The Lego Movie

Borrowing from just about every theme from "Batman" to "Star Wars" - though sadly not "Jaws", this is a really quite entertaining satire on all things megalomaniac, venal and consumerist and two decades on from it's release, it might be even more of an accurate reflection of modern day American life than it was then. It's all about the evil "Lord Business" who has dreams of controlling the world of Lego with the help of his ultimate sticky brick - the "Kragle". The only hope of thwarting him is for someone to find the long-lost "Piece of Resistance" and then know how to use it! That task falls - literally - to the hapless "Emmet" who unwittingly discovers not only said object but a new world of dangerous adventures as he and "Wyldstyle" try to stay one step ahead of the pursuing lord and his sidekicks long enough to save the day. There are metaphors galore contained here and though the Lego theme underpins much of it successfully enough, this could be reanimated or actually dramatised and be about any society that's forgotten what life ought really to be all about. It pokes fun at the mundanity and routine nature of life; a lack of both aspiration and inspiration from the masses and the ease with which the "system" can be crafted and manipulated by not just the greed of the few, but by the idle complicity of the many. The pace is pretty frenetic right from the start and remains so throughout, and the dialogue is riddled with pretty obvious and enjoyably sarcastic jibes as well as a fair amount of only very vaguely disguised character assassinations of individuals we can all recognise from the real world - but who are never actually named. On a much less controversial front, it also reminds those of us of a certain age just how versatile this toy is and just how much fun was had building and rebuilding in the days of our childhood - I remember getting my first set of wheels! There is plenty here for the weans, but there's also a surprising amount for the adults to appreciate too. Are their tariffs on Lego?