DELIGHT: Phil Lord's & Christopher Miller's THE LEGO MOVIE (co-wri & dir by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Warner Brothers, 100mns, USA)

This writer is getting a second chance to catch up on some of the great animated and children's movies of the last twenty years through movie nights with his kids.

Because movie selection rotates, this writer got to pick and convinced his children to watch 2014's THE LEGO MOVIE.

Co-writers/directors Phil Lord & Christopher Miller have been carving out a pop culture comic slice of the pie since their breakout animated adaptation of CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS in 2009.

Since then they've made two great live-action comedies 21 & 22 JUMP STREET, gotten fired 3/4 of the way through shooting the Star Wars movie SOLO (which probably should have just let them finish the job), helped to write & produce one of the great movies of the last 25 years-2018's INTO THE SPIDERVERSE, and are wrapping on a sci-fi live action movie, the Ryan Gosling starring PROJECT HAIL MARY which comes out early 2026. 

But it may be their 2014 THE LEGO MOVIE which has most put their stamp on the industry.

Since the wild success of that movie, the entire industry has embraced product co-productions with interesting voices behind the camera as a kind of art-commerce compromise. THE SUPER MARIO BROTHERS MOVIE, BARBIE, and THE MINECRAFT MOVIE are only 3 of dozens that have come at us in the last decade.

THE LEGO MOVIE is a platinum standard because it works as BOTH a subversive comedy AND an extended commercial for Lego toys.

Oh so many toys to sell in this product tie-in. . .but the real victory: making a genuinely hilarious comedy.

Lord and Miller have fun poking fun at the "Matrix" and "Star Wars" story template while also finding a clever way of building to a third act reveal that feels just right for this kind of movie.

We've seen this story before but we haven't seen this story told quite this way before. Wide-eyed lego construction worker Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt with still sharp PARKS & RECREATION chops) dubiously appears to be "the chosen one" to take on megalomaniacal President/Lord Business (Will Ferrell) who wants to unleash his secret weapon "the Kragl" (Krazy glue) on Legoland on Taco Tuesday (three days away).

Emmet goes on the requisite odyssey with the help of vastly more talented WyldStyle (Elizabeth Banks) whom he has an immediate crush on and sage wizard/wise man Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman). Assorted Lego toys/products/figures/great voice actors appear in very funny iterations throughout.

Family movies work to deliver the eye melting fast-paced fun movie goods for the children while smuggling in great jokes for the adults. When it's done right and the movie has a moving story to boot, everybody wins. 

Morgan Freeman lends his sonorous voice to Vetruvius the Obi Wan stand in. And he’s funny too!

THE LEGO MOVIE plays as a kind of AIRPLANE/THE NAKED GUN for both children and parents. There are 2-3 solid jokes along with one inspired joke every minute which is a hellishly difficult threshold to maintain across a feature film. 

This movie lover especially appreciated an extended visual joke with a band-aid played out entirely in the near blurred out background of a scene while foreground exposition was occurring. 

For movie makers, there is also an envious amount of cinematic invention. Something that does distinguish Lord and Miller from their other talented comedic contemporaries. Even title cards are opportunities to riff on different movie techniques.

Every ounce of the buffalo is used.

THE LEGO MOVIE doesn't escape the weird third act "heart warming word salad" character realization about some inspiring truth about life that feels confused.

But THE LEGO MOVIE does better than most at finding a way of plowing through that to a simple real truth-we should take things a little less seriously and focus on connecting with and cherishing each other.

By the way, is there nothing Liam Neeson can not do? He shows up here as a Cop who is both “Good Cop” and “Bad Cop”.

The computer animation is so advanced (even here in 2014) that you often think you're actually watching stop-motion lego work until you realize the level of detail is actually beyond hyper-real.

A consistently hilarious and inventive movie, THE LEGO MOVIES proves Lord and Miller are some of the most interesting big budget auteurs working today.

Craig Hammill is the founder.programmer of Secret Movie Club