Whether you have kids or not, you’ve likely seen “The LEGO Movie.” The family-friendly offering topped the box office for nearly a month, raking in more than $225 million dollars domestically and putting it on track to be among the top 30 most profitable films ever made. Which makes it all the more ironic that critics are mostly right — “The LEGO Movie” does vilify the business world, and most especially, the figure of CEO. The ruler of Bricksburg is named President Business. He’s also the head of the Octan Corporation, which controls everything in the land, from Over Priced Coffee™ to Taco Tuesday™ to the devilishly catchy “Everything is Awesome,” the only song that plays on Bricksburg’s sole radio station. In the end, President Business is not just chief executive — he’s an evil tyrant out to destroy the world. Fox News, which has, over the past few years been sounding the “anti-business” alarm about films such as “The Muppets” and “The Lorax,” may be onto something.
Lots of animated villains are powerful, greedy, and rich. Think Cruella De Vil, who wants to profit from Dalmatian puppy fur, or Hexxus in “Fern Gully,” who is the oil industry personified as a toxic skeleton. There is Mr. Burns from “The Simpsons,” the wealthy Malfoy family in “Harry Potter,” and the plot of every “Scooby-Doo” episode that ends with the corrupt business owner muttering, “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn’t been for you meddling kids.”Yet if Hollywood is indoctrinating our children with anti-corporate messages, then shouldn’t our children be growing up to be mini-Marxists? Indeed, multiple surveys tell us millennials are more likely to approve of socialism and that they are more embracing of racial, social, and cultural difference. On the other hand, millennials also love to buy stuff, think highly of entrepreneurs, and rank “being financially well off” as their number one concern. So breathe easy, Fox News. Capitalism is still safe.
Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here Which is not to say these films have no influence. At its core “The LEGO Movie” epitomizes the internal struggle every LEGO lover has when they open a new set of the plastic bricks: Should I follow the instructions or go my own way? And it is inescapable which side the film comes down on. It stands its ground as an endorsement of creative, collaborative, and free play — for both kids and adults. The heroes in the film are rebels who figure out that you don’t have to follow the instructions and that, if you work together, you can save the world. That’s a lesson absent from too much of the rest of our kids’ lives today. As any parent will tell you, this moral is directly antithetical to the LEGO company’s marketing strategy over the last 20 years, which has focused on selling large, expensive, complicated, themed sets, such as the LEGO Death Star and the LEGO Hogwarts Castle. But this approach may also run counter to LEGO’s roots.
The 80-year-old Danish firm originally took its name from the Danish expression, “lego godt,” which translates, more or less, to “play well.” Is its Hollywood alter-ego a sign the toymaker hopes to reinvent itself? Will it start to market more free-form sets that appeal to both boys and girls? Still, the message of the film goes beyond the context of the LEGO box itself. Parents today — myself included — are afraid to let our kids so much as run to the neighbor’s house, and schools are cutting back on recess to focus on test prep. It’s not hyperbolic to suggest that the decline of wild, unsupervised outdoor play — the play the vast majority of us grew up with, whether we were born in the 1940s or the 1970s — has reached crisis portions. We are raising a generation that is more anxious, depressed, and narcissistic and, without doubt, less inspired. Indeed, it may be true that “The LEGO Movie” and many other animated children’s films present a dim view of corporate America in order to champion creativity and play.
But the main message our kids are getting from everywhere else is: Be quiet, sit still, and follow the rules. So if you want to raise real revolutionaries — truly innovative, creative individuals who will grow up to be confident, happy, healthy adults — open the door, shoo the kids outside (and away from the LEGOs), and tell them, “Play well.” The Lego Movie is a Warner Bros. computer-animated adventure-comedy franchise based on Lego Construction Toys. The franchise started in 2014 with The Lego Movie directed and written by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. The film quickly expanded into a franchise which ties to the Lego brand, with two spin-off films, The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie, both with 2017 release dates, a sequel scheduled for release on February 8, 2019, as well as a third spin-off, The Billion Brick Race. The Lego Movie Sequel The Lego Ninjago Movie The Billion Brick Race The Lego Movie: 4D - A New Adventure Main article: The Lego Movie
The film was released theatrically on February 7, 2014 through Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures to near-unanimous acclaim; critics praised its visual style, humor, voice cast and heartwarming message. It earned more than $257 million in the U.S. and Canada and $210 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of over $469 million. The film won the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Animated Feature, and the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film. It was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. The film also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for "Everything Is Awesome". Main article: The Lego Movie Sequel In February 2014, Jared Stern was hired to write a sequel, along with Michelle Morgan.[1] On February 21, 2014, the studio scheduled the sequel for a May 26, 2017 release.[2] On March 12, 2014, Deadline reported that animation co-director Chris McKay would direct the sequel with Lord and Miller as producers.
