Almost reaches 'Toy Story' levels of entertainment

Rating: 8/10 (8 March 2014)

Lego played a big part in my childhood. Receiving a new Lego set was the pinnacle of excitement for me as a child, whether it be Star Wars or Harry Potter, I played with it for hours upon hours. So when I heard that The Lego Movie was being made, I hoped that it would assert the same nostalgia as Toy Story evokes nowadays. Thankfully, it does.
The Lego Movie revolves around a stereotypical builder by the name of Emmet (Chris Pratt), who one day breaks the monotony of his life by discovering the 'piece of resistance'; an object which will defeat the evil Lord Business (Will Ferrel). All of this is foretold by a godly figure called Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman), who gathers a team compiled of many heroes such as Batman (Will Arnett), an adventurous girl named Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) & a 1970s astronaut figure (Charlie Day). Constantly on the tail of the group is a bi-polar police officer played by Liam Neeson, who is wholly loyal to Lord Business.
In case it isn't clear, there's a lot of celebrities featured in The Lego Movie, all of whom present their characters in an incredibly entertaining fashion. It's often argued that animation movies should hire 'real' voice-actors to play roles, but I genuinely think that The Lego Movie would be considerably worsened if people like Morgan Freeman didn't participate. From start-to-finish, the cast make the on-screen action all the more enjoyable to watch, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
The Lego Movie is also just a fun movie to watch. Although it's highly likely that the majority, if not everything was produced through CGI, within the world of the movie it is all Lego. Even the ocean is made with thousands of individual pieces of Lego, which just makes it a very fun film to take in, and draws you in even more. I'd imagine the fight- scenes within the film took a very long time to produce, as every explosion and gunshot is created entirely out of the globally-recognised pieces of plastic.
Similar to the many great films Pixar have produced over the years, the humour in The Lego Movie appeals to both children and adults. I found myself laughing consistently throughout, some times far more than in any comedy I have watched recently. There's not as many jokes which appeal exclusively to adults which may be found in movies like Toy Story, but the humour definitely isn't dumbed-down for the sake of the main audience. I'd easily recommend it to anybody and be surprised if they didn't find something to like.
The only major issue I held with The Lego Movie was the twist towards the end. Without spoiling anything, it will either undermine the movie for you or make it even more enjoyable. I personally found it to do a bit of both, and actually result in a slightly emotional scene, but some may argue that it detracts from the film as a whole.