I was so unbelievably shocked to see the Octan logo on a Lego City set after seeing the movie, then to realize it was always there. Felt like discovering the Illuminati or something
- The power of heterosexuality - The power of misogyny - The power of autism These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect movie. But LEGO accidentaly added an extra ingredient to the movie: - The power to turn hearts and minds towards sympathetic ends
“Benny gets everyone back to bricksburg with the power of autism.” There is nothing else beyond this point. All else is irrelevant in the face of true comedy.
If I had a nickel for everytime Will Ferrell stared in a film that invokes existential thought that’s also based on a toy franchise, I’d have two nickels Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice
In his later career I cant stand him. Possibly Ive grown or he simply doesn’t have the same impact he used to. Barbie, Homes and Watson, The House. All giga shit performance
A bad kids movie has no deeper message for its story a good kids movie has a deeper message that older watchers can get and a great kids movie can tell that message in a way that even young kids can understand without sacrificing quality, that's what the lego movie is I loved the movie many years ago, and even though I wasn't very old, it managed to still get its point across while still being an amazing movie, even if I maybe didn't know all the terms and whatnot like I wouldn't say it told me "Communism is good and any other economy is bad", but it at least told me the message that capitalism isn't perfect by any means and that corporations aren't selfless entities but are more often then not some level of evil
"Don't know what the fuck is up with the dude throwing the tomohawk" It's a dude. Throwing a tomohawk. In an old timey saloon. "Cowboy and Indian" lego sets were numerous.
@blackcontentcreator this isn't about history in any way, this is about modern life, so his lack of knowledge of history which you didn't explain means absolutely nothing.
@@Fellow-computer-nerdwhile i agree with what you're saying here. He does bring up history at multiple different times in the video for the sake of his point.
The piece of resistance is clearly a metaphor for reading theory, as it tends to make it difficult to move thanks to a massive protrusion from your body.
Idk if every autistic person also has these but i get hyper fixations in specific things for a bit of time before moving on to the next interesting thing The Lego movie being released at the same time as my “space” phase definitely made him my favorite character
I think it's also really interesting how Emmett is completely oblivious to the redundancy of voting machines until he says it out loud, as if President Business is the only President there has ever been for quite some time.
I just realized this…oh my goodness. I got like “oh he’s voted cause his company makes the machines” but it just clicked in my brain that he’s been the ONLY one voted for who knows how long. Ironically, I find it more funny because it calls back to it being about the dad of the kid. The dad makes the rules so obviously he’s always be the one in charge when it comes to the legos LMAO
@@compassrose1466 Honestly, I think there's probably more candidates that people can vote for, but the voting machines rig them to all be in favor of President Business, just to give an illusion of choice.
@@compassrose1466 theres also a sign in the background of the Everything is awsome scene saying "I'm President, Because I said So" (or something to that effect) just adding to the beauty that is this film
15:40 Funny thing that, Octan was not invented for this film. Octan is a fictional fuel company that's been popping up in just about every single LEGO product line since 1992. While originally just a stand in for when LEGO couldn't license the rights to Shell or the like, it since became a piece of crossover establishing iconography and branched out into businesses other than fossil fuels. When working on this film it was just obvious to the people working on it that they could use the already established megacorporation from the old toys and add some lore beyond a color scheme and logo.
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I'd say instead of communist the movie is more just general anti-authoritarian. "Lord Business" is also functioning as the state, and Libertarians and Socialists agree- Corporatocracy is shit. (The point they disagree on is that Libertarians think less government will solve the Corporatocracy conundrum while Socialists think more government will solve the problem)
@@JN-so6wt Socialism is when the collective as a whole decides allocation of resources rather than the individuals participating in the collective deciding for themselves, which is capitalism. For big nations, the only reasonable solution that wont involve asking each and every person every economic issue in the population census is having government regulation decided through democracy. So, Socialism CAN not be when the gov does stuff, but it often works out to that, just due to the fault of how the current system works.
