Movie Review: ‘The Lego Movie’ Starring Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks

The thing is, though, it works.

The ensemble cast they put together to voice the characters do a phenomenal job. Morgan Freeman, the man with quite possibly the most amazing voice in history, does an excellent job as Vitruvius, one of the “master builders” whose creativity allow them to “see” plans, then put them together in quick succession. Will Arnett puts forth his best raspy voice as Batman, and Liam Neeson does a decent job as Bad Cop/Good Cop, one of the antagonists and right-hand man of President Business. There are a lot of well-known actors who lend their talents here: Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Alison Brie, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill…the list goes on.

The production values are excellent. The film is, for the most part, CG-rendered, and it’s done so beautifully. Every part of the universe is rendered as a Lego brick, and the process is seamless. There are times that the action is more stop-motion, then transitions into smooth animation. This may have been done intentionally, but it can be jarring at times.

As far as humor goes, parents need not be worried about being bored. Most children’s movies make a solid effort to provide humor that parents can appreciate, and there were several times during the movie that adult laughter drowned out the children.

As the movie progressed, I was somewhat uncertain as to how everything would tie together, but the last fifteen minutes or so were incredibly well done, but they are a bit heavy on the treacle. Still, I found myself entertained until the end, and I had a hard time finding anyone who didn’t enjoy the film.

I generally don’t see a lot of children’s films. My friends have endlessly teased me about the fact that I’ve only seen four of the animated Disney movies (not counting Pixar or CG-rendered films), but they just never really fascinated me as a child. It could be that I’ve mellowed with time and age and the fact that I now have a six-year-old niece who loves children’s movies. It could be I’m especially drawn to the subject because of my affinity for Legos. It could simply be I can appreciate a well-done movie.

Really, though, I think what drew me to it was the fact that, despite the animation and the silliness of the film, it’s not really just a children’s movie. At its heart is the relationship between not only parent and child, but the correlation between age and imagination. It seems that as we get older, many of us are forced to pack away our imagination, our creativity, the very thing that gave us the freedom to do whatever we wanted to as kids. Where Lego succeeds is due to the fact that it gives adults and children alike the ability to make a new world. We supply the vision, and the Legos give us the medium to show it to the rest of the world. It’s the fact that this film captures this spirit so perfectly…that’s what I was drawn to, and always will be.

Bottom line, if you’ve been looking for a movie to take your kids to or you just loved playing with Legos as a kid (maybe you still do, which is totally acceptable), I cannot recommend The Lego Movie highly enough. It’s got Legos, humor, action, and a little bit of romance, and it won’t hurt your feet nearly as much.

The Lego Movie gets an A.

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