After 70 years and the creation of literally hundreds of billions of interlocking toy bricks, as outlined by saga, LEGO has grown into one of the most recognizable brands in the world. Starting out as a children’s toy company, it has since branched out into various markets ranging from amusement parks and video games to television shows and movies.
In fact, it was the success of Lego’s foray into the video game world that it decided to consider expanding further into movies and television. After a number of animated films released directly to DVD, including 2003 Bionicle: Mask of Light and 2010’s Lego: The Adventures of Clutch Powers and some animated TV shows, including 2011 Lego Ninjago: Masters of SpinjitzuLego has decided to go all out for its first theatrically released high-budget film, aptly titled The Lego movie.
Featuring a cast of A-List actors including Chris Pratt, Liam Neeson, Elisabeth Banks, Morgan Freeman, Will Ferrell and Alison Brie, stunning CGI animation with a bit of live action, a gripping soundtrack and humor aimed at adults and children alike, The Lego movie was a resounding success. Lego has since developed three more theatrically released movies. With the rights to develop and distribute future Lego movies and Lego promising that their creative team has “reinvented” the Lego world for the next movie, there’s a lot to look forward to. Meanwhile, we look back at all the theatrically released Lego movies and rank them.
4/4 The Lego Ninjago Movie
It was at this point that the cracks started to show in Lego’s movie franchise. The Lego Ninjago Movie is based on the martial arts range of Lego’s toy line and its accompanying animated series. While it’s not a particularly groundbreaking or original storyline, there’s still plenty of fun to be had as we follow a naive teenage ninja voiced with great energy and enthusiasm by Dave Franco as he tries to accept and learn the truth about his evil father. what it is really means being a ninja and, of course, ultimately saving the day. It’s also fun to see veteran martial arts actor Jackie Chan pop up in dual roles, both in a short live-action role and as the voice of the wisecracking master Wu. Unfortunately, along with a fairly unoriginal premise, many of the jokes fall flat as they are pulled thick and fast in a classic case of quantity over quality.
3/4 The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
The most recent entry in the Lego episode, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is definitely an improvement over the previous entry, The Lego Ninjago Movie, and it still retains some of the magic that made the original such a fantastic viewing experience. However, it is difficult to put your finger on what exactly is missing, such as on the surface The Lego Movie 2 is a wildly imaginative, fun and beautifully animated family film that introduces a series of funny characters to the Lego universe, including the shape-shifting alien queen Watevra Wa’Nabi, played by Tiffany Haddish. The biggest problem was probably the fact that, despite the positive aspects, it was difficult for the audience to shake off the feeling of ‘been here, done that’ déjà vu. This time, the citizens of Bricksburg face a whole host of new dangers when the city comes under attack from DUPLO invaders from outer space, who are out to destroy everything in their path. Once again, it’s up to Emmet to save the day with friends old and new.
2/4 The Lego Batman Movie
After the success of the original film, we can safely say that expectations were high, but those of 2014 The Lego movie managed to continue the series and was an absolutely hilarious and fun movie that appealed to kids and adults of all ages, while also being a really good superhero movie. It was really genius to team up with DC and license their most recognizable characters and turn them into Lego. By sticking to the same stunning animation style and sense of humor, and combining that with a fantastic voice cast consisting of Will Arnett as The Dark Knight alongside Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson, Ralph Fiennes and Mariah Carey, the world becomes was treated to one of the funniest superhero movies of all time. The Lego Batman Movie was a huge hit with critics, scoring a very respectable 90% on the review collection website Rotten Tomatoes and earning over $300 million at the box office.
1/4 The Lego movie
Lego had already started branching out from the brick-based toys it had become known for and began to see huge success in the video game market. It was this success that inspired Lego to move forward in the world of cinema. The gamble certainly paid off as The Lego movie gave the world one of the funniest and most entertaining animated films of the decade. Featuring a fantastic voice cast of A-listers including Chris Pratt, Liam Neeson, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks and Morgan Freeman, and a catchy soundtrack including the original Oscar-nominated song “Everything is Awesome”, which also turns the film into a nutshell.
The Lego movie follows Emmet Brickowski, an everyman and construction worker from a conscious world of Legos aptly titled Bricksburg. A clear case of misidentification forces him to be whisked away from his pleasant routine life to stop an evil businessman from destroying everything he loves. Packed with fan favorites like Lego Batman and Unikitty, every scene in The Lego movie is explosive in color and style. The actors deliver great performances and the ending breaks the narrative form to achieve something truly spectacular. The film was a huge hit at the box office and critically acclaimed, scoring a near-perfect 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.