How so? the communism fundementally is a socio-economic system based around workers owning the means of production instead of private individuals which is the foundational structure of corporations, if I misunderstood your point im sorry and would like it if you explain it to me
@@thivjan3022 What I'm saying is that something can be against mega-corporations and wage slaving without falling into the camp of communism because, while related, the two things do not need to interact (For example, there are plenty of communist nations WITH extremely powerful mega corporations, such as Vietnam and China. Though Communism often espouses anti-corporate sentiments, the reality is mega corporations and communist states co-exist in more of the communist nations than they don't). In the case of the Lego Movie, I think the original poster of this video essay missed the point that life is about living and pursuing happiness. It's a story about the virtue of creativity and playfulness, and has almost nothing even tangentially related to communism *except* that it is also against corporate corruption, (but I reiterate, that wasn't the point of the story. Lord Business is still a business tycoon at the end, he just isn't evil because he rediscovered the honest joys of life)
@@Nervete That's quite nonsensical since China is not actually communist exactly because they have company/capital owners and a significant bourgeoisie class. In countries that followed Marx' ideas of communism a little more like the USSR and Cuba, that did not exist or at least not in private, but in public hands. A lord business could exist in China because it isn't communist at all since the 1970s but not in countries that actually try to be communist.
@@Karl_Marx-der-Befreier Cuba has embraced private businesses too, so really all you're left with is North Korea. All that said, I have to ask if you read my comments. My point was exactly that Lord Business is still "in business" at the end, meaning that if this movie really was trying to be communist (I don't think it was), it did a poor job of it. Just let communism die in the shadows of history. There are better ways to care for the poor than centralizing all power into one source. It's an inevitable recipe for corruption.
When we were being taught about 1984 in highschool. At one point during analysis of the book I had an epiphany and I said out loud that the story, themes and messages in 1984 reminded me a lot of the LEGO movie. I then went back and rewatched the movie after finishing the book and it all made so much sense. The LEGO Movie is the true movie adaptation of 1984
I just read the book and now my RU-vid is all like: "You want to see this fun video about the Lego Movie and communism!" In the beginning of the video I was thinking: "This sounds almost like 1984." And the direct reference at 7:34 was like: "See, it is like 1984"
I hope, then, that you realize both the LEGO movie and 1984 are not communist propaganda but anti-communist, and that nothing described in here criticizes capitalism but the opposite.
I would way more argue that this story feels way more like 1984. Replace lord business with the government there and violla, Lego movie. It is certainly about individualism, but that stands in stark contrast to the ideas of communism.
I'm not sure how he was able to bunch up Communism, Individualism, and a little bit of Facism. All three of those ideologies are like the extreme opposite to eachother in most ways. I also felt like he was trying to review the lego movie than proving his points. It was however a solid review.
@@SideQuestStories uh, no, wtf are you talking about. “a socioeconomic order centered around common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange that allocates products to everyone in the society based on need. A communist society would entail the absence of private property and social classes, and ultimately money and the state (or nation state).” VS “a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and/or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.” They could not be much more opposed
I can't believe how long it took me to get the "security cameras, all history books, voting machines... Wait a minute-" joke. I never got it till I was like 17
I guess when we were younger, we were never taught about despotic rule, or anything in-depth about governance or power. I ended up teaching myself quite a bit when I got older, and my brain also developed enough to form these connections more easily.
I could see that Octan was a massive corporation working with a corrupt government to do bad things, but I didn't get the significance of the items listed.
@@Rainfire-forgets-to-animate Exactly! That's what I thought too. I was stuck in a basic, child's mindset of "red team bad, blue team good", so I did not understand the following things.
Personally I would argue that it's flipped the other way around and that Bricksburg is a parody of communism in the worst case scenario (more especially the authoritarian aspects common in a few east asian countries), not a parody of an absolute monopoly in capitalism.
the reality is that all forms of authoritarianism (regardless of what their origin is i.e. communism, fascism, or monopolism) all end up being indistinguishable from one another
@rootigaroot9922 They are major differences between different forms of authoritarianism/ totalitarianism (fascism and especially nazism being objectively worse than maoism, for example).
