Okay, before you say anything, you know you played with LEGO bricks as a kid, and you know you’ve always wanted to go to Legoland in Florida. With that being said, I got my butt to the nearest theater to catch “The Lego Movie” on its February 7 opening night.
“The Lego Movie” packs an all-star cast. Chris Pratt heads the cast as Emmet Brickowoski, a seemingly ordinary construction worker who gets mistaken as the “Special” by a woman named Wyldstyle, and is expected to save the world from the evil Lord Business who is planning to glue everything, and “everything” of course being made of LEGO bricks, so you can see why that is quite dismal.
Will Ferrell lends his voice as Lord Business and The Man Upstairs; Liam Neeson plays Bad Cop, who has a Good Cop split-personality; Jonah Hill voices the humorously disliked Green Lantern; Elizabeth Banks as Wyldstyle; and Morgan Freeman tops everything off as Virtruvius, the wizard who made the prophecy about the “Special” saving the world, and who also is trying to train Emmet to do so.
“The Lego Movie” is full of LEGO bricks, and that’s every kid’s dream. The effects are nothing short of mind-blowing. The film was produced to mimic stop motion animation (think the “claymation” technique made famous by Tim Burton, but with LEGO bricks instead of clay figures), and was produced through The Lego Group’s own Lego Digital Designer, which “uses the official LEGO Brick Library and effectively simulates the connectivity of each of the bricks,” CG supervisor of the film, Aidan Sarsfield, explains. Thanks to this astonishing animation you really feel like you are in a world made entirely of LEGO bricks.
“The Lego Movie” is not just a film for children, in case you may have thought so. Everyone can find something to enjoy about it, but you’ll probably love the entire film. The film does have some rude humor, hence its PG rating. I found myself laughing hysterically from start to finish.
Take your children, your younger siblings, your neighbor’s children, or even borrow a kid for an hour and 40 minutes (don’t actually kidnap a child, come on). Do whatever you have to in order to go watch “The Lego Movie.” If you’re a loner like me, just go enjoy it by yourself. Everyone could use a good laugh. Be warned, you’ll probably leave humming the theme song. On my Most Awesome Rating Scale, “The Lego Movie” gets an eight out of ten.