Spoiler alert: This blog will talk about the magnificent ending of the Lego Movie. If you haven't seen it, you may not want to read this yet - but I definitely recommend watching it, and then please do come back here!
It would have been very easy to make the Lego Movie a funny but generic kids' film that happened to feature characters made of lego. Instead, they have made a brilliant film that celebrates all the things that make lego such a popular and addictive toy.
The beauty of lego is in its potential for imagination and creativity, and that is what the film is really about. The villain, Lord Business (voiced by Will Ferrell), has taken over the world and brainwashed people into constantly following the instructions, building lego buildings and vehicles exactly as they were intended and reporting any deviation to the authorities. His big, evil plan is to cover everything in superglue, fixing it in a perfect, unchangeable state exactly the way he wants it. The heroes fighting him are the Master Builders - classic characters who can still use their imagination to rearrange the blocks and rebuild the world in a more interesting and creative way.
There is some great fun in the choice of the characters used as Master Builders, who all have their own running jokes. Many of these are based on their characters outside of the lego universe, such as Green Lantern constantly trying to be Superman's best friend, or Gandalf and Dumbledore getting confused with one another. There is even a brief Star Wars cameo, with the original C3P0 and Lando Calrissian lending their voices.
The best jokes though are the ones where the personalities of people playing with lego are transposed onto the characters. For example, in one scene where a group of characters are trying to build a submarine, each is doing their own bit in their own style. Batman yells out "If anyone finds any black pieces, I need them - I only work in black, or sometimes very, very dark grey." I can definitely remember playing with lego with other people in my childhood and someone would call a monopoly on pieces of a particular type because they wanted to work to a particular theme. Similarly, the character Benny, AKA Nineteen Eighty-Something Space Guy, has a constant desperation to build a spaceship - lego always had a great range of pieces that would work for a spaceship and allowed for a great deal of creativity, so there was always someone who wanted to build a spaceship irrespective of what else was being made. They may be life or death situations, but the Master Builders play with lego in exactly the same way we would. There is even a scene where the main character Emmett can't find an axle piece to repair a wheel so sticks it on his head.
Lord Business represents a different kind of lego fan, as is made clear by the fantastic ending of the film. Emmett falls into a mysterious vortex and lands in the real world, where he is unable to move or change his facial expression. He sees the lego world for what it actually is - a huge display piece owned by the lego deity 'The Man Upstairs', who turns out to be Will Ferrell, represented by Lord Business in the lego world. He has built it to look at, but not to play with. The events of the film have been the actions of his son, who has given in to temptation and come down to play with the set properly, defying his father with creativity just as the Master Builders he plays with defy Lord Business. The final battle starts to go in the boy's favour, as fire engines and cranes are rebuilt into war machines and fight back against Lord Business's army of robots, but when the Man Upstairs gets involved they are destroyed or turned back into their designated form.
In order to triumph over evil, the boy/Emmett has to talk to his father/ Lord Business and persuade him that by deviating from the instructions, they can make creations of far more beauty and imagination than those originally designed. In the lego world, Lord Business is persuaded by the argument that his experience at following the instructions and orchestrating the construction of whole worlds makes him potentially one of the greatest Master Builders of all time. The Man Upstairs softens when he realises that his son has made him the villain of his playtime, and sees in a new light what he has been able to make. The cap is put back on the superglue and the two are able to play together in the way you are meant to play with lego.
The movie is very self-knowing and shows a perfect understanding of its source material. It makes you want to dig out your old lego sets and see what you can do with them. It also ends with a beautifully judged duplo cameo that had me in absolute stitches, and may be setting the scene for the sequel, which is already being planned. Basically, the theme song sums the film up quite nicely (and I couldn't not mention it given the title of this blog) - Everything is Awesome.
It would have been very easy to make the Lego Movie a funny but generic kids' film that happened to feature characters made of lego. Instead, they have made a brilliant film that celebrates all the things that make lego such a popular and addictive toy.
The beauty of lego is in its potential for imagination and creativity, and that is what the film is really about. The villain, Lord Business (voiced by Will Ferrell), has taken over the world and brainwashed people into constantly following the instructions, building lego buildings and vehicles exactly as they were intended and reporting any deviation to the authorities. His big, evil plan is to cover everything in superglue, fixing it in a perfect, unchangeable state exactly the way he wants it. The heroes fighting him are the Master Builders - classic characters who can still use their imagination to rearrange the blocks and rebuild the world in a more interesting and creative way.
There is some great fun in the choice of the characters used as Master Builders, who all have their own running jokes. Many of these are based on their characters outside of the lego universe, such as Green Lantern constantly trying to be Superman's best friend, or Gandalf and Dumbledore getting confused with one another. There is even a brief Star Wars cameo, with the original C3P0 and Lando Calrissian lending their voices.
The best jokes though are the ones where the personalities of people playing with lego are transposed onto the characters. For example, in one scene where a group of characters are trying to build a submarine, each is doing their own bit in their own style. Batman yells out "If anyone finds any black pieces, I need them - I only work in black, or sometimes very, very dark grey." I can definitely remember playing with lego with other people in my childhood and someone would call a monopoly on pieces of a particular type because they wanted to work to a particular theme. Similarly, the character Benny, AKA Nineteen Eighty-Something Space Guy, has a constant desperation to build a spaceship - lego always had a great range of pieces that would work for a spaceship and allowed for a great deal of creativity, so there was always someone who wanted to build a spaceship irrespective of what else was being made. They may be life or death situations, but the Master Builders play with lego in exactly the same way we would. There is even a scene where the main character Emmett can't find an axle piece to repair a wheel so sticks it on his head.
Lord Business represents a different kind of lego fan, as is made clear by the fantastic ending of the film. Emmett falls into a mysterious vortex and lands in the real world, where he is unable to move or change his facial expression. He sees the lego world for what it actually is - a huge display piece owned by the lego deity 'The Man Upstairs', who turns out to be Will Ferrell, represented by Lord Business in the lego world. He has built it to look at, but not to play with. The events of the film have been the actions of his son, who has given in to temptation and come down to play with the set properly, defying his father with creativity just as the Master Builders he plays with defy Lord Business. The final battle starts to go in the boy's favour, as fire engines and cranes are rebuilt into war machines and fight back against Lord Business's army of robots, but when the Man Upstairs gets involved they are destroyed or turned back into their designated form.
In order to triumph over evil, the boy/Emmett has to talk to his father/ Lord Business and persuade him that by deviating from the instructions, they can make creations of far more beauty and imagination than those originally designed. In the lego world, Lord Business is persuaded by the argument that his experience at following the instructions and orchestrating the construction of whole worlds makes him potentially one of the greatest Master Builders of all time. The Man Upstairs softens when he realises that his son has made him the villain of his playtime, and sees in a new light what he has been able to make. The cap is put back on the superglue and the two are able to play together in the way you are meant to play with lego.
The movie is very self-knowing and shows a perfect understanding of its source material. It makes you want to dig out your old lego sets and see what you can do with them. It also ends with a beautifully judged duplo cameo that had me in absolute stitches, and may be setting the scene for the sequel, which is already being planned. Basically, the theme song sums the film up quite nicely (and I couldn't not mention it given the title of this blog) - Everything is Awesome.
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