The Lego Movie, which came out Feb. 7, exceeded my expectations more than any movie ever has before. The trailer gave the movie no justice, making it appear to be a typical children’s movie with immature humor and no meaningful overall message. This contributed to my surprised reaction after seeing the hilarious, unique and extremely creative movie based off of the beloved Lego toys.

The Lego Movie had many admirable aspects which contributed to it’s positive reviews, but the most obvious one was the humor. The movie uses the large size of the Lego universe to include many icons from popular culture, including characters such as Gandalf, Dumbledore, Superman and Shaquille O’Neal – voiced by the retired basketball player himself. Many jokes were made between these characters which resulted in a unique and enjoyable type of comedy.

Along with these pop culture references, irony and sarcasm were used to make fun of humanity and the typical movie environment. The combination of these types of comedy, along with the vast number of jokes, creates a movie experience in which viewers laugh most of the time.

Accompanying the humor of the film was the spectacular animation. The animators took on the huge challenge of animating a movie to look like a stop motion creation while actually using computer generated imagery. The story, which is full of action and takes place in many different settings, made it difficult for animators to stay true to the real Lego universe. Including shadows, lighting, and a realistic depth in the image of the movie made it seem like they created the movie with real Legos. With an extreme amount of planning and creativity, the animators overcame the limitations of the physics of Legos and produced a movie well beyond its expectations.

The least expected, and perhaps most memorable part of the movie is the message it shares. With it’s unique kind of hero, the movie expresses to viewers that everyone is special and everyone can be a hero. Also, the theme of creativity is widely included, perfectly matched for a movie based off of Legos.

The Lego Movie proved to be great, not only for kids but also, maybe even more so, for adults. The cultured comedy, impressive animation and touching themes greatly exceeded my expectations as well as many professional movie critics. The charm of this movie proved to be a great source of entertainment and inspiration which I hope to see in the already-approved sequel.