Yeah, thematic discussion, therefore: SPOILERS, SPOILERS, SPOILERS!
The Conflict of Interest Reading
The Lego Movie is a fun, quick-paced romp with an uncertain moral. The movie is bogged down by the conflict between wanting to tell a story about an evil corporation taken down by the little guy when the storytellers are in fact on the side of the villain. Pitting teamwork and rule-following against individual achievement is a problematic theme to present to children, unless you want them to see their teachers and parents as the bad guys. The convention switch 2/3 of the way in is too abrupt and makes the search for a moral even more muddied. The climax of the movie attempts to solve the thematic problems with a sort of "work together to do whatever you want" attitude. The conclusion of the moral "Everyone is the Special" is no better or more revealing than "Everything is awesome." The movie boils down to being a nostalgia vehicle for the viewers old enough to carry credit cards.
The Unreliable Narrator Reading
To understand The Lego Movie, you have to look at it from the perspective of Finn as storyteller. Apparently conflicting themes, derivative story arcs mashed together, and a general sense of naiveté about societal structures pervade the film because the story is the product of the mind of a young boy. Children's logic, only a step away from dream logic is the ideal framework for a movie about legos. And the prevailing themes are surprisingly sophisticated. The real world presents a fully-fleshed struggle of a father who must discover that the best way to recapture his childhood is by connecting with his son. The implicit theme of the lego world by the climax of the movie is one of teamwork through creativity and flexible thinking. The idea that you make your own destiny was perhaps underdeveloped when reduced to the trite "Everyone is the Special," but an overly elegant moral would contradict the convention that the story is being told by a child.
Which is the better interpretation? I probably fall somewhere in-between the two (and need to re-watch to see if I missed anything thematically).
The Conflict of Interest Reading
The Lego Movie is a fun, quick-paced romp with an uncertain moral. The movie is bogged down by the conflict between wanting to tell a story about an evil corporation taken down by the little guy when the storytellers are in fact on the side of the villain. Pitting teamwork and rule-following against individual achievement is a problematic theme to present to children, unless you want them to see their teachers and parents as the bad guys. The convention switch 2/3 of the way in is too abrupt and makes the search for a moral even more muddied. The climax of the movie attempts to solve the thematic problems with a sort of "work together to do whatever you want" attitude. The conclusion of the moral "Everyone is the Special" is no better or more revealing than "Everything is awesome." The movie boils down to being a nostalgia vehicle for the viewers old enough to carry credit cards.
The Unreliable Narrator Reading
To understand The Lego Movie, you have to look at it from the perspective of Finn as storyteller. Apparently conflicting themes, derivative story arcs mashed together, and a general sense of naiveté about societal structures pervade the film because the story is the product of the mind of a young boy. Children's logic, only a step away from dream logic is the ideal framework for a movie about legos. And the prevailing themes are surprisingly sophisticated. The real world presents a fully-fleshed struggle of a father who must discover that the best way to recapture his childhood is by connecting with his son. The implicit theme of the lego world by the climax of the movie is one of teamwork through creativity and flexible thinking. The idea that you make your own destiny was perhaps underdeveloped when reduced to the trite "Everyone is the Special," but an overly elegant moral would contradict the convention that the story is being told by a child.
Which is the better interpretation? I probably fall somewhere in-between the two (and need to re-watch to see if I missed anything thematically).
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