And yet, The Lego Movie
is one of the most hip, hilarious, and nimble movies you’re likely to
see all year. (Moral of the story: You can’t judge a film by its title,
month of release, or number of visual dimensions.)

It helps that
the film looks great. While there’s clearly lots of CGI, directors Phil
Lord and Christopher Miller also reportedly used more than 3 million
actual Lego bricks to construct the film’s world (I’ve been assured that
no Legos were harmed during production). The result is remarkable—the
Legos have dimension and movement and depth. You feel like you can reach
out and stack them.

And then there’s the script—packed with
enough one-liners, pop culture references, and winking commentary to
fill up several movies. (Despite its title, the film is actually anti-commodification).

Emmet
(the voice of Chris Pratt) is just a regular construction guy in Lego
land. He sings along to the one ear-wormy government-issued song
“Everything is Awesome!” and laughs along with the one insipid
government-issued sitcom Who Stole My Pants? He follows the rules. He wants to fit in. He wants to be a square peg in a square hole, if you will.

Then
Emmet accidentally stumbles across the “Piece of Resistance” that, as
legend has it, can be used to bring down the nefarious President
Business (Will Ferrell), who’s secretly scheming to destroy the denizens
of Lego world. Now believed to be “The Special” (a la Neo in The Matrix), Emmet joins forces with the Master Builders, who include most Marvel superheroes (Superman and The Green Lantern just can’t seem to get along), both Michelangoes (artist and
Mutant Turtle), Gandalf and Dumbledore (whom Emmet, understandably,
confuses), and the adorably spunky UniKitty (unicorn + kitty), who
manages to be both an incredibly cute thing and a jab at the scourge of
incredibly cute things in kids’ movies.

Emmet has fallen hard for
Master Builder Wildstyle (Elizabeth Banks) but she’s in a serious
relationship with a brooding cool guy. Maybe you’ve heard of him? He’s
Batman (voiced hilariously by Will Arnett) and the idea of Batman as the
romantic rival from hell is just one example of the film’s ingenuity.
(Another? There’s a good cop/bad cop team—voiced by Liam Neeson—that are
actually the same guy; he merely needs to rotate his head to go from
intimidating scowl to reassuring grin.)

The final act of the film has a heartwarming twist that almost elevates it to Pixar territory. While The Lego Movie can’t quite compete with Toy Story for its blend of humor and poignancy, it turns out that beneath all that winking cleverness beats a surprisingly tender heart.

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