Everything is awesome!!! Everything is cool when you're part of a team! That um, awesome song (by Tegan and Sara featuring The Lonely Island) is still stuck in my head after watching The LEGO Movie earlier today. Featuring the voices of an all-star cast that includes Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Alison Brie, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Jonah Hill and even Shaquille O'Neal, this flick does absolute justice to the classic toy blocks on which this film is based. The LEGO Movie conveys the theme that LEGOs are meant to be turned into any creation that a child can fathom in his or her mind...and that these creations aren't meant to stay permanent through the lack of vision and the reckless use of Krazy Glue. Bent on using the latter product to take the fun out of LEGOs is Will Ferrell, who plays the main animated villain Lord Business as well as the live-action Man Upstairs. Pratt (who played a Navy SEAL in Zero Dark Thirty and stars in NBC's Parks and Recreation) does a great job voicing the main protagonist named Emmet...an Average Joe who would save Legoland when he finally embraces his destiny of being the MasterBuilder.
Along with having really great animation (I couldn't help but feel nostalgic when classic LEGO sets—ranging from castle fortresses to spaceships—that I used to own and wanted to own when I was young were brought to life on the big screen), it was fun to see cameos by other brand characters that LEGO was able to build toys for over the last decade or so. Among them are Batman (voiced humorously by Will Arnett), Superman (Channing Tatum), Wonder Woman (voiced by The Avengers and How I Met Your Mother's Cobie Smulders), C-3PO (once again voiced by Anthony Daniels) and Lando Calrissian (voiced by Billy Dee Williams... One wonders if he'll reprise his role as live-action Lando in next year's Star Wars: Episode VII). It wasn't a surprise to see Batman, Superman and other Justice League members in The LEGO Movie—seeing as how this flick was produced by Warner Bros., which owns the rights to all DC Comics characters—but it was cool to see Star Wars references as well.
While The LEGO Movie may not have been as moving (only slightly so) as such Pixar flicks as Up or WALL-E, it was still a great film for kids and adults alike. You would think that it would be a straightforward cartoon like the aforementioned Disney films and other movies such as Shrek or Despicable Me, but that live-action scene featuring Will Ferrell's Man Upstairs having a change of heart after seeing his son's imagination come into play was a nice touch. Considering how well-received this movie has been with the critics, and how big this film will do at the box office this weekend, it's pretty much a sure bet that The LEGO Movie will see a sequel. Assuming that the sequel strikes the right notes that its predecessor is doing, The LEGO Movie has a chance to spawn a series that will be as moving as say, Pixar's Toy Story franchise. Everything will be awesome if that was the case. Carry on.
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