The LEGO Movie

by Dana Polan

Overview

What happens when we set out to understand LEGO not just as a physical object but as an idea, an icon of modernity, an image—maybe even a moving image? To what extent can the LEGO brick fit into the multimedia landscape of popular culture, especially film culture, today? Launching from these questions, Dana Polan traces LEGO from thing to film and asserts that The LEGO Movie is an exemplar of key directions in mainstream cinema, combining the visceral impact of effects and spectacle with ironic self-awareness and savvy critique of mass culture as it reaches for new heights of creativity.

Incorporating insights from conversations with producer Dan Lin and writer-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Polan examines the production and reception of The LEGO Movie and closely analyzes the film within popular culture at large and in relation to LEGO as a toy and commodity. He identifies the film’s particular stylistic and narrative qualities, its grasp of and response to the culture industry, and what makes it a distinctive work of animation within the seeming omnipresence of animation in Hollywood, and reveals why the blockbuster film, in all its silliness and seriousness, stands apart as a divergent cultural work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781477321577
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	11/10/2020
Series:	21st Century Film Essentials
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dana Polan is a professor of cinema studies in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and former president of the Society for Cinema Studies. He is the author of eight books in film and media studies, including The Sopranos and Pulp Fiction, and approximately two hundred essays and reviews.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

The World of Animation and the Animation of the World 7

The LEGO Movie as Savvy Cinema 17

Through the Rabbit Hole, into the LEGO-Verse 32

Falling into Narrative 45

The Extraordinary Ordinariness of LEGO 56

The Secret Life of Toys 76

Production History, Part 1: Project Development as LEGO Goes to the Movies 98

Production History, Part 2: The Animation Process 117

Production History, Part 3: The Screenwriter-Directors 134

Reception and After-Life 159

Coda 171

Acknowledgments 173

Notes 176

LEGO Bibliography 199

Index 201

What People are Saying About This

Richard Neupert

Dana Polan is one of the most respected scholars in media studies and his book, The LEGO Movie, displays his rare ability to weave together a shrewd and refreshing array of insights. He systematically proves that this smart, savvy movie is well aware of its place within both consumer culture and the entertainment industry.