Random Insights: The Lego Movie

[fishers64]

Main Character: Emmet
(although this isn't Bionicle, so no fancy pattern exists to complain about)
Secondary Major Character: Wyldstyle
Theme:
1) Everything is Awesome...except for your parents, which can be redeemed, still. 
2) Anyone can be creative and innovate and be special.
 
The Kragle is hidden in lava in the beginning. President Business has lasers, sharks, and lazer sharks, but he never uses lava, which is a lot more dangerous than all three. Now we know why – if he beat the lava trap, Vitruvius could, in theory, get the Kragle back. He who builds a lava trap would know how to get past a lava trap, right?
 
The passage of time in this movie is the first indication that the live-action of this movie exists. One thing I found to be noteable was the fact that 8 ½ years passed between the Prologue and Emmet; did that mean that 8 ½ years passed in the real world? It’s possible that Finn built the lava fortress as a really little kid, and that’s how the conflict between him and his father over the Lego developed. I find this to be unlikely though; it’s probably Finn alluding to these events in schizo style that kids tend to do, like the other cuts – although it could be an allusion to Finn’s age, seeing as he might identify with Emmet. Anyway.  
 
If you look to your left during the exercise montage – why is Emmet’s computer on? Also, he has Windows. Yay for Windows…sort of.
 
This is strange, but plants actually do get nutrition from water or coffee grounds, so I guess the mug for the plant might actually make sense.
 
Oddly, the mugs in the breakfast montage seem to imply that Emmet is drinking coffee, and then he goes and buys MORE coffee? No wonder he’s so hyper.
 
Emmet goes through a couple of the people we see later in the film’s costumes in the dressing montage – most notably he takes Bennys’ last before selecting his own.
 
As we approach the city center, we get more signs: “What part of no don’t you understand?” “Don’t stay up all night.” and “Because I said so.” Trademark of Parents Everywhere ™. Use with permission.
 
Also, if you look to your right, you see a poster advocating studs up building, which is very odd for an AFOL: usually we like Studs Not On Top. Man, this guy is old fashioned.
 
More signs: “Don’t touch my stuff.” “Confrom: It’s the norm.”
 
On your left as Emmet looks after Wyldstyle: an old wrought iron gate. The place where Emmet goes looks like an old castle. That’s where you put valuable stuff: In a castle. With guards.
 
Also: ice cream vs. swords and spikes. Most people would pick the ice cream, except that Emmet doesn’t get a choice. Gravity. The Piece includes a test of temptation to become the true Special…
 
The Piece of Resistance: surrounded by orange crystal stuff. In case you haven’t noticed already, crystals form in lava. Or near lava. Two bets that the scmancy prophecy was to distract President Business from the Piece of Resistance that was very close by. Of course, if Pres. Business HAD the cap, he might have put the CAP on the GLUE BOTTLE and ended the whole thing. But the problem with that is, he needed persuasion to actually put it on; if he had the cap, he might never have put it on – the persuasion, not the actual piece, was the key. Hence the whole story. (This is also true in the live action version that this story mirrors.)
 
Also: alternatively, the “crystal” around the piece was made of dried glue, and there was some lava or lasers around to use that to stick it to his back. Or both, seeing the odd convulsion scene has a lot of red flashes in it.   
If you look to your right as Emmet touches the piece, you may notice a set of Lego eyes peering out at Emmet. There’s a guy down there that runs the vision blaster machine and the elevator that got Emmet back up to the surface. There’s my theory.
 
Also, you can see a big claw on top of Emmet as he approaches the piece. Annnd there is a momentary flash that looks like Morgan Freeman in Emmet’s “vision”. This movie uses speed to hide its secrets.
 
Rebuilding a motorcycle into a plane that fast is not possible. This film doesn’t do physics. I’m going to theorize that Wyldstyle has super-speed as part of her Master Builder abilities; otherwise all the ultrafast rebuilding she does makes no sense.
 
If you look to your right as you enter the Old West, you will see a statue with butterfly wings that looks like what Michangelo is working on later.
 
