LEGOmagination

Rating: 8/10 (12 February 2014)

There is a major third-act twist in this movie
****SPOILERS****
in which it is revealed that 95% of the movie's running time takes place within one ten-year-old kid's imagination. I have no trouble believing that. In fact, the best way I can describe The Lego Movie is that it is exactly like being inside the imagination of a child.
This movie is teeming with life in every frame. Colorful characters, insane shifts in scenery, and one wild idea after the next. It frequently throws so much STUFF at us that it becomes overwhelming, and honestly the movie would be kind of a mess if it weren't so charmingly executed. We can forgive its excesses because we're actually invested in the story, we care about the characters, and the movie is constantly amusing us with smart jokes and delightful visuals. Each role is well-played. Everyone will come out with a different favorite character: my favorite was the 1980's spaceman played by Charlie Day.
As I mentioned earlier, we find out in the last ten minutes that this is actually the story of an inventive son and his overly controlling father. It's a nice twist and I like the introduction of reality into the story, but it does confuse the overall message: is the movie about believing in yourself no matter what, or is it about having freedom to build what you want with your life, or -- even more confusingly -- are we actually supposed to follow the instructions? Or is it about learning to let go of control? There are a lot of ideas going on in this story, and like I said, it's like watching the imagination of a child: scattered, free-wheeling, painting on a huge canvas, fuzzy on the details.
There are so many cameos that we can't feel the punch of most of them (though Jonah Hill had a great role as the Green Lantern to Channing Tatum's Superman.) But most of the material lands anyway, and you can't help but enjoy yourself while watching it. I have to throw this in there too: what was so wrong with Batman that Wildstyle left him? He seemed like a decent guy, honestly. Everybody was just OK with that whole switch, and it felt wrong to me.
Overall though, this movie is quite creative, BUILDS well on its concept (couldn't resist) and is constantly fun to watch. If you have kids, I guarantee you they'll love it.