Maybe a criticism of theese Post-Communist dictatorships like Belarus, where the Old communist elite turned into Oligarchs and everything basicly stayed the same for the avarage bloke?
you got a B because you were right and to give you an A is to agree, people dont want to admit they've been brainwashed, people dont want to admit they are wrong
@@Prororo brain washing is the perfect word. Tell me when you hear the word "communism" I guess you have a negative connotation to the word, but "capitalism" you do not, unless you are educated this is how you see the world. Communism is bad, capitalism is good. But in reality it is quite the opposite. You see communism as bad because it goes directly against capitalism and the power that the rich get in this society, in a communist society it's classless, there are no rich, there are no poor, we are just people, humans. This is further backed with how we go to war with any country that tries to convert to communism, not because communism is bad but because the second there's a proper successful communist country we will ALL realize we've been lied to. Brainwashing is the perfect term
@@bp42s56 always a possibility, not given enough information to say otherwise and I always like finding a place to call out society terrible, the more that accept it now with be more accepting of a revolution in the future, even if their hatred isn't fully real, which yes, is propaganda, and yes, it's not good, but it's very useful
I guess It's because I'm eastern european, but I think this movie has a lot of stuff that's pretty anti communist... Of course only under capitalism and fascism can bad things happen...
Yeah this guy gets it completely wrong, I guess because he is a communist himself. The way he talks about secret police, surveillance, the pressure to succumb to be normal. That's communism! That's what the movie critiques! He mentions 1984... The book 1984 is anti-communist! This movie isn't anti-capitalistic or even that anti-communist. He thinks that it must be anti-capitalist, even though in reality it's anti-dictatorship in general and definitely more anti-communist and anti-fascist than anti-capitalist.
@@wictoriono George Orwell was openly a socialist. I think the attitude of "That's not capitalism, that's communism!" is a pedantic construct to distract people from the actual ideas of either system. Being limited by language is an extremely foregrounded theme in 1984.
@@Nameless_Individual Openly calling himself a socialist - sure, but I think over time his views changed, and he saw certain issues, as I believe Animal Farm was strongly refering to USSR, with 1984 that may allude to nazi state as well. Definitely wasn't communist or marxist, and we're not living in the times where opression and colonialism was still commonly prevalent. Either way, I wouldn't use it either way to defend my points for, or against capitalism/communism.
@@deathisdead270 oh sorry I thought you were trying to provoke me with that statement. Communism has a very very active government that essentially aims to control society as much as possible.
Both are more or less the same in definition; a stable, stateless, classless, and moneyless society under a decentralized order. At some point of this video he pokes fun about utopian socialism being unrealistic which as a commie I'll admit if we live in a "utopia" a tiny mistake would bring a catastrophe. If we did ever reach communism even, it's the societies responsibility to keep themselves afloat.
“Oh, you like the Lego movie! What do you think is the best part of it?” “Well, I suppose it’s the subtle hints towards communism and the manifesto of ignorance being bliss, it very smartly hides this premise hidden within a silly funny story for kids. Speaking about the kids, the movie seems to make children aware of the differences between social classes and how the rich benefit off the poor, and how we should rise against our so-called ‘superiors’.” “…” “So why do you like it?” “…Lego funny”
@@TMHLBPFan yes because socialism means that every one starves, no one starves under capitalism, no one ever, no one had ever starved under capitalism
@@TMHLBPFanhow in the WORLD can you confidently be a capitalist in the wake of late state capitalism??? Like dude look around you, this isn’t working and people ARE starving???
