Lego Otaku Posted February 3, 2014 Posted February 3, 2014 http://www.wnem.com/story/24622222/lego-movie-built-to-be-a-better-toy-film 'Lego Movie' built to be a better toy film Posted: Feb 03, 2014 4:29 PM ESTUpdated: Feb 03, 2014 4:31 PM EST By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) - Toy movies occupy a spot on the respectability meter somewhere between talking dog films and "Showgirls." Even in a business not always known for the most honorable of ambitions, films based on toy lines smack of a crass grab at cross-merchandizing. Since the popularity of the "Transformers" franchise, Hollywood has increasingly turned to Hasbro toys like G.I. Joe and Battleship to capitalize on their familiar brands. Chris Miller and Phil Lord, co-writers and co-directors of "The Lego Movie," were well aware of the dim reputation of toy movies. But in their short but rapidly ascending careers, the comic duo has turned weak premises like a "21 Jump Street" remake and an adaptation of "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" into surprisingly fresh, crowd-pleasing hits. "One day we want to work on a movie that sounds like a good idea from the start," jokes Miller. "Our success has been based on low expectations." "The Lego Movie," opening Friday, is far more inventive and satirical than you might expect. Made with a conscious resistance to the pitfall of toy-based movies, it's imbued with a childlike playfulness and a subversive mockery of corporate control. "We actually really enjoy a challenge and get excited by solving a seemingly impossible puzzle," Miller says. "Each one of those movies - 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,' '21 Jump Street' and 'The Lego Movie' - we were like, 'That sounds terrible. It's probably going to be terrible, unless ... unless, there is one way you could do it.'" "That's basically our entire career," says Lord. The concept that Lord, 36, and Miller, 38, came up with was to capture the experience of playing in a deep box of the interlocking plastic bricks. In a world composed of Legos, following the rules, or the instructions, is a way of life. Workers happily sing the anthem "Everything Is Awesome," and are pacified by bland state-controlled entertainment, like the TV show "Where Are My Pants?" A law-abiding construction worker named Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt) inadvertently stumbles across a rebellion against leader Lord Business (Will Ferrell), revealing a ragtag of mismatched characters, from Batman (Will Arnett) to Abraham Lincoln (Will Forte). A battle ensues between lock-step uniformity and creative chaos. Saying just how much the movie mimics the experience of a child playing with Legos would spoil it. The Los Angeles Times called the film "the first-ever postmodern toy movie." "It was as open and infinite as looking at a bucket of bricks itself," Miller said in a recent joint interview with Lord while the two stepped away from editing their upcoming sequel "22 Jump Street." ''Our thinking was: What if this movie is told by an 8-year-old? We really wanted it to feel like it had the whimsy and randomness of being from the mind of a child." The Denmark-based Lego Group was approached by Warner Bros. producers in 2007 about making a movie, with an earlier story outline by Dan and Kevin Hageman. The company has in recent years expanded beyond toy sets to build numerous international theme parks, release several lines of video games with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and air the Cartoon Network TV series "Ninjago" (for which there are movie plans, too). "The last thing that we wanted to do was be perceived as 'Oh, this is just Lego trying to make more money, just to sell more toys,'" says Matthew Ashton, vice president of creative design for Lego and a producer on the film. "If you look at Lego as a creative medium, it's very much like modeling clay is in a 'Wallace & Gromit' movie. It's just a different way of expressing a story." Ashton says filmmakers were given wide creative leeway and no featured toys were dictated by Lego: "Then we went through the script and cherry picked what we thought could make good toys and co-developed those things together." Miller and Lord met as freshman at Dartmouth College, drawn together by their similar sense of humor. They both had comic strips in the school paper and churned out student videos (a sample: Lord's "Man Bites Breakfast" was told from the perspective of cereal). Lord describes being skeptical about making what could be dismissed as a 90-minute commercial for Lego before they were energized by "a grassroots, bottom-up approach." "Then it started to get really exciting and feeling like, 'Oh this can almost be subversive and cool and feel like we got away with something,'" Lord says. Though Ashton says the pair challenged the Lego brand in a healthy way, Lord and Miller occasionally needed reminding that "The Lego Movie" was a family film. "Our 'Clockwork Orange' sequence didn't go over very well," says Lord, laughing. They initially penned a re-education scene for Emmet, with his eyes forcibly held open, after he strays too far from Lord Business' way of doing things. The Stanley Kubrick reference was deemed "not perfectly appropriate for family audiences." Miller and Lord nevertheless chuckle at what they were able to get away with in the movie. "A lot of people are surprised that we don't do drugs," Lord says. "We're able to access that childlike kind of thinking unassisted." Thought you'd like to read about it. Quote
naf Posted February 3, 2014 Posted February 3, 2014 Good read, thanks! I got excited when I hard that the guys from "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" were involved with this movie. "Cloudy" and it's sequel are really well done, and entertaining for both kids and adults, and I expect the Lego movie will be just as good, if not better. Quote
Kilroy Posted February 3, 2014 Posted February 3, 2014 Good read, thanks! I got excited when I hard that the guys from "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" were involved with this movie. "Cloudy" and it's sequel are really well done, and entertaining for both kids and adults, and I expect the Lego movie will be just as good, if not better. Trust me, it's much better. Quote
Faefrost Posted February 4, 2014 Posted February 4, 2014 It look slike Aint It Cool News loves it! http://www.aintitcool.com/node/66052 :cry_happy: Quote
harmacy Posted February 4, 2014 Posted February 4, 2014 Rotten Tomatoes is currently rating it at 100% positive after 14 reviews. Looking good! Quote
