Let’s say this for “The Lego Movie”: It’s a shining example within a highly dubious genre. As full-length toy advertisements go, you really couldn’t ask for more. Writer-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are experts at adaptation work, having also given us “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” and “21 Jump Street.” Both films show they know how to turn potential disasters into unexpected delights — and the third time is the charm. Unlike you, Miller and Lord considered a key detail: a Lego piece’s personality. Both the excitement and frustrations of playing with stiff interlocking blocks are distilled into their main character, Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt). From left, Wyldstyle (voiced by Elizabeth Banks, Emmet (Chris Pratt) and Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman in the animated adventure “The Lego Movie” Emmet is an apt hero for a Lego adventure movie: He passes his days carefully following instructions — also apt! — in an ordered existence.
But his life is upended when he meets the rebellious Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), who introduces him to another side of the Lego world — one that Lord Business (Will Ferrell) is planning to take over. Together, they — and various Lego figures like a cop (Liam Neeson), an old man (Morgan Freeman), Batman (Will Arnett) and Superman (Channing Tatum) — have to use all available materials to defeat him. From left, Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt), Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) and Batman (Will Arnett) in the animated adventure “The Lego Movie” There are some great messages here about teamwork, imagination and courage, but it’s hard to ignore the biggest point of the movie: “You need Legos to do all this cool stuff, so don’t you want to buy them as soon as the movie is over?” Still, Lord and Miller don’t sink into cynicism. Their computer animation embraces the retro look and feel of the toys to both ingenious and adorable effect. (Skip the expensive and unnecessary 3D ticket, though.)
The witty screenplay is written to entertain adults as well as children. And the cast — which also includes Jonah Hill, in one of the best gags as a really annoying Green Lantern — is totally on board. It’s such a good time that kids of all ages will leave the movie buzzing to play with Lego - and that’s a blessing and a curse. PG-13, 116 minutesAmy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael StuhlbargDirected by Denis Villeneuve When mysterious spacecrafts touch down across the globe, an elite team - lead by expert linguist Louise Banks - is brought together to investigate. PG, 105 minutesHenry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Robert MacNaughton, Dee Wallace, Peter CoyoteDirected by Steven Spielberg An extra-terrestrial is accidentally left behind on Earth and is befriended by a young boy and his brother and sister. PG-13, 111 minutesRosamund Pike, Tom Felton, Laura Carmichael, Charlotte Hope, Jack DavenportDirected by Amma Asante A UNITED KINGDOM is based on extraordinary true events.
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When you step out on the stage - give it your all. #RockDog is now playing! No more Mr. Nice Cube. Ice Cube and Charlie Day star in #FistFight. Filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller have made it their business to turn seemingly tired properties (a children’s book about giant food, an eighties television show about cops masquerading as kids) into intelligent and incredibly funny feature films that appeal to kids and adults alike, and their latest outing, ‘The LEGO Movie,’ is no different – it just comes with the added caveat of centering its action on tiny plastic things. If anyone could make a film about LEGOs work, it’s Lord and Miller, and that’s just what they’ve done with their witty and inspired take on the classic toys – but how did they actually make it, well, work? Despite looking curiously as if the entire thing was made from actual LEGOs, ‘The LEGO Movie’ is a mostly traditionally-animated affair with some special touches. Though the film is not a stop-motion endeavor, Miller and Lord did draw their initial inspirations from fan-made “brick films” that utilize actual LEGOs to build out their settings and characters.
Using real LEGOs for the film was, quite simply, extremely cost prohibitive, as the New York Times notes that “it would have cost millions of dollars for the bricks alone,” and considering that even a relatively small ‘LEGO Movie’ branded playset will cost you a cool thirteen dollars for just over one hundred pieces, that estimate is right on the money. Instead of going full-LEGO, Miller and Lord went for CG animation that mixes in real LEGO sets for some added veracity. Co-director Chris Miller addressed some questions about the film’s animation technique directly on Twitter, saying: @DrewAtHitFix it was mostly CG with some stop motion & also some real LEGO still sets comped in. But Animal Logic made the CG photoreal.— Chris Miller (@chrizmillr) February 3, 2014 Using computer-drawn 3D animation allowed ‘The LEGO Movie’ team to utilize the same techniques of other animated films. The process for crafting ‘The LEGO Film’ by way was relatively standard – the animation team started with a fully hand-drawn version of the script, before moving into what is known as “layout” (a rough animation that centers on imagining both character and “camera” placement), followed by actual animation, and then lighting and grading (which turns flat animation into something nuanced and very real-looking).
They also used a modeling program that approximated the experience of snapping LEGOs together, one so intelligent that it would reject brick combinations that wouldn’t work in real life. Of course, the ‘LEGO’ team also spent plenty of time playing with actual LEGOs, including building models of vehicles like Bad Cop/Good Cop’s police vehicle, and even a larger-scale piece like Metalbeard’s giant pirate ship. The actual LEGO model for Metalbeard's pirate ship alongside the computerized rendering. The animation team didn’t just mix it up with big LEGO set pieces though, they actually put whole batches of LEGO minifigs under a microscope to examine them, to encourage their maximum understanding of how they are put together, how they move, and what they really look like. Perhaps some of the confusion regarding the realism of the LEGOs in the film is due to, well, the seemingly very realistic look of the Legos in the film – animated or actual. As the Times notes: Research went into exploring how many digital smudges and thumbprints would go on the figures and even how much virtual dandruff should be in the shot.
The aim was to make the pieces look as if they had been played with out in the real world, not to make them pristine and perfect. The Charlie Day-voiced Benny, an eighties-era spaceman, looks like he’s been well-loved, buried in a sandbox, stepped on, bit and shot out into actual space – he even has a cracked helmet to complete the look. A close-up of Benny and his many cracks, chips, fades and bite marks. As is the case with similar projects, the team behind ‘The LEGO Movie’ also made it a point to capture the various facial expressions of the film’s stars so that those could be translated into their animated character – no, ‘The LEGO Movie’ doesn’t just use standard LEGO faces, and it shows. The various emotions of Emmet, played by Chris Pratt that the looks came “mostly from the eyebrows.” He also shared, “when you’re doing the voicework, and you’re doing the recording sessions, they did have cameras set up all around, just to capture maybe some of my gestures or my facial expressions, and then they were able to put that into the character.”