“The LEGO Movie” has been one of the highest-grossing movies of the year. The surprise hit from directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord has taken in $467 million worldwide. The animated picture came out on DVD and Blu-Ray last week. First, if you haven’t seen the movie, you should check it out. If you have seen it, you’ve probably missed a lot of references or cameos by actors. We watched the DVD commentary for the film over the weekend where the directors revealed a lot of Easter Eggs you may not have noticed the first time around. Here are the ones they mentioned along with a few we’ve picked up on while watching. Let’s start with an easy one. 1. President Business’ horns are made out of coffee cups. His entire wardrobe is a play off of his business persona. His cape is a tie. You can see a ruler stand in for a bridge in the opening scene. 3. The card in the beginning is a hint at the movie’s twist later on. Early in the film there’s a title card that reads, “8½ Years Later.”
That’s the age of Finn, the boy we see later in the movie. 4. Emmet’s soap suds are Lego pieces. The bubbles in the early shower scene are ice cream scoops. 5. Look closely at the posters in Emmet’s house. They’re nods to Lord and Miller’s previous movie, “21 Jump Street.” The directors mention “Macho and the Nerd” is actually the Russian title for the film starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. 6. Octan, the company run by Lord Business in the film, is the fictional gas company from Lego. 7. Batman’s licence plate reads “BAT2DBONE.” Keep your eyes focused on the back of Batman’s ride right before he flies into the sun and you may be able to make out his clever licence plate. 8. There’s a pig that explodes into a pile of sausages. 9. Vitruvius’ staff is a lollipop stick. 10. A Ninjago ninja makes an appearance in the film. The Lego property is getting its own movie will be released next year. 11. There are a lot of celebrity cameos.
Shaquille O’Neal actually voices the Shaq Lego. The stars of “21 Jump Street,” Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill voice Superman and Green Lantern, respectively. Directors Lord and Miller said they told Hill to be as annoying as possible to Superman’s character. Dave Franco, who also appeared in “21 Jump Street,” and Jack Johnson play construction workers. Cobie Smulders voices Wonder Woman. Actual “Star Wars” castmembers Anthony Daniels and Billy Dee Williams reprise their roles as C-3PO and Lando Calrissian. Late-night host Craig Ferguson voiced Han Solo. 12. Real brick films made by fans are displayed on monitors near the end of the movie. The videos, from a fan competition to appear in the movie, can be seen on the DVD and Blu-Ray. 13. Director Chris Miller made some of the drawings seen in the movie. 14. There are Lego versions of Phil Lord and Chris Miller in the end scene of the film. We didn’t spot them, but the directors said they were put in there unknowingly by animators.
15. You can spot a Catwoman helmet and an Oscar in the end credits. Both are nods to animation co-director Chris McKay who has been nominated for Primetime Emmys and loves the Batman character. Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. The Lego Movie was officially released four days ago in Australia. I have been hanging out to take the boys to see it because they are huge fans I am a huge fan of the toy. All the way through it I was thinking about whether I was going to write about it and if so, what I would be writing about, and for most of the movie I pretty much had the working title “Lego Movie – Best. Ever.” in mind, but towards the end of the movie, that changed. Now I am going to declare this because it has only been out for four and a half days in Australia and most of my readers are in this country; if you haven’t yet seen it, SPOILER ALERT. Our boys are 5-years-old and three-months-short-of-3-years-old (is that how you write it?) and both love Lego even though most of the sets they play with are labelled as 5-12 (years old) or even 8-14.
In fact, I just looked at a box sitting on the counter and notice the sad baby face “not for 0-3 year olds” logo on the box. Okay, so the toddler does love to chew on a few pieces, but roughage is good for him right? My wife has been on a course for work since Wednesday and it continued up until late Sunday afternoon. She’s been leaving real early and getting home fairly late because the course is being held at a location that’s about an hour away. When our first born was showing signs of being a movie addict at a reasonably young age, my wife and I thought it would be a great bonding exercise for me to take him to the cinema. She stayed home because our youngest was only a baby and therefore having many day sleeps if not sleeping the whole day away. Even though the toddler still isn’t a sit-there-and-watch-the-whole-DVD kind of kid, for the last two movies that Master 5 wanted to see – Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 and Frozen – we went as a whole family because my wife wanted to see them too.
During both of these movies the toddler needed to go to the toilet so she did the valiant duty and took him so that I could watch the whole movie having missed the scene in Rise of the Guardians where Jack Frost found out who he really was due to the older one needing to “do a wee Daddy…” But, because she was doing that course, and because I promised the boys they could see it the first weekend it was out, she wasn’t able to come with us. As a back-up plan in the event that the toddler needed to visit the toilet during the movie, and so that Master 5 wouldn’t miss any of it, I invited a friend and his kids along. The movie is 100 minutes long, or as described on the website, 1 hour and 40 minutes. I remember when all movies were 90 minutes long. There was the occasional 88 minute movie or 91 minute movie (sack that editor), but all-in-all most movies ran for exactly 1-and-a-half hours. At about the 40 minute mark the toddler, getting restless, decided it was time to fall asleep.
I didn’t mind, after all, I didn’t have to pay for him to see the movie because he is under 4-years-old. And really, I thought it was a blessing because he generally sleeps for two hours during his day nap which meant that I would be able to watch the whole movie unless Master 5 needed to go (although he’s a trooper and would hold on if it meant not missing a second of the movie). And this is where my problem with the Lego Movie kicks in. At the 90 minute mark, the point where all those other movies would have ended, the climax to the movie, the bit with the reveal, the part where the penny drops, that’s when the toddler wakes up, stands up on his chair and then leans over and in my ear proclaims; “I need to do a wee Daddy…” And when he says I need to do a wee, he means that he needs to do a wee. I might get a few minutes out of him holding on if we’re in the car when the feeling comes on, but any longer than that and he’s resorting back to wetting himself.
Now I could have been a crap dad. I could have simply told him to sit back down as we’ve only got 10 minutes to go, but no, I picked him up and ran for it. The distance to the toilet was maybe about 100 metres, and I reckon, even though I had a toddler in my arms, I would have taken Usain Bolt’s record and smashed it. But then, the toddler took forever to finish up. I could have run that 100 metres in sub-8 seconds, and all the good that would have done me. When he finally finished, I washed his hands and mine (new Olympic record for that too) and then ran back as fast as I could. We got back to see the last three minutes or so. But that scene, the one where the tears would have fallen if you were the type to shed a tear, that moment when the boy and his dad had that moment, that connection, the start of their journey together in the world of playing Lego together and using their collective imaginations, we missed it. And because I don’t know exactly how that scene went down.