Helen Speaks

And the story was in some ways inspired – focusing on a world ruled by a totalitarian dictator called President Business who insists on keeping everything made exactly to the instructions, and plans to freeze everything and everyone so no one can mess with his perfect world again. Fighting against him are a team of “master builders” who include Abraham Lincoln, Wonder Woman, and Shaquille O’Neal.

When Business gets his hands on a deadly weapon, the wizard Vitruvius makes a prophecy that a special one who is a “fellow with face of yellow” will find the piece to defeat the weapon. The joke being that that describes pretty much any Lego minifigure. Pretty much.

Our story’s hero is Emmet, a generic construction worker who has only built one original thing in his life, and who lives a life of almost perfect conformity, following all the instructions, liking all the state-sanctioned things including the song “Everything is Awesome”. All that changes when he comes across the piece and becomes the Special.

The story is in many ways a traditional everyman hero arc. It seems to be the tale of how anyone can change the world… but it helps if that anyone is male and a particular colour.

Emmet is supported by Wyldstyle, a creative and beautiful Lego girl who is a skilled martial artist, and a master builder. She had hoped to be the Special herself and supports and protects Emmet despite being bored and frustrated by his conformist attitude.

The other female character is Unikitty, a bouncy unicorn cat made from bricks who, along with Batman, serves as comic relief. The film passes the Bechdel test when Wyldstyle makes one sardonic remark to Unikitty – they are not friends nor could be said to have very much of a relationship.

It all seems to lend credence to the notion that a woman has to be twice as competent as a man to be considered half as good. Wyldstyle is clearly more competent than Emmet but much less important; her character seems to function solely in relation to Emmet, being encouraging enough to inspire him, being disappointed in him so he will try harder, taking “his” message out there when she was aware of said message first, being strong enough to protect him, serving as designated Strong Female Character and Love Interest. Basically I felt she was more of a plot device than a person.

Now a warning!

Major spoilers ahead!

Seriously I am about to reveal the ending. This will either ruin your enjoyment of the film or save your disappointment. Proceed with caution.

The theme of creative building versus following exact instructions will be a familiar one with anyone who’s ever played with Lego. The Lego Movie’s creative twist was that two real conflicting forces of the film were a father and son – the dad creating perfectly ordered and separate Lego worlds according to the instructions, fixed as permanent models, and the son, an imaginative child who creates stories with the bricks.

I was struck with the fact that they had picked a male characters to represent each side – there could, for example, have been two children – a boy and a girl, to mirror Emmet and Wyldstyle, versus the father to mirror President Business.

I probably would have forgiven this, admittedly. I mean, I and plenty of other women enjoy Lego. Plenty of girls enjoy Lego. But it’s a fun movie, not a feminist text.

At the end, the father realises Lego is more fun when he lets his son play with it – and tells him that his sister will be allowed to play too. That’s nice, I thought.

Until there was a close-up of the boy’s expression of horror. At which point I wanted to throw my popcorn at the screen.

OK, the joke that followed implied he was just upset because his sister was too young and might spoil things…

I might forgive that?

No. No. Imagine being a little girl and seeing girls being reduced to either a love interest or a dreaded younger sibling. It makes me want to buy knock-off imitation Lego for all the little girls I know.

There were plenty of funny jokes, but the story itself seemed to raise up the everyman in contrast not to the powerful but to the marginalised – Vitruvius’s prophecy excludes many of the film’s characters including Shaq (who, being black, doesn’t have a “face of yellow”), Unikitty, and arguably all of the female cast (who one might not consider to be a “fellow”). It would basically be the equivalent of having a character in a live action film say that a white guy would come along to save the day.

And Lego is depicted as a toy for men and boys, with the female members of the family being disembodied voices calling that dinner is ready or else a vague destructive toddler threat.

It is a beautifully made film and at times laugh out loud funny. But as a Lego fan, I am so disappointed. Hope I can save you from being disappointed too.