Blondie-Wan Posted February 4, 2014 Posted February 4, 2014 (edited) I will attest to its awesomeness. My fiancee and I went to an advance screening in Orlando on the 1st and had a blast. I think most viewers will love it, especially the sorts of people who frequent this site. Edited February 4, 2014 by Blondie-Wan Quote
kibosh Posted February 4, 2014 Posted February 4, 2014 I was invited to an advance screening as well, and absolutely loved it. It was pure entertainment and eye candy beginning to end. Story is great, characters are great. Everything really. My kids loved it, too. Even my non-LEGO wife said it was one of the funniest movies she's seen in a long time. Quote
kibosh Posted February 6, 2014 Posted February 6, 2014 Did an promo interview with our local Fox affiliate in Detroit this morning. If you want to check it out, here's the link: http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=9811647 Quote
Gatthekid Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 I also saw The LEGO Movie in the news for making $69 in it's opening weekend. Quote
AmperZand Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 I also saw The LEGO Movie in the news for making $69 in it's opening weekend. $69 in its opening weekend? That's not too hot. I think you mean $69 million. Quote
Deathleech Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 Actually it ended up making over 87 million Quote
Blondie-Wan Posted February 13, 2014 Posted February 13, 2014 Did it? Awesome! I do know the estimates and projections for it in the weeks before it opened were around the $40 million mark; it's beating projections by a significant margin. And I'm sure everyone here knows by now, but it's also getting terrific reviews (and deservedly so!). I for one am so happy with the movie. It's currently at 96% "Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes, and with 132 reviews counted, it appears to have settled comfortably in that mid-90s zone. RT works out the average rating to 8.2. It may be just February, but it's safe to say it'll easily be at least one of the best-reviewed movies of the year, and quite possibly the best. Not only does it look like a shoe-in for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars this time next year, but I actually find myself daring to dream of it getting nominated for Best PIcture. It'd be only the fourth animated movie to do so (and the first non-Disney one), but I think it has a genuine chance. Quote
Gatthekid Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 $69 in its opening weekend? That's not too hot. I think you mean $69 million. Haha,yeah sorry about that. Sixty-nine dollars on box office weekend.. yep. About 5 people saw it, haha. But thank you for correcting me. Quote
naf Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 Saw it over the weekend, it was indeed awesome awesome awesome! Took my 6 year old, he loved it. I just wish the trailer didn't spoil so many of the jokes. We both cracked up at the ending with the Duplo guys. Hilarious pre-movie moment: Our movie theater played a 3 minute long Kreo ad before the movie started. The whole theater erupted in "Booo!! Fake Lego!!" :) Quote
ssorcam Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 Glad that the trailers didn't give away some of the cameos the movie had. Quote
Faefrost Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 Apparently the second weekend take in North America was a stunning $65 million. So almost no drop off from the already insane first weeks box office. I think we will very comfortably be seeing a few more movies with our favorite toys in them. Quote
Deathleech Posted February 18, 2014 Posted February 18, 2014 Yup, it's already at 230 million in just two weekends. I think they are already in talks about doing a sequel? Quote
TheLegoDr Posted February 18, 2014 Posted February 18, 2014 I thought I read they already started the sequel...Either way, they knew they'd have a big hit on their hands, so I'm not surprised. Quote
mutian Posted February 18, 2014 Posted February 18, 2014 “LEGO” Tops, “Robocop” Stalls At Box-Office A combination of a Valentine’s Day Friday and the Presidents Day holiday tomorrow has led to a free-for-all at the U.S. box-office this weekend where four new films joined the fray alongside last week’s box-office behemoth “The LEGO Movie”. Unsurprisingly, ‘LEGO’ easily stayed on top and fell just 29% in its second outing. The animated feature scored an estimated $48.8 million for the three days, and has an expected four-day gross of $60 million. By the end of the holiday on Monday it’ll reach a total of $145 million domestically. Of the four films released this weekend, three were remakes of 1980s movies. Performing the best was “About Last Night” which came in second with a highly impressive $27 million – more than double its reported $12.5 million budget. ‘Night’ also scored the best reviews of the newcomers with a 76% (6.2/10) Rotten Tomatoes score along with a 62/100 Metacritic score. The film cements comedian Kevin Hart’s status as a solid box-office opener in his own right – his January comedy “Ride Along” is still in the top ten at number six, a sleeper hit that has amassed $116 million so far from a $25 million budget. Coming in third at the box-office was “Robocop,” the new and PG-13 take on Paul Verhoeven’s very R-rated 1987 sci-fi classic. Armed with mediocre reviews (49% & 5.5/10 on RT, 52/100 on MC) and a Wednesday opening, the $100 million-budget film made just $21.5 million for the three-day weekend. Through Monday its six-day total is expected to be a very disappointing $30 million. International is where the film’s bacon has been saved, the movie launched in many markets on Thursday and Friday and has earned $70 million overseas so far with major markets like China, Brazil and Japan still to come. The last of the new remakes was “Endless Love,” the teen romance drama which made a so-so $13.3 million for the three days. Both the original 1981 film and this remake have been heavily panned, though the original was a solid box-office performer. This one probably won’t be. The fourth new film, and the only non-remake, was Akiva Goldsman’s romantic fantasy “Winter’s Tale” which made just $7.8 million for the three days. Reviews were atrocious, 14% on Rotten Tomatoes alone, and at a costly $57 million the forecast is not good. Last week’s “The Monuments Men” held well with a 32% drop to fourth place with $15 million. “Frozen,” “Lone Survivor” and “That Awkward Moment” rounded out the top ten with “Frozen” edging toward the billion dollar mark globally and now sits as the No. 3 animated title of all time (excluding rereleases). http://moviesplus247.com/lego-tops-robocop-stalls-box-office.html Quote
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