Also I would like to point out that, because of the timer at the end of the movie, we know that *Mississippi is canonically a real place in the Lego world.*
@@theseus0467The kid is imagining all this (for the most part,I’m looking at you scene where Emmet moves on his own in the real world) so we can assume that’s how it got imported
I don't really get the communist propaganda title, the movie criticizes fascism and corporate authoritarianism. Great video though, loved the movie as a kid, and does hold 10 years later
the fact you just threw out the word fascism really says it all... even if you were right how would that invalidate the title of the video? if that were the case it would make the title even more valid
@rootigaroot9922 Facism is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralization of power, suppression of opposition, belief in a social heiarchy, and the rejection of individual interests for the good of the nation or race. That's what Wikipedia says, and I agree with that definition. Communism is harder to pin an exact definition for, as there have been different forms of it throughout history (ex: USSR is not the same as China). In general, communism goals are common ownership of the means of production (of everything) and its equal distribution done through a one party system. I think the description of fascism fits the movie much better. Every fascist state had a dictator figurehead and was a police state, which is why it's a better description imo. Also, both systems are about the same when it comes to how authoritarian they are, so why not use authoritarian in the title? Like, the point of the comment was that I wasn't sure how communism fits into the the Lego movie.
But the movie fails. Basically everything they criticizes... literally happened under socialism and communism even today. It's like this weird left wing projection.
@@rootigaroot9922 the best part about being against "fascism" and "corporate authority" is like saying it's still pro communist, but still disagreeing on it
I do hope you know that the LEGO Movie is digitally animated. They took photorealistic scans of bricks, including fingerprints for maximum authenticity.
I remember watching this in theatres, the movie hits the ground RUNNING with its comedy, the theatre was laughing out loud before our main character is even introduced.
when emmett is listing off all the things octan makes he lists music with a clear punk singer and band in the background something very anti capitalist becoming something a capitalist makes just something i noticed
“Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would *critique* capital end up *reinforcing* it instead.” Which has a double meaning here for both the corporate published punk music in universe, but also the movie itself.
@@sp4c1ng_0ut8 The original punks died out, however the values live on. Punks modify copyrighted works for their own creative interests, it's argued the free modding scene is the result of punk mentality, like modelling a Thomas the Tank Engine and slipping it into any game.
i think we communists tend to get stuck on interpreting every portrayal of authoritarianism as capitalism or fascism, but the lego movie is pretty clearly anti-corporate, so i think this interpretation is justified.
@@SideQuestStories i mean this is part of why we have this bias. We see how previous attempts relied on authoritarianism and caused a lot of suffering. Analysing them thoroughly and critically is an important part of modern socialist ideas. There are those among us who do support for example the Stalinist/marxist-leninist idea of communism, but also those who fundamentally oppose this.
"Comrade there's political dissonance in Lego Utopia" 👮♂"Heeeeeyyyyy!" "Build the Gulag" "Round up the enemies of the proletariat and give them a pickaxe!"
Honestly I think Benny’s representation of autistic hyper-fixation goes even deeper. Every time he says “spaceship!” but especially when he says it repeatedly when he actually gets to build and use one, I interpret it as him spouting out lots of technical terms and lingo, but since none of it registers with anyone else they just perceive it as him saying “spaceship!” Credentials: Have had many an autistic ramble myself that makes no sense to the average person.
Not autistic, but start foaming at the mouth any time I find any interesting telecom infrastructure. This is probably how people see me go on about bands and mimo, and microwaves lol.
He was never confirmed, therefore all you get out of him is a cartoony caricature of a space obsession. Reminds me of Benedict Cumberbatch ranting about his portrayal of ASD characters (Turing, Sherlock). He researched his Frankenstein scientist role for a stage play and had this to say: “I went to schools and met people, some of whom are very high functioning on the autistic spectrum. I met a 17-year-old who had the mental age of a one and a half year old. Everything was just about bodily functions. Smell. Sexual arousal. Shitting. Whatever. So when I hear people use diagnostic labels casually - Sherlock is autistic, Turing is autistic - it really upsets me.”
@@scrittle What’s wrong with noting the very autism-coded attributes of a character? If anything, Benny is a breath of fresh air compared to the horrible representation that autistic people (myself included) have to put up with. It’s nice to see a clearly autistic-coded character that isn’t just a bunch of stereotypes thrown together.
