Thoughts on The Lego Movie

I'll tell you now, this review is long and has spoilers, but I really want to get into why this movie struck home for me. And why you should watch it, even if you don't have any kids.



It's been 5 days, but I'm still thinking about The Lego Movie. It hadn't even been my first or second choice for Valentine's Day. But since date night night turning into family night due to sick auntie meant we didn't want to see our first choice of The Monuments Men, and then Frozen no longer being available in the evening except as the Sing-a-long version, that left The Lego Movie.

I thought, it's probably going to be totally cheesy like Lego: The Adventures of Clutch Powers, but oh well. It's at least something our son can watch with us. Even as the movie started, it had all the signs of a silly adventure movie: Lego archvillain trying to make the world behave his way, prophesy-speaking wizard warning that one day The Special would come to stop his plans, followed by lots of Lego people all singing "EVERYTHING IS AWESOME! EVERYTHING IS COOL WHEN YOU'RE PART OF A TEAM!" Yeah, I meant that to be all caps. (They were rather enthusiastic about it.)

And through the song, we meet this ordinary Lego construction guy named Emmet. All he wants to do is follow the rules and fit in with everyone else. He prides himself in being part of the team and building buildings everyday according to the directions. If we were to label him, we'd probably call him a follower. Certainly we'd never think of him as a leader. Nothing stands out about him. Even his coworkers later on describe him as without anything special, nothing to make him distinctive from everyone else. They could hardly remember anything about him at all, as though he was so ordinary that he wasn't worth getting to know. Excuse me, I need a tissue. *bwaaat*

Right, so anyway Emmet finishes at the construction site at the end of the day, rebuffed but unfazed by his attempt to be part of the group after work, he spots this oddly dressed young woman hanging around, looking for something, rather athletically actually. Lots of jumps to different parts of half built section. He warns her that she's not supposed to be there; it's against the rules. In trying to find out why she's there, he ends up falling down a very long (and crooked) shaft in typical Lego style: bounce, pong, ping, crunch, bounce some more, bang, bop, flop. Very silly.

But then he finds the thing of prophesy (not that he knew it at the time), the item that will stop President Business from gluing the world together forever with the Kragle. (The thing gets stuck to his back while he's having a high speed vision of sorts.) And in so doing, all of a sudden he's now The Special of prophesy: a felon in the eyes of the law and the long waited for extra special Master Builder by the other rebels. But he has no idea what to do or how to do it. He'd never even heard of the prophesy until Wildstyle, the girl he'd seen before he fell, tells him about it. The only thing he's ever constructed was a bunk bed style sofa so "everyone can hang out and watch tv together." And Every. Single. Person. who brings up the sofa treats it like a worthless idea.

When the other rebels find out he's no Master Builder and just an ordinary guy who happens to have this thing stuck on his back, they think the prophesy has failed. They dismiss him. But it turns out, his specialness is knowing how to work as a team. The other Master Builders such as Batman, Wonder Woman, Gandalf, Dumbledore, and all the others don't know how to build according to the rules or do anything cohesively together. And that is their weakness.

Despite everyone telling him he's a nobody, and even half believing it himself, he takes a more active role because nobody else can do what he can do. He's the one who comes up with the plan to get into the tower to deactivate the Kragle and save all the Lego worlds. He's the one who knows how to blend in so they can carry it out. And when everything looks bleakest,  he takes a plunge that frees all the captive Master Builders, though he's sacrificing himself to do it. He even tells Lucy (Wildstyle's real name), that she needs to be the hero now.

And here is where the story takes a deeper turn. We're almost to the climax, yet, this is the part when you will most want those tissues. I have allergies, so I had some on me, thankfully, but the rest of you, this is your warning to get some now.

Emmet falls from the tower, but into a sort of vortex which leads out into the real world. There we find out the story is both Emmet's world and that of a boy playing with the Legos. He had made his dad, the real owner of the Legos and the one who'd constructed all the sets in the first place, into President Business. His dad had apparently forbidden him from playing with them 'because he was messing things up.' His dad comes down and catches the boy and, seeing the carnage of the rebellion in full force, yells at him. "These are mine." But the box says ages 8-14, replies the boy. They are toys. Not the way I'm using them, answers the dad angrily. (Will Ferrell does a great job in the role.)

