People on the internet babble on and on about the newest, super-dee-duper-dee movies and most of the time I’m just like, “Huh? You mean this movie?  It was just an hour of Ryan Gostling staring blankly!”.

People also babble on about movies in real life, although they tend to curb their enthusiasm a little.  There’s always a, “but” in real life conversations.  “It was great action, but….”

Not only did the internet keep telling me, “Watch the Lego Movie or you’re a Nazi, pedophile, and a communist!”, but everybody who I talked to didn’t use the word, “but”.  No way was this movie gonna be good.  I had seen the craptacular Lego CGI they have been spitting out on Cartoon Network when I fell asleep watching Adult Swim and woke up to Lego Ninjago.  The only way I was convinced to go was through a bargain.  I would get to pick whatever movie I wanted next time and not only would they go, but they wouldn’t complain about it either.

Ten minutes into The Lego Movie and I realized that I made the best bargain ever.  The movie was unrelentlessly charming with the swagger of a well scripted comedy, and the style of…. Hmmmm… how do you describe the style?  It’s a combination of actual photographs of Legos (stop-animation) and carefully crafted CGI.  On top of this it was framed and shot using smart camera designs, with focus pulled to guide ones eyes right to the action and jokes.

The humor managed to make the adults laugh just as much as the children, which is an extremely hard task to juggle.  The movie wasn’t afraid to remind the audience, “Hey, these are just toys, but who cares?  Shut up and have a good time”.  With the message of the movie appealing to both sides of the work vs play debate.  There are times where structure benefits humanity and other times where creativity is the answer, but never just one.

The voice cast was fun, with Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman, and a bunch of other people who aren’t Will Ferrell or Morgan Freeman in it.

So what made it so damn charming?  I found out afterwards that the script was written by the tongue-in-cheek writers of 21 Jump Street (worth a watch, but not for the kids) and that the movie took years to shoot one frame at a time.   The love and care that I put into my weird Lego creations as a kid was just as apparant in the creation of this movie.

The movie has been in theater for a while now.   The original hype has died down, but if you haven’t seen it yet then I say go.  Go see the Lego movie or you are a Nazi, pedophile, and a communist.

Johnny Townsend

Staffwriter

johnny@sub-cultured.com