When did anti authoritarian and anti monopoly become pro communism??? Btw numerous examples of “anti capitalist” situations in this movie are common occurrences in communist countries, one such example is killing the intellectuals of the society and rooting out political dissidents
communist countries can be authoritarian of course. you dont have to agree entirely with one political belief system id go to say if you do you need to think a bit more about it.
You must’ve heard a few buzzwords and got mad about it. In the context of this film, It’s a private company that controls everything. The people have no say in what goes on. Besides, it’s in a company’s best interest to be a monopoly since they then don’t have competition and can do whatever they feel like. We have to have extremely strong anti monopoly laws to stop this from being a reality
@@Osindileyo it’s anyone’s best interest to become a monopoly, corpos want monopolies only money, power, etc. dictators want monopolies on money, power, etc. government wants a monopoly on money, power, etc. Everything you’ve said could describe authoritarianism
@@zwitie3455 can be? More like must be. There’s no way to enforce communism without preventing commerce and the only way to prevent commerce is through force.
@@mainhalo117 the cast majority of governments are held accountable by the fact that the voters can well, vote. Companies have no such mechanism, which is why big companies is such a big problem
i just thought how cool it would've been if the real life lego sets made to tie into the movie were only straight-and-narrow 'realistic' scenes that lord business wants. then you'd have to dissassemble them and ignore the instructions to get the fun mechs and cloud cuckoo land and whatnot. it undercuts the film a bit to give you instructions for the expressive, revolutionary builds. this could be taken as an analogue for corporations/governments that pretend to be gay/environmentally concious/morally sound, when in reality they are just trying to pull you back into the system.
6:18 "his double-decker couch, his one original idea, only works with friends." *fu@# that is such a good little detail* seriously, the Lego Movie IS one of the best animated movies.
@@divyankrana16 Ferrel + ussy Ferrel is the last name of the voice actor who played lord business I have no idea how to explain the meaning of ussy without triggering comment censorship but you can just google that part.
@@divyankrana16 sus-kupp, dw about censorship, im risking it for the sake of education (listen here yt) anyways people just add on -ussy to the end of nouns, which includes people (like Will Ferell) to talk about.... doing the devils tango with it, sticking their 👉 in its 👌(those two particular hand emojis refer to intercourse, if u were wondering, so i hope you can extrapolate from that!) it's like a suffix that turns the noun into a variant of pussy (in the sexual way, not the cat way lol), making the subject a sex object really. its often humorous and lighthearted, when used as a bit of a gag for a shock response. so Ferrellussy is, well, referencing his 😺even though im pretty sure he doesn't have one. because hes a cisgender man.
So you said Vitruvius's death comes unexpectedly, however i think different. His death follows a very common part of the heroes Journey (a theory on how to build stories and is used pretty often in fantasy), when the protagonist loses the mentor. Vitruvius is literally a caricature of classic 'mentor 'type characters in movies eg. Dumbledore, Gandalf and Obi-wan. So really, the Lego movie is playing into another cliche by killing him off. It's just such a self aware movie and I love it.
Also I love the detail that lord businnes quite literally kills him with his money, through cutting his head off with a coin. This also could interpreted as showing how the money gives him and the mega corporation the power to dominate everything.
Had you submitted this as a written essay to my university, i would have graduated you on the spot. /s but truly, this is far above the kind of reflection i expect from youtube at breakfast times. And its consise aswell? Im astounded.
This is an amazing breakdown of what made the Lego Movie just.. stand out from the rest. I’m definitely on board for more and I can’t wait to see what else you can do. Here’s to 100k soon, you’d deserve it.
I think you're looking too deep , the move is mainly anti conformity and pro creativity. There's critique on mega corporation and mass consumerism for sure but saying its pro communism is a bit of a stretch.
