The LEGO Movie, Yea or Nay?

By Ray Hu - June 20, 2013

in Object Culture | Toy

The official trailer for a new LEGO movie hit the web earlier this week, and longtime fans will surely be curious to see how it's shaping up. Check it out:

As with the previously-seen LEGO story, a brief history of the company, the feature film is computer animated; unlike the short, the movie looks like a formulaic adventure movie that happens to feature a cast of LEGO figurines. There's plenty of time for more 'build-up,' so to speak—the release date is February 7, 2014—but my initial reaction is measured skepticism. After all, the slick Hollywood treatment seems somewhat removed from the cherished memories of the seemingly endless hours I spent dreaming up elaborate fantasies with LEGOs. Incidentally, Danny Macaskill's "Imaginate" film, which also hit the web this week, is rather more on point:

But back to LEGO: Although a stop-motion animation might have been more true to the DIY spirit of the construction toy, I can imagine that the plastic characters would quickly wear out their welcome. Curiously enough, searching for "LEGO Movie" on Wikipedia currently redirects to the page for Brickfilms, a genre of fan-made LEGO stop-motion animatoin. The term was coined by Columbus, Ohio-based hobbyist Jason Rowoldt (an IT consultant by day), who produced several stop-motion 'brickfilms' from 2001–2003 for a variety of clients; fellow enthusiast Daniel Utecht's The Dandelion, below, is a nice example.

Our Twitter followers may recall that we recently Tweeted The Guardian's recent article on the evolution of LEGO faces, which have taken on a range of new, emotionally-complex demeanors (as seen in the Mini Golf brickfilm below)... hot on the heels of the LEGO marketing machine's recent attraction in Times Square: a full-scale model of an X-Wing.

Michael Hickox is responsible for a series of Brickfilm gems; see more on his YouTube channel

Of course, the toy remains as popular as ever today, and I imagine that my kids will experience the joy of LEGO... even if they don't make 'em like they used to.

Via DesignTaxi

 

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  Paolo Zago

  11 years ago

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  Being a 3D LEGO modeler myself I think I'll love the movie, the best part is how they tried to make it look "stop-motion-ish" even if it's rendered (like in Wreck-it Ralph they did 3D characters that moved like old videogames sprites). On a technical note, the plastics in the trailer are a bit too shiny and reflective, but I must say new LEGO bricks look more shiny now than in my childhood.

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  thom

  11 years ago

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  I was initially repulsed by the idea - like making a movie out of Battleship...you have a concept, and you have to assemble a boilerplate quest story around it. This is no different really, but the writing, so far, was funny and I like they the seem to be trying to make the CGI look like Lego stop animation. So, you know, cheers to that, bews to derivative stories written by committee.

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  emansterprovolone

  11 years ago

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  Yes skeptical as well. However, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was a really funny and well executed animated film, so maybe they can pull it off with this one.

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  bob

  11 years ago

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  this is a great idea- especially because I see build your own lego movie in the near future- with narrative elements as building blocks for the 4th dimension

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But back to LEGO: Although a stop-motion animation might have been more true to the DIY spirit of the construction toy, I can imagine that the plastic characters would quickly wear out their welcome. Curiously enough, searching for \"LEGO Movie\" on Wikipedia currently redirects to the page for Brickfilms, a genre of fan-made LEGO stop-motion animatoin. The term was coined by Columbus, Ohio-based hobbyist Jason Rowoldt (an IT consultant by day), who produced several stop-motion 'brickfilms' from 2001–2003 for a variety of clients; fellow enthusiast Daniel Utecht's The Dandelion, below, is a nice example.

Our Twitter followers may recall that we recently Tweeted The Guardian's recent article on the evolution of LEGO faces, which have taken on a range of new, emotionally-complex demeanors (as seen in the Mini Golf brickfilm below)... hot on the heels of the LEGO marketing machine's recent attraction in Times Square: a full-scale model of an X-Wing.

Of course, the toy remains as popular as ever today, and I imagine that my kids will experience the joy of LEGO... even if they don't make 'em like they used to.

Via DesignTaxi

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