I have always had something of an obsession with Lego. From a very early age I remember waking my parents up at the crack of dawn by emptying buckets of bricks onto the playroom floor, their glass-like crashing resonating throughout the house. One of my earliest memories in fact is of the day my mother, like some great Japanese kaiju, destroyed an entire city in one foul swoop whilst I was at kindergarten.
To this day I still fill with excitement whenever that tell-tale jingle peals from beneath wrapping paper, and will freely admit that my favourite present of last Christmas was the Wolverine vs Deadpool play set, possibly the coolest Lego set of all time.
So it has been with childlike glee that I have been anticipating the release of the new Lego Movie, which finally hit UK cinemas last Friday (oh, what a Valentine's present!). Those around me, much like the critics before seeing the final piece, have been dumbfounded by my fascination, and in all honestly, I had a feeling that in reality it would just be a simple family fare worthwhile of a few chuckles.
But dear god, am I glad the world has been proved wrong.
The Lego Movie is by far one of the smartest, most beautifully animated, and surprisingly moving films that I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. Throughout the first few minutes of the film I sat grinning like the Cheshire Cat as the intricate landscape of Bricksburg built itself before me. No detail has been forgotten in this world, from the use of random pieces when that exact brick is unavailable, to the tiny serial numbers underneath each brick and even the gradual wear and tear that the pieces have undergone through years of enjoyment. Indeed so exact is the animation, and so perfectly performed, had I not known that the entire world was computer generated, I could happily have believed that painstaking lengths of stop-motion had brought Bricksburg to life.
The story is childlike in its simplicity (a factor that makes so very much sense in the beautiful reveal towards the end of the movie), and each of the main characters is filled with their own personality without ever feeling contrived or characatured. The humour is infectious throughout and we truly feel the plight of our heroes, buying in to Lego-verse without question.
But this is not simply a comedic adventure story aimed at primary schoolboys and nostalgic geeks with too much time on their hands. Without giving too much away, The Lego Movie is a film about family, about growing up and about what these things mean in the modern world. It's easy to hold on to nostalgia, and to long for everything to be in its place, but eventually there comes a time when we must make changes, and embrace them.
This is not a film about Lego, it's a coming of age film to rival The Goonies and Stand By Me. And I do not say that lightly.
So forget your hang-ups and your snobbery, trust me; this is the movie to warm the cockles of the coldest hearts. Even if they are made of plastic.
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