The Lego Movie - Movie Review

No beating around the bush, The Lego Movie is a very fun, very funny movie. I went to a screening on opening night – one of only a few times I have done so. Why rush out to see a movie like this? Because to me, The Lego Movie is one of a select group of movies that are hilarious, pure fun. It was obvious from the promotional material that this movie would be really fun – and it delivers on that promise.

The Lego Movie is about a regular guy – Emmett – who has a great adventure before him. With friends like the mysterious girl Wyldstyle and Batman, Unikitty (yes, a cat who is a unicorn) and Random 80's Lego Astronaut, the fate of the whole Lego world rests in Emmett’s plungers... I mean, plastic lego hands.

There was a new logo tacked on the front of the movie: WAG “Warner Animation Group”. It was a cool design for a logo and one I hadn't seen before. Perhaps this indicates a renewed focus on animation for Warner Bros. That would be a welcome trend, if the Lego Movie is anything to go by.

Let me go a bit deeper. There are two things I don't like about some family movies.

Case study #1: the Madagascar syndrome. These are the problems with the Madagascar movies: The humour is too crazy and too quick. I need time to think between jokes. This was the case x 1000 with the Spongebob movie which I had the burden of seeing at a school once. And the Madagascar movies are not one big story like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. They are too episodic for my liking.

Case Study #2: Kinda Happy Feet. So, Happy Feet was animated by the same studio as The Lego Movie, Aussie group Animal Logic. But I have a feeling that The Lego Movie was written in Hollywood by different people than Happy Feet. Anyway, The villains in Happy Feet were the elders of the penguin community, of whom the spokesperson was a grizzly old male penguin. The thing I didn't like was that he used religious jargon and all of it was used negatively. I didn't appreciate words I was familiar with through my faith being used in that way. That is was ruined the film for me. That and the egotistic artistry and mostly un-engaging storyline.

So I like to avoid movies I think will fall in the areas of crazy-random-empty to serious-miguided-empty. To me, The Lego Movie was fun, family friendly and hilarious! I wasn't the only audience member laughing their socks off in the theatre. I had to pick all the socks up when the lights came up :P

By Jonathan