'The LEGO Movie' Archives - DirectConversations.com

‘The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part’ (PG)

Cue the peppy music: Everything is awesome again in “The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part,” the hotly anticipated sequel to the 2014 (building) block-buster. Like the original, the film is driven by a smart script, snappy dialogue and dazzling visual effects, all of which are anchored by a poignant human story that most every viewers will be able to relate to, whether you’re a kid or adult.

Set five years after the events after the original film – which, as it turns out was a LEGO battle going on in the imagination of a young boy named Finn (Jadon Sand) and a disagreement he has in real-life with his Dad (Will Farrell) for playing with the adult’s massive LEGO collection – “The Second Part” finds Finn fighting with another enemy in the family: his younger sister, Bianca (Brooklynn Prince).

AUDIO: Tim reviews “The Lego Movie 2” with Tom Barnard on “The KQ Morning Show” (segment begins at 4 minute mark).

Finn and Bianca are naturally fighting constantly as brothers and sisters do, and their battlefield is once again the LEGO setting in the family basement, where Bianca’s LEGO Friends and DUPLO collection invades Finn’s space of traditional LEGO bricks. The already aggravated situation comes to a head, though, when Bianca’s characters kidnap Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett), Unikitty (Allison Brie) and company, and they’ve blasted off to the girl’s imaginative menagerie of characters and settings in space, where the captives strangely find themselves adapting to their new settings with relative ease. Meanwhile, Emmett has formed a new bond with the smart and resourceful Rex Dangervest (Pratt) in an effort to save his friends, but Rex isn’t all who he seems.

The key to the success of “The Second Part” is that screenwriters (and original co-directors) Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, along with director Mike Mitchell completely changes the setting from the first film’s massive LEGO metropolis to first a desolate setting reminiscent of the apocalyptic wasteland of “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and before blasting off into outer space. Changing up the setting was essential in avoiding any sort of repetitiveness from the first film, even though the fun personalities of Emmett, Lucy and the hilarious Batman all remain, and are joined by the likes of new characters like Queen Waterva Wa’Nibi (Tiffany Haddish).

There are familiarities, naturally, like pop culture references (Pratt’s own “Jurassic World” films get a nod with dinosaur characters), and like the first film, “The Second Part” is punctuated with timeless real-life lessons — lessons that are just as relatable and sweet as the moment of bonding between father and son that wrapped up the first “LEGO Movie.”

While fans are bound to debate which “LEGO Movie” is better, there’s no question that the computer animation is just as impressive if not better than the original. That’s because like the first film, the characters come to life in static-like motion reminiscent of stop-motion animation, one of the most under-appreciated art forms in the movie business. Maintaining that style is clearly important to Lord, Miller and Mitchell, though, which is likely why they hired “Robot Chicken” alum Trisha Gum as their animation director to keep the film’s raw but impressive animation sensibilities in place. For the third “LEGO Movie” in a row – “The LEGO Batman Movie” was released in-between — the characters and the vistas are visually stunning. In fact, calling “The Second Part” awesome is almost an understatement.

Lammometer: 8 (out of 10)

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

Tim Burton Book 2 — Click book cover for info on how to buy!

Sure, director Chris McKay has been at the helm of such irreverent shows as “Robot Chicken,” where there are no limits to the skewering of pop culture icons in stop-motion animation glory. Still, when it came to handing the keys of its monolithic superhero brand over to McKay for “The LEGO Batman Movie,” Warner Bros. and DC Comics had nothing but trust in McKay to use LEGO’s bricks to help build a wonderful story about the Dark Knight and several other DC superheroes — even though it parodies them.

“I think in some ways they knew I would be OK because I have a giant Catwoman tattoo on my arm,” McKay said with a laugh Tuesday in a phone conversation from Los Angeles. “Plus, I’ve expressed my love for DC comic books and some Warner Bros. movies in general, like Richard Donner’s “Superman” and Tim Burton’s “Batman,” as movies that made an impression on me as a kid.

“Yes, the companies want to be very careful in how they present these characters and under what circumstances, but fortunately, they do have a lot of trust and faith in me,” McKay added. “I’ve been really lucky that let me do the things I’ve been able to do with this movie. Yes, we make jokes, but they are loving, affectionate jokes involving these characters.”

McKay is no stranger to the DC/LEGO universe, having served as an editor and animation supervisor on the 2014 blockbuster “The LEGO Movie.” Of course, that film featured LEGO Batman (voiced by Will Arnett), who now — along with his alter-ego Bruce Wayne — gets his own adventure in Gotham City, where he takes on such nefarious criminals as the Joker (Zack Galifianakis) and Harley Quinn (Jenny Slate).

The film, opening in theaters and on IMAX screens nationwide on Friday, also stars Rosario Dawson as the voice of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, Michael Cera as Dick Grayson/Robin and Ralph Fiennes as Wayne’s loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth.

Behind-the-scenes footage from the film shows several of the actors in front their microphones, recording dialogue with their LEGO counterparts in hand, and McKay said they weren’t the only ones who used the tiny characters to glean some inspiration.

“We had bowls of bricks in the conference rooms so people could play with stuff when we were having meetings, and if you look at the animators’ desks, you’ll see stuff they started collecting from the first movie that they used to work out animation or design problems, or just to have fun,” McKay said. “I tried to promote that sense of play as much as possible and try to get LEGO to give us as many things as possible to do stuff. On the first movie, I had people doing building exercises with teams. We got a Death Star, Millennium Falcon and Star Destroyer, and split people up into teams to build stuff together. It was fun to see people get nerdy about all the details and geek out about it.”

Much like “The LEGO Movie,” “The LEGO Batman Movie” has a distinct, stop-motion animated feel to it, And while the animation in both films is completely computer-generated, McKay – whose credits in addition to “Robot Chicken” include “Moral Orel” and “Titan Maximum” — would love to somehow implement stop-motion into future LEGO movie projects. In the meantime, he said, it’s key to have people on the films that have stop-motion sensibilities.

“One thing I try to do is hire stop-motion animators who know a little bit about CG,” McKay said. “The rigs are simple enough for somebody who has a passing knowledge of CG to come in. On ‘The LEGO Batman Movie,’ I brought in one of my favorite stop-motion animators from ‘Robot Chicken’ — her influence on the animation and her character animation was so great that I thought she was absolutely essential to making this movie.”

Original Interviews, Reviews & More By Tim Lammers

DirectConversations.com

Tag Archives: ‘The LEGO Movie’

Movie review: ‘The LEGO Movie 2’ another awesome adventure

Interview: Chris McKay talks ‘LEGO Batman Movie’

Original Interviews, Reviews & More By Tim Lammers