"Everything Is Awesome" is the theme song to the 2014 Warner Bros. Pictures film The Lego Movie. It was written by Shawn Patterson,[1] Jo Li,[2][3] and The Lonely Island. The single and pop version featured in the end credits of the movie was produced by Mark Mothersbaugh[4] and performed by Tegan and Sara in collaboration with The Lonely Island. The version of "Everything Is Awesome" featured in The Lego Movie scene, official trailer,[5] TV spots,[6][7][8] video game, and featurette[9] was produced by Bartholomew[10] and performed by Bartholomew and Lisa Harriton under the name Jo Li. A third version appears in The Lego Batman Movie, performed by Richard Cheese & Lounge Against The Machine. On January 26, 2014, the song received its first US radio airplay via Anything Anything with Rich Russo on WXPK-FM, WRAT-FM and WDHA-FM.[11] Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara said in a Billboard interview: We want to be a "serious" musical band, while also being humorous people, but this was so adorable, and the movie looked great, and the opportunity to do something with Mark Mothersbaugh and the Lonely Island ... it was sort of a no-brainer, and it's turned out to be this really cool moment.
We feel like it was a win-win. In an interview to Fox News, Mark Mothersbaugh says the song "was supposed to be like mind control early in the film. It's totally irritating, this kind of mindless mantra to get people up and working." The music video features Lego versions of Tegan and Sara as well as The Lonely Island's Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone. Parts of the video were made using brickfilming. "Everything is Awesome" debuted at No. 7 on the Dance/Electronic Songs chart, with 34,000 downloads in its first week (Nielsen SoundScan) and 11 on the Irish Charts. It also charted 35 on the Canadian Hot 100. The song charted 17 on the UK Charts and charted 3 on the UK Indie. In the US Billboard Hot 100, the song charted 57.[15] As of June 2014, the single had sold 418,000 copies in the United States. International Business Times described the song as a parody of creeping fascism, saying that the song "seems little more than an infectiously catchy parody of watered-down radio pop, right down to the faux-dubstep breakdown.
There’s a lot more happening under the surface, however." As one of the songs nominated for Best Original Song at the 2015 Oscars, "Everything is Awesome" was performed as a large-scale musical number featuring not only Tegan and Sara and The Lonely Island, but also on-stage appearances by Mothersbaugh (paying homage to his 1970s group Devo by wearing a LEGO version of the distinctive Devo energy dome), DJ Questlove, and comic actor Will Arnett dressed as Batman (in the film, Arnett provides the voice of Batman and sings the mocking heavy metal composition "Untitled Self Portrait", an excerpt of which was incorporated into the "Everything Is Awesome" performance).[18] According to LEGO Movie co-director Christopher Miller, for this on-stage appearance, Arnett wore the Batman costume originally worn by Val Kilmer in the 1995 film Batman Forever.[19] Arnett also lip-synced to the song on the Reality TV Show Lip Sync Battle, while dressed as Emmet, the character voiced by Chris Pratt in The Lego Movie.
^ [1] "Playlists for 1/26/14" ^ a b 'The Lego Movie': Why Tegan & Sara Went Chirpy for 'Everything Is Awesome' (Video). ^ Devo lead singer dishes on creating catchy 'Lego' song. ^ How 'The Lego Movie' And 'Everything Is Awesome' Parody Creeping Everyday Fascism. ^ WATCH: ‘Everything is Awesome’ at the Oscars Thanks to Will Arnett’s Batman and Oprah, Variety. accessed February 25, 2015 ^ Nick Romano, Will Arnett Wore A Piece Of Batman History At The Oscars. ^ ARIA Australian Top 40 Digital Tracks | Australia's Official Top 40 Digital Downloads. ^ "Tegan and Sara – Chart history" Canadian Hot 100 for Tegan and Sara. Retrieved February 23, 2014. ^ "Chart Track: Week 09, 2014". Retrieved February 24, 2014. ^ ".nz – Tegan And Sara feat. The Lonely Island – Everything Is Awesome". ^ "Archive Chart: March 1, 2014". Scottish Singles Top 40. ^ "1, 2014/ Archive Chart: March 1, 2014" UK Singles Chart. ^ "1, 2014/ Archive Chart: March 1, 2014" UK Indie Chart.
