LEGO MOVIE, THE (2014)

LEGO MOVIE, THE (2014). Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, dir., script, and story — with Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman, based on the toy. Australia, USA, Denmark: Warner Bros., Village, Roadshow, LEGO et al. (prod.) / Warner Bros. (US dist.), 2014. See IMDb for filmographic details.

Animated fantasy — and a feature-length product placement — with parodic and satiric elements, with some strong images of threatening containment of various superheroes (and Batman) in electronic/cybernetic/possibly psi devices. Threatening machines rather similar to the squid-like Sentinels of THE MATRIX movies are identified as "Micro Managers", fitting in with the theme that dystopia comes to the Lego world from overly-fastidious, adult-identified following of construction instructions (with the ultimate horror supergluing the Lego pieces into imagination-petrifying statis). The villain of the piece is Will Ferrell as Lord Business, President Business, and The Man Upstairs: a father who's usurped his son's Lego set, set up a basement Lego world strictly by the (Lego instruction) book, and marks his territory with "Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign," in the words of a song not in the movie. In the happy ending, the son will have an unglued, dynamic Lego world to play with — with his (unseen) little sister adding highly imaginative and anarchic Lego-stuff.

5. DRAMA, RDE, 07/II/14