These are the themes that shoot past in rapid-fire (click for larger image):



 
 
 








 
Also, I note that black studs seems to be the default background for this movie.
 
It actually doesn’t quite make sense that President Business attacks Bad Cop’s parents, given who we know President Business is an avatar for. Continuing on with the theme, however, is Bad Cop’s final attitude towards his parents in the end: “I have a job to do.” Plenty of the anti-parent theme going around.
 
Also, Vitruvius knows Parkour. Or at least, he built his house with studs facing down so he could walk on the ceiling. Which would logically make all the blood run to his head and make him pass out. And by the way, there are nerves inside your inner ear that give you an innate sense of balance, so even if you can’t see, you will still know which way is up. Which is funny because he can still float/Parkour upside down even inside Emmet’s mind. Go figure.
 
As Vitruvius walks down to talk to Emmet, he knocks over a sculpture of a bat. It appears that Batman is preventing Wyldstyle from getting attached to Emmet or believing that he is a Master Builder.  Go figure.
Couldn’t Emmet banish Wyldstyle and Vitruvius from his mind? I mean, it is his mind after all. Or he could torture them. Somehow this mind-entering power seems really dangerous to use. Without permission.
 
Now, here’s the weird thing – how did the tracker get on Emmet? It’s sort of implied that Bad Cop put it on Emmet while he was on the train, but there’s a very clear shot of his back after that with no tracker on his leg. So how did Bad Cop find Cloud Cuckoo Land again? The tracker must be invisible, and then Bad Cop made it visible so everyone would blame Emmet.
 
Batman’s song is about “why he’s an orphan.” No parents…here we go with the parents being thrown around again.
 
There actually is a sign that says “Cloud Cuckoo Land”. Blink and you’ll miss it. Which makes Emmet’s statement about signs that comes after it feel really dense.
 
This film actually has a theme going on in it about how having rules for everything is bad, and conversely, having no rules for anything is bad…mostly. This is the ultimate Parent Backlash Rebellion Film, in case you haven’t noticed already…but you probably didn’t. It did get further reinforced with Unikitty’s speech about babysitters and bedtimes…“and no negativity of any kind!” Suddenly, we’re at the adult level of thinking, practically in the same line.
 
There’s nothing to indicate Unikitty’s age, but unlike Emmet, who is semi-confirmed to be 8 ½, Wyldstyle who feels like a teenager, and Vitruvius who is old but never really grew up, she acts like an adult in some ways. She seems to be the real foil to President Business in the story; whereas Prez has a lot of rules, she has none (or appears to have none) while at the same time having like ten... It almost feels like she is an loosely based avatar of Finn’s mom taken to an extreme. (Finn’s mom gets one line in the film BTW, the one about Taco Tuesday, so she seems cool.)  
 
Now, the way physics seem to work in the movie, the vortex thing on the side of Pres. Business’ office doesn’t suck people down. Still, on one side of his office, there is a sea, and on the other side there is a void. The office must be on a spit of land between the water and the void, or there must be a dam for the water, otherwise there would be a big ginormous waterfall. Also, if there was any water falling, Metal Beard’s ship couldn’t stay in its position near the tower during the invasion – it would have been sucked into the void. Except we get this cut going up to the office where we see blue bricks against the void, with no dam. You all can make the excuse that it’s not truly water and rather Lego passing as water, but I think there’s a dam, possibly made of transparent bricks or blue steel (this does exist) which is holding the water back.
 
By the way, that explains why all of the cop cars in the film convert to flight mode: they have to in order to reach President Business’ office. Bad Cop has to get there somehow.
 
When Emmet makes his speech that puts all the Master Builders against him, a shark works its way up to the podium, and tries to attack him, but it gives up. Apparently Emmet isn’t even worth getting eaten by a shark at that point. It’s actually a nod to his instruction booklet at the beginning of the movie, which had a picture of a person who was smiling as he was being eaten by a shark. Emmet is sad, so even the shark doesn’t go after him. They have weird sharks in this universe.
 
