Still courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture The Lego Movie had so much going against it. First off, it’s a movie inspired by a system of interlocking plastic blocks. Second, it’s a branded entertainment—an ominous category if ever there was one, all but guaranteeing a clamorous action infomercial shoddily intercut with a formulaic “human” story. I’m going to level with you: I went in hoping at best for something intermittently amusing, not too visually and sonically assaultive, and over soon. But Chris Miller and Philip Lord, the creators of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street, along with the highly regarded but short-lived animated series Clone High, have gone and done it. They’ve made a clever, vividly imagined, consistently funny, eye-poppingly pretty and oddly profound movie … about Legos. Miller and Lord do not grovel before their corporate overlords, and at times even appear to be conveying the subversive message that, when it comes to Legos, less may be more (or at least that a random bucket of unsorted blocks may be preferable to a brand-new boxed set).
The Lego cosmos as envisioned in this story is divided between two sets of principles. On the one side, there’s order, conformity, and stasis, as embodied by the perfection-obsessed, freedom-stifling President Business (voice of Will Ferrell). On the other, there’s chaos, individuality, and change, represented by the rebel movement that’s attempting to find a mysterious lost object called the Piece of Resistance, which will stop President Business before he can unleash the Kragle, a weapon that threatens to freeze the dynamic Lego universe into a perfected but lifeless tableau. But the majority of the inhabitants of the eternally-in-construction city of Bricksburg live their lives blissfully unaware of this ideological divide: They’re interchangeable molded-plastic working stiffs, square pegs in square holes. Squarest of all is Emmet Brickowski (voice of Chris Pratt), a go-along-to-get-along construction worker who’s naively psyched to repeat the same dull day over and over again, building the same brick towers while obediently bopping to the same state-mandated No. 1 pop song (Tegan and Sara’s irresistible ode to vacuity “Everything Is Awesome”) and buying the same overpriced cups of takeout coffee.
(A running gag about the ever-rising price of that commodity is one of the movie’s many jabs at consumer culture.) When Emmet accidentally comes into possession of a strange item that seems to come from outside the Lego universe, resistance member Wyldstyle (a sort of Goth biker-chick minifig voiced by Elizabeth Banks) becomes convinced that the thoroughly unremarkable Emmet is the Special—a long-awaited figure of prophecy, who will be “the most important, most interesting, greatest person of all time.” Half against his will—though he is, understandably, bewitched by the tough and glamorous Wyldstyle—Emmet gets swept up in the rebels’ plan to disarm the Kragle and take down President Business’s reign of spontaneity-crushing terror. Joining Emmet and Wyldstyle on their mission are Vitruvius, a glowing-eyed wizard figure voiced by Morgan Freeman, whose dubious nuggets of wisdom and muttered expressions of annoyance are priceless sendups of the long Morgan Freeman-as-shaman voiceover tradition;
the square-headed pink kitten Unikitty (voice of Alison Brie), whose bubbly optimism conceals a deep well of repressed rage; a blustering pirate figure (voice of Nick Offerman); and a chipper ’80s-era spaceman slightly dinged from wear (voice of Charlie Day). When he can drag himself away from his Star Wars buddies, they’re also joined by Wyldstyle’s boyfriend, Batman (voice of Will Arnett), hilariously conceived as a post-Christopher-Nolan “bad boy” bent on impressing the world with his death-metal songwriting and brooding cool. But President Business—who, as the minifigs’ journey takes them through a sprawling Lego multiverse Emmet never knew existed, reveals himself as the even more diabolical Lord Business—has some fierce allies on his side, including the fearsome Bad Cop/Good Cop (voice of Liam Neeson), who enacts both sides of the familiar law enforcement dichotomy simply by rotating his head to alternate between scowling and happy expressions. All this precisely orchestrated silliness unfolds against the background—or sometimes, given the crisp-looking 3-D, in the foreground—of a lovingly imagined, insanely detailed, and kaleidoscopically colorful universe made up entirely of Lego pieces.
Nearly 4 million unique bricks were used in filming, and though the stop-motion animation is liberally augmented with computer effects (to a degree that it’s impossible to tell where one technique leaves off and another begins), there’s a chunky sense of real-world volume to the moving shapes and figures onscreen. There’s also a lot of Lego-based humor that you don’t have to be a 10-year-old collector to appreciate—gags, for example, about the inefficiency of those C-shaped claw hands, which can clutch only cylindrical foods like chicken legs or sausage links. The overall sensation (enhanced by Mark Mothersbaugh’s playful electronic score) is one of being whisked from one trippy Lego environment to the next—the trippiest of all being Unikitty’s homeland, a conflict-free pastel Shangri-La known, in what I’m going to wager will be the only Aristophanes reference in a toy-based movie this year, as “Cloud-Cuckoo Land.” The last 20 minutes or so of The Lego Movie contain a big conceptual twist, one that threatens at first to drag down the zippy kinetic energy of the film’s first hour.
