no one was more shocked and happy than me, when I discovered that I was completely wrong in everything I thought I knew about The Lego Movie. 

One of the issues I have with Lego these days-- aside from the amazingly inflated pricing-- is that it has gone from being a toy that inspired individualism and creativity, to being little more than a puzzle with a single solution. You buy a kit to make one specific object and you follow the proscribed methodology with near religious devotion to replicate instead of create. In the end, you spend more time interacting with the instructions than you do with the toy itself.

This movie deals with this contradiction head on, suggesting that there are different kinds of intelligence and skill, and that there is room for flexibility, mutability, anachronism and contradiction in the world. It's good to have the option of putting together a Master Builder designed Model #60047 Police Station, but it's also good to be able to make a double-decker sofa with obvious design flaws.    

On the negative side, I saw this in 3D, and experienced no benefit for having done so. There are no compelling special effects that justify the extra expense and discomfort. 

I'm not kidding myself that the 5 year-old in the room got all of the positive messaging about being yourself and believing in yourself to realize your potential, but it is so (non-cloyingly) pervasive that I'm sure she got some of it. 

Funny, creative, imaginative, suspenseful, clever. The adults and the 5 year-old in the room easily reached a consensus that this was hugely entertaining.  

4.5/5