I hate to break it to Superman, but gum and capes don’t mix very well. Also Lego and gum don’t mix very well either – frankly nothing mixes well with gum IMO.
 
Okay, clouds do not sink or burn. Usually. So Cloud Cuckoo land isn’t really a real cloud. The buildings inside it are held up like they are by helium balloons underneath, and there are white Lego bricks that make it look like a cloud. That way, it maintains its cloud-like shape as it enters the ocean, and Bad Cop could cause it to sink with a bunch of lasers. Aim through the floor, and bingo.
 
The reason that the Double Decker couch stands up in the water is because Vitruvius, Batman, and Benny weigh more than Wyldstyle, Unikitty, and Emmet. This actually makes sense: Benny has heavy space gear, Vitruvius is an old guy, and Batman is Batman, versus the weight of a girl, a kid, and a cat. It actually makes sense.
 
References to BZPower: “If he’s a cool dude like you.”
 
Taking off the hard hats also takes off the tinfoil disguise. I think that Lucy and Emmet were taking a pause to unstrap it while they talk, and then removing the hard hats at the end also removes the facial covering. Otherwise it looks really weird.
 
The computer understands pirate? I think the real reason is that the computer started working though is because Bad Cop stopped controlling it, thanks to Wyldstyle. But it still understands pirate. Very cool.
 
Pres. Business ship looks like a big black Lego brick. Of doom. All evil things must be red and black. It is destiny.
As the big black brick approaches, you can see a girl with a Fabuland T-shirt.
 
The termination failed because:
…the conduit lost the battery
OR
…interference from the void.
 
I generally prefer the former explanation. No battery, no termination. The problem is, we see the zap remove Emmet from the wires. Then again, the zap removes the battery from the wires as well.
 
Also, Pres. Buisness is a cool dude for putting the kill bot on a time limit. Although that is what a kid would do, and he is telling the story. Kids are responsible for most of this illogical wacky stuff anyway.
 
*ahem*
 
President Business has evil security cameras hidden everywhere. That’s how Benny got the security footage of Emmet to play back near the end. 
 
Why is there a bunch of 70’s tech right in the middle of Pres. Business’ place? I mean, we know the guy is logical enough to skip the lava, so why save the Pac-Man?
 
It’s possible that he didn’t know about Benny though. It’s also possible that the 70’s tech might be part of the Where are my pants? film set…wait, the dude has a relic collection. Dur. This actually does NOT qualify as a Deus Ex Machina…er, spaceship.
 
That is, unlike the sudden arrival of the Millenium Falcon, which was conveniently swallowed by the 300-foot-long mutant venom eel from Bionicle. That makes more sense than the alternative, which is to believe that a giant space thing appeared right in the middle of the ocean. After all, Bionicle is confirmed to exist in this universe.
 
*suddenly regains sanity* Was someone yelling about a spaceship?
 
Now, I’m serious – I saw a Sony Logo at the beginning of this movie when I saw this in theatres. The live-action end of this movie feels grainy and funny colored, like it was shot on a cheap Sony camcorder. Also, since in the theater it was a surprise, the live action sequence seemed to be drawn out forever – in reality, it’s actually really short. 94.2% of this movie stays in the Lego universe in which it started. The only real in-story reason for the live-action cut is to DxM Emmet back into the Lego world. The other reason I think they included it was to make the film more relatable to its human audience, and explain the sudden appearance of those Duplo characters. Still, if you don’t like it, you could headcanon it out – all you would need is a couple of sessions with Windows movie maker near the end of the file, and wallah.
 
But as I think I’ve shown through this review, the entirety of this movie points to the live-action sequence, from the odd time keeping to the Deus Ex Machinas and near Deus Ex Machinas to the anti-parentish themes. It uses the in-story explanation of a kid telling the story to explain some of it’s odd-er plot points where it seems to defy the laws of physics. Plus, the ending is supposed to be heartwarming, and put a capstone on the “parents are bad” theme.
 

