The Lego Movie

Rating: 8/10 (21 February 2014)

Since 1949 the popular line of construction toys have been entertaining children and all the family for generations, becoming a worldwide brand of not just the colourful interlocking plastic bricks and small figures, but with merchandising, games, books/magazines, clothing, stores and theme parks/hotels, becoming the most successful toy of all time, now at last Lego (made in Denmark, the Danish name translated means "play well") becomes a movie, from the creators of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Basically eight and a half years ago wizard Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) failed to stop evil Lord Business (Will Ferrell) from stealing super weapon the "Kragle", but he warned the villain a prophecy where a person called the "Special" will find the Piece of Resistance which will stop the weapon. Ordinary construction worker Emmet Brickowoski (Chris Pratt) spots a woman called Wyldstyle (Slither's Elizabeth Banks) searching for something at the construction site, investigating he falls into a hole and unintentionally finds the Piece of Resistance, touches it he experiences vivid visions and wakes up with it attached to his back, he is held in custody by Lord Business's lieutenant Bad Cop (also Good Cop), he learns about the villain's plan to destroy the world with the Kragle. Wyldstyle rescues Emmet and takes him to Vitruvius who explains they are "Master Builders", they can build anything they need, in great speed without manuals, Lord Business disapproved of this creativity and stole the Kragle (a tube of "Krazy Glue") for his eventual plan to freeze the universe perfectly in place, as the "Special" Emmet is destined to stop him, but he has no creativity of his own. Bad Cop becomes more obedient to villain (with Good Cop rubbed away) and he is determined to track the heroes down, Wyldstyle's boyfriend Batman (Ratatouille's Will Arnett) rescues them, they all travel Cloud Cuckoo Land, where all Master Builders characters remain and can build anything they want. The characters are unimpressed with Emmet being the supposed "chosen one", they refuse to help fight Lord Business, then the land is attacked, everyone is captured but Emmet, Wyldstyle, Batman, Unikitty the unicorn cat (Alison Brie), Benny the insane astronaut (Horrible Bosses' Charlie Day) and Metal Beard the robotic pirate (Nick Offerman), Emmet becomes leader and believes they should work together, so they build a plane to invade Lord Business's headquarters. They almost succeed, but are captured, Vitruvius is killed, before dying he admits the prophecy was made up, Business throws the Piece of Resistance off the edge of the universe and sets the headquarters to self-destruct, taking the Kragle and leaving Bad Cop behind, the ghost of Vitruvius tells Emmet although the prophecy was untrue he can still save the world, he takes the self-destruct device and sacrifices himself falling into the edge of the universe. The Master Builders escape and are inspired by Wyldstyle's message of Emmet's bravery, rallying together with Bad Cop, who has his Good Cop face restored with marker pen, they charge against Lord Business. In fact Emmet is not dead, he fell into the real world, the story has all been in the imagination of a little boy, Finn (Jadon Sand), and his father aka "The Man Upstairs" (Will Ferrell) is unhappy his son is playing with his personal Lego set, mixing characters together and jumbling new creations, the child argues Lego is for children, but the father wants things permanently glued together. Back in the Lego world Emmet realises what The Man Upstairs will do, so he forces himself to move, getting Finn's attention, the boy returns him to the set and gives him the Master Builder abilities to confront Lord Business, the father looks at Finn's creations, finds himself impressed, and notices the villain is based on him, he has a change of heart and allows his son to play with the Lego whenever he wants. In the end Lord Business is convinced that all should be free to do whatever they want, he destroys the Kragle and unfreezes all his victims, this in the real world is the father removing all super glue from the Lego set, and Batman steps down allowing Emmet and Wyldstyle, real name Lucy, to celebrate freedom and embrace, but a new threat comes to the Lego world, the father will allow Finn's little sister to play with the set as well, so Duplo alien creatures will invade and plan to destroy them. Also starring Channing Tatum as Superman, Jonah Hill as Green Lantern. Billy Dee Williams as Lando, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Keith Ferguson as Han Solo, Will Forte as Abraham Lincoln, Shaquille O'Neal as Shaq, Cobie Smulders as Wonder Woman, Jorma Taccone as Shakespeare, Dave Franco, James's brother as Wally and Graham Miller as Duplo. Pratt is good as the unreliable but enthusiastic hero, Ferrell is terrific as the memorable villain and in real life as the father, Freeman is good support as the wise blind wizard, Arnett gets good puns and lines as Batman, and the other supporting voices, including the cameos, are great fun too. It is odd to think that this film is all computer animated, because it looks so much like stop motion in the way that it plays out, but that was the intention, it makes everything look more realistic, and adds to the charm and the humour, the dialogue and sight gags are all funny for all ages, and the use of the colourful bricks for everything you can imagine absolutely works, and it has a good message how imagination and freedom of expression is very positive and inspiring, an awesome computer-animated action comedy. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Song for "Everything is Awesome", it won the BAFTA for Best Animated Feature Film, it won the BAFTA Children's Award for Best Feature Film, and it was nominated for the BAFTA Kids Vote - Feature Film, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film. Lego was number 1 on The 100 Greatest Toys, and Batman was number 84 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons. Very good!