The popular Danish interlocking brick system has been successfully transformed into a big, vastly energetict 3D animated feature, simply called The Lego Movie, a buoyant, entertaining fare, suitable for children as well as their parents.
“The LEGO Movie” is the first full-length theatrical LEGO adventure. Emphasis is on the big-screen, since there have bee successful computer-animations on the smaller screen, such as LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Ninjago, and several popular video games.
Thus, Warner and Village Roadshow production should score big at the box-office this weekend, particularly due to the effective marketing campaign by the studio and the fact that there’s no similar picture at the market right now.
The original story follows Emmet (Chris Pratt) an ordinary, rules-abiding, average LEGO mini-figure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world. Drafted into a fellowship of strangers on an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant, Emmet is hopelessly under-prepared for such a journey.
Directors-screenwriters Phil Lord and Christopher Miller bring this story to life with a vivid voice cast that includes, in addition to Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman.
The movie offers a lot of fun, not just with dazzling state of the art CGI (orchestrated by Animal Logic), but with wacky humor, irreverent allusions to various pop culture elements..
Co-directors and writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have a good track record in the field, with such charming features as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street, and they apply their technical skills and idiosyncratic imagination to a fresh and fun topic that has not been done before.
Pratt is extremely endearing as the ordinary guy of a LEGO minifigure, nor very bright or ambitious and perfectly comfy with being passive and obeying orders as instructed. He is exactly the opposite of President Business (Ferrell), an aggressive CEO aiming to dominate the world and contemptuous of any form of individualism and creativity. His goals are carried out by the swivel-headed Bad Cop/Good Cop (Liam Neeson).
Master Builders Lord & Miller, who penned crafted the scenario from a story by Dan Hageman & Kevin Hageman (Hotel Transylvania), do a good job at keeping all the bricks and panels in motion, often in the air, and always with a good sense of humor.
The use of 3D, courtesy of Australia’s Animal Logic, is most expressive and impressive in depicting explosions and stormy waters.
Credits
Directors-screenwriters: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Executive producers: Jill Wilfert, Matthew Ashton, Kathleen Fleming, Allison Abbate, Zareh Nalbandian, Jon Burton, Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Seanne Winslow, Matt Skiena, Bruce Berman
Producers: Dan Lin, Roy Lee
Director of photography: Pablo Plaisted
Production designer: Grant Freckelton
Music: Mark Mothersbaugh
Editors: David Burrows, Chris McKay
MPAA: PG
Running time: 100 minutes.
