Last week, I had the privilege to see a special screening for the original LEGO Movie in theaters. It was the first time I ever saw the movie on the big screen. One of the biggest mistakes I ever made in regards to choosing which films to see is when I picked to see that shitty and forgettable Robocop remake (You completely forgot that was a real thing, didn’t you?!) over The LEGO Movie. A decision that was so shameful that it makes me want to take a shower every time I think about. However, eight years later, I was able to correct that one big wrong and see that brilliant animation flick the way it was suppose to be seen.
Which makes it an incredibly unlikely coincidence in that just yesterday there came the announcement that a movie about Play-Doh is in the works being written by Emily V. Gordon (The Big Sick) and produced and most likely directed by Jon M. Chu (Into the Heights). The reactions so far to this is pretty much the same reactions when it was announced there was going to be a movie based off of emojis. Nothing but eyes rolling. Yet again, that dreaded sense of Hollywood constantly scrapping the bottomless bottom of the littlest little barrel. However, just like whenever there’s been a confirmation that a movie with an odd premise is announced, there are a handful of individuals out there that claim we should give the movie the benefit of the doubt simply because The LEGO Movie, a movie that everyone raised their eyebrows at too when it was announced, turned out to be good. Personally, I find that line of thinking to be quite flawed and here’s why.
It’s no secret that Hollywood always tend to learn the absolute wrong lessons when movies of a certain genre or medium are a big success. After The Dark Knight, that gave them the impression that people want superhero movies that were dark, joyless, and took themselves extremely seriously with no sense of humor or levity to speak of. After The Avengers, that gave them the idea that people now just want corny and cheesy superhero movies that don’t take themselves seriously at all and everything has to be a cinematic universe. After Star Wars: The Force Awakens (and to some extent, Jurassic World) , it gave them the notion that all you have to do to revive franchises is to make an installment that’s mostly a remake or remix of the original movies with a handful of new characters while bringing back the aging old original cast as side characters, since audience now seem to treat their favorite franchises like their favorite fast food restaurants, just wanting the same stuff they got last time. And after the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, don’t be surprised to see every big franchise out there trying to find some bulls*it, nonsensical way of creating a multiverse to have an excuse to bring back other incarnations of that said series. No matter what movie is successful and how Hollywood chooses to response to it, they always manage to screw it ups somehow
In this case, the success of The LEGO Movie gave Hollywood (and most moviegoers) the indication that you can literally make a movie out of literally ANYTHING and it will work out…..just because. No matter how far fetched a concept of a movie sounds or how odd it’s premise is, you can still make a movie out of it all because The LEGO Movie exists. It created the notion that a movie can never have actually have a bad idea, it’s just the execution that matters. To anyone that believes that, I think you really tend to forgot why The LEGO Movie was looked down upon at first.
The main reason that The LEGO Movie was looked down upon at the beginning is because that on paper, it sounded like the most cynical, soulless toy commercial imaginable. It’s the kind of movie that could easily be given a pass just for simple being a “kids” movie. It makes for the best kind of “critic proof” movie that would use the whole “it’s for kids” schtick as it’s own “get out of jail free” card. It’s the perfect excuse to make the most safe, lazy, and plain deposable movie possible and really only matters if the characters in the movie are able to sell greatly as dolls, action figures, or in this case, LEGOS. Especially in the case of LEGOS, that seems like the kind of movie that would feel right at home as a tv movie that would debut on Cartoon Network or as a straight-to-dvd/Netflix rental. It wasn’t necessarily the idea of making a movie involving LEGOS that was the issue, it was the belief that the movie would contain an overemphasis on marketing brand and shareholding that was thought to be the big problem.
