The Lego Movie review

One of the best-loved toys of all time finally gets its own animated movie, complete with those collectable mini-figures in the leading roles as everyday man Emmet gets the chance to save the (Lego) world.

Emmet (Pratt) is an ordinary guy, who follows all the instructions in his job as a Lego construction worker. One day, however, he’s mistaken for the ‘special’, a chosen one who is going to save all the other Lego characters – including punkish gal Wyldstyle (Banks) and well-known heroes such as Batman (Will Arnett) and Wonder Woman (Cobie Smulders) – from the evil machinations of Lord Business (Ferrell), who wants to destroy all the Lego worlds. Can Emmet be the ultimate hero and stop him?

Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who took a book with no characters and turned it into the entertaining comedy Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs back in 2009, here gather a pile of yellow faced plastic figures and their building bricks and create a funny, quirky and thoroughly enjoyable family adventure packed with famous voices (including Morgan Freeman, Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum and a hilarious Liam Neeson as good cop/bad cop) and equally well-known Lego characters (as well as the superheroes, some Star Wars Lego, Gandalf, Dumbledore and even historical characters like Shakespeare and Abraham Lincoln make an appearance).

Kids will love spotting all the characters, and there are some knowing jokes for grown-ups thrown into the mix, too – watch out for a reference to the Lego worlds ‘we don’t need to mention’, a nod to the Lego franchises such as Bionicle and Friends that didn’t fit the plot, and a nice Terminator in-joke – and lots of giggles as Emmet travels to Middle Zealand (geddit?), the old West and a fluffy cloud land with no rules and lots of annoyingly cutesy characters.

Perfect for all ages – there’s no scary stuff here and kids won’t worry that any of the characters are ever in real danger – this is exactly what you want from a movie based on a toy that’s loved by kids 5 to 50… perhaps Lord and Miller could tackle the woeful Transformers film franchise next.