When Oscar nominations for this year's Best Animation Feature were announced on Thursday, the film about the beloved toys was nowhere to be found. That's ridiculous," tweeted Steven Zeitchik, Entertainment Writer for the Los Angeles Times. He's got a point. "The Lego Movie," while being a goofy animated movie (and some would say advertisement) about legos, was one of the year's biggest box office hits. It also won over a lot of movie goers and critics. The film grossed $257 million and holds a 96% fresh rating on movie review site Rotten Tomatoes. Not only does the film have a bigger box office total than the whole Best Picture nominee slate combined, it has a higher review score than last year's Best Animated Feature winner, "Frozen." The films that were nominated over "Lego Movie" were "Big Hero 6," "The Boxtrolls," "How to Train Your Dragon 2," "Song of the Sea," and "The Tale of The Princess Kaguya." The semi-outrage on social media was almost immediate. "I do think some of the Academy voters have Legos for brains in that the Lego Movie wasn't nominated for Best Animated Film," tweeted "Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn.
Yet, the creators of the film took the snub in stride. "This is not a tragedy," one of the film's directors, Philip Lord, wrote on Twitter. "Congrats to incredible crew and cast of The Lego Movie, who made a classic." Lord also tweeted out a photo of a Lego Oscar statue saying, "It's okay. The movie did not go without any nominations, however. The film's original song, "Everything is Awesome," earned a nod for Best Song. The Oscars will be shown on ABC on February 22.If you’re hoping to pre-order some of Warner Bros. upcoming films through Amazon, you’re going to be out of luck. The mammoth online retailer is in a contract dispute with Warner Bros. Home Video over the price of their Blu-rays and DVDs. According to The New York Times “The retailer’s refusal to sell the movies is part of its effort to gain leverage in yet another major confrontation with a supplier to become public in recent weeks.” Amazon has already been flexing its muscle with the publishing industry, and its standoff with Hachette Book Group has led the retailer to stop accepting pre-orders and delay shipments on Hatchette’s books.
Hit the jump for more. As the Times points out, the dispute isn’t the news as much as it’s about “suppliers’ growing resolve to hold the line.” Amazon’s business strategy could seriously backfire since J.K. Rowling‘s new book The Silkworm (written under her pseudonym “Robert Galbraith”) is due out later this month, and Warner Bros.’ The LEGO Movie will be out on Tuesday. These are major titles, and Amazon is telling customers they may as well go elsewhere. Personally, I was planning to buy The LEGO Movie from Amazon since I have gift cards, but now I’m fine taking my business elsewhere since I love the movie so much. With regards to Warner Bros., Amazon has also stopped taking pre-orders for 300: Rise of an Empire, Winter’s Tale, and Transcendence. While I’m not feeling the loss on those titles, the larger point remains that Warner Bros. isn’t going to be bullied into playing Amazon’s game, nor should they. The retailer’s situation with books is more complex given their history with publishers and the cultural cachet of the product, but when it comes to movies, consumers have far more options.
While customers can still own digital copies of Warner titles from Amazon Instant Video, it’s unfortunate that the retailer is shutting off those who want to own the Blu-ray, which contains all the special features as well as a digital copy. Amazon hasn’t cut off all Warner Bros. titles, and perhaps they’ll keep older titles flowing, but this could be a serious miscalculation on their part. I won’t deny that Amazon has serious power, but they’re not invincible. On Thursday, New York mag critic Bilge Ebiri praised The Lego Movie as, "the best action flick in years, a hilarious satire, [and] an inquiry into the mind of God." And it isn't over-the-top praise—it accurately reflects the overwhelmingly positive critical response to the computer-animated comedy, released on Friday. The film, which is based on—and pays loving tribute to—Lego toys, was co-written and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the pair who directed the fantastic 21 Jump Street reboot and its upcoming sequel.
The Lego Movie takes place mostly in a city in a Lego universe. A construction worker Lego named Emmet Brickowski (voiced by Chris Pratt) must save the Lego realms from imminent destruction and coerced conformity. His comrades are a mysterious female Lego warrior named Wyldstyle; a "Unikitty," which is a unicorn-animé kitten hybrid; a pirate called Metalbeard; and many more goofy and heroic Lego characters. The simple tale is loaded with gleeful pop-culture references and great voice-acting (everyone is in this movie, by the way, from Morgan Freeman and Jonah Hill to Cobie Smulders and Alison Brie). But what makes The Lego Movie even more accessible for viewers above the age of six is the fact that the film is full of political and social satire. The villain is President/Lord Business (voiced by Will Ferrell), who presides over a totalitarian surveillance state. President Business' regime creates virtually everything in the Lego society—generic pop music, lousy TV comedy, cameras, rigged voting machines, you name it.
The dictator/CEO uses extended televised broadcasts to inform his citizens (with a friendly grin on his face) that they'll be executed if they disobey. He controls a secret police led by Bad Cop/Good Cop (Liam Neeson), who is charged with torturing dissidents and rebels. President Business is the Lego Ceaușescu, if you swap the communism for capitalism. Some of this sounds pretty heavy, but it's all filtered through the soft, giddy lens of a kids' movie. Like all other entries into the "kids' movies that their parents can dig, too!" subgenre of cinema, it's this thinly-disguised maturity that makes the film both fun and winkingly smart. UPDATE, February 8, 2014, 12:39 a.m. EST: I missed this earlier, but on Friday, Fox personalities went after The Lego Movie for its allegedly "anti-business" and anti-capitalist message. One says President Business looks a bit like Mitt Romney. Another starts defending Mr. Potter from It's a Wonderful Life (which is just an act of life imitating parody).