The Lego Movie

DVD cover

by Billy Hayes and William Hoffer

***The Lego Movie*** is a 2014 American–Australian—Danish stop-motion/computer animated adventure comedy film directed and co-written by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, and featuring the voices of Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Charlie Day with Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman. Based mainly on the Lego line of construction toys, but also on the book *Midnight Express*, the film tells the story of an ordinary Lego minifigure named Emmet prophesied to save the Lego universe from the tyrannical Lord Business.

The film was released theatrically on February 7, 2014. It was a critical and commercial success, with many critics highlighting its visual style, humor, voice acting and heartwarming message. It earned more than $254 million in North America and $206 million internationally for a worldwide total of over $468 million, becoming the most commercially successful animated film produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures to date.

At the 41st Saturn Awards, the film has been nominated for Best Animated Film. It's the second film version of the book by Billy Hayes and William Hoffer, following a live-action version released in 1978 by Columbia Pictures.

A Ninjago themed spin off is set for release on September 22, 2017, and a sequel is scheduled to be released on February 8, 2019.

## Characters

Billy Hayes (referred to as: Emmet Brickowski to fit with the Lego universe of Bricksburg)Susan Kahre (Nicknamed Wyldstyle. First name referred to as Lucy for the 2019 sequel.)Batman (debut in franchise; crossover character)Benny (debut)Vitruvius (debut)Lord Business (debut)Lego Duplo Aliens (debut at the end)Princess Unikitty (debut)
### Alternate designs

Billy Hayes/Emmet Brickowski (Lego design)Susan Kahre/Wyldstyle (a.k.a. Lucy) (Lego design)
## Plot

Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) attempts to protect a superweapon called the "Kragle" from the evil Lord Business (Will Ferrell). He fails to do so and its blinded. He prophesies that a person called "the Special" will find the Piece of Resistance capable of stopping the Kragle.

Eight and a half years later, while on vacation in Bricksburg (in a Lego version of Istanbul, Turkey, Billy Hayes (Chris Pratt) comes across a mysterious woman, who searches for something after hours at the construction site. When he investigates, Bill falls into a hole and finds the Piece of Resistance, a red, giant piece of Hashish. Compelled to touch it, Bill experiences vivid visions and passes out. He awakens in the custody of Bad Cop (Liam Neeson), Business' lieutenant, with the Piece of Resistance attached to his back. There, Bill learns of Business' plans to freeze the world with the Kragle, revealed to be a tube of Krazy Glue with the label partially rubbed out. The same woman he found before, which turns out to be his girlfriend, Susan Kahre (Elizabeth Banks), comes to visit Bill, rescues him, and takes him to meet Vitruvius in The Old West, explaining that she and the wizard are Master Builders capable of building anything they need without instruction manuals. She further explains Business' disapproval of such anarchic creativity, for which most of them are incarcerated. When she gets thrown in the cowboy's wagon, her legs grow taller, her coat and pants morph and merge into an old fashioned Western dress, and her coat hood falls off. As a finished result, Bill's girlfriend, Sue, has transformed into a large cowgirl. Though disappointed to find Bill displays no creativity, Sue and Vitruvius are convinced of his potential when he recalls visions of a humanoid deity called "The Man Upstairs".

Bad Cop tracks down Bill, Sue, and Vitruvius. They are rescued by Batman and taken to Cloud Cuckoo Land, home of Princess UniKitty (Alison Brie) where a council of the remaining Master Builders, who are unimpressed with Emmet and refuse to fight Business. Due to unspotted tracking device, Bad Cop and his forces attack and capture all the Master Builders except for Emmet, Wyldstyle, Vitruvius, Batman, Unikitty and the spaceman named Benny (Charlie Day) who escaped in quickly-built submarine. After the submarine is wrecked, they are rescued by Metal Beard (Nick Offerman). Bill believes the Master Builders' weakness is that their individual creativity prevents them from working together. He devises a team plan to infiltrate Business' headquarters, but he and his allies are captured and imprisoned, while Vitruvius is decapitated by Lord Business with a penny. With his dying words, Vitruvius reveals he made up the prophecy. Business throws the Piece of Resistance off the edge of the universe, sets his headquarters to self-destruct, and leaves the Master Builders and Bad Cop to die. Vitruvius' ghost appears before Bill and explains it was not the prophecy, but his self-belief that made him the Special. Tied to the self-destruct mechanism's battery, Bill flings himself off the edge of the universe to save his friends, who escape further danger with the aid of Bad Cop. Inspired by Bill's sacrifice, Sue rallies the Lego people across the universe to use whatever creativity they have to build machines and weapons to fight Business' forces, with the Master Builders leading the charge.

