If you’d told 10-year-old me there was going to be a movie all about Legos and the world they inhabit, I’d have been in line at the theater right then. Oh, it’s not out until 2014? Okay, let me just build a time machine out of Legos and travel to the future. But adult me, hardened by years of non-Lego life experience — insipid toy-to-movie adaptations like Battleship, for instance, plus a sore lack of a regular free-form building sessions — had his guard up.
Wasn’t necessary: The Lego Movie maybe be one giant advertisement, but all the way to its plastic-mat foundation, it’s an earnest piece of work — a cash grab with a heart. Made for, with and about Legos, the movie is also made for, with and about imagination, and when that association seems completely natural, it’s a win all around.
The movie chooses as its hero the unimaginative but boundlessly positive Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt), who’s just another average Lego guy living in the big Lego city going about his regular Lego day. As with most things Lego, there’s an instruction manual for everything, and Emmet eats, watches and says exactly what he’s supposed to. The instructions say that’s how you fit in, make friends, lead a happy life — only somehow that hasn’t worked out for Emmet, who doesn’t really have friends yet. (There’s an unsubtle critique of mainstream conformity going on here, exemplified by the transparently dumb yet incredibly catchy Lego pop hit “Everything is AWESOME,” which won’t be leaving your head for days after you hear it.)
There’s an evil mastermind bent on destroying the world, a prophecy about a chosen one and a spirited adventure to get to, but let’s talk for a second about how this movie moves: When Emmet showers, the water and soap suds are Lego pieces. When circumstances lead Emmet out of the city and across Lego deserts, forests and oceans, the land, sea and lava are all solid Legos.