The Lego Movie co-writer and director Phil Lord has spoken about the tough decisions behind the film's twist reveal.The popular animated movie featuring a world of Lego characters was revealed to be in the imagination of a young boy, whose strict father was played by Will Ferrell.Lord has revealed how he and fellow writer and director Chris Miller agonized over whether or not to include the live action elements of the film."The whole movie got rewritten, thrown out, rewritten again, thrown out in production, rewritten again... so many scenes felt tough to write," he told Vulture."That's definitely the case with animated movies, and since we were writing and directing, it was even harder. The writer in you writes a script that you think is perfect, and then the director in you reads it and throws it out and tells you to go back to the drawing board! That's a very schizophrenic approach to filmmaking."He continued: "The live-action segment with Will Ferrell definitely went through the most iterations.
It was baked in from the beginning, but it changed and changed and changed."We knew we were gonna do it and I had faith it was going to work, but it was a lot of buttressing and throwing things out. How much live action should we reveal before we got to that moment? We storyboarded that sequence for a year and a half before we got to it, and tried it a million different ways."The son wasn't always in the movie. That was a thing that happened two years ago, when we finally figured the scene out. It was just going to be about Will Ferrell, but we thought, 'The movie can't just be about one character, it has to be about a relationship. Maybe this movie is about a father and a son'. And that's what opened it up for us, and seemed to resonate for a lot of people."Lord added that Ferrell and the team were warned that the scenes may not be used in the final cut.He said: "When we pitched it, we could definitely tell that people were thinking to themselves, 'Well, if it doesn't work, we can always cut it out'.
Certainly, we thought that maybe we would do that. Right before we shot it, we promised everybody that if it didn't work, we had an alternative that was animated. But that was a lie. We were betting on ourselves that we were right two years earlier when we thought it would be surprising and delightful."Phil Lord and Chris Miller recently revealed that The Lego Movie 2 will be set four years after the first film. The sequel will be released in 2018.They are also currently producing The Lego Batman Movie, with Chris McKay directing and Seth Grahame-Smith writing.Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now.Sure, Lego megafans are pumped about based on "" — like the new . But there are also tons of existing, even vintage, Lego figurines and "worlds" that whiz by in the film that are getting everyone excited."For the fans there will be a lot of scanning to find sets and characters," said Joe Meno, editor of BrickJournal Magazine and co-author of "The Cult of Lego."
"The humor of the minifigures trying to do things limited by their articulation (or lack thereof) was perfect for the movie," he told Yahoo Movies.[Related: Instant Commentary: 'The Lego Movie' Directors on Creating a 'Rave Party for Children']Awesome fact: Every scene in "The Lego Movie" can be recreated using real Lego bricks. But with so many of 'em (more than 15 million, according to Lego) you could spend a lifetime on the endeavor. And for those keeping score at home, there are 183 unique minifigs in the animated feature."The movie's fast pace pretty much guarantees that it will take a few showings to see everything," Meno points out.All of that means Lego aficionados have an excuse to come back for many more helpings of the ginormous plethora of Lego parts depicted onscreen.Here are 19 "Lego Movie" easter eggs to keep your eyes peeled for when you go back to see it again and again:The current roster of "Master Builders" that appear in the animated flick include...1. DC Superheroes Batman, Superman, Wonder Women, Green Lantern, Flash, and their roster of super vehicles like the Batwing, Tumbler, and Invisible Jet shouldn't be missed.2.
The Mermaid (not to be confused with the all-new Queen of the Mermaids) is one of a series of collectible minifigures that appear in the film.3. "Ninjago's" Green Ninja, the most powerful of the ninjas from the Cartoon Network series and sets, appears.4. Benny "1980-something" Space Guy shows his helmeted mug, crack and all. "He's a very over-the-top representative of the Lego classic space line that was released in the '80s," said Meno of the vintage figurine. Benny had thin plastic chin straps that often broke. And filmmakers played upon the decades-old toy defect in the film. "Benny's cracked helmet was a nice detail," he added. (A Lego rep tells Yahoo Movies that newer molds have strenghtened the plastic, virtually elimininating the cracking now.) 5. Keep an eye out for "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" Michaelangelo (and his real-world counterpart). The "TMNT" is a current toy franchise.[Related: 'The Lego Movie' Stars Reveal Just How Many Lego They Were Paid]6. The 2002 NBA All-Stars, including Shaq (yes, that's his voice) and a couple of more generic NBA ballers, appear.7.
Octan is the fictional gasoline brand used in Lego sets and it's safe to say, the company has a pretty major role in the movie.8. There are plenty of Lego construction sets, including Lego Technic construction vehicles and Lego City construction equipment, cars, buildings, and garbage trucks."What I found really impressive was how the builders spotted parts in the movie," Meno said. "The parts were highlighted and recognized by Lego part number — just like a fan would."9. This shark (pictured being thrown) has appeared in several Lego City sets.[Related: Mondo Pieces Together an Awesome New Poster for 'The Lego Movie']10. Even more collectible minifigures show up in the movie, including but not limited to, Clown, Yeti, Crash Test Dummy, Mime, and Lizard Man. (Of course, "The Lego Movie" is adding to this set with a whole new line of film-specific minifigs, including William Shakespeare and the aforementioned Abraham Lincoln.)11. Lego Monsters, including, Vampire, Ghost, Mummy, Witch (all among Master Builders) appear, too.12.
Old man wizards Dumbledore and Gandalf rep the "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings" sets, respectively. (You can spot them running around in the background below.)13. Middle Zealand is a mashup of Lego Kingdoms with "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" sets. (Gandalf is seen below with the newly created wise man, Vitruvius, from "The Lego Movie" video game, which allows you to play 90 different characters in the faithfully recreated storyline of the movie), but the red dragon in the film is not the long-awaited Smaug (fans are expecting him to be unveiled at next week's Toy Fair in New York). 14. "Star Wars" — the most popular of all the licensed Lego sets and considered the franchise that helped save Lego from bankruptcy in the '90s — makes a memorable cameo in "The Lego Movie." Look for the Millennium Falcon, in both the normal toy size and the miniature form. And yes, the voice of mini-Lando really is Billy Dee Williams.15. Speed Racer, who starred in a discontinued toy line based on the ill-fated film remake, was also among the initial wave of thwarted Master Builders.16.
The Old West, which has experienced a lot of Lego iterations over the years with various themed sets, is just as prickly as ever in the film.17. Pirate's Cove includes figures and constructions from the discontinued Lego Pirates series that has had many incarnations over the years but makes its big-screen comeback via the new Metalbeard, one of the main heroes created from various parts.18. You can see Lego's Bionicle (biological-chronicle) toys among the most prominent of the "sets we pretend never existed" that Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) rattles off quickly when discussing the greater Lego universe.19. Duplo (the bigger blocks made for young kids) appear, too, in a climactic scene."This isn't a Lego movie in name only," Meno said. "It is a Lego movie in spirit in its theme of expressing imagination."Lillian Min, Meriah Doty, and 8-year-old Lucas Errico contributed to this report. (Lucas is a huge Lego fan. He also happens to be the son of Yahoo Entertainment deputy editor Marcus Errico.)