My favorite toy, or toys (I guess), growing up was my Lego collection.  Though I religiously followed the instructions for each precious new set, eventually I would break them apart to build whatever it is my imagination wanted to pursue given available construction material.  I am sure I am not alone in having a bin full of random pieces, the result of my creative efforts.  As I got older and became more interested in history, Lego released its pirate collection.  I was so stoked to get the pirate ship one Christmas, and equally excited to obtain the corresponding colonial fort and a pirate hunting boat.  I was a big enough nerd, too, to be slightly annoyed that the pirate vessel was larger than their adversaries.  This flew in the face of my knowledge of past events, even at that tender age.  As I grew up, I came to see all the bricks as something to be put together and to leave untouched.  In re-watching The Lego Movie (2014) after several years, I realized how much this arc matches that of the adult originally responsible for all that you see in the movie, referred to as “The Man Upstairs” (Will Ferrell).  Luckily, these days I understand that God works differently than does this false one.

Speaking of God, or someone who has played Him in another production, in The Lego Movie Morgan Freeman voices Vitruvius, a wizard-like master builder.  He is the first character we meet, and he is single-handedly trying to stop Lord Business (voiced by Will Ferrell) from obtaining a super weapon known as the “Kragle.”  For brevity and clarity’s sake, I am going to go head and tell you right now that this is “Krazy Glue” with certain letters worn off on the tube.  Lord Business defeats Vitruvius, but the bearded one speaks of a prophecy.  This refers to another master builder of such skill that he or she will end the tyranny of Lord Business.  The sign that the master builder has come will be a bit of plastic referred to as “The Special.”  If there is one person who is not special, though, it is Emmet Brickowski (voiced by Chris Pratt).  He is who the focus switches to, following him as he revels in blending in with the rest of his fellow Lego city folk.  There are a lot of messages in here about conforming and following instructions, things that Catholics are routinely accused of blindly doing, but we will address these ideas later.  For now, after a day of waking up with the same television show, listening to the same song on the way to work, and laboring in the same manner as always, Emmet is undeterred when his co-workers do not respond enthusiastically, if at all, to his invitation to do something after their shift.  On the way out of the construction site, though, he spots Wild Style (voiced by Elizabeth Banks).  She is searching for something, but it is he who falls down a long hole, landing in a cave.  Inside is The Special, whispering for him to touch it despite warnings never to do anything out of the ordinary.  Coming into contact with the shape fuses the rectangular bit of plastic to his back while inducing a psychedelic trip full of visions of Legos that he does not understand.  When he comes to, he is chained to a table in the police station being interrogated by Bad Cop/Good Cop (voiced by Liam Neeson).  If you know how Lego heads work, then I am sure you can figure out the reason for the odd name.  And does not God create us all with two sides, anyway?  Emmet is being accused of things with which he is unfamiliar, like being a master builder, and he about to be arbitrarily melted until he is saved by Wild Style.  She is aware of the prophecy and believes Emmet is the one to fulfill it.  What changes her mind is that during the course of their escape, he proves to be a rule-following simpleton with no building ability.  He simply has The Special stuck to his posterior.  Regardless, she takes him to the Old West section of their world where Vitruvius plays piano in the saloon.  Despite Emmet’s continued denial, Vitruvius insists on trying to get Emmet to believe that the humble worker is the chosen one.  Still, even the wizard begins to have doubts as they are forced to make another get away, this time traveling to “Cloud Cuckoo Land” with some help from Wild Style’s boyfriend, Batman (voiced by Will Arnett).  They head to this area, watched over by Princess Unikitty (voiced by Alison Brie), in order to meet with the other Master Builders.  They discuss what they have learned of Lord Business’ plan to unleash the Kragle on Taco Tuesday, freezing the entire world in place.  They all look to Emmet for some kind of inspiration, but his lack of an original thought has them all losing faith.  Your faith is better placed in God, my plastic friends.  What makes matters worse is that Emmet has a tracking device on him, meaning once more Lord Business’ minions, led by Bad Cop/Good Cop, find them.  Most of the Master Builders are rounded up, but Batman, Emmet, Princess Unikitty, and Wild Style construct a submarine and escape.  When that vessel is destroyed, they are saved by MetalBeard (voiced by Nick Offerman) and his pirate ship.  Once more they look to Emmet for answers, but this time he has a plan.  He convinces them to make a flying vehicle exactly like the instructions, which is hard for a Master Builder, in order to gain access to Lord Business’ massive tower.  This seems to be going to plan until they are discovered before they can connect The Special to the Kragle (it is a cap for the Krazy Glue, by the way).  While Emmet and the others are imprisoned, Lord Business commences the use of the Kragle.  What pauses the devastation is Emmet throwing himself into a vortex.  He lands in the real world where The Man Upstairs is really a grown man who does not want his son, Finn (Jadon Sand), playing with the Legos.  As Finn works on convincing his dad that they are indeed toys, he gets Emmet back into the Lego world, where he saves the day by using essentially the same arguments that Finn is saying.  With the day saved, and Batman being cool with Lucy (Wild Style’s actual name) liking Emmet, everyone is happy . . . until Duplo aliens land and the movie ends.

My description of The Lego Movie does not convey the total insanity contained therein.  Amidst the madness, however, there are some solid messages that make the film palatable for a Catholic reviewer.  The general theme of understanding how special you are, no matter how un-special you have been told you are for so many years, is a good one.  There is a lot of pressure in society today, which the movie touches on, that contradicts how God created each of us uniquely with a special purpose in mind.  Legos are a great way of expressing that infinite variety of the Divinely ordained human experience, even if, as usual, it does not come out and directly say it in these terms.  It comes close with labels like “The Man Upstairs,” but I already covered the problems with that specifically in the introduction.  Even so, one more aspect to add is how it is a good thing that none of us are actually God.  This is a sentiment echoed by Christian thinkers over the centuries, musing about how awful they would be if given the job.  Unfortunately, many of us today are guilty of thinking that if you simply had that kind of power, we would make everything right.  I cannot emphasize enough how much that flies in the face of Catholic teaching.  Most of the time, these thoughts come from our sense of right and wrong.  We desire the ability to “make things right,” forgetting that God is the only one who has a full understanding of these things.  As St. Teresa of Avila prays, “May God deliver us from such a false idea of right.”  There is a word for these thoughts, and that is “myopic.”  In its most basic sense, it means being nearsighted.  More fully, it is a lack of forethought and vision.  “The Man Upstairs” has to learn this is what is happening to him by seeing his world through Finn’s eyes.  For us, these things are best left up to God.

The best part of The Lego Movie is when Batman is picked up by the crew of the Millenium Falcon from Star Wars, yet, there again we have an example of this film’s craziness.  If you can handle this level of randomness, then there are some good lessons to be taken from the whole.  As such, there is no harm in watching it.