Making a movie involving LEGOS is a concept that has endless potential. It’s a movie where you can have the LEGO people be actual characters who get development, have it’s own unique animation style, create tons of exciting and inventive set pieces, add in some original jokes, subvert/poke fun at certain movie cliches, and have a heartfelt message that can appeal to both kids and adults that have played with LEGOS at some point in their lives. There is an actual premise to work with there. That’s exactly what Phil Lord and Chris Miller realized when sitting comfortably in the director’s chair and used that unique premise to their fullest advantage.
While I’m sure the movie was able to help sell tons of LEGO sets the way that stockholders hoped it would, The LEGO Movie was able to be something much more than simply be a movie exist to sell toys, even if that was intention with stockholders. It showed that just because you’re a brand doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice the artistic integrity and creativity to make something special. The potential of a movie with LEGOS was always there. It wasn’t a success simply because it was The LEGO Movie, it was a success because it had a fun concept and came out of it with execution that was nothing short of magnificent.
This is where I draw the line with people that always want to go “but The LEGO Movie was good” every time a movie surrounding an incredibly bizarre concept is confirmed to be in development. That’s the notion that Hollywood wants to give across to audiences after the critical and commercial success of The LEGO Movie and with what’s come afterwards, shows once again them failing to learn the understanding of their achievements. If you want complete proof of that, look no further than The Emoji Movie.
The Emoji Movie was always doom to fail because of how inherently flawed it’s premise is and the way they chose to go about it. You can’t provide development or depth to emojis because emojis themselves aren’t something that can carry a feature length film. Emojis are not characters, they’re images, icons, emotions, and can’t have anything resembling a three-dimensional person because that’s just not what it is. The fact that the filmmakers behind that movie didn’t realize that immediate fact before even starting production for that turd bascially made it doomed from the start.
At best, the only way The Emoji Movie could have worked was if it was a spoof that poked fun at itself and the whole idea of emojis (similar to Sausage Party, even though I’m not a fan of it), but it didn’t do that. Instead, The Emoji Movie actually thought it was actually a real movie. It thought it had an actual story to tell, an actual arc it was providing it’s main character, and an actual message it wanted to convey. It failed spectacularly because it didn’t seem to realize how completely absurd it’s own premise was and actually believed it was saying something meaningful. Also, the heavy amount of product placement didn’t help much either. The LEGO Movie had a branding foundation that has real characters and style to work with, The Emoji Movie did not and nether does Play-Doh.
While I’m a big fan of The Big Stick and enjoyed Into the Heights, I just don’t see how Emily V. Gordon and Jon M. Chu can make a movie involving the Play-Doh brand work unless they go the spoof or meta route as I previously mentioned. This announcement goes back to my point of why everyone including Hollywood needs to go back and rewatch The LEGO Movie as to why the movie ACTUALLY worked! It didn’t work JUST because it involved LEGOS, it worked because it involved heart, passion, and a crew that wanted to do something new, funny, heartfelt, creative, inventive, and subversive with its sandbox of a premise. Play-Doh is the kind of brand that severely lacks any ounce of potential multimedia expansion with it’s property because there’s hardly anything to work with as an actual feature film.
If or when the movie comes out and it turns out to be next Emoji Movie, this would be yet another example of Hollywood missing the point of it’s own successes and made honestly make people start to question whether or not The LEGO Movie, the movie which every studio is trying to rip-off/emulate, was every any good in the first place. When that day comes when we start to actual question the quality of The LEGO Movie because of all the failed attempts at trying to capture that same magic, that will show off little understanding Hollywood and most people have as to why that exact movie every worked to begin with.
I sure can’t wait though until that Barbie movie comes out and Greta Gerwig somehow is able to make a masterpiece out of that. (Update from future me: SHE DID!)
(I sure can’t wait to see Warner Bros and Mattle screw the success of Barbie with them greenlighting a dozen other projects at once with premises that don’t make a lick of sense just because the Barbie movie was a thing. I can almost copy and paste everything I just say and apply it to Barbie. It wouldn’t be Hollywood if history didn’t repeat itself I guess.)
Link to article about the Play-Doh Animated Movie in the Works:
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