Bill finds himself in the real world, where the events of the story are being played out within the imagination of a boy, Finn (Jadon Sand), on his father's Lego set in a basement. The father—revealed as "The Man Upstairs" (Will Ferrell) and Finn's inspiration for Business—chastises his son for ruining the set by creating hodgepodges of different characters and playsets, and proceeds to permanently glue his perceived perfect creations together. Realizing the danger his friends are in, Bill wills himself to move and gains Finn's attention. Finn returns Bill and the Piece of Resistance and fights his way onto Lord Business' ship. In the real world, Finn's father looks at his son's creations again and is impressed. Realizing Finn based the villainous Lord Business on him, the father has a change of heart and allows his son to play with his Lego however he sees fit. In the Lego world, Bill tells Business that he, too, is special, as is everyone. Moved by Bill's speech, Business caps the Kragle with the Piece of Resistance and unglues his victims with mineral spirits. As Bill celebrates with his friends and his girlfriend Sue (Revealing her last name as Kahre), the Duplo Aliens beam down and announce their invasion as a result of the father allowing Finn's younger sister to play with his Lego sets as well.

## Reception

The Lego Movie received universal acclaim with reviewers highlighting the film's story, visuals, music, humour, voice-acting and heart-warming message. It holds a rating of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 8.1/10 based on 200 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Boasting beautiful animation, a charming voice cast, laugh-a-minute gags, and a surprisingly thoughtful story, The Lego Movie is colorful fun for all ages." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 based on reviews from critics, the film has a score of 82 (indicating "universal acclaim") based on 42 reviews. According to CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, the average grade cinemagoers gave The Lego Movie was A on an A+ to F scale. Filmmaker Edgar Wright and TIME Magazine film critic Richard Corliss have respectively named The Lego Movie as one of their favorite films of 2014.

Writer Billy Hayes gave the film a negative review, saying it was insulting to him and the country of Turkey. *The Lego Movie* was banned in Turkey, and remains banned, due to its disrespectful portrayal of the country, as is the case with most other adaptions of Midnight Express.

## Differences between the original and the Lego counterpart

* In the 1978 film and the book, Billy got the drug from a Taxicab driver, but in this one, he finds it underground in the construction site instead.
* Billy and Susan's skins are tan in the original, whilst in the Lego version they are yellow.
* Susan's look is different between the original and the remake. She did not wear a ponytail or coat in the original.
* Billy's dad, Mr. Hayes, and the prison guard Hamidou, are absent in this version.
* In this one, Sue meets Bill at the 14-minute mark, but in the original, it happens at the 99-minute mark. 5 years also pass without a time card.
* In the original, Bill took the "Midnight Express", but in the Lego remake, Sue took him out of jail instead.
* In the 1978 film, Hamidou dies after Susan Kahre's visit with Billy Hayes and after Billy's boss battle with him. In the 2014 Lego remake, Hamidou is never seen; he died two years before Susan's visit like real life and the book.
* In this one, the police attempts to execute Bill using the Melting Chamber, but then his girlfriend saves him from death. The original one's case has him escape from jail (and death sentence) instead.

## Full movie

Click here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1exzWgPQOXeauepX3\_N93QJMlEnaB43KT/view

## Trivia

* Some theaters did not have the equipment to show scope films, so Warner Bros. issued two versions of the film: one in widescreen (CinemaScope 55 - 2.35:1) for theaters that have the equipment to show scope films, and another in the Academy ratio (Spherical - 1.37:1), which was matted to 1.78:1 and made for exhibition in theaters that don't have the equipment to show scope films. This involved gathering the CGI animators to crop it to 1.78:1, first by cropping it to various screen sides, then reanimate the scenes with unseen top and bottom halves to create an open matte version. This version, dubbed the "Spherical" version, was intended for exhibition in the 1.78:1 High Definition TV aspect ratio for theaters that don't have the ability to show scope movies.
* Irene Miracle, Susan's original portrayer for Midnight Express, was too old to reprise her role at the time of the film's production, so they had to choose Elizabeth Banks as the new portrayer for Billy Hayes's girlfriend, Susan Kahre.
* All North American iTunes, Ultraviolet HD, 4K Ultra HD, DVD and Blu-ray/digital and streaming releases of this film use the original anamorphic CinemaScope 55 version of the film. However, the Academy ratio/Spherical version of this film was made available on TV airings and the Xfinity On Demand and Freeform streaming websites (albeit matted to HDTV ratio), as well as in open matte form alongside the CinemaScope 55/Anamorphic version on the international DVD and Blu-ray versions (such as the European (including UK and Germany) and Australian PAL DVD and Blu-ray release, and on the Mexican and Japanese NTSC DVD and Blu-ray versions).