Yesterday my hubby dragged me away from the computer to go see The Lego Movie. He’d heard good things about it and wanted to see it. I’d heard “Legos” and wondered why anyone would want to see an extended advertisement for a children’s toy?

Turns out we were both right. It was a surprisingly good and entertaining advertisement for a toy that actually fascinates children and grown-ups alike.

Here’s the official blurb: “The LEGO (R) Movie” is the first-ever, full-length theatrical LEGO (R) adventure. The original 3D computer animated story follows Emmet (Chris Pratt) an ordinary, rules- following, perfectly average LEGO minifigure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world. He is drafted into a fellowship of strangers on an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant, a journey for which Emmet is hopelessly and hilariously underprepared. (c) Warner Bros

The themes were nothing new – how even an average person has some unique abilities; being special depends more on believing in yourself rather than what people think about you; and the quest to resist all change is ultimately futile and destructive.

The development was nothing new either. In fact it was a hodgepodge of scenes from other movies in the action adventure genre, borrowed respectfully and with many knowing winks in the direction of the source materials.

But ultimately the filmmakers did enough things right to keep this film from being boring, cutesy or overly juvenile.

They must have since the movie has a 97% fresh rating over at Rotten Tomatoes.

Mostly for my own self-education as an author, I plan to take a closer look at some of the challenges of making this movie and how the film-makers overcame them.  I’ll be doing a series of posts over the next few days, musing on what made this movie work.