You’ve seen the reviews. Perhaps you’ve already seen the film. The Lego Movie is a serious hit, easily warranting a sequel. But why? What about children’s building blocks strikes such a chord with us today? A brand that’s stronger now than it ever was in it’s 65 year history. (This review does contain spoilers).

Well, in simplest terms, the Lego Movie is about creativity, it’s about being your own person, it’s about teamwork, and courage in the face of an insurmountable foe. These are themes anyone can relate to, themes that touch our emotions. Our hero Emmet is the most ordinary person in the entirety of the Lego Universe, but even he is capable of so much more. And this is why he is such a great and relatable character. When he learns about how his peers observe him, the people he strives so hard to befriend, learning that nobody actually cares, or knows a lick about him because he is just so ordinary. It’s this world-crashing-around-him scene that really gets us into the heart of the character and that’s where, for many of us, the movie really took shape.

But as much as The Lego Movie was a movie about escaping the confines of ordinary life, it was a film about friendship and teamwork, and the help you receive from the ones you meet along the way. Never is the phrase “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” more apt than in a review for The Lego Movie, and that can be said in conjunction with any of the films many facets, particularly teamwork. Emmet makes clear that each of them (his new Master Builder buds) is very unique and extremely skilled, but it’s not until they work together that they can really come up with something extraordinary. And that’s really the idea behind Lego, isn’t it? You can take pieces from nearly any set and combine them to make something entirely different, unique, and new.

The surprise twist near the end gave sudden sense to the madness of the story, and it cleared the understanding of the boundaries between the realms of Lego products, and even gave us in the audience a serious question on ethics and the proper usage of toys. I enjoyed this segment, but I couldn’t help feel as though it took me out of the story a little too much. Could this explanation have been explained without the Shyamalan-esque twist?

In the end, The Lego Movie, was imaginative, hilarious, unpolished yet beautiful, and ultimately one of a kind. It felt like a bridge between Wreck-It-Ralph and Toy Story, but just a tad too short in my opinion. More character building for some of the Master Builders would have been welcome. I know IGN said that it was a touch too long, but I disagreed. In the end though the whole of the Lego Movie was greater than the sum of its parts. 8/10.