Blu-Ray Thoughts: The Lego Movie
From what I overheard, people seemed to like The Lego Movie when it was in the theatres. The trailers I looked for after I'd started noticing those positive comments looked fun to me; I was sort of impressed by the staccato "stop-motion" effect given to the computer animation, similar to the "brick films" I've seen a few of online. (Years before that, back in elementary school I did include two Lego astronauts in a stop-motion short filmed with a home movie camera; given that I remember most of it used a toy space shuttle it may not have counted as a real "brick film," though.) I contemplated going to see it at the movies myself, but then another comment overheard in different circumstances about the sort of audience bound to be at it did sort of give me pause, weekends got busy with other things, and I decided at last that I'd wait for the home video release. As I bought the "regular" Blu-Ray in the middle of the pricing spread, though, I was still wondering if it would indeed seem to me to be too much "kid's stuff," and more than that just how I would take one specific cameo of a "licensed minifigure" from a company other than Warner Brothers (even if that studio was associated with a "theatrical premiere" featuring associated characters just a few years back...)
Out of all the Star Wars characters, to have a cameo appearance by Han Solo did seem to me to be playing things as safe as possible. More than that, though, I could imagine (perhaps influenced in some small way by the pantomime "cutscenes" of the Star Wars Lego video game) not just an appearance featuring him featuring him swaggering in with a blaster but also an attempt being made to make a joke of the bumper-sticker issue that seems to obsess some to the exclusion of everything else about Star Wars when they demand the "pre-Special Editions" at a resolution acceptable to them. It does seem terrible for me to let things stand or fall as a whole by how wearily familiar their throwaway references to Star Wars feel, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot I can do about that.
When Han showed up, though (after just enough setup to convince me he was about to appear), he did it in a way big enough to surprise me. One of the very first things he said (in a voice at least close to Harrison Ford's, although I waited until the end credits to confirm it was someone else's) was a reference to one of the worlds in the new movies, which does count for something for me. He also showed up with a few other characters, voiced (in one case "so to speak") by their original actors. Then he was off, and I was left to fit into place another one of the fast-paced, unusual and entertaining moments of The Lego Movie.
Before that point in any case I'd found myself enjoying the movie's "mash-up" style. Some of the establishing long shots did leave me thinking they'd been designed to have their individual bricks magnified on the big screen and some of the action scenes looked chaotic enough to just sort of overwhelm at first glance, but the story seemed to support things. It even happened that I hadn't quite overheard everything that happened towards the end of the movie. Some of the ideas developed there did seem an elaboration of the early jokes about "following the instructions," which had reminded me of how while some people lament how the "alternative models" on the backs of the boxes aren't around any more I always had trouble getting what I was trying to build from one picture to look just as good at that picture, although the whole "I was surprised" aspect does seem to make it awkward to say too much about things. There did seem to be something for lots of different people in the movie, in any case.
This entry was originally posted at http://krpalmer.dreamwidth.org/215205.html. Comment here or there (using OpenID) as you please.
Out of all the Star Wars characters, to have a cameo appearance by Han Solo did seem to me to be playing things as safe as possible. More than that, though, I could imagine (perhaps influenced in some small way by the pantomime "cutscenes" of the Star Wars Lego video game) not just an appearance featuring him featuring him swaggering in with a blaster but also an attempt being made to make a joke of the bumper-sticker issue that seems to obsess some to the exclusion of everything else about Star Wars when they demand the "pre-Special Editions" at a resolution acceptable to them. It does seem terrible for me to let things stand or fall as a whole by how wearily familiar their throwaway references to Star Wars feel, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot I can do about that.
When Han showed up, though (after just enough setup to convince me he was about to appear), he did it in a way big enough to surprise me. One of the very first things he said (in a voice at least close to Harrison Ford's, although I waited until the end credits to confirm it was someone else's) was a reference to one of the worlds in the new movies, which does count for something for me. He also showed up with a few other characters, voiced (in one case "so to speak") by their original actors. Then he was off, and I was left to fit into place another one of the fast-paced, unusual and entertaining moments of The Lego Movie.
Before that point in any case I'd found myself enjoying the movie's "mash-up" style. Some of the establishing long shots did leave me thinking they'd been designed to have their individual bricks magnified on the big screen and some of the action scenes looked chaotic enough to just sort of overwhelm at first glance, but the story seemed to support things. It even happened that I hadn't quite overheard everything that happened towards the end of the movie. Some of the ideas developed there did seem an elaboration of the early jokes about "following the instructions," which had reminded me of how while some people lament how the "alternative models" on the backs of the boxes aren't around any more I always had trouble getting what I was trying to build from one picture to look just as good at that picture, although the whole "I was surprised" aspect does seem to make it awkward to say too much about things. There did seem to be something for lots of different people in the movie, in any case.
This entry was originally posted at http://krpalmer.dreamwidth.org/215205.html. Comment here or there (using OpenID) as you please.