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Laramie Movie Scope:
The Lego Movie

The best infomercial ever

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by Robert Roten, Film Critic
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February 16, 2014 -- Some have cynically noted that this animated comedy, officially sanctioned and modified by the company that makes Lego toys, is basically one long infomercial, much like those food preparation or weight loss, or exercise infomercials on TV. That's true, but it is also very entertaining, and it encourages people to use their imaginations.

This is one of those many movies I would have skipped, except that it got extremely good reviews, and it deserves them. Unlike some animated films, this one is aimed more at adults than children, with a huge number of movie in-jokes, and references to cartoon characters like Superman and Batman that go back many years.

For an infomercial, it also has a fairly anti-capitalist element, in the form of a villain known as the evil “Lord Business” who wants to rule the world of Lego people with a weapon called kragle. Lord Business wants to use kragle to freeze everyone in the world into the exact position that the obsessive-compulsive villain wants them to be in. This will stop all creativity, which he considers to be chaos. Lord Business wants total conformity from the population, which he has achieved to an extent, but it is not enough.

As you can see from this description, the story is an indictment against conformity, and our consumer-driven materialist culture, to an extent. The essential conflict in this movie is a struggle by creative people against the forces of commercialism and conformity. One can imagine that this story is a reflection of the same kind of struggle that happened during the making of this movie between the corporate suits of Lego, who exercised some control over the film, and the creative people who actually made the movie.

The movie exists in two worlds, the real world, in which Will Ferrell plays a father in charge of a huge Lego city and his son, Finn, who wants to play with the Lego pieces and make his own creations, against his father's wishes. The other world is the Lego World, which remains a secret to adults in the real world, at least. These two worlds overlap near the end of the movie, with animated Lego toys interacting with the real world.

There are parts of this movie that are funny, but for the most part, the film is more clever than it is funny, but it is very, very clever and imaginative. It is also going to sell a lot of Legos. This film rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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Copyright © 2014 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.
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Robert Roten can be reached via e-mail at my last name at lariat dot org. [Mailer button: image of letter and envelope]

(If you e-mail me with a question about this or any other movie or review, please mention the name of the movie you are asking the question about, otherwise I may have no way of knowing which film you are referring to)