11. The Lego Movie

The Lego Movie
Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Warner Bros. Pictures, 2014

Genre
Adventure, Comedy

Honors
None known

Review
Vitruvius, a wizard in the Lego universe tries to stop the evil President Business from getting his hands on a weapon that could freeze the world as they knew it in place forever, the Kragle.  When he fails, he tells President Business of a prophecy, that one day, someone called "the Special" would find the Piece of Resistance and stop him from using the Kragle.  The Special would be "the most talented, most interesting, and most extraordinary person in the world".  Years later, Emmet is introduced. He is just your average construction worker in the Lego universe; he love all the popular things, loved to follow directions, and thought President Business was awesome! One night at his construction site, he falls down a hole and finds the Piece of Resistance, but passes out after seeing a vision of "the man upstairs".  When he wakes up, he doesn't remember what happened.  He is told by Bad Cop/Good Cop what happened and is then promptly rescued by WyldStyle, a girl who was looking for the Piece of Resistance.  When she realizes how ordinary Emmet is, she is dissappointed, but still takes him to see Vitruvius to see how they can save the world.  This unlikely hero changes the minds of everyone he groups up with (including Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, President Lincoln, the Green Lantern, a pirate made of junk named Metal Beard, Princess Unikitty, and Benny the astronaut), showing them that ordinary people can be "the Special" sometimes.

Opinion
I thought this was a cute movie with a sweet premise.  Younger tweens will love the super heroes and Legos while older tweens and adults will understand the interaction between the father and son later in the movie and enjoy the humor of Batman and how things are named.  The writers cleverly created a colorful and imaginative Lego universe on a table in a family's basement.

Ideas
This is a wonderful movie for all ages.  Parents are shown the creativity of their children may sometimes trump their preferred orderliness and routine.  Tweens are shown that everyone can be special sometimes.  They are also shown that there is a time for being creative and independant and a time for following directions to work together.