^ "Tegan and Sara – Chart history" Billboard Hot 100 for Tegan and Sara. ^ Comedy Digital Tracks : Feb 15, 2014. ^ Hot Dance/Electronic Songs : Mar 1, 2014. ^ Tegan and Sara - Chart history for Heatseekers Songs. . Retrieved February 23, 2014. ^ If necessary, click, then click, then select, then clickLego told 'everything is not awesome' in viral Greenpeace video. Retrieved January 28, 2015. Emmet (Chris Pratt) stars as the protagonist of "The Lego Movie." If you have ever put Lego bricks together and felt a spark of ingenuity—ever—Phil Lord and Christopher Miller know the feeling. The writer-directors’ “The Lego Movie” succeeds in its devotion to the tiny plastic source material, building touching themes as well as action comedy from the multicolored bricks. Though family-appropriate, it’s a film for Lego devotees of all ages, with clever humor and a dazzling visual language that older audiences can appreciate. It’s great fun and as intricately constructed as those police stations, spaceships, and mummy tombs of so many childhood memories.
Its hero’s first sequence is a stunner: Emmet (Chris Pratt) wakes and consults “Instructions” to start his day as a construction worker in Bricksburg—a cheery metropolis under the constant surveillance of President Business (Will Ferrell). The bustling brick streets are breathtaking from every angle, resembling the wild worlds of Miller and Lord’s “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” franchise, and the yellow-headed citizens of Bricksburg singing Tegan and Sara & The Lonely Island’s theme “Everything is AWESOME!!!” sets the film’s tone. The happy homogeneity of the city is an example of the film’s best innovation—using Lego components like pieces and instructions to address themes of conformity and creativity. The film takes Emmet and co. from Bricksburg to the Wild West and the high seas, from the iridescent paradise of Cloud Cuckoo Land to the robotic skyscraper of President Business, in a quest to use the “Piece of Resistance” to destroy Business’s superweapon.
The Legoscapes are immense; the CGI brick renderings of explosions, water, and smoke are predictably beautiful. Miller and Lord’s most interesting effect, though, is a jerkiness of the frame and of background motion—the passage of time in the film seems to progress in chunky increments, befitting a film about Lego bricks.Nor do the directors overlook the bricks’ opportunities for action and for comedy. The former sequences are excitingly done—construction cranes reassembled into an “Aliens” loader-style robot for a city-wrecking fight scene, a Western saloon rebuilt into a hang glider—but not overdone to the point where every obstacle seems navigable by brick-craft. The humor draws from the diversity of Lego’s product lines, as in a scene with the Council of Master Builders—where Renaissance artist Michelangelo sits next to his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle counterpart, Dumbledore bickers with Gandalf, and a frustrated Abe Lincoln bellows, “A house divided against itself would be better than this!” before rocketing off in a flying chair.
The film steers largely clear of the repetition jokes or bathroom humor of its genre, and it incorporates Lego’s franchise characters for smart pop-culture humor. The voice actors’ casting plays in: the entrance of the Millennium Falcon yields “Star Wars” allusions sweetened by Anthony Daniels voicing C-3P0, as he did in the saga. Perhaps cleverest, the directors riff off their own “21 Jump Street” with an awkward friendship between Superman and Green Lantern, voiced by Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill.It’s the intent, though, that is what’s special about “The Lego Movie.” It includes suggestions of a world outside the Lego universe—this world—in moves more reminiscent of “Monsters University” (or “Twilight Zone”) than “Toy Story.” There’s a Band-Aid here, a backdrop that looks like construction paper there. These are funny, but they’re also statements of purpose.They’re reminders that “The Lego Movie” isn’t just a movie with Lego, but a movie about Lego.
The film considers what the interlocking toy represents to its viewers more actively and with more complexity than “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” does with food, than “Cars” does with cars. It builds themes of imagination and individuality up from the limitless possibilities of the bricks. This ethos powers its most inventive scenes, like a particularly stunning visualization of Emmet’s mind and a brilliant ending.The problem with linking the film’s themes so closely to the experience of building with Lego is that for moviegoers without enthusiasm (or nostalgia) for the toy, those themes may feel empty or extraneous. That said, these people will enjoy “The Lego Movie” anyway—it’s a smart, fun, beautiful film. Its brick-based action and humor are sheer entertainment, its thematic material a loving tribute to the building toy. It takes in everything that’s great about Lego, and that makes for one of the best animated films in years. —Staff writer Austin Siegmund-Broka can be reached at asiegemund-broka@college.harvard.edu.