The Lego Movie

I struggle with comedies. Much as I love a good one, there's always a hint of reticence when I'm about to press play on a film like The Hangover or The Heat, expecting a flurry of poor American sitcom-style gags that don't translate well across the pond or just stuff I won't find funny, period (I was pleasantly surprised by both those films, you'll be glad to hear). Add into the mix the fact that The Lego Movie is a kid's film too and you can imagine my contorted face, watching through the gaps in my fingers, awaiting a million-miles-an-hour sugar rush of a film with cheap gags and too many characters screaming instead of being funny. Well, The Lego Movie IS a million-miles-an-hour sugar rush of a film, with cheap gags aplenty. But cheap gags that work like cheap gags ought to. Oh, and to have characters screaming who ARE funny too? Maybe Pixar need to take a look at what's on offer here and see where they're going wrong, because The Lego Movie ticks all those boxes and more.

Whilst the plot is even more ridiculous than Godzilla which I reviewed last week, it revels in its own silliness to such a degree that it's hard not to be bowled over by it's ramshackle charm, even if it can take a few minutes to adjust to the pace (it would be a gross understatement to say this things whizz by at lightning speed). President Business (Will Ferrell) is the all-seeing overlord of the Lego world, controlling everyone's actions and wanting 'everything to be perfect', to the extent that he wants to use the Kragle (a lovely abbreviation of a used Krazy Glue tube) to freeze the city into his own vision of perfection. A stock villain with a crazy plan then, but he's not counting on 'The Special' (Chris Pratt) foiling his plans, a lone hero not too dissimilar to Neo from The Matrix, only with far less going on in his head (compared to Keanu Reeves, that's saying something) and an 'odd piece' attached to his back that could be the key to his prophesied heroics. With me so far? Throw in Liam Neeson as a literally two-faced Irish cop, Elizabeth Banks as sidekick/love interest Wyldstyle, Will Arnett as a none-more-macho Batman and Morgan Freeman as the Gandalf-aping master builder Vitruvius (a nice nod to the famed Roman architect), along with almost every Lego world/character/building you can think of, and you've a recipe for total visual and aural chaos that somehow - in a sublime gelling of script, voice acting and photo-real CGI - works.

It's not a perfect film - there really is zero let-up in pace, which could be tiring if you're not prepared for it - but it's been a while since a) Pixar offered up anything to scale the grand emotional heights of Wall-E and Toy Story 3, and b) a kid's film took aim at both their target demographic AND an adult audience in the way that The Simpsons perfected years back, without losing the attention of either. Warner Brothers seem to have unintentionally capitalised on a lack of truly great Pixar features by using left-field talent to drive what could have been yet another stock studio animated film - it may well have gone straight to DVD in the hands of lesser folk. It's a testament to the scope and vision of directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (21 Jump Street) that they throw everything but the kitchen sink at the screen and almost all of it sticks - I nearly cried towards the end, such is the deft touch they have when it comes to both computer-generated and human emotion. Oh, and I dare you to not be singing 'Everything is Awesome' when you're done watching it.

So, next time I watch a comedy, I shall attempt to go in with less trepidation and more of an open mind - but if it dares to disappoint me, I'm buying a Lars von Trier boxset. That said, I do wonder what a Lego version of Dogville or Dancer in the Dark might look like... the latter IS a musical, it could work! That'd teach kids to think that Lego is just for them. President Business would be proud.