The LEGO Movie

Taking place in a world made entirely of LEGOs, and animated to look like real LEGO pieces in a stop-motion animation, The LEGO Movies follows Emmet, a construction worker with an upbeat attitude but a rather bland and lonely life. When he stumbles across the mysterious “piece of resistance” after work one day, he is suddenly pulled into a crazy adventure with a team of “Master Builders” who are trying to foil the plans of Lord Business, who wants all LEGO pieces stuck in place forever.

Having found the piece of resistance, everyone insists that Emmet is meant to fulfill a prophecy to stop Lord Business and save the world. Emmet himself isn’t so sure; he knows he isn’t nearly as creative as the Master Builders, and the few creative ideas he manages to conjure aren’t very good. Unfortunately the piece of resistance is stuck to his back, so the Master Builders are depending on him, whether he likes it or not.

On one level, the well-crafted story presents a traditional good guy vs bad guy narrative, with Emmet and the Master Builders on an epic quest to save the world from Lord Business’s evil plans. But on another level, the film deftly explores the role of creativity in children vs adults. As we get older, we often let our creative spirit atrophy or become overly serious, and it may be helpful to remember what it’s like to play with LEGOs. In this way, LEGOs present an interesting lesson: Sometimes when you want to make something new, you must take apart what you’ve got. 

Children understand this intuitively, such as when building sandcastles on the shore. The castles are destined to collapse in the tide, but children build them anyway. Children enjoy building things they know won’t last forever.

Full of zany playful humor, The LEGO Movie is great fun for the whole family, and provides some profound messages about the value of creativity, teamwork, self-acceptance, the power of believing and trusting in yourself and your friends, and even what it means to love your enemy.

Runtime: 1 hour, 40 minutes
Rated PG
USCCB rating: A-I
96% on Rotten Tomatoes
IMDb Parents Guide