Warner Bros’ The LEGO Movie is one of the best in 2014
THE LEGO Movie is a grand exercise in product placement yet this animated comedy also just happens to be one of the best movies of 2014.
Leigh Paatsch
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BLOCKBUSTERS? Pffft. Dime a dozen, they are. With the American summer drawing near, pretty soon the big, bloated things will be everywhere.
A block-by-blockbuster? Now that is something that ain’t been done before. Welcome to The LEGO Movie, then.
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While it is indeed the grand exercise in product placement that the branded title suggests, there is no need for concern, nor any possibility of disappointment.
For this animated comedy also just happens to be one of the best movies of 2014.
The anything-goes creative ethos that is the very spirit of LEGO has applied to all elements of this production.
While everything snaps together as a complete all-ages offering should, the filmmakers are not afraid to seize a moment to quickly pull everything apart and build something different.
Just as the conceptual agility of The LEGO Movienever ceases to astonish — it will take at least three viewings to fully take in every last detail applied here — the visuals both innovate and resonate to heights only previously scaled by Pixar.
The animaters have fused cutting-edge CGI and traditional stop-motion techniques to piece together a complete LEGO universe.
While we already know there isn’t much in the real world that LEGO cannot replicate, The LEGO Movie finds new and wondrous ways to make it all move. And make it all matter.
To cap it all off, the ingenious plotting of The LEGO Movie is both playfully subversive, and just great fun to play around with.
The evil mastermind, President Business (Will Ferrell), has taken over the world by tricking every last citizen into thinking their life is amazing.
There is no such thing as an individual any more, and no one seems to notice.
Everyone is too busy watching the hit TV sitcom Where Are My Pants?, which is basically an endlessly looped catchphrase. Everyone is also chanting the same chart-topping anthem (a ridiculously catchy tune called Everything Is Awesome!) around the clock, buying the same overpriced coffee, and saying the same inane things about everything.
However, for lowly construction worker Emmett (voiced by Chris Pratt), something just doesn’t fit right about the world around him.
A rebellious mystery woman known as Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) might be able to bring Emmett up to speed on what is really going on. After all, she is going out with Batman (Will Arnett).
The killer app inside the magnificent machine of The LEGO Movie is the vast array
of characters, settings and events it can summon at a moment’s notice.
The LEGO company has licenced so many likeness rights over the years that the filmmakers have every excuse to tell a crazy tale, where disparate figures such as Wonder Woman, Superman, Han Solo, Abraham Lincoln and Gandalf the Grey all have relevant roles to play.
Better still, The LEGO Movie sets a cracking pace with its humour, unleashing a non-stop barrage of clever one-liners and dazzling sight gags that play equally strongly across all age groups.
Which is not to say The LEGO Movieit doesn’t wear its shiny plastic heart out on its sleeve when circumstances dictate. Even the straight sentimental scenes pay their way without cheapening the overall experience.
Unlike most animated productions in the current climate, The LEGO Movie is not here to temporarily impress. It is here to leave a lasting impression.
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