The dad then starts using Krazy Glue, aka the Kragle, to glue the pieces together so they can not come apart again. In Lego World Wildstyle/Lucy is leading all the ordinary people in full revolt, but all over the place people and things are snatched up by the President's robots and glued in place. It looks hopeless, the boy unable to convince his dad that creativity is more than following directions, that creativity is a good thing. In Lego world Emmet is facing off with the villain in front of the Kragle and holding the cap to the Krazy Glue.

The boy is standing there in real world time so sad and seeing the fun sucked away. But then the dad finds President Business in the tower and realizes it's himself and he's been cast as the villain, a total reality check as a parent that maybe he's been doing something wrong in his response to his son. His whole demeanor softens in true Will Ferrell fashion. You can see in his face the revelation that has struck him. He kneels and holds out Emmet and President Business to his son. In a much gentler voice, he asks what Emmet would say to President Business.

Straight from the heart comes the answer, that anyone can be The Special, to be the hero. Back near the beginning when Emmet had been his prisoner right after finding the Thing, President Business had been sneering at him for being ordinary. "Nobody ever told ME that I was special. What makes you so special?" So, this response is both Emmet and the boy to the President and the father. (I warned you about needing the tissues.) In Lego World, Emmet holds out the cap to President Business who takes it, completely disarmed in that moment, and puts on the cap himself, becoming the hero and thus saving Lego World from the Kragle. In real world the father and son hug and start using a solvent to remove the Krazy Glue from the pieces. Just a moment, I'm getting teary again remembering it. *sniff* Okay, I'm good.

Not only has there been this fabulous theme about what it means to be special, but the real world part really drives home about the value of creativity and exploring new possibilities. The rules and directions should be a springboard, not a prison. Watching this movie, I felt it both as the boy and the father, because I see myself in both. It's easy to say this is the way things should be done, but we also need to listen to the part of us that says there might be another way.

And gosh darn it, I love the whole thing about ordinary being so incredibly awesome. We don't have to be amazingly talented to bring out our awesomeness. Everyone can be awesome. You, me, the kid down the street, the woman in the supermarket, the man walking the dog, everyone. And it's even better when we bring our various awesomenesses together as a team. So go watch the movie if you haven't yet and join me in one more cheer. With fists in the air, sing it to the sky.

EVERYTHING IS AWESOME! EVERYTHING IS COOL WHEN YOU'RE PART OF A TEAM!

The upcoming release of Elemental

One of my good friends Emily White will be releasing her debut novel, Elemental, on May 1, published by Spencer Hill Press. I'm very excited to see how her story has evolved, since I've only read some of the early drafts back when her MC had a different name. ;D If I can actually come up with any intelligent sounding questions, I hope to have her visit for an interview sometime before the release date. (Talking to her is easy, but interviewing in general is not. For me anyway.)

But this week, the trailer for her book is out, and I am proud to share it with all of you.

From the press release:

Just because Ella can burn someone to the ground with her mind doesn't mean she should. 
But she wants to.

For ten years--ever since she was a small child--Ella has been held prisoner. Now that she has escaped, she needs answers. Who is she? Why was she taken? And who is the boy with the beautiful green eyes who haunts her memories? Is Ella the prophesied Destructor... or will she be the one who's destroyed?

Filk Friday: Roll a D6

I can't believe I almost forgot to do my Friday post again. Well, since gaming is on my mind, here's a parody on "Like a G6" called Roll a D6. For those of you less familiar, a d6 is a six-sided die used in many roleplaying games. D&D usually uses several different dice: the d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and the d20. Sometimes you have to roll a d3, but for that we usually use d6 (1-2, 3-4, 5-6 for 1, 2, 3).

Now my gaming group doesn't this deep into our roles, but technically we do play in the basement at our friends' house. Both the husband and wife play, so I'm not the only gal there. But the guys are all pretty cool. My husband is our Gamemaster, and he comes up with some tough challenges of various kinds, a nice balance between hack-n-slash and roleplaying. It's the sort of balance that makes for great retelling later.

Ah the stories I could tell from various campaigns I've been in... But I digress. Enjoy this catchy bit of gamer filk, grab some friends, and roll a d6!

Filk Friday: Wanna Be a Hero?

Here are a pair of songs for people who think they want to be heroes: Space Hero and Advice for Would-Be Heroes. You can learn quite a bit from these two songs. Being a hero is not all it's cracked up to be. It's often work and not particularly pleasant.

