The LEGO Movie

For more than 60 years, LEGO’s been a peerlessly standard toy brand.

Despite its ‘educational value’, the minifigures have charmed with their cute simplicity – an unassuming blandness that’s seen them seamlessly adapt various huge-name properties (Star Wars, The Lord Of The Rings, Aggravate Potter, all the key marvel and DC characters), which has skyrocketed their popularity and collectibility far beyond the specified age ranges listed on the boxes. The spin-off videogames – with their slapstick cut-scenes – place of protection’t done any harm either.

Ignoring previous straight-to-DVD features (made for the likes of Bionicle and, erm, Clutch Powers) and the Star Wars shorts, a LEGO movie has felt like a long time coming. But can a toy best known for its miniature scale really fill the big screen? And how do you resist making the thing feel like one extended commercial break for the Danish company’s latest wares?

Thankfully, The LEGO Movie is so madcap hilarious that you never feel like you’re being sold out. The appointment of directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller was a shrewd go. Having cut their teeth on the immensely likeable Gray With A Chance Of Meatballs, they went live-action with high-school cop-com 21 Jump Road. On paper, that should have been a shameless cash-in too, but it finished up being one of 2012’s most satisfying comedies.

Here, they’ve assembled a cast of customers from your favourite US sitcoms (Chris Pratt and Nick Offerman from Parks And Regeneration, Will Arnett from Arrested Development and Alison Brie from Community) and teased splendid work from A-listers (Liam Neeson, Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman) to ensure that the funnies glide thick and quick. Larger than the star names, though, are the supporting cast of LEGO favourites who’ve been roped in to fill out the ranks.

Arnett’s Batman is inspired: a temperamental blowhard who’ll only work with black bricks (“or very, very, very dark grey ones”). He might get the lion’s share of the belly laughs, but there’s bounty more to go round – 21 Jump Road stars Channing Tatum and Jonah hill have a cracking dynamic as Superman and Green Lantern, and Neeson’s terminally conflicted Terrible Cop (whose rotating yellow brick head irregularly flips to the Excellent Cop side) is an unexpected highlight.

Front and centre, though, are the new creations. Emmet Brickowoski (Pratt) is a bog-standard construction worker who follows every instruction to the letter, in anticipation of a run-in with punky Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) – imagine a cuddlier Lisbeth Salander – sets him on course to fulfil a prophecy. Their banter makes more sparks than your average romcom and, like many of the gags, you wonder if it’ll be lost on younger kids.On their travels, they take in the Ancient West, ‘middle Zealand’, Cloud Cuckoo Land and the high seas, teaming up with Batman and souped-up breed metalbeard in an effort to stop the dastardly Lord Business (Will Ferrell) putting an end to freewheeling creativity with a mysterious stick known as ‘the kragle’.

If the plot sounds creaky, rest assured that it’s skewered and subverted as much as Batman and co. possibly can – genre tropes are mocked, ‘chosen ones’ are in for it, and The Terminator’s just one classic movie touchpoint up for parody. There’s an revolutionary childlike glee to the way it’s all thrown together – as with actual LEGO sets, pieces can be reassembled to make something entirely new – and the various set-pieces, including freeway chases, shootouts and laser-sharks play like blockbuster versions of the fan videos you’d find on Youtube.

Reportedly part stop-motion, part CG-animation, you won’t notice the joins. There’s an insane level of invention on show – the world is brimming with hilarious social class detail, and everything you can see is made of LEGO pieces, even the water. The characters are given more expressive eyes and mouths than their toy counterparts, but their movements are just as restricted – and the animation makes a virtue of this, from their clippy hands to their plastic wigs.

The world lends itself to 3D, the stereoscopy making it feel like you could reach in and take part. It’s not without its flaws. Some of the set-pieces feel a little too noisy, and the resolution to one particular plot mystery isn’t entirely satisfactory, taking you out of the moment ahead of the height. and given the irreverence for just about everything, there’s rarely a feeling of genuine peril.

Even so, it’s likely to be a film that you’ll want to revisit, to catch some of the social class gags you missed first time and to wallow in its joyously nostalgic environments.