The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part

Throwback thought. Can you believe it is already five years since ‘Everything is Awesome’ first got stuck in your head?

The LEGO Movie: The Second Part arrives on May 7. It’s on everything from the 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, the Blu-Ray Combo Pack, DVD Special Edition. The Digital format appeared early on March 19.

SURPRISE

The success of The LEGO Movie surprised many. It landed in the Top 5 of the most popular movies of 2014.

This led to two spin-offs - The LEGO Batman Movie and The LEGO Ninjago Movie.

Now, The LEGO Movie: The Second Part. It has pretty much of the cast and crew of the original returning with some newbies.

Chris Pratt as Emmet; Elizabeth Banks as Lucy/Wyldstyle; Will Arnett as LEGO Batman; Alison Brie as Unikitty; Nick Offerman as MetalBeard; and Charlie Day as Benny. They are joined by Stephanie Beatriz and Tiffany Haddish as new characters Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi and General Mayhem. And Maya Rudolph as Mom.      

The Second Part ended up with an impressive 87% on the Rotten Tomatoes with a $190 million worldwide gross. The sequel or the spin-offs have never been able to reach the box office mark set by the original movie. ($469 million worldwide.)

The director was Mike Mitchell, taking over from, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Lord and Miller are still producers and they wrote the screenplay. Trisha Gum was the animation director.

TAKE

Would I buy this film? No.

But if you’ve enjoyed - or watched - any of the LEGO movies, it is worthwhile for the look. At 107 minutes (if you count some lengthy credits.) It’s not a long investment.

Certainly, there will be kids or even young-at-heart, who won’t mind watching.

Was I entertained with The Second Part? Yes.

Yet, I’ve watched it once now. It feels like that’s enough.

It’s been interesting at some of the changes behind-the-scenes since 2014. Lord and Miller are now Oscar-winners. They were producers of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. And not one viewer saw Chris Pratt in Guardians of the Galaxy or Jurassic World when The LEGO Movie came out.

(Pratt even voices a new character, Rex Dangervest, who kind of pokes fun at some of these changes for him.)

 If you are reading this, you should know The LEGO Movie twist. I won't go into much detail of it.

The animated world of LEGO is not as it appears. They don’t try to hide it in The Second Part. either. We see flashes of this throughout the movie, but we don’t get a fuller look until closer to the end.        

The world of Bricksburg has changed to Apocalypseburg. Everything isn’t as awesome anymore. There are invaders from outer space. Wreaking everything faster then it can be rebuilt. It takes the gang on a more cosmic adventure.

The animation remains wild and fun to look at. The silliness and craziness dynamics of LEGO remains. (Don’t think too hard about the story logic.) There is humour. The voice work is still spot on. There are new songs too, but nothing that felt as catchy as ‘Everything is Awesome.’   

By the end, there is still some good dose heart to with this LEGO gang.    

My LEGO Ranking

The LEGO Movie

The LEGO Batman Movie

The LEGO Movie: The Second Part

The LEGO Ninjago Movie

SPECIAL FEATURES OVERVIEW

There is an 'Everything is Awesome Sing-along' version of the film.

- Commentary

It depends on your interest. It’s not for every viewer.

- They Come in Pieces: Assembling The LEGO Movie 2 (8 minutes, 49 seconds.)

- I kind of appreciate that the filmmakers had no intention of rushing the sequel - if it was to happen at all. While most of the cast tell their thoughts of the movie.

My interesting pick for the special features.

- Emmet’s Holiday Party: A LEGO Movie Short (2 minutes, 17 seconds.)

- If you are feeling festive for Christmas time. Emmet tries to brighten some spirits. I believe this was online, too.

LEGO Sets in Action - (2 minutes, 17 seconds)

- There is no talking. Just Lego animation of scenes from the movie.

LEGO Designers (3 minutes, 30 seconds)

- Designers take a closer look at some of the sets available to play with from the movie.

- Promotional Materials

The usual - Turn Off Cellphone items. For home viewing, even though they are not very long, are kind of meh. I've seen the movie, why watch how it was promoted?

- Outtakes and Deleted Scenes (12 minutes, 21 seconds.)

I didn’t see this as outtakes. I also saw outtakes as bloopers. But the deleted scenes included some that did not have completed animation. 

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment