"The Lego Movie" a Blockbuster

If you have ever put Lego bricks together and felt a spark of ingenuity—ever—Phil Lord and Christopher Miller know the feeling. The writer-directors’ “The Lego Movie” succeeds in its devotion to the tiny plastic source material, building touching themes as well as action comedy from the multicolored bricks. Though family-appropriate, it’s a film for Lego devotees of all ages, with clever humor and a dazzling visual language that older audiences can appreciate. It’s great fun and as intricately constructed as those police stations, spaceships, and mummy tombs of so many childhood memories.

Its hero’s first sequence is a stunner: Emmet (Chris Pratt) wakes and consults “Instructions” to start his day as a construction worker in Bricksburg—a cheery metropolis under the constant surveillance of President Business (Will Ferrell). The bustling brick streets are breathtaking from every angle, resembling the wild worlds of Miller and Lord’s “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” franchise, and the yellow-headed citizens of Bricksburg singing Tegan and Sara & The Lonely Island’s theme “Everything is AWESOME!!!” sets the film’s tone. The happy homogeneity of the city is an example of the film’s best innovation—using Lego components like pieces and instructions to address themes of conformity and creativity.

The film takes Emmet and co. from Bricksburg to the Wild West and the high seas, from the iridescent paradise of Cloud Cuckoo Land to the robotic skyscraper of President Business, in a quest to use the “Piece of Resistance” to destroy Business’s superweapon. The Legoscapes are immense; the CGI brick renderings of explosions, water, and smoke are predictably beautiful. Miller and Lord’s most interesting effect, though, is a jerkiness of the frame and of background motion—the passage of time in the film seems to progress in chunky increments, befitting a film about Lego bricks.

Nor do the directors overlook the bricks’ opportunities for action and for comedy. The former sequences are excitingly done—construction cranes reassembled into an “Aliens” loader-style robot for a city-wrecking fight scene, a Western saloon rebuilt into a hang glider—but not overdone to the point where every obstacle seems navigable by brick-craft. The humor draws from the diversity of Lego’s product lines, as in a scene with the Council of Master Builders—where Renaissance artist Michelangelo sits next to his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle counterpart, Dumbledore bickers with Gandalf, and a frustrated Abe Lincoln bellows, “A house divided against itself would be better than this!” before rocketing off in a flying chair.

The film steers largely clear of the repetition jokes or bathroom humor of its genre, and it incorporates Lego’s franchise characters for smart pop-culture humor. The voice actors’ casting plays in: the entrance of the Millennium Falcon yields “Star Wars” allusions sweetened by Anthony Daniels voicing C-3P0, as he did in the saga. Perhaps cleverest, the directors riff off their own “21 Jump Street” with an awkward friendship between Superman and Green Lantern, voiced by Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill.

It’s the intent, though, that is what’s special about “The Lego Movie.” It includes suggestions of a world outside the Lego universe—this world—in moves more reminiscent of “Monsters University” (or “Twilight Zone”) than “Toy Story.” There’s a Band-Aid here, a backdrop that looks like construction paper there. These are funny, but they’re also statements of purpose.

They’re reminders that “The Lego Movie” isn’t just a movie with Lego, but a movie about Lego. The film considers what the interlocking toy represents to its viewers more actively and with more complexity than “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” does with food, than “Cars” does with cars. It builds themes of imagination and individuality up from the limitless possibilities of the bricks. This ethos powers its most inventive scenes, like a particularly stunning visualization of Emmet’s mind and a brilliant ending.

The problem with linking the film’s themes so closely to the experience of building with Lego is that for moviegoers without enthusiasm (or nostalgia) for the toy, those themes may feel empty or extraneous. That said, these people will enjoy “The Lego Movie” anyway—it’s a smart, fun, beautiful film. Its brick-based action and humor are sheer entertainment, its thematic material a loving tribute to the building toy. It takes in everything that’s great about Lego, and that makes for one of the best animated films in years.

—Staff writer Austin Siegmund-Broka can be reached at asiegemund-broka@college.harvard.edu.