Among the high minded, the announcement of The Lego Movie brought immediate consternation. It certainly follows the troubling trend of toy properties being turned into full-blown features, despite the fact that the properties lack any sort of narrative underpinning. But The Lego Movie turns out to be much smarter than its predecessors. The filmmakers seem to have really thought about the core of the toy, and have emerged with a story that actually gets to the heart of playing with these blocks. It turns out that there is a philosophical struggle at the heart of Lego, and The Lego Movie explores that idea to an impressive degree.
Lord Business (Will Ferrell) has gotten his hands on the Cragle, a powerful relic from beyond the world of Lego that could cause its destruction. But there is a prophecy that a hero will emerge to find the Piece of Resistance and put an end to Lord Business’ evil schemes. That hero turns out to be Emmet (Chris Pratt), a lowly construction worker perfectly happy to follow all the instructions handed down to him by the higher ups. But with the Piece of Resistance stuck on Emmet’s back, the Master Builders have no choice but to put their faith in this reluctant hero.
The core conflict in the story lies in the two different ways that people might want to play with Lego. There are those who want to follow the instructions, and those who ignore them. The film plays this out as an epic struggle between Lord Business’ corporate robots and the non-conformist master builders, who are mainly made up of the stray licensed properties that Lego has garnered over the years. What’s interesting is that the movie doesn’t exactly take sides. It seems to be on the side of the master builders at first, decrying conformity in all forms. But then it starts to subvert that idea as well, exposing the rough edges of their anarchic philosophy.
The film’s point in the end is it doesn’t really matter how you play, as long as you’re willing to play together. It captures this sentiment through a bouncy spirit that really does feel like a bunch of kids just playing around. The story zips from non sequitur to another, the story mostly held together by the sense that the creators aren’t taking any of this too seriously. The film foregoes the smoothness of modern animation for a more retro feel, recalling the stop-motion extravaganzas of decades past. It gives the film a really unique look, and a zippier sense of fun.
Chris Pratt is perhaps the most perfect voice one could get for a film about play. Pratt always seems like he’s having fun, and the exuberant tone in his voice always conveys a weird childlike outlook. Pratt isn’t the only one who gets to have fun, though. The voice cast in general taps into a sort of childish energy, their performances seemingly drawn from a ten-year-old’s conception of what these characters should sound like. And so Liam Neeson amps up the gruffness to a satirical level. Will Arnett’s Batman indulges in the most ridiculous aspects of the character. And Will Ferrell plays the villain with the appropriate level of petulance.
The Lego Movie gets pretty messy in the middle, the plot really struggling to move its characters to where they need to be. But that’s really just the nature of play. It actually does feel like a couple of kids just making it up as they go along, mashing up all their ideas to form a story doesn’t really make much sense, but is really fun anyway. And that’s the joy of this movie. It recognized that the toys are really a blank slate on which kids can write their own stories. The film can’t quite reach the heights of other animated pictures, but there’s nothing wrong with just playing around.
My Rating:
