Okay, so I’m a fan of pop culture. Particularly, I like consuming and analyzing video content. Whether it’s TV, YouTube, or movies, I enjoy pulling media apart because I think it tells us a lot about the world we live in.

Last night, I went to see The Lego Movie. Expecting that the whole thing was going to be a hokey marketing ploy (I’d still argue that it’s a great marketing scheme, but more on that later), I walked out very surprised and I’m going to walk you through why.

NOTE: There are very possibly spoilers throughout this post. I will try not to give away any plot twists because I definitely recommend seeing this movie if you haven’t already.

Aside from being a typically adorable children’s movie, The Lego Movie actually contains what I think is a disproportionately open social commentary compared to most films made for kids.

First, the setting of the film is reminiscent of Utopian/dystopian works of fiction lake Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. In the opening fifteen or so minutes of the movie, we see the protagonist Emmet going about his everyday life following “the instructions” from waking up, to watching mainstream television, to buying overpriced coffee, to going to work, and so on. All of this occurs to the song Everything is Awesome; an overly catchy and mildly terrifying tune. So from the get-go, The Lego Movie is making a jab at blind consumerism.

As the movie goes on, Emmet discovers that he is “the special” and he is supposed to lead the master builders as they try to save the world from President Business. The problem is that his whole life, Emmet has been anything but special. There are jokes that he’s never had an original thought in his life and all he knows is how to follow the instructions. In fact, the only original thing he ever invented was a double-decker couch.

But further into Emmet’s journey, he learns that he doesn’t have to follow the instructions and along with his posse of master builders, they build and create their way out of the status quo. Emmet proves that you don’t need to be extraordinary to make positive change. As an international development student, this theme really spoke to me. I often have days when I feel like I’m unimportant, unspecial, and unintersting. What The Lego Movie says is that every one of us has the ability to make or do something different, something important.

The Lego Movie goes beyond that though. All of the master builders are incredible, but the one thing they don’t know how to do is work as a team. Until Emmet teaches them that coordinating will be more effective, the master builders can’t seem to get their plans to work. This is a common problem not just for businesses but also for not-for-profits. Without coordination, any efforts to make the world better stand on their own. Once we cooperate, we increase the potential for a social good greater than the sum of our individual efforts.

I’m also a big fan of the resourcefulness that characters demonstrate throughout the film. Although I know the point wasn’t to promote recycling and upcycling, I still think there’s a spirit of reusing materials inventively in the way the master builders create their masterpieces that we should be trying to emulate if we want to promote environmental sustainability.

Okay, so there are the things I love about the general message and spirit of The Lego Movie. But as a true international development student and lover of critical thinking I also have some beef with certain elements of the film.

First, there is very little representation of female characters and when it happens, it’s not well done. One of the only female characters that features in the film is Wildstyle. She is introduced to us as a really badass, strong female character. She’s a very skilled master builder and refuses to conform to the instructions. This is all awesome until she is reunited with the rest of the master builders (including her boyfriend, Batman) at which point she starts demonstrating a lack of self-confidence and ends up getting saved more than she contributes.

Also, the movie tends to promote the stereotype that Lego is for boys (not girls) more than it suggests that girls can also play with the toy and build awesome things. As a female who played with Lego in my early years, this is frustrating. When they make a semi-attempt to include girls into the world of Lego (I’ll remain vague to prevent a big spoiler), they almost infer that the only time girls want to play with Lego is when they are three years old and they’re actually playing with Duplo. I’m not going to go further into details about this, but I recommend you check out this article for more perspective on female characters in The Lego Movie.

Women aren’t the only group that get snubbed in The Lego Movie. The film is also receiving criticism about a lack of representation for people of colour and people with disabilities. Again, if they are represented in the movie, these groups are often misrepresented. I think part of this is a broader issue with Lego and the movie industry itself. Nonetheless, all film makers should be striving to be more inclusive and representative. It’s not just The Lego Movie, it’s much easier to list problematic films than ones that are fully representative.

Last but not least is the glaringly obvious. The Lego Movie is a movie that (although there are themes against blind consumerism) is intended to increase Lego’s revenue. As much as I don’t want it to be, it’s a marketing tactic; one that is really well executed, but a marketing tactic nonetheless. At the end of the day, this “think for yourself” themed movie is telling us that thinking for ourselves should include the desire to buy more Lego.

To give Lego credit, they are working really hard to improve their marketing strategy and their revenues are at a record high. As someone taking a marketing class, I can respect their ability to harness the power of storytelling to inspire people to buy Lego. If you want more examples of how Lego is engaging their audience, you should take a look at their website for The Lego Movie. Really, they’re a business and for that reason, I can’t blame them for trying to accrue more profits. I just want people to recognize what is happening when they watch The Lego Movie. Let’s not be blind consumers.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Lego Movie and if you were debating seeing it, you should make the time for it. My words of advice though would be to take in the messages the movie has to offer about innovation, teamwork, and challenging the status quo but don’t forget why the movie was made and make sure you consider how characters are portrayed.

What do you think about The Lego Movie?

This post is adapted from a couple of my blog posts. It would be great if you joined in the discussion over there!