“A LEGO Brickumentary” is captivating, inspiring and an enjoyable documentary! Highly recommended for fans of LEGO of all ages!
TITLE: A Lego Brickumentary
YEAR OF FILM: 2014
DURATION: 93 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation 1:78:1, 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English SDH and Spanish
RATED: G
COMPANY: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Released Dated: November 3, 2015
Directed by Kief Davidson, Daniel Judge
Written by Daniel Junge, Davis Coombe, Kief Davidson
Produced by Chris Brown, Daniel Junge, Brendan Kiernan, Justin Moore-Lewy
Executive Produced: Lee Clay, Jim Packer, Jill Wilfert
Co-Producer: Davis Coombe, Chelsea Matter, Molly Tait
Associate Producer: Ryan Egan, Andrew Oppenheimer
Music by John Jennings Boyd
Cinematographer: Luke Geissbuhler, Robert Muratore
Edited by Davis Coombe, Tiffany Hauck, Chad Herschberger, Marc Jakubowicz, Inbal B. Lessner, Darrin Roberts
Starring:
Jason Bateman (Narrator)
Jamie Berard
Alice Finch
Bret Harris
G.W. Krauss
Dan Legoff
Nathan Sawaya
Brian Whitaker
Since the birth of their trademark toy in 1958, The LEGO Group has produced over 400 billion bricks. But more and more, LEGO bricks aren’t just for kids, and some take them very seriously. Adult Fans of LEGO around the globe are unashamedly declaring their love of the brick, brick artists are creating stunning and surprising creations, and LEGO master builders are building human scale and larger structures. LