The Lego Movie, released in early February, brings back great childhood memories with enough humor for the entire family.

  The story revolves around Emmet, an everyday average guy, who lives his life by following the instruction manual.  After a quick introduction to the plot, Emmet finds himself in an interesting situation.

  While at work, he stumbles upon an unusual lego piece.  Viewers find out that this special brick is called the “piece of resistance,” and Emmet has now become the chosen one and sets out on a journey with other master builders to stop President Business from taking the creativity out of their lego world.

 The story alone was great, but the A-list cast really delivered.  The main cast includes, Will Ferrell (President Business), Morgan Freeman (Vitruvius the Wizard), and Chris Pratt (Emmet). Other actors such as Liam Neeson, Jonah Hill, and Channing Tatum make surprise cameos voicing some minor characters.

  The only thing I was worried about before watching this movie was the visuals.  After watching the movie I can say that I was pleasantly surprised at how well the animation team did.  The animation was done in a way that resembled stop motion, the pieces were placed one frame at a time and then played all together.  This made the characters look and walk like actual lego pieces.  Every detail in the 1 hr. 41 min. movie is completely made of lego bricks.  Even the fire that shows up in some action sequences was made of legos.

Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the minds behind “Cloudy With a Chance Of Meatballs,” have put together a movie that silences critics. However, the movie avoid being an advertisement for legos?  This is one of the questions that many critics asked before the movie hit theaters.  To be honest I don’t know the answer.

  While watching the movie there were references to actual lego sets, but I don’t think that they were a part of a grand advertisement.  However, Lego did come out with about 15 new sets based on the movie that features new characters and buildings from the movie,  so the answer to that question is up to the individual viewer.

  The one thing that sets this movie above other PG family movies is the ending.  The way they bring it all together was something I have not seen in a kids movie since Toy Story. The ending combined with the tremendous voice acting are enough of a reason to see this movie. Overall, I would give this movie 4 stars out of 5.