If you were to ask me what was my favorite movie of 2009, I would answer Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. If you asked me what were some of my favorite films from 2012 it would be a short list before 21 Jump Street was mentioned. The link between these two films is the directing duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller. These two gentlemen have what I consider to be some of the most brilliant comic minds on the planet, so imagine my excitement when I heard they were the ones behind The Lego Movie.
Then I watched the trailer….
and I got even more excited.
Lego products have always been gateways to an almost limitless amount of potential and creativity with the various ways a person can construct things as well as the many popular licensed properties under the Lego banner. Legos are more than just toys, Legos are an art medium, if don’t believe me just go ahead and Google the name Nathan Sawya and prepare to have your mind blown!
What I’m getting at here is that one of the finer and funnier parts of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs on top of a sharp script with memorable characters was all the visual humor. The sheer amount of comic gold Lord and Miller were able to pull out the simple sight of over-sized food and incorporating the food into a disaster movie scenario was quite impressive. Now imagine all the visual gags they can bring to life given the entirety of Lego to play with, are you starting to see why this movie has got me pumped?
The movie looks to be pulling its main plot from the Watchoski siblings film The Matrix, although the protagonist Emmet seems more animated than any performance done by Keanu Reeves. Emmet is the perfect character for the audience to identify with, he is an average Joe who gets told he is special (and we all like to be told we are special) who reacts to all the craziness around him all the positivity we would want to have if we were in that situation. The little guy meets Batman and his initial reaction is “awesome!”; this is a character after my own heart. I’m a sucker for superheroes, so all the DC heroes (happy to see you there Wonder Woman) and the appearance of the Michelangelo of the TMNT had me cheering, but even with all that my favorite bit was Lincoln flying off in his rocket chair. The film also wisely is being done with a combination of CG and stop motion animation to give the movie that authentic Lego look and feel which in a project such as this is of the utmost importance to keep.
So what says the masses, are you excited for The Lego Movie? let us know in the comments below!
Via Youtube
