A LEGO Brickumentary

A LEGO Brickumentary

When the announcement was made that LEGOs, those little plastic bricks that people have been playing with (and stepping on) for decades, were going to be the basis of a full-length feature film, most observers laughed at the very idea and assumed that it would be nothing more than a glorified commercial for the toy line at best.

They and practically everyone else who saw it were happily surprised to find that “The LEGO Movie” was actually a smart and endlessly clever film that worked perfectly well as a straightforward entertainment but also served as a sharp and sometimes biting commentary on the culture that had grown up around them, particularly in relation to the movie themed building sets that the company had been pushing hard in recent years because they made so much money off of them while simultaneously undermining the whole notion of letting kids use their imaginations to create things instead of following a rigid set of instructions.

Given this history, one might expect that “A LEGO Brickumentary,” a feature length documentary about all things LEGO, would take a similarly skewed approach to its subject matter but instead we get what is essentially a 90-minute infomercial for something that hardly needs any more selling at this point.

Hosted by what appears to be a LEGO ized version of Jason Bateman (I’m assuming it’s from the upcoming “It’s Your Move” set), “A LEGO Brickumentary” gives viewers an overview of every aspect of the LEGO story (and presumably breaks some kind of record for uttering the word “LEGO” in one movie) from their modest beginnings in 1957 as dreamed up by Ole Kirk Christiansen a Denmark-based businessman whose factories had an odd habit of spontaneously combusting to today where they are second only to Mattel as far as being the world’s largest toy company (even though they only make one product) and there are reportedly 100 LEGO pieces out there for each human being on earth. We see the production process in action as we watch the designers and master builders create and develop countless new products; we get a close-up look at the assembly of a gigantic X-Wing that is said to be the largest LEGO creation ever built.

The toy’s huge fan base from ages 1 to 100 is covered in great detail from the woman who constructed an incredibly detailed replica of Rivendell from “The Lord of the Rings” to celebrity endorsements by such famous LEGO heads as Ed Sheeran and Trey Parker, who admits that he now finds following instructions for themed sets that he once pooh poohed to be very therapeutic after a long day of decision-making down at the “South Park” offices.

We are also told about some of the more educational aspects of LEGOs, such as how one doctor has used them to reach out to autistic children and how one fan discovered his design for a replica of the Mars Curiosity Rover being manufactured by the company after winning a contest on a website dedicated to all things LEGO.

Most of this is pretty interesting, if a bit self-congratulatory at times, but ‘A Lego Brickumentary’ never really goes much deeper than that, I suppose because filmmakers Daniel Junge and Kief Davidson didn’t want to rock the boat too hard lest they anger the Lego overlords. What I mean is, Parker hinted at another aspect in his interview between the old way of building with Legos where you just got a bunch of bricks and let your imagination go nuts and the new way where you get a specific kit (often licensed from some popular franchise) and build it according to instructions so it looks exactly right that could’ve used a little more debate.

The film touches on it briefly, but what about when the company started ignoring their fanbase and specializing themselves into near oblivion in the late ’90s? They mention it for a second before blasting through to something else; I’d like to hear more! Also: Yes, I know this would’ve put too much strain on the family friendly tone they were going for with their documentary about children’s toys, but damn if there isn’t a whole subset of people out there who have made some very adult oriented movies using only Legos. From stop-motion recreations of films like “Psycho” to well yeah.

‘A Lego Brickumentary’ is glib and genial and if all you know about Legos is how bad stepping on one can hurt then you might come away from it having learned something. But if you’re anything like me which is to say that you’re such a big nerd for those plastic bricks that you once spent $500 on an out-of-print set because dammit it was Christmas-time and Santa had better make good on that promise he made when he told me six years ago that he was going to bring me the Star Wars Death Star then chances are good that you’re not going to learn much from this movie.

In fact, you’ll spend most of it being like “Yup, knew that already” and then clicking your teeth together impatiently until the credits roll. It’s a fine film if you want to watch something but don’t feel like actually watching it I’d say wait for it to come on cable, but I think we both know that if you’re enough of a Lego nerd to have even read this far into the review then there’s no way you’re not seeing ‘A Lego Brickumentary’ in theaters.

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