The Lego Movie

*****
Release Date: February 7th 2014

An ordinary LEGO minifigure, mistakenly thought to be the extraordinary MasterBuilder, is recruited to join a quest to stop an evil LEGO tyrant from gluing the universe together.

Director: Christopher Miller, Phil Lord (21 Jump Street, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) 

Starring: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Morgan Freeman, Will Ferrell, Will Arnett, Liam Neeson

The Lego Movie can do no wrong. Aimed at young children and adults alike, it's a film for the whole family. Anybody whose as only heard of Lego let alone played with it will enjoy this film. 

It's a surprise that a Lego movie hasn't been done before. I'm not talking about the Bionicle or Marvel spin-offs, they're likely to cash in some profit just because of the brand, I'm talking about a stand alone movie. Similar to Wreck-It Ralph, The Lego Movie is full of all sorts of characters, from Batman and Superman to Gandalf and Han Solo.

It's not all about them though, it's about the main character, an average, generic Lego figure. Emmet (Pratt) is accidentally chosen to be the "special one", a Master Builder who's part of a prophecy to save the universe. Along with Wyldstyle (Banks), Batman (Arnett) and others, Emmet attempts to thwart Lord Business (Ferrell), the malevolent ruler of the Lego universe.   

Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are free to do as they will and have used an open world wisely to create an invigorating, cinematic experience. The Lego Movie moves from genre to genre as the Lego heroes travel from the futuristic metropolis to the western and sci-fi worlds, pursued by the ever relentless Bad Cop/Good Cop (Neeson).

There are some great twists to the usual animation template. Stop motion  is mixed with CGI, a technique that's not used very often and contributes heavily to the humour; half of the jokes are based on what we see rather than whats been said. All are above spectacular. Anyone who watches a film or two will be playing guesswork, trying to figure out which celebrity voices which character. Listen out for the likes of Charlie Day, Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum and Cobie Smoulders to name a few.

Kids will be trying to work out the madness of it all. 3D will hurt the eyes as various scenes have a lot of Lego pieces ricocheting and rocketing about. Piecing the middle of the story brick by brick is essentially heart-warming, but getting to it is the difficult part.

Overview: The Lego Movie is the first animation to come out this year (all with Mr. Peabody & Sherman), but is already turning out to be the best of 2014.