The Lego Movie is a 2014 3D computer-animated adventure-comedy film directed and written by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, from a story by Dan and Kevin Hageman, as well as Lord and Miller, and produced by Dan Lin and Roy Lee. Based on the Lego line of construction toys, the film stars the voices of Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Charlie Day, Liam Neeson, and Morgan Freeman. It was the first film produced by Warner Animation Group in eleven years since Looney Tunes: Back in Action, which was released in 2003, and is an international co-production of the United States, Australia, and Denmark. The film tells the story of an ordinary Lego minifigure as he ends up becoming involved in a resistance against a tyrannical businessman who plans to glue everything in the Lego worlds.
The film was released theatrically on February 7, 2014 through Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures to near-unanimous acclaim; critics praised its visual style, humor, voice cast, and heartwarming message. It earned more than $257 million in the U.S. and Canada and $210 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of over $469 million. The film won the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Animated Feature, and the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film. It was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. The film also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for "Everything Is Awesome".
The film quickly expanded into a franchise which ties to the Lego brand, with two spin-off films, The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie, to be released in 2017, a sequel scheduled for release on February 8, 2019, as well as a third spin-off, The Billion Brick Race.
The film is dedicated in memory Kathleen Fleming, the former director of entertainment development of the Lego company, who died in an unidentified accident while vacationing in Cancun, Mexico in April 2013.