 
Well, okay, this movie really does have a “parents are bad” theme, but it tries to counteract this near the end, especially with Batman’s song about not having any parents, and the ending. The theme appears to be a “parent learns a lesson from the kid and is not so bad after all” redemption story, trying to swing it’s portrayal of parents back toward realism. Sort of.
 
As a kid, though, I would have loved this movie. I still like it for this reason. The problem is that this theme is very easy to miss on the first viewing, unless you slow down and look for screenshots. The show comes off as an eccentric comedy on the first viewing, and so it’s kind of hard to appreciate the layers they put in.
 
Another theme that sticks out to me is that anyone can be creative and build new things. This is the Lego Movie: that comes with the territory. Another thing: you can be the Special. That was my running theory from the trailers, and it was actually true – they snuck it in in one of Finn’s lines.
 
At one point in the live-action sequence, you can see an actual Cloud Cuckoo land Lego set sticking out of a box reading “Cloud Bros. Movers”. Guess where the name “Cloud Cuckoo Land” came from.
 
And lastly, to be really clear, the Piece of Resistance – i.e. the glue cap – didn’t make the Kragle explode. It was when President Business put the Kragle back in his machine with the cap on that the Kragle exploded.
 
So there we go…and enjoy your Taco Tuesday! (yep, this one comes out on a Tuesday, just for the sake of fun. Enjoy! )

[Smitty]

Finn is only 8 in the movie. The Prologue is the day "The Man Upstairs" finds out his wife is pregnant and he puts away his LEGO toys and slowly becomes the man we see in the movie. Through out most of the movie Lord Business is Finn portraying how he views his own father.

[Kopekemaster]

Wow. This is very long. Just skimming through, though:

 

 

References to BZPower: “If he’s a cool dude like you.”

HOW DID I MISS THIS

 

Not sure if that's an official BZP reference, though.

 

It's still epic, in any case.

Edited June 25, 2014 by Kopekemaster

[fishers64]

Finn is only 8 in the movie. The Prologue is the day "The Man Upstairs" finds out his wife is pregnant and he puts away his LEGO toys and slowly becomes the man we see in the movie. Through out most of the movie Lord Business is Finn portraying how he views his own father.

I'm not sure about this - I would think that Finn would be telling the entire story. Granted, that could place him at nine or ten. 

 

Although it's possible that Vitruvious is a avatar for Finn's grandfather, but I think that would be speculation at best. I only mention Finn's mom because she is confirmed to exist via a line. 

 

@Kopekemaster: I'm reviewing a full length theatrical film, so yeah...

 

The other thing that felt like a reference to BZP was Prez Business' line about the Double Decker couch, but that's probably a coincidence with the Double Decker Couch topic I made, not an actual real reference.  

[believe victims]

 

Finn is only 8 in the movie. The Prologue is the day "The Man Upstairs" finds out his wife is pregnant and he puts away his LEGO toys and slowly becomes the man we see in the movie. Through out most of the movie Lord Business is Finn portraying how he views his own father.

I'm not sure about this - I would think that Finn would be telling the entire story. Granted, that could place him at nine or ten. 

 

 

In the commentary someone confirms that the title card is in reference to Finn's age. He's eight and a half.

[Lyichir]

 

 

Finn is only 8 in the movie. The Prologue is the day "The Man Upstairs" finds out his wife is pregnant and he puts away his LEGO toys and slowly becomes the man we see in the movie. Through out most of the movie Lord Business is Finn portraying how he views his own father.

I'm not sure about this - I would think that Finn would be telling the entire story. Granted, that could place him at nine or ten.

 

 

In the commentary someone confirms that the title card is in reference to Finn's age. He's eight and a half.

 

Yeah. Finn could certainly still be telling the entire story, but he's not doing it in real time—the opening flashback is just that: a flashback (one of the way the film demonstrates Finn's narrative prowess).

 

The orange crystal stuff around the piece also is clearly Kragle, since it's not made of Lego like the lava from earlier (with some of it apparently still wet, since it sticks to Emmet's back). The orange color is simply from mood lighting, or perhaps there was a light brick behind there.

