SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTERIn response to Selling socialists the bricks they need to bury themselves: I took my kids to see the film Saturday. My son, who is six and has played many of the Lego video games, was particularly excited about it.SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER I began to groan inwardly in the first 10 minutes of the movie. It was set up as a standard dystopian story in which middle-class life is the dystopia from which the main character needs to escape. Think of it as a peppy, colorful version of John Carpenter’s They Live or perhaps an earthbound version of Wall-E. Everything from music, to TV, to expensive coffee is portrayed as opium for the masses. The world created by President Business is, somewhat obviously, plastic and full of empty-headed drones. That story line continues with the introduction of the heroine who, not surprisingly, is a free spirit and a rebel. She’s the Trinity inside the Lego world who, in a plot lifted entirely from The Matrix, falls in love with “the special” who no one thinks is very special at first.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some original ideas here. If you’ve seen the trailers, you know that the Lego version of Batman appears in the film. But the Batman in this film isn’t quite as cool as the one in the Dark Knight trilogy. Or maybe it’s just that he’s surrounded with other characters who are equally cool without engaging in so much emo indulgence. Without spoiling too much, let’s just say this film suggests a reason Batman works alone: He’s a bit self-involved. He gets some of the funniest lines in the film, all at his own expense. The character of Uni-kitty is also pretty amusing. She’s the perky, but repressed, character who lives in a cloying dream world of happy thoughts and rainbows. Her world is another dystopia of sorts which is torn down in the process of the story. It’s not hard to see this as a kind of karmic hippie-punching aimed at bringing some political balance to the film but ultimately it’s a small subplot. Uni-Kitty is not the villain.
The villain is President Business who, we learn at one point, never received a participation trophy and doesn’t believe in them. So I’m not convinced the Lego Movie is a subversive triumph as Mollie Hemingway suggests. At base it remains a story about free spirits (albeit sometimes silly ones) triumphing over the rigid world of business-run cultural conformity. The whole thing can probably best be read as the Lego company’s own regret over leaving behind the days when colored plastic bricks came in a tub with no picture on the front and no instructions inside. If it has a theme it’s this: Use your own imagination instead of ours! That’s a decent enough message for kids and maybe adults too. But once you move down from there to the political context of the film, we’re in more questionable territory. If the Lego Movie is about the “fight against a government that desires control of the lives of citizens” that’s because it envisions a future, not unlike Aliens or Avatar, in which business has effectively become the government.
This fundamental idea–that corporations are the greatest threat to our freedom and well-being–is the kind of thing one would expect the late Occupy movement to embrace. So, overall, it’s an enjoyable ride with a catchy theme song (Everything is Awesome!) and it softens some of its most strident notes as it moves along. That said, I’m not surprised Michael Moore is a fan.Back to full review Back to full review The Lego Movie (2014) 6 February 2014 (Singapore) 4 more credits » 5269 news articles » A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives. The special bond that develops between plus-sized inflatable robot Baymax, and prodigy Hiro Hamada, who team up with a group of friends to form a band of high-tech heroes. The LEGO Batman Movie Bruce Wayne must not only deal with the criminals of Gotham City, but also the responsibility of raising a boy he adopted.
A rat who can cook makes an unusual alliance with a young kitchen worker at a famous restaurant. A family of undercover superheroes, while trying to live the quiet suburban life, are forced into action to save the world. After his swamp is filled with magical creatures, Shrek agrees to rescue Princess Fiona for a villainous lord in order to get his land back. When a criminal mastermind uses a trio of orphan girls as pawns for a grand scheme, he finds their love is profoundly changing him for the better. When the newly crowned Queen Elsa accidentally uses her power to turn things into ice to curse her home in infinite winter, her sister, Anna, teams up with a mountain man, his playful reindeer, and a snowman to change the weather condition. A hot-shot race-car named Lightning McQueen gets waylaid in Radiator Springs, where he finds the true meaning of friendship and family. When Woody is stolen by a toy collector, Buzz and his friends vow to rescue him, but Woody finds the idea of immortality in a museum tempting.
Ash Brannon, and 1 more credit » In order to power the city, monsters have to scare children so that they scream. However, the children are toxic to the monsters, and after a child gets through, 2 monsters realize things may not be what they think. David Silverman, and 1 more credit » Princess Fiona's parents invite her and Shrek to dinner to celebrate her marriage. If only they knew the newlyweds were both ogres. Kelly Asbury, and 1 more credit » Lord Business (voice) / President Business (voice) / The LEGO Movie is a 3D animated film which follows lead character, Emmet a completely ordinary LEGO mini-figure who is identified as the most "extraordinary person" and the key to saving the Lego universe. Emmet and his friends go on an epic journey to stop the evil tyrant, Lord Business. See All (59) » Release Date: 6 February 2014 (Singapore) Also Known As: La gran aventura Lego Vitruvius was a Roman author and architect in the 1st century BC, best known for his multi-volume work entitled De Architectura.
Etymologically, the word architect derives from Greek words meaning 'master' and 'builder'. In the Old West, Wyldstyle is riding a black horse and Emmitt is riding a brown horse. In the brief shot after Wyldstyle repeats herself by telling Emmitt there are other realms outside of Bricksburg, Wyldstyle can be seen riding a brown horse. She goes on to name all the other realms with brief shots of those, and when we return to our heroes, Wyldstyle is again on a black horse. He's coming, cover your butts. The main-on-end credits were animated in stop-motion, unlike the rest of the movie's CGI. The sequence was created by the studio Alma Mater with Stoopid Buddy Stoodios and took almost a year to produce. Referenced in Egg Cetera: Lounge Hobo Square Eggs (2015) Get Ready For This (Yar Mix) Written by Phil Wilde (as Filip De Wilde), Jean-Paul DeCoster (as Jean-Paul Henriette De Coster), Ray Slijngaard (as Raymond Slijngaard) and Simon Harris Performed by 2 Unlimited