Like many stop motion animation fans I’m really looking forward to seeing The LEGO Movie coming out on February 7th. If you haven’t seen the trailer make sure to check it out!Looks like an amazing stop motion movie. If you look closely you’ll see that some scenes from The LEGO Movie trailer look digital, while other scenes look like they were animated using actual LEGO bricks. Some look like a mix of both. What’s going on here? In fact, not too many people are sure whether this is a digital movie or a stop motion movie. Because I was curious I did some research and found out that people have been asking the directors of The LEGO Movie about this for quite some time but the directors haven’t been very clear about it. Check out this panel from the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con. Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller answer the question in the first couple minutes of this video: I also found some tweets by Chris Miller from back in June that seem to confirm a hybrid animation style.
To curious: #TheLegoMovie is a hybrid film. CG w/ real Lego elements done in a photoreal stop-motion style. & a secret bit of live-action. — Chris Miller (@chrizmillr) June 20, 2013 Day 1 of 5-day Lego Movie live-action shoot with Will Ferrell. — Chris Miller (@chrizmillr) June 4, 2013 So the answer to the question “Is the LEGO Movie stop motion or CGI?” actually could be both! And from the sound of it the Directors don’t want to let us know exactly what parts are CGI and what parts may be stop motion. Either way it’s still pretty cool to know that at least some parts of this movie may be made from real LEGO bricks. That’s a win in my book! On the day of the movie's release, more information is coming out about the production process. Here's another tweet from filmmaker Chris Miller @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
The film was made using mostly CGI. Special care was taken to ensure the LEGO world reflected the dynamics and appearance of real LEGO bricks. The creators examined parts under microscopes to better understand how they wore down over time. Animators experimented with different levels of dust and dirt on surfaces, and added imperfections to models, like tiny gaps between bricks. It's great to have confirmation of something we suspected all along. The creators of this movie were inspired by watching actual brickfilms. Here's an article in the NYT with more coverage of the production. This article at CGMeetup has a few more images from the studio. Check out the images of Emmet's expressions, video of the CGI animation process, and a real LEGO mock-up of a ship in the film in the video above! Did you enjoy this post? Learn more about stop motion with the Stopmotion Explosion Animation Kit - a complete animation package!I reluctantly joined my friends to see The Lego Movie in New York City a few days ago, assuming it would be the equivalent of watching the Lego battles my little brother used to have with his friends.
By the time it ended, I not only wanted to see it again to examine any subtle nuances I missed, but I was also grappling with several central questions of human existence -- mainly, how I, one human being in this world of millions, can contribute something important. This is not just a movie for children who want to watch a bunch of plastic toys battle for their universe. Of course, it contains all of the great components of a children's film: adventure, catchy music and amazing visual effects -- every single inch of the Lego world, down to the roaring ocean, has been manipulated to appear Lego-fied. Everything about this new world makes us feel like we have been skyrocketed into a child's imagination. But beyond all of that, this movie contains intelligent intrigue and sophisticated humor, the kind that will leave you laughing out loud because it so wittily points out universal truths. The story becomes a quest for individuality in a world of conformity, and I would go so far as to say it becomes an allegory for communism versus democracy.
It opens on a world full of ignorant Lego people who wake up every day with a rulebook on how to live their lives. Most of them are ignorant to the point where they don't realize they are being oppressed and have been manipulated into believing they are happy. Each Lego person has the same favorite song and television show and are convinced by their evil ruler, President Business, that order, uniformity and repetitiveness is the key to success. Innovation is against nature in the world of President Business. The citizens live blissfully unaware of other Lego worlds beyond their own city limits, and they do not realize that, beneath their propagandized desire to sing "everything is awesome" for five hours while they work, they each possess repressed individual qualities. The main character, Emmet, has the least individuality of anyone. His co-workers express that each of them has something specific about themselves, such as liking chicken, whereas Emmet has never once expressed something about himself that makes him unique.
When he discovers that he is "The Special," and is destined to fulfill a prophecy that we learn is ultimately made-up, the story becomes about Emmet's discovery that he truly does have unique qualities. The fact that the prophecy is fake serves to show Emmet that he had this "specialness" inside him all along, that everybody has specialness inside them and that each person's unique ideas bring greater contributions to society as a whole than does the standardization of human existence purported by a communist society. Only when each Lego brings his own creations to the table are the people able to rise up against their oppressive regime and find true happiness. From a child's perspective, this movie is about creativity. It is about allowing your imagination to run free and allowing order to sometimes descend into chaos because that is how great discoveries are made. But from a broader perspective, this is an Orwellian movie about rising up against big brother. This movie has a remarkable amount of layers and sophistication, and it presents these layers to its audiences in an exceedingly entertaining way -- through a hilarious cast of characters that include Lego Batman, Dumbledore, Gandalf and a heroine named Wyldstyle.