 

And overall, the theme of the movie isn't that "parents are bad" but rather that authoritarianism in general is bad, as is pure anarchy. It's a fairly even-handed message, which ties into the core concept of building (i.e. that there's nothing wrong with someone following the instructions or working as a team but that you shouldn't be forced to live your life without the freedom to express yourself). A lot of reviews seemed to miss parts of this message, thinking that the movie was strictly a screed against business, conformism and instruction-following, and that that made it hypocritical given that Lego sets always include instructions and that Lego is one of the biggest businesses in the toy industry. But that's simply incorrect. The film's message isn't one of rebellion, and shouldn't be, given the family parallels (after all, unless a kid's parents are actively abusive there's not much chance of "deposing" them). The message of The Lego Movie is rather a message of cooperation—that ideas (and building styles) should be able to coexist without one trying to eliminate or subjugate the other.

[xccj]

I'm fairly certain that, in the commentary, they said that the real world stuff was actually just a random fantasy that Emmet was having. So Finn isn't really driving the story; he's just a figment of Emmet's imagination to help him realize how to talk down President Business. The voice actors said it in the commentary, so it must be true!

 

[Smitty]

 

 

 

Finn is only 8 in the movie. The Prologue is the day "The Man Upstairs" finds out his wife is pregnant and he puts away his LEGO toys and slowly becomes the man we see in the movie. Through out most of the movie Lord Business is Finn portraying how he views his own father.

I'm not sure about this - I would think that Finn would be telling the entire story. Granted, that could place him at nine or ten.

 

 

In the commentary someone confirms that the title card is in reference to Finn's age. He's eight and a half.

 

Yeah. Finn could certainly still be telling the entire story, but he's not doing it in real time—the opening flashback is just that: a flashback (one of the way the film demonstrates Finn's narrative prowess).

 

The orange crystal stuff around the piece also is clearly Kragle, since it's not made of Lego like the lava from earlier (with some of it apparently still wet, since it sticks to Emmet's back). The orange color is simply from mood lighting, or perhaps there was a light brick behind there.

 

And overall, the theme of the movie isn't that "parents are bad" but rather that authoritarianism in general is bad, as is pure anarchy. It's a fairly even-handed message, which ties into the core concept of building (i.e. that there's nothing wrong with someone following the instructions or working as a team but that you shouldn't be forced to live your life without the freedom to express yourself). A lot of reviews seemed to miss parts of this message, thinking that the movie was strictly a screed against business, conformism and instruction-following, and that that made it hypocritical given that Lego sets always include instructions and that Lego is one of the biggest businesses in the toy industry. But that's simply incorrect. The film's message isn't one of rebellion, and shouldn't be, given the family parallels (after all, unless a kid's parents are actively abusive there's not much chance of "deposing" them). The message of The Lego Movie is rather a message of cooperation—that ideas (and building styles) should be able to coexist without one trying to eliminate or subjugate the other.

 

 

I can't like this hard enough!

I'm fairly certain that, in the commentary, they said that the real world stuff was actually just a random fantasy that Emmet was having. So Finn isn't really driving the story; he's just a figment of Emmet's imagination to help him realize how to talk down President Business. The voice actors said it in the commentary, so it must be true!

 

I think they were joking on that one... Then again you may be joking here, it's so hard to tell on the internet...

[TheSkeletonMan939]

I'm fairly certain that, in the commentary, they said that the real world stuff was actually just a random fantasy that Emmet was having. So Finn isn't really driving the story; he's just a figment of Emmet's imagination to help him realize how to talk down President Business. The voice actors said it in the commentary, so it must be true!

 

That's part of what makes this movie so clever. You can either choose to think that Emmett and co. never existed, and were in Finn's mind, or you can choose to think that Emmett is real and the live-action is all made up. Or you can even choose to think that both worlds are "real", and Emmett really did go through an inter-dimensional portal or something (that's my favorite choice).