Everything is Awesome: The Lego Movie thread

[mauve]

I went to go see The Lego Movie today with my family and I was pleasantly surprised by just how fun it was. The writing was silly and actually elicited real laughs from me on several occasions, both from visual gags and the dialogue. And the humor is actually 100% child-friendly, which is more than can be said for a lot of the stuff coming out of Dreamworks and the like lately-- there's very little in the way of adult humor or fart/poop/butt jokes, which is refreshing, and it's still legitimately funny.

So what's the story? Well, The Lego Movie revolves around Emmet, a completely-ordinary-to-the-point-of-boring construction worker who stumbles across the Piece of Resistance, a mystical relic which has the power to stop a horrible superweapon known as the KraGle (pronounced CRAGGLE). Legend has foretold of a master builder, called The Special, rising up to wield the Piece of Resistance against the evil Lord Business, who plans to use the KraGle to destroy the world. Predictably, Emmet is mistaken for The Special and is brought to meet with the Master Builders, the greatest LEGO heroes in the world. This group includes WyldSide (look, yes, she made up her own name. IT'S A PHASE SHE WENT THROUGH OKAY?!), Batman, 80's Spaceman, MetalBeard the robo-pirate, and UniCat the pink unicorn kitty, along with many recognizable pop culture LEGO figures from Ninja Turtles to Lord of the Rings to Star Wars. And pretty much any time the Builders are onscreen is hilariously awesome. It's up to Emmet to fulfill the prophecy and save the bricks of the LEGO universe before Lord Business unleashes the evil power of the KraGle (I won't reveal what the KraGle turns out to be), under the clever guise of Free Taco Tuesday. Kinda standard-issue main plot, but it's still fun and manages to pull a few surprises I didn't expect.

So yeah, it's silly. And it works because it's silly. It doesn't try to take itself too seriously, but it doesn't act like a blatant 2-hour commercial for LEGO bricks either. It has great voice acting, fun writing, and a nice message about creativity and individuality. Animation is top-notch too: It's CG designed to look like stop action, and it works really well. Almost everything on screen is designed to look like LEGO bricks, from the flames and smoke of an explosion to the rolling waves of a stormy ocean, and they look really nice. They even play a lot of gags off of the fact that everything is made of plastic and some things don't have moving parts.

I really liked this movie, a lot more than I expected to. Did anyone else see it?

[Amake]

I'll have to wait for the home video release to watch it in the original English, cause the dubbed trailer I've seen put me off considerably. Aside from the usual halfhearted efforts from the actors because animation equals kiddy movie equals who cares, they seem to have had an even lower budget than usual judging by the fact a prominent character who I suppose is Emmet is voiced by the same guy narrating the trailer. Does that sound right to you? A disembodied standard-issue trailer-gravel voice dramatically talks about the chosen one who's going to save the world et cetera, then faces the camera and says, sans gravel, "Yeah, that's me"?

So silly. I just had to vent about it. I'm sure the real movie is very good. Carry on.

[phil_]

So, I just get to watch the credits over and over and over. How sarcastic/sincere is the song "Everything is Awesome?" 'Cause some of those lyrics kinda made me cringe back when I could still hear them as anything but white noise (because that's what happens to every song after a while). "Not rocking the boat" and such.

[PCD]

The song is, in-universe, a carefully crafted government-approved song for everyone to listen to and be happy and pleased and satisfied with everything their carefully crafted government-approved lives brings them. Let's all work together and follow the rules, and everything will be awesome!

This is a really, really well-done movie. The overarching storyline is generic, but it's handled very well and with a lot of really solid humor. It's not just a good family film, it's a good film period, and it's the sort that makes you mad more family films don't put in this much effort. There's a lot of really quality twists in there that I don't want to spoil, it's worth just experiencing.

The commercialism of it is really well done, too: at no point do you feel like they're saying "BUY OUR PRODUCT," they just show it in a way that will make kids just really want to go and make stuff. Heck, I found myself wishing I had my old Legos. The whole thing really captures the fun of playing with your toys.

[phil_]

Originally Posted by PCD

The song is, in-universe, a carefully crafted government-approved song for everyone to listen to and be happy and pleased and satisfied with everything their carefully crafted government-approved lives brings them. Let's all work together and follow the rules, and everything will be awesome!

It's pretty good at being that, since that's exactly what it sounds like with almost no context. Thanks.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Saw it today in the very front row of a matinee theater packed with families. And it was awesome.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Totally worthwhile movie. I'd recommend it to basically anyone.

[PyrosNine]

Pyros squeeed amongst friends! ANd then went to Target to look at Lego products for no reason! NO REASON AT ALL. (Also, your average individual lego piece costs about a dime, based on my calculations)