Space Hero has a wry humorous look at what might be in store for the hero wanna-be's by poking fun at heroic assumptions. Julia Ecklar and Anne Prathor sing this rendition. I like the one I have better, but I can't remember who sings it. Advice For Would-Be Heroes doesn't mock the wanna-be's, but it does have sound advice that can be applied not only to fantasy and science fiction but to real life as well. Despite the fact that we don't use horses and swords in combat much anymore, it still makes sense. Leslie Fish is the voice of Tarma from Oathbound.

The Ranger's Apprentice

It's been awhile since I did any book reviews, even though I've read three terrific books over the past few weeks. The pixies demanded that I tell you about one of them today, so I'm picking the one I whooshed through yesterday.

The first book of the Ranger's Apprentice series: The Ruins of Gorlan was a lot of fun. John Flanagan kicks it off with big baddie Morgarath making plans to revenge his defeat 15 years earlier. It's clear from his thoughts that it was a good thing for the kingdom that he'd been defeated. He's not a nice guy. Morgarath plays little direct role in the first book, but it was important to show that he's preparing to make his move by sending his allies to take out some of those personally responsible for his defeat.

Most of this book is about Will's apprenticeship to Ranger Halt, a member of a secretive group with a very important role. They spy around the kingdom searching for information to keep the kingdom safe, sometimes even dealing with a problem directly. Without them, Morgarath would have succeeded in his goal to kill the young King Duncan and usurp rulership over Araluen.

Woven around Will's training and becoming involved in the overall plot is the subplot involving Will's long-standing issues with one of his fellow castle wards, Horace, primarily because Will is the smallest of their age group and the only one with no paternal name. Horace teases him whenever they get together. He thinks he's superior because he's big and strong and Will wasn't accepted into Battleschool to train as a knight.

Their animosity erupts into an outright fight during Harvest Day, despite their friends' attempts to smooth things over. Not even Alyss, who was apprenticed to become a kingdom diplomat, could prevent it. That combined with the intense bullying Horace was facing from three of the second-year warrior apprentices made me concerned for what Horace was going to do and become, especially with his potential clearly shown by Flanagan's skillful use of omniscient POV. I didn't like how Horace treated Will, but I liked him well enough that I didn't want him going bad. I won't tell you what happens, but I will admit to crowing with delight over how the issue with the bullies was resolved. It was perfectly satisfying, built out of changes both boys had made in themselves and with each other. Ranger Halt's role certainly helped, too. Muha muhaha.

All in all, this is a wonderful MG book. It's suitable for the 10+ age level and something I will enjoy reading with my son when he's a few years older. I know I would have enjoyed it when I was a tween, and the theme with improving social skills put it high on my recommendation list. It might be a little obvious in spots, but for the targeted readership, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's well worth buying for the story, the themes, and the wonderful example of how to use omniscient POV.

Filk Friday: Hero of Canton from "Jaynestown"

It's been an odd week , so I haven't gotten around to mentioning my planned theme for the next few weeks. Since I spend most of my time on fantasy topics, I thought I'd spread some fan love to SF, since the SF stories I do enjoy, I enjoy as much as the fantasy ones; there's just fewer SF stories I can sink myself into.

One of the series that sucked me in is Firefly. (If you couldn't already tell by my gleeful choice in Wednesday's video) Characters, setting, everything about it felt fresh, or in this case, dust and engine fumes. It is a space western after all. The first episode I saw was "Train Heist." Even though I knew nothing about the actors, characters, setting, or themes, just the combination of an old fashioned train heist combined with space ships made me stop flipping channels and watch to the end. After that, I deliberately tuned in to find out what they'd do next.

One of the middle episodes, "Jaynestown," took the crew to an out of the way planet to deliver a bunch of cows. But when they got there, Jayne remembered that he'd been there before for a robbery that went bad, prior to joining the rest of them. Expecting trouble, they were all surprised to find a statue in Jayne's honor. He was the Hero of Canton with a song and everything. The townsfolk believed that the strewn money from the robbery had been him distributing it to them on purpose, a modern day sort of Robin Hood, even though it had been an accident. You should watch the episode for the contrasts between normal character traits and trying to live up to the hype of a different view. Jayne surprised himself the most.

Here is Adam Baldwin, who played Jayne on the show, singing "his" song: The Hero of Canton. He even wears Jayne's hat. You can really tell how much he enjoyed the character, especially when you see his grin at the end.