The Lego Movie (2014)

After a really emotionally draining watch of Virunga and seeing as it was Chinese New Year’s Eve yesterday, I decided to put off my rentals of The Theory of Everything and Boyhood (and because the run times are incredibly long), I decided to pop in The Lego Movie.  Despite all the positive reviews, I’m still a little skeptical about it.  I tried watching it on the plane once and didn’t find it all that amazing, but then I was just cranky and tired on the last leg of the trip to Asia over the summer.

Either way, I figured its worth a watch.  I’ve heard some claim that this should have gotten a Best Animated Feature nomination for Oscars so I’m curious. Plus, it has a Best Original Song for “Everything is Awesome”. With a song title like that, how could I resist? 😉

THE LEGO MOVIE (2014)

Director: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller

Voice Cast: Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Liam Neeson, Alison Brie, Jonah Hill

Bricksburg is run by instructions.  Emmet (Chris Pratt) is a construction worker that follows the rules so much that he’s a nothing to everyone around him.  That’s until he discovers the Piece of Resistance that could overturn the Kragle, a deadly weapon owned by Lord Business (Will Ferrell), the villainous mayor who hopes to destroy the city of Bricksburg by gluing everyone to the ground. With the guidance of Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) and Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) as they claim him as the Special, they set off to  find the Masterbuilders and a way to hatch a plan that will put the Piece of Resistance in place and save the world.

Thats the sequence for Everything is Awesome because thats how the movie starts.  The moment it started like that, I kind of felt like I was watching The Lorax (and I liked that one a lot!). Right from there, I’m already pretty impressed at the concept of making a movie out of Lego, which means that there’s A LOT of room for creativity and puns and all that good stuff.  Being rather skeptical with this, my expectations are a tad low but still, there was a part in the beginning that was a little meh for me.  It does pick up once we have the whole crew together to save the world.  I mean, its pretty genius once everything starts coming together. And c’mon, when you get the “The Man Above” (or whatever you call it) shows up, that was a surprise.  It pulled a really awesome ending for it.

Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself.  I’m going to admit that it was as engaging as I would’ve liked it to be.  I’ve seen better animations but it is a beautiful animation full of some pretty good dialogue and decent story plus its voiced by a ton of really talented people.  Excuse me, Morgan Freeman has THE BEST VOICE in the world.  And then the awesomeness of Liam Neeson’s unique voice was fantastic as well. It took me a little while to get on board with Chris Pratt and Emmett.  I guess, its the fact that his character wasn’t as charming as I’d like it to be but then its normal because it does reinforce how he’s really normal. You have to say though, I do love how he embraces the routine life with so much positivity in a completely not rebellious way. His character really did grow on me 🙂 I can’t remember when I really loved a role with Elizabeth Banks but her voice as Wyldstyle was pretty good as well.  Plus, I really liked the whole adding in a ton of Lego crew with a bunch of superheroes and I can’t help but love the Unikitty a lot.  Unicorns and kitty cats make me happy! 😉

With any animation, there is a simplicity when the target is all ages.  By the way, The Lego Movie is all the way great for the whole family.  There’s no mushy love scenes and its super colorful and joyful.  There’s objects you can relay to in life and playing around with that aspect.  Its time to talk about the villain, Lord Business who while he is evil in his thoughts, he definitely was kind of fun also.  It never actually gets really serious and that works for The Lego Movie.  Good job to Will Ferrell for his voice work.  He was great. Maybe he should do more animation, just saying.

Overall, The Lego Movie may be a little overrated in my mind because of all that hype that came out when it was first released.  It does have beautiful animations, great voice cast and the story is fun and light suitable for all ages.  All those things work fine.  I just didn’t find it as engaging or fall for some of the humor as much but there are some fun puns and dialogues.  It is undeniable that I’m happy the song, Everything is Awesome got an Oscar nominated but its is a bucket of fun 🙂

Have you seen The Lego Movie? What are your thoughts? What did you like the best about this?