Today's News: first Lego Movie trailer assembled

Here's what I had to say about the new Lego Movie trailer at MovieScene:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/148012/eerste_trailer_the_lego_movie

It's a bizarre project, really. It's based on a hugely popular, iconic line of toys, but at the same time it joins together various other franchises that under normal circumstances (i.e., non-plastic) would never have gotten together. There's Batman and Wonder Woman, there's Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, there's a historical Raphael, there's mermaids, astronauts and scores of other figures that are solely Lego's invention. You wonder how they pulled this one off in terms of copyright. Successfully it seems, though I wouldn't be surprised if this particular aspect of the film might bite them in the bottom down the road, especially if the movie becomes a smash hit (which is always the right time to start legal battles). After all, this film features so many DC comics characters (but no Marvel, even though Lego makes figures of that company's franchises too!) it might as well render the upcoming Justice League movie useless.

Will it be a success? I think it sure will, in terms of box-office at least. You got toys every kid in the world plays with (or should!) on an almost daily basis, in fact toys kids have been playing with for decades, so it's more easy for the kids to convince their parents to come along. Of course you can argue it's more fun to play with Lego than to watch someone else do it, but the same goes for football and there's a bigger number of people watching that than there is playing it. It's all in the brand name, and Lego is a big brand, well known and commonly appreciated. Much more so than Hasbro's Transformers and G.I. Joe action figures, which are more limited in terms of the demographics they appeal to, yet look at how well their films - unjustifiably - did. I wonder if Lego got the rights to its own movie... it would be odd to see Hasbro making its Lego ripoff KRE-O doing Lego Movie merchandise!

But does the trailer look good? I'm (moderately) pleasantly surprised by it. Yes, the story is derivative to the extreme, almost done to death in fact. Regular guy gets thrown in an epic quest to save the world along with a group of heroic characters that teach him the values in himself. Yawn. But this is done with Lego figures. In stop motion. And even in 3D. Waaaah... Okay, some of the shots in the trailer look a little crude, but hey, that's what Lego is. And it seems the jokes make up for it. In fact, I laughed a few times, which happens less and less in trailers I watch. It's clear the directors of the zany but wonderful animated flick Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs had a hand in building this world (pun intended of course; duh!). Their affinity and talent for odd situations and goofy gags, both visual and in dialogue, appealing to young and old alike, seems omnipresent. Hopefully the trailer for once is an accurate synopsis of the content of the actual film (though I would also like it if it is better than the trailer suggests). We'll have to wait until next year to find out, but hey, for nerds like me there's still various upcoming Lego Lord of the Rings, Hobbit and Star Wars sets to look forward to until then. Lego couldn't resist reminding my wallet of that fact. Shrewd maneuvring, Lego... at least the parents will know what to expect financially if they take their kids to see this film.