[3] Warner Bros. did not invite co-producer Village Roadshow Pictures to return as a participant in the sequel.[4] Because the film will be produced in Vancouver, VRP will be replaced by a Canadian studio with a similar occupation. On April 10, 2014, McKay expressed that he would like to introduce more women in the sequel than men.[5] In July 2014, Chris Pratt expressed interest in reprising his role as Emmett for the sequel. In October 2014, Lord and Miller were signed to write The Lego Movie 2.[7] The writers have implied that the sequel will take place four years after the events of the first film.[8] In February 2015, Warner Bros. announced that the title of the sequel had been changed to The Lego Movie Sequel, and that Rob Schrab replaced McKay as director since McKay went to direct The Lego Batman Movie.[9] According to an interview at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, the sequel will also introduce Emmet's sister. On April 20, 2015, Warner Bros. scheduled The Lego Movie Sequel for a May 18, 2018 release date.
[10] On June 17, 2016, the film's release was delayed to February 8, 2019.[] By July 2016, Raphael Bob-Waksberg had been hired to do rewrites of the script. Main article: The Lego Batman Movie In October 2014, Warner Bros. scheduled The Lego Batman Movie, a spin-off starring Batman for 2017, which moved The Lego Movie Sequel to 2018.[13] Will Arnett returned to voice Batman, while Chris McKay, who was earlier attached to the sequel, will direct the film which is being written by Seth Grahame-Smith and produced by Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Phil Lord and Chris Miller.[14] On April 20, 2015, Warner Bros. scheduled The Lego Batman Movie for a February 10, 2017 release.[10] In July 2015, Arnett's Arrested Development co-star Michael Cera was cast to voice Robin.[15] In August 2015, Zach Galifianakis entered final negotiations to voice the Joker.[16] In October 2015, Rosario Dawson was cast to voice Barbara Gordon, the daughter of police commissioner James Gordon who later becomes the crime-fighting heroine Batgirl.
[17] The following month, Ralph Fiennes was cast as Alfred Pennyworth,[18] Bruce Wayne's butler. Mariah Carey, although initial reports indicated she was playing Commissioner Gordon,[19] was actually cast as Mayor McCaskhill.[20] The first trailer for the film was released on March 24, 2016, followed by a second on March 28 the same year. The film was released in the United States on February 10, 2017. Main article: The Lego Ninjago Movie Brothers Dan and Kevin Hageman, who wrote Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu and co-wrote the story of The Lego Movie, will be penning the film adaptation of Lego Ninjago, which will feature a new take that diverges from the TV series. Charlie Bean, who produced Disney's Tron: Uprising, will direct the film, produced by the The Lego Movie team of Dan Lin, Roy Lee, and both Phil Lord and Chris Miller.[21] The spin-off movie was scheduled to be released on September 23, 2016.[22] On April 20, 2015, the film was pushed to September 22, 2017.[10] In June 2016, the cast was announced to include Jackie Chan, Dave Franco, Michael Peña, Abbi Jacobson, Kumail Nanjiani, Zach Woods, and Fred Armisen respectively.
In March 2015, Warner Bros. announced that a third Lego Movie spin-off, titled The Billion Brick Race, was in development. Jason Segel and Drew Pearce were signed on to co-direct and write the film. Main article: The Lego Movie: 4D - A New Adventure On December 16, 2015, a promo video for a new "4D" film at Legoland Florida based on The Lego Movie called The Lego Movie: 4D - A New Adventure was posted onto Lego's YouTube channel.[24] The short subject premiered at Legoland Florida on January 29, 2016 before being rolled out to all other Legoland Parks and Legoland Discovery Centers later that year. It sees many of the original cast returning including Elizabeth Banks, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, and Charlie Day while Emmett is voiced by A.J. Locascio (due to Chris Pratt being unavailable at the time). The film is titled The Lego Movie 4D: A New Adventure, and introduces a new character called Risky Business (voiced by Patton Oswalt) who is Lord Business' older brother. Main article: The Master (2016 film)