The Lego Movie 2 Is Joyful Pure Brilliance

Can we just openly acknowledge that the team behind the Lego Movie franchise is brilliant and understand a modern audience on a level that’s honestly shocking and delightful and only further prove that with The Lego Movie: The Second Part? What had already been a creation that made what was a commercial into something amazing and subversive, they only further take the trend of being emotionally honest and important morally and wrap it in a movie that’s got the heart and hilarity of twenty lesser children’s film.

This movie defies the idea of being simple for children and takes the plot along a snarky self-aware trip that, unlike some shoddier media, is never set in a way that makes it draining or difficult to get into the story.

The Lego Movie 2 Has Several Deep Layers Of Plot

Far from it, actually.  The self-awareness, the framing device of the second movie—while picking right up from the first—makes the artificiality of the story front and center and retains more meaning rather than less. Because now that we understand from the first movie the lack of literalness regarding the world the Lego people live in, and how they are more extensions of their children and adult controllers, we simply get a story that is so steeped in metaphor that we are simply understanding the main human story by following the whimsical quest of Emmet and company.

But that’s not even half of it. Because Lego Movie: The Second Part is, yes, a story of a sibling relationship and one that will warm the hearts of and resonate with anyone who has a sibling, but it also does something that’s almost so on the bleeding edge of social commentary that I’m not sure I’m the right person to talk about it. They get across in the first movie how an adult might have lost the childhood wonder of play and doing things creatively, but the second movie shows how that starts—where the cynical feelings might begin, and how it’s not good or okay to simply “do away with childish things” when it means alienating others or being cruel.

The Lego Movie 2 Has Relevant Messages For All

I wasn’t expecting to be presented with allegories that are also paradoxically product placement, but if Toy Story 3 can talk about the concept of death in a way that’s more mature than any shoot-‘em-up action movie where hundreds die, then I guess I should not be surprised by it anymore. The Lego Movie: The Second Part is a movie that is just incredible. Without needing to in the slightest to still be amazing, it even has a song where the characters acknowledge and update the premise of the song that you all know from the first movie. They bother to address potential criticisms and that earns so much of my respect.

The Lego Movie: The Second Part tackles almost too much. It’s a movie about maturity and presents how one can be honestly more mature without being grim or dark or gritty and does so in a way that’s both breezy and fun and entertaining and joyous and adorable. Show this to kids. Show this to adults. It’s an important lesson for anyone and everyone who went through a phase or state of cynicism. While the plot may have plot holes, it’s ultimately not a story meant to be taken literally, and, even if it’s numerous and delightful pop culture shout-outs become dated, its beating heart and soul will remain relevant for as long as we have access to it, and for as long as kids play with toys and eventually grow up into adults.

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