From left, Benny, voiced by Charlie Day, Batman, voiced by Will Arnett, Vitruvius, voiced by Morgan Freeman, Wyldstyle, voiced by Elizabeth Banks and Unikitty, voiced by Alison Brie, in a scene from "The Lego Movie." To create and preserve, or to destroy and rebuild? As a child, you probably struggled with these profound impulses while messing around with Legos. That tension lies at the heart of "The Lego Movie," which doesn't at all feel like the extended toy commercial you might be fearing. Instead, it's the smartest, funniest and most dazzlingly inventive children's movie to come along in years. Computer-animated in a stop-motion style -- with more than 15 million individual "bricks" -- "The Lego Movie" unfolds in a bright, multicolored world of those familiar dotted blocks and little yellow figures with U-shaped hands. Among them is Emmet (voice of Chris Pratt), a happily conformist construction worker who uncovers a dark plot: The tyrant Lord Business (Will Ferrell) plans to glue the entire Lego universe together, and only the Piece of Resistance can stop him.
If Emmett wants to fight for unfettered creativity, he must throw away his instruction booklets and become a visionary Master Builder. Directed by Chris Lord and Phil Miller ("Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs"), who also helped write the screenplay, "The Lego Movie" shines on almost every level. The details are enchanting: Legos are used to create everything, including water, smoke and explosions; it's a brilliant collaboration between the virtual animation studio Animal Logic ("Happy Feet") and the Claymation craftsman Chris McKay ("Robot Chicken"). The characters sparkle, too, particularly the puppyish Emmet and his punky love interest, Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks). "The Lego Movie" also allows two legendary voices to get silly: Morgan Freeman, as the nonchalant guru Vitruvius, and Liam Neeson, pulling triple duty as the two-faced Good Cop/Bad Cop (and his dad, Pa Cop), are having an audibly excellent time. Will Arnett plays Batman as an insufferable Goth-rock poseur. If anything, "The Lego Movie" is the rare children's movie that suffers from overambition.
It's crammed a little too full of ideas, meta humor and conflicting narrative themes. There's also a death scene that, while played partly for laughs, may startle young viewers. All of that, however, still adds up to just a quibble. "The Lego Movie" is as much fun as, well, 15 million Legos. PLOT In a conformist Lego world, one small figure fights for unfettered creativity. RATING PG (action, some Lego violence) CAST Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman, Elizabeth Banks BOTTOM LINE One of the best kids' movies in years, with dazzling animation and a sparkling voice cast. It's more fun than you can shake a brick at. Sign up for Newsday's Entertainment newsletter Get the latest on celebs, TV and more. 2014 film, TV, music and theater awardsWhile Ben Affleck grapples with his inability to direct another tale of the Dark Knight, Warner Bros and DC Comics give us reason to be happy with the hilarious spin off that is The Lego Batman Movie.In the universe made up of our favourite interlocking bricks, there’s no situation too serious.
Gotham City is going to be blown up? The greatest criminal minds are going to spread mayhem on the lives of poor, innocent civilians? The Batman (a devastatingly funny Will Arnett) is here. He, as he puts it in his own ‘super-modest’ words, has incredible reflexes, has aged phenomenally in the last 70 years, and advises orphans to take care of their abs if they want to be like him. And oh, he can beat-box too.But the Joker (Zach Galifianakis) cannot get his nemesis to acknowledge him as Batman’s No.1 enemy and say those three magical words: I hate you.“It must be great to be Batman,” a TV anchor reads. Back in his secret lair, the Batman’s closest companions are his supercomputer (Apple’s Siri) and a movie collection that includes Jerry Maguire, Marley and Me and Serendipity. One has to wonder if there has been a greater situational usage of Three Dog Night’s song ‘One is the loneliest number’.Batman’s father-figure butler Alfred Pennyworth (Ralph Fiennes) thinks it’s time he faced his greatest fear — being part of a family again.
He reminds Batman about raising Dick Grayson a.k.a Robin (Michael Cera) who he accidentally adopts while crushing on the city’s new commissioner of police, Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson).There’s not much to be read into the plotline that emphasises on teamwork to tackle problems, just like the earlier movie did. But the reason it all works is undoubtedly the one-liners, self-referencing gags (mostly from Arnett’s gruff Bat-voice), and the burning digs at the more-successful Marvel Cinematic Universe (the password to open the Batcave is ‘Iron Man sucks!’). Not to forget the homage paid to the original Adam West series — the Batmobile’s horn is the 1960s na-na-na-na theme; before a punch-up, Batman tells Robin, “words that describe the impact are gonna spontaneously materialise out of thin air.”Partly why some of the more cheesy jokes work is because the Lego minifigures look naturally laughable with their oversized heads, teeny bodies and fingerless hands. When these elements combine with a script that seems like it’s written by the best of Saturday Night Live talent and a good dose of irreverence à la The Simpsons, very little can go wrong.
The folks at DC Comics should probably take note that when things are not exactly rosy at the box office, parody would be one way to keep things awesome. The Lego Batman MovieGenre: Animation comedyDirector: Chris McKayCast: Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis, Rosario Dawson, Michael CeraStoryline: Batman returns to the Lego Universe to kick some bad brick buttsBottomline: A laugh-out-loud parody that never falls flatDonald Faison Mourns the Death of His Ex-Wife in Heartfelt Post Judge in Casey Anthony Trial: She May Have Killed Daughter by Accident Jimmy Kimmel: This Is How That Final Matt Damon Joke Would Have Gone Tarek El Moussa Has 'Totally Moved On' From Ex Christina George W. Bush Jokes About His Poncho Problem at Trump’s Inauguration Kaitlyn Bristowe on Why She Outed Bachelor Boss for Alleged 'DWTS' Snub This Is Us’ Justin Hartley: Mandy Moore Is Most Likely to Cry on Set Jane Fonda Reveals She Was Raped and Sexually Abused as a Child 'The Lego Batman Movie' Review: Everything Is Still 'Awesome' in This Entertaining Spinoff
3 stars (out of 4)Everything is still awesome in the Lego Movie universe!!!All right, maybe not everything.And in a young movie year when the biggest box office hit showcases a deranged man mutilating teen girls for kicks (for shame, Split, for shame), let's cheer an ultra-accessible blockbuster that packs in clever laughs, not to mention fun pows! to please the Batman faithful. Indeed, if any character from the marvelous 2014 hit The Lego Movie warranted a spinoff, it’s Will Arnett’s why-so-serious Caped Crusader. “Really long dramatic production logos.” “Animal Logic animation studio.” Batman himself narrates the opening seconds in his deep growl. He then attributes an earnest lyric from Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” to himself. Oh, yes, this is an irreverent toy story coming to play. Life is pretty damn sweet for Batman these days. The good people of Gotham City like him. They know that as soon as the Bat Signal goes up, he’s going to rescue them from those pesky bad guys.
Not even the Joker (Zach Galifianakis) can beat him. Off-hours, Batman takes off the codpiece and transforms back into billionaire bachelor Bruce Wayne. Wanna know what really transpires inside his lair? The guy microwaves lobster for precisely two minutes and watches Jerry Maguire in his private screening room. But the Joker is nothing if not persistent. So when Batman — his archrival for 78 years! — has the gall to dismiss his antics by exclaiming “Batman and Joker are not a thing,” the villain plots his most intricate hostile takeover plan yet. This time, Batman and his wonderful toys can’t defeat him. He needs to ditch the brooding loner thing and (gasp) seek assistance. Enter a motley crew of eager crime fighters: wide-eyed Boy Wonder Robin (Michael Cera), the new Commissioner Gordon (Rosario Dawson) and trusty butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes).There’s delicious irony in noting the action and entertainment value here far exceeds that of 2016’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.
(Granted, it’s faint praise. That dud nabbed Razzie nods for a reason. Changing a light bulb in the bat cave is more thrilling.) The fact is, Lego Batman owes a major debt of gratitude to Ben Affleck’s incarnation. The latter portrayed the iconic superhero as a humorless, tortured soul seemingly impervious to warmth. All that darkness was ripe for the picking. And, holy wow, does this film pick with glee. And the winking jokes come at breakneck pace. For starters, Mr. Grumpy Vigilante is the only superhero not invited to Superman’s rager in the Fortress of Solitude. And his patience with golly-gee Robin — who never realizes that Batman and Bruce Wayne are the same person, despite their similarities — wears thin in hilarious ways. (Shout-out to whoever thought to cast two Arrested Development vets in these roles.) This Batman can also can sing and dance about his greatness (sample lyric in his signature tune: “It’s OK if you stare/I’m a billionaire!”). We laugh because we love.