But stay with it, because it’s in this perception-shifting last reel that the movie really sets itself apart, not just from most branded entertainment, but from most films for children, period. As Lord and Miller skillfully balance an impressive array of narrative and thematic spinning plates—order and chaos, adults and children, practicality and magic, the real and the imaginary—it becomes clear even if this anarchic celebration of the creative capacity of play centers around the struggles of one-and-a-half-inch-tall minifigures, it’s built on a distinctly human scale.Remember the time when Batman and Superman used to be the invincible saviours of the universe? Or the time when they exchanged blows amidst the ruins of their respective cities? Or the time when they left the DC buffs drooling with their impeccable one-liners? Well, it was just one word which put all the umpteen one-liners and superhero swag to shame - Martha.Ever since the Martha debacle in Batman Vs Superman, the image of the cerebral and brooding Batman has gone for a toss.
He was last seen in the four trailers of The Batman Lego Movie, beat-boxing, relishing lobsters and shooting batarangs on the title of his film. However, it can turn out to be a smart move on part of the Warner Animation Group. The animated film can attract fans of both the universes - Marvel and DC. Marvel because they can make fun of Batman. And DC because well, Batman. Duh.It is interesting to note that the Warner Animation Group is capitalising on not only the perennial popularity of Batman but also all the memes, spoofs and funny videos that Batman has been the victim of, most notably after the release of Batman Vs Superman.What the Martha scene did for Batman, and even Superman, was to make them a laughing stock among the Twitterati. Martha memes flooded the social media platforms only to be followed by hoards of creative digs at the caped crusader of DC Comics.The popular perception of Batman has undergone a drastic transformation over the years. Tracing its origin, Batman was created as a dark no-nonsense character.
However, the conception of the character and his universe was rather ironical at its core. The only colour associated with Batman was black, apart from a few streaks of yellow. While the colour black symbolizes the evil, Batman was touted as a superhero. The creators justified the colour by his dark past which further lent the character an air of mystery.On the other hand, the Joker, who sported every possible colour on the palette, was not exactly the bright vivacious personality he symbolically should have been. Though dark at his heart, the Joker was always decked up in colours probably as a measure of a self defense mechanism.These ironical attributes added intrigue to all the Batman vs Joker encounters. The irony, however, also injected hints of humour into the character. The first film of Batman, probably cashing in on this humour, was a rather campier take on the superhero and his partner in (fighting) crime Robin. The 1996 film used Batman as a tool to comment on global issues like the Cold War.
The film came across as a parody in which the superhero was seen poking fun, including at the Pentagon.It was filmmaker Tim Burton who reintroduced Batman in 1989 as the dark caped crusader it was conceived as. Michael Keaton, who had been typecast as a comedian, was cast as Batman. In spite of the unconventional casting, the atmosphere, tone and treatment of the film was full of noir aesthetics, as opposed to the camp aesthetics of the 1966 movie. The Gothic environment was a reflection of the inner turbulence of Batman and the loneliness of Bruce Wayne.The mystery attached with the character of Batman continued to cast its spell on the viewers, owing to the human fascination with the unknown and the inaccessible. It was only until filmmaker Christopher Nolan shattered the fourth wall by spelling out the detailed back story of Batman and projecting it as a conflicted character that the fans saw Batman as an alter ego of the vulnerable Bruce Wayne.The Dark Knight trilogy humanised the superhero.
The fascination was no longer towards the detached soul that Batman was hitherto portrayed as. Nolan depicted Batman as a humane character invested in his past, struggling with his present and concerned about the collective future of Gotham. Along with the external conflicts with the bad guys, the struggle was also internal as the challenge for Batman was to overcome his dark past, not by embracing it but by rising above it. The viewers found in themselves a part of Batman and they started relating to the character thereafter.Filmmaker Zack Snyder followed suit when he humanised the conventionally invincible Superman in Man of Steel. The fans were amazed by how vulnerable Superman could be inside that steely exterior. However, the next move by Snyder in Batman Vs Superman went on to backfire. He took the humanisation to a whole new level through the Martha debacle that it made both the superheroes come across as emotional fools.Consequently, the fans lashed out on social media and retaliated in the most creative way possible, through memes and spoofs on everything from Batman's hoarse voice to the 'Do you bleed?' sequence.
It was probably the first time that the Marvel buffs poked fun at a DC juggernaut and the DC fans did not mind joining them, as a medium of expressing disappointment in the overindulgence of the filmmaker.But the Dark Knight has risen again, this time in the Lego universe. The humanisation by Nolan and in turn, the Martha debacle by Snyder, have changed Batman's perceived persona from cerebral to comical. Warner Animation Group has wisely decided to reinvent itself by banking on this change.As was evident by The Lego Movie and the four trailers of The Batman Lego Movie, this Batman does not take himself too seriously. The animated universe helps further the funny portrayal of Batman as the characters look adorable in their Lego avatars. The makers take digs at the death of Batman's parents, the costume of Robin, the straight-faced humour of Alfred, the increasing irrelevance of The Joker after Heath Ledger's demise and Superman's diminishing invincibility after the Man of Steel franchise.