@@lukew6725 ????????????????, capitalism is all about doing what works to reduce risk and thus, make more money simply because the goal capitalism gives you is to make money. Meanwhile I can quote this on communism “Communists often seek a voluntary state of self-governance but disagree on the means to this end. This reflects a distinction between a more libertarian socialist approach of communization, revolutionary spontaneity, and workers' self-management, and a more authoritarian vanguardist or communist party-driven approach through the development of a socialist state, followed by the withering away of the state.” And this “A communist society would entail the absence of private property and social classes, and ultimately money and the state (or nation state).” So basically communism is centered around willing cooperation and capitalism is centered around coerced labor. I will also inform you that I am very biased but luckily the basic information I am sharing can be gathered through basic internet search.
What the heck, i watched this video full screen and was shocked after i zoomed out and realised it only had 1000 views, while i expected millions or smt, everything was top notch and made me think so much, just wow
I think the title doesn't help. People who dislike communism and/or socialism won't click cause they liked the movie and don't want it to be muddied by politics. And people who likes communism and/or socialism might be afraid that this video is anti-leftist political ideas. I might be wrong but it was what I felt seeing the title. I believed the latter btw ^^
This video was the most eye-opening video essay on a film I've ever seen. The amount of depth that was revealed of this movie that I didn't even think about....wow. Great editing too.
Communist ideology believes in the idea of a classless and stateless society. Ergo meaning communism is an anti authoritarian ideology. You’re right in saying that it being an anti authoritarian movie doesn’t make in a communist movie. But apart from probably anarchism there isn’t really any other prolific ideology that is both anti authoritarian and is opposed to the mechanism of capital. Without the context of the movie as a whole you could say this was a libertarian movie, but liberalism and capitalism go hand in hand. That’s probably why he called it communist.
@@proleterriert8075 You are correct if we are using ideal textbook definition of communism but in practice most (if not all) communist regimes are very authoritarian. Thats why I find the use of communism in this case a bit misleading. Calling the message of the film anarchist or anarchocommunist would be a lot more accurate in my opinion but I still stand behind anti-authoritarian as best descriptor as the critique of capitalism didnt seem as prominent to me and it could in my opinion be seen more as a critique of being forced/brainwashed to conform to societal norms.
@@ondrejsvehla425 I was actually going to talk about how the discussion was only applicable to communist theory and actual countries that call themselves communist obviously do not conform to the ideology completely. I removed that from my initial comment because I didn’t want to completely bore people with a wall of text so I shortened it just so I could make my point. in hindsight to me making my original comment I concede that you’re probably right in that this is more anarcho-communist than outright communism but I still stand by my point that this is still very much so a communist movie in its message
@@proleterriert8075the overall message shifts from just anti authoritarian depending on your interpretation of the beginning, where we see bricksburgs society, which is very subjective. That means there is sadly nothing more to debate about so fare well and may the force be with you.
>Modern dystopia that seems good on the surface until you realize what's really going on >Villain is a capitalist overlord AND capitalism itself in the real world >Main working class protagonist overthrows the capitalist villain and lives a happy life alongside everyone else >Perfect world where everything is quite literally awesome >"This is communist propaganda" >What did Max mean by this?
> The capitalist tyrants are overthrown just so that the power vaccum is filled by communist tyrants that instead of enslaving the workers(which is bad) completely ruin the nation with a failed ideology(which is also bad) and then a new capitalist regime takes over and then communist and then capitalost again and the cycle repeats itself until society colapses
It shows an inherently non-capitalist society where no one works in the name of profit motive, the state and large businesses are so intertwined that the market is not free, it's not a free market society, then advocates for a collective focused style of life with no government.
Many people have probably told you this already, but I genuinely can't express how much I love this video. You did a great job man, I'm gonna stay here for more :)
I'd like to point out something I only just now noticed. Benny builds the spaceship in the same amount of time it takes for the entire group of Master Builders to build the base of the sub. (Which was like maybe five seconds.) So, either Benny gets hopped up on meth levels of autistic stimming, or he's genuinely just *that* fast.
Exactly, it has more ties to race struggle with the Jews than communism. Think about it, isn’t the Lego movie set in a multi colored Lego universe let by the most Jewish looking Lego figure, but the resistance is fighting people to wake up to the Jewish influence and to create a yellow Lego ethnostate.
I know its a bit of a joke in reveiws to say "X" is communist/capitalist propaganda. But I don't think that sort of semi-ironic tone really does the analysis justice. Here are my honest thoughts on why I think the Lego Movie is so memerable. The Lego Movie is the heros journey; perfected. I mean, it has all the clichés, but it's written so well, it's incredible. A prophecy, a dying mentor who comes back as a ghost, genaric loose cannon love intrest, exceedingly boring protagonist whoes just like a normal guy, worthless animal sidekick, sappy inspiring speech to tell the citizens to think for themselves, greedy corperate/political villan ect. It isn't even using these tropes ironically or deconstructing them. It full-heartedly embraces them. Only when irony starts being introduced in Lego Movie 2 does the whole thing fall apart. How come it does everything right to make such a boring story work so well? I think one of the best reasons is that everything is carefully designed to support the main motifs of creativity as an escape from a society. Emmet is a backseat rider for the majority of the plot and letting the more colorful charaters take the wheel, while emmet himself serving as comic relief, and also serves as a reminder of the evil the resistance is battleing. Id imagine he would get annoying if he took the spotlight for the middle third of the movie. Despite the bulk of charaterization comming from a trickle of new quirky charaters, and Emmet being a backseat protagonist for the middle third of the movie, we still get to learn about his journey. The audience has sutle hints dropped to him that he has some sort of untapped creativity.(The double-decker couch bit that ends up saving everyone, the fact that his mind is so empty that there is nothing to clear in the first place, ect) This conflict is echoed on 3 separate levels; scocietal, literal, and personal, and all of them are resolved in the exact same beat at the climax. First, the scocietal. "Honey, Where's my Pants " show is just like the "Ouch my balls" show from idiocracy. What's funny about it is that Emmet nearly thinks for himself in like the first 5 minutes of the movie. The famous line "What was I thinking? Eh, I don't care. " It is nearly explicitly clear that that is designed for the populace to stay conforming and to ignore how the people in power hold onto that power. From the only music on the radio being a dong about not worring. "Everything is awesome! Everything is cool when you're part of a team!" Are very orwellian lyrics when you co sider the state the scociety is in. In Mr Presidents Tower, the robot minions draw a lot of parallels to the citizens of Brixville. The robots behave in a way that is litterally indistinguishable from the citizens at large. The logical next step for this society is to reach a litteral state of conformity, which is the main evil plot that drives around, but it serves as a more methe story on a more surface level. They need to stop the bad guy from freezing people into place. It is a much more concrete goal than freeing the citizens from their shackles and letting them think for themselves. Mr. President literally plans to glue the citizens into position. This conflict is echoed a third time when the dad charater gets mad at his son for playing with his lego models. He sees it as just someone messing up his perfect world, but comes to realize that his son is just expressing his creativity. The big strategical mistake that the President makes is that he had subdued his own men to the point where stealth is trivial. Emmet is hard to track because his face is "too generic." Emmets plan is to"follow the instructions" a weakness that allows them to infiltrate the tower. Of course, a bold and bombastic plan where you build a super mega rainbow cannon would fail. Mr. President built up an organization that is a foil to creativity. Part of the reason why Emmet is special is because he is not, because he's just like everyone else. In the possi3 of master builders, he is a new perspective. The reason he is the chosen one is because he lived a life of conformity. Through his style of work, he is the only one to see that he can use conformity as a means to an end to trick the villan. The reason I think it's a good story is because it's a tight thematic ship. Each conflict goes to support the moteif of conformity vs. creativity. Just like a good joke. It makes the audience think of multiple things at once. Every conflict supports a singular message on the battle between free expression and order. This battle between "free expression" and "building the perfect world" is sort of emblematic of legos as a toy. We all mashed together some ugly multi-colored spaceship as kids. When we get older, we might enjoy the simple joy of following the instructions to assemble something like an owl sculpture or a movie set. But we lose some of that creativity which makes legos fun. Its okay to be the Dad, as long as we don't force order on others. A simple message, but one I think the lego movie makes quite well.
I've only read like half your comment so far, but that third paragraph which basically boils down to "it's playing all the tropes super straight but it's done so well" makes me think of what people (myself included) say about 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.
Yeah i feel that this message was less about communism, infact it feels individualistic with a emmet chooses his own personality. Its more non conformist than any commu or capi. Its just anti authoritarian
I love how incredibly straightforward this is. no intro, gets straight to the point, various random "this doesnt prove any point that im trying to make i just love it" bits throughout, the wonderful social commentary, the just general awesomeness of the video, the line "the unstoppable power of autism" this is one of the best videos ive watched so far this year. it, and im autistic so i mean this as a compliment, exudes autism energy. like before you proofread or edited it you wrote in in one stream of consciousness infodump. incredible.
This is one of the Smartest Videos I´ve ever seen. The Comparison between Emmets falling into the Cave and Platos metaphor with Emmet "falling" into a Cave and the hypothetical prisoners of Plato leaving voluntarily is brilliant.
I am happy to see you got this finished. I remember watching this movie when it came out, it was like the perfect age for me to watch this movie and I still fondly remember it. Hope this video gets more views because it's well deserved for the time and effort you put into it.
the starting scene of emmet rising from a lying position is clearly a reference to lenin's masoleum in of which it is visually similar to a bed...... the lbeisrlas are coming
If you watch the movie with commentary or the behind the scenes you'll find out it's almost entirely CGI but that doesn't stop it from being an absolute visual treat and a total banger of a movie.
I think honestly that the Lego Movie focuses more on themes of will and the self rather than any form of socialistic positivity. Hell, I could easily argue the opposite comparing Brickburg to Stalins USSR, the CCP's dictatorship etc. Marx himself, a stan for Hegel considered society before the individual, himself saying that "the so called rights of man are nothing but the rights of the member of the civil society, " Honestly, I think that the writings of Kierkegaard offer some interesting insites that the Lego Movie also deals with. While I don't agree with this video, and I think that some of the arguements brought up don't really work, I'm glad to see somebody else who likes the movie as I do.
Honestly surprised you’re the only one in this comments section that has said that. This is an admitedly good video essay, but to call the entire movie in support of communism is missing the point entirely. When the corporation becomes what the state used to be, forces conformity and destroys competition, it just becomes the state. That’s not capitalism. I also don’t see how this is a critique of individualism; at the beginning we see conformity being pushed in a way that can only be compared to countries like the former Soviet Union, and the characters constantly needing instructions for everything is very, very similar to the society that came as a result of countries like the Soviet Union - braindead, with no critical thinking, constantly looking up for orders. The entire time I was thinking; okay, but, where is the capitalism that is being critiqued, exactly?
@@void-creature The stage we are currently in is not free market capitalism. *Free* market capitalism would have zero state intervention, but that is not the case. Today, we have a mix of state intervention and private businesses. In fact, it's hard to even pinpoint a time in history when the market even was fully free. The british got close to it in the 1850s, but ultimately, almost every market out there has had and continues to have some degree of state involvement.
The most important Marxist theory: Das Kapital, Principles of Communsim, The Communist Manifesto, State and Revolution, what is to be done, and of course the Lego Movie.
This is a really cool vid overall but I'm curious as to what was meant at 17:31 with linking Emmett's vision to the invisible hand of the market? I feel like that points a stretch and it wasn't really elaborated beyond saying "here is symbolism" so i don't get what pointing it out has to do with a broader argument anyway
I remember watching the Lego Movie back in late 2014 when I was 7 and it first released On Demand. Now I’m 16 somewhat close to 17 and it’s still one of my favorite movies of all time. Absolute masterpiece and has so many hidden messages and metaphors. I have yet to watch The Lego Movie 2 though.
