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[tab title="Movie Review"]

The Lego Movie

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4 stars

Raise your hand if you thought making yet another movie based on a children’s toy was a terrible idea. And keep it up if The Lego Movie’s trailers did nothing to convince you otherwise that a feature-length movie starring those dastardly little plastic land mines would end up with the same disastrous fate as so many other game-to-movie conversions… we’re looking at you, Battleship. Put your hands down. We were wrong.

Other than convincing a wary movie-going public to give the genre another try, the biggest challenge the makers of The Lego Movie faced was to create an engaging movie that doesn’t play like a feature-length commercial for the LEGO Corporation. While sales of Lego bricks will undoubtedly skyrocket in the wake of the film’s release (boosted by the company’s nauseatingly obtrusive store-front displays), selling product is not the film’s primary intent. In fact, its message of innovation, creativity, and the importance of change is actually quite rebellious in spirit, encouraging young kids to defy conformity by ignoring the instruction sheets that accompany Lego sets and build whatever suits their fancy.

The film’s visuals, some of the most immersive you’ll see in any animated film, are computer generated but resemble stop-motion animation. And true to the building block’s interlocking form, everything you see on the screen is rendered with the signature pixelated structure, as if it could have been assembled with actual  Lego blocks. It was important to director Phil Lord and Christopher Miller to give the film an accessible hand-made look that rings true to the do-it-yourself aesthetic of Lego construction. Just one more in the long list of brilliant choices by the makers of The Lego Movie.

There are two kinds of Lego builders: those who follow instructions on the package, build a perfectly erected kit that looks exactly like the image on the box, before putting the creation on the shelf to never be moved again; then there are those content to dig into the middle of a pile of mismatched bricks and construct a conglomeration born from their own imagination before destroying it in a heap of acrylic destruction. It’s from these two different approaches that The Lego Movie builds its wonderful premise, which is really about tapping into creativity and the idea that everyone is special in their own unique way.

Yellow-faced, coverall-clad construction worker Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt) is of the former type. He’s an ordinary rules-following, perfectly average Lego minifigure content to live exactly by the instruction manual provided by President Business (Will Ferrell), aka Lord Business, an uptight CEO who has a hard time balancing his thirst for world domination with micro-managing his own life. President Business likes a corporate world where everything is regimented and under constant surveillance. Emmet is just fine with that.

Emmet soon meets the lovely Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) who he discovers is looking for the one thing that – as told by prophecy in the form of white-bearded Vesuvius (Morgan Freeman) – can block Lord Business’s evil plan to dominate the world: The Piece of Resistance. So, when that piece mysteriously turns up on Emmet’s back, the guy who was perfectly content to simply blend in suddenly becomes The Special, the most important minifigure in the Lego universe.

On its surface, the story being told in The Lego Movie is an unassumingly delightful little cross-genre tale that entertains the kiddos with an oddly diverse blend of Transformers action, superhero characters, and Pixar visuals. In fact, some of the scenes even feel cobbled together, just like a Lego creation. But there’s a genius at work beneath the surface which slowly begins to reveal itself before crescendoing into one of the most extraordinarily heartwarmingly climaxes we’ve seen in quite some time. Plenty of Lego spoofs get thrown around, and the film’s message of creativity and independent thought – though omnipresent – never comes off as preachy or overbearing.

Though none of the jokes are of the particularly belly-aching variety, there are a lot of them. And they come at such a blistering pace, a second viewing is certainly in order to catch all the witty banter and amusing hijinks that slipped by the first time. And to again experience that wonderfully impassioned zenith where eye-popping visuals soon give way to emotional depth and wondrous delight. Watch out Pixar! Warner Animation Group is hot on your heels.

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[tab title="Film Details"]

The Lego Movie

MPAA Rating: PG for mild action and rude humor.
Runtime:
100 mins
Director
: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Writer
: Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman
Cast:
Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks, Craig Berry
Genre
: Family | Animated | Adventure
Tagline:
The story of a nobody who saved everybody
Memorable Movie Quote: "AND DON'T FORGET TACO TUESDAY'S COMING NEXT WEEK!"
Distributor:
Warner Bros.
Official Site:
thelegomovie.warnerbros.com/index.html
Release Date:
February 7, 2014
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
June 17, 2014

Synopsis: The original 3D computer animated story follows Emmet, an ordinary, rules-following, perfectly average LEGO minifigure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world. He is drafted into a fellowship of strangers on an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant, a journey for which Emmet is hopelessly and hilariously underprepared.

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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

The Lego Movie - Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - June 17, 2014
Screen Formats: 2.40:1
Subtitles
: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; French: Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1; Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD); UV digital copy; Digital copy; DVD copy
Region Encoding: Region-free

This might be the best looking blu-ray presentation released yet.  Warner Bros. gave this absolutely wonderful movie an equally wonderful treatment.  The bright transfer is simply superb.  The 1080p video presentation, complete with a rich color palette, is awesome.  The transfer captures the vivid life of the candy-colored characters.  The amount that you can see in a single shot of The LEGO Movie will make this Blu-Ray a favorite for frame analysis – simply every second is filled with sumptuous color, depth and detail.  The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track somehow matches the video quality in terms of quality.  It’s an immersive, engaging mix that never ceases to impress.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  • The fun and informative feature commentary is indeed pretty awesome.  Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are joined by Chris Pratt, Will Arnett, Charlie Day, and Alison Brie. Much of the commentary is useful for seeing all the Easter eggs included in the movie.

Special Features:

The film comes with many special features. It seems like less and less features are making their way to discs these days, and it’s great to see such a good movie have so many different special features.  While the outtakes and deleted scenes are fairly worthless, the bevy of bonus material is interesting.  You get a look at the animators behind the scenes as they prep the LEGO shoot.  You also get a sharp sense of humor with much of the material.  This is indeed a laugh-a-minute. As one designer put it, their challenge was making really cool and original LEGO inventions for the movie that could also be translated into easily marketable products for kids down the line. Peeking behind the scenes of something like The LEGO Movie is really awesome

  • Batman’s A True Artist (1 min)
  • Michelangelo & Lincoln: History Cops (1 min)
  • Enter The Ninjago (2 min)
  • Behind the Scenes: Bringing LEGO to Life (13 min)
  • “Everything Is Awesome” Sing-Along (3 min)
  • Behind the Scenes: See It, Build It! •Introduction with Senior Designer Michael Fuller (1 min)
  • Build the Double-Decker Couch (4 min)
  • Build Emmet’s Car (3 min)
  • Introduction with Modeling Artist Adam Ryan (1 min)
  • Digital Double-Decker Couch (2 min)
  • Digital Emmet’s Car (2 min)
  • Dream Job: Meet the LEGO Builders (13 min)
  • Alleyway Test (1 min)
  • Deleted Scenes (3 min)
  • Outtakes (2 min)

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[tab title="Trailer"]

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