Contribute to This PageThe requested URL /sound.php?id=288 was not found on this server. Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request. - 3 years ago Everything is awesome Everything is cool when you're part of a team Everything is awesome, when we're living our dream Everything is better when we stick together Side by side, you and I gonna win forever, let's party forever We're the same, I'm like you, you're like me, we're all working in harmony Everything is awesome Everything is cool when you're part of a team Everything is awesome, when we're living our dream (Wooo) 3, 2, 1. GO Have you heard the news, everyone's talking Life is good 'cause everything's awesome Lost my job, it's a new opportunity More free time for my awesome community I feel more awesome than an awesome opossum Dip my body in chocolate frostin' Three years later, washed out the frostin' Smellin' like a blossom, everything is awesome Stepped in mud, got new brown shoes It's awesome to win
, and it's awesome to lose (it's awesome to lose) Everything is better when we stick together Side by side, you and I, gonna win forever, let's party forever We're the same, I'm like you, you're like me, we're all working in harmony Everything is awesome Everything is cool when you're part of a team Everything is awesome, when we're living our dream Blue skies, bouncy springs We just named you awesome things A nobel prize, a piece of string You know what's awesome, EVERYTHING Dogs and fleas, allergies, a book of Greek antiquities Brand new pants, a very old vest Awesome items are the best Trees, frogs, clogs They're awesome Rocks, clocks, and socks They're awesome Figs, and jigs, and twigs That's awesome Everything you see, or think, or say Is awesome Everything is awesome Everything is cool when you're part of a team Everything is awesome, when we're living our dream At this point, chiding a movie for ripping off The Matrix feels like something recycled and uninspired in itself—an argument aimed, for 15 years, at countless films resembling an actioner already culled together from preexisting texts.
Still, it's nearly impossible to endorse The Lego Movie without first observing that it owes almost all of its plot to the Wachowskis' culture-quaking hit. Written and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the film focuses on Emmet (Chris Pratt), a lowly construction worker whose life is just like that of the rest of his Lego-ville lemmings, until a black-clad babe named Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) extracts him from his realm and brings him to Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman), an all-knowing god-wizard who tells him he's “The Special.” Having found the curious Piece of Resistance (très intelligent), Emmet must fight back against the Agent Smith-like Bad Cop/Good Cop (Liam Neeson) and free the whole Lego universe from a brainwashing force, embodied by the Instruction Manual-adherent President Business (Will Ferrell). The Matrix similarities are so extreme that one might take The Lego Movie as an all-in-jest homage, but Lord and Miller have not created a Toys “R” Us twist on the Spaceballs formula.
Thus, appreciation of the film lies, perhaps aptly, in the pieces built on a pillaged foundation. One of the most seemingly frivolous, yet ultimately memorable, pieces is a catchy track called “Everything Is Awesome,” which, as instructed, is the favorite jam of everyone Emmet knows, and calls to mind our own pack mentality when it comes to inane, earworm-y pop. Other elements have a meta nature that's far less implicit, like Batman's (Will Arnett) endowment with a very Christian Bale-type growl, and the Lego universe's realms themselves—lively, inhabited visualizations of popular Lego playsets, like “The Old West” and a Tolkien-esque place called “Middle Zealand.” Some of the knowing humor is truly funny (Green Lantern and Superman, frenemies and two of many “Master Builders,” are giddily voiced by Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum), but The Lego Movie's self-reflexive triumph is the very notion of world-building. Like last year's Wreck-It Ralph, this is a state-of-the-art CG rendering of an iconic, retro pastime, complete with similar passages between the pastime's sub-worlds.
Here, though, we get to see, often in glorious, low-tech-meets-high-tech fashion, the structures before us being assembled and disassembled, as if we're watching the animators craft a work in progress. Considering that Lego is 65 years old, it's a surprisingly novel visual experience. President Business's hoarding of human-world “relics” like the “Kragle,” a scratched-up tube of Krazy Glue with which he plans to “perfectly” freeze the Lego population, links to a development that many viewers probably won't see coming. Both upending the narrative and revealing plot holes only the filmmakers could fully explain away, it's a twist Christopher Nolan might devour, but one most of us shouldn't strain too hard to wrap our heads around. What matters isn't the climax's urge to yank out the rug or boggle the brain, but its ability to instill an aesthetically formidable flick with necessary heart. All told, there's an ageless warmth to The Lego Movie akin to that of the Lego brand itself.
And while it can't lay claim to whipping up an original story, the film earns plaudits for razing the Western concept of a “Special” and promoting a common specialness, conveying to kids, specifically, that everyone and everything is special—and kinda awesome too. Phil Lord, Chris Miller Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Morgan Freeman, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Liam Neeson, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill< Previous Next > English, Literature, and Modern Languages The Double-Sided Message of The Lego Movie: The Effects of Popular Entertainment on Children in Consumer Culture One of the most popular and highest rated films of 2014, The Lego Movie, has entertained billions of viewers in the past year. Although it has already proven itself to be a favorite of adults, The Lego Movie’s targeted audience is children who will identify with the imaginative and fun characters that take the form of their favorite building toys. Such a strong platform that provides excellent age appropriate entertainment to the world’s most impressionable generation gives The Lego Movie a prime opportunity to communicate to children in an unusually powerful way.
For decades, researchers have explored the way entertainment media influences children’s view of their world. It will not be too long until concerned moviewatchers and parents begin to wonder exactly what message The Lego Movie communicates to the children it is so intentionally geared towards. The Lego Movie’s script is fairly clear as to its desire to teach children the value of their own individuality and creativity. But the script is not the only factor that contributes to how children are likely to find meaning in entertainment such as The Lego Movie. The text of the film denounces big business that dominates influential industries and exploits consumer culture, but The Lego Movie in itself might be the largest example of product placement advertising in film history. The film’s protagonists urge the audience to be creative, thoughtful individuals who are not fooled by consumerism’s “one size fits all” facade, but the implication of the brand’s usage is that in order to be a creative individual, every child should buy Lego products.
In the following pages, I will explore evidence from various sources to discover exactly what message is truly being portrayed from this beloved film and what children really learn through engaging The Lego Movie as a piece of popular entertainment. Taking all things into consideration, I shall argue that context wins over text in children’s entertainment such as The Lego Movie. Although The Lego Movie displays a message of individualism and creativity, when the marketing advantages and subtle ironies found within its script are examined through the ways by which children find meaning in entertainment media, the film is seen to communicate a message that encourages consumer culture more than it does individuality and creativity. The subtle implications of the film can be potentially unhealthy to children’s view of popular entertainment, themselves, and their role in their world. Nevertheless, popular films like The Lego Movie can still be a helpful tool for parents to use in teaching children how to correctly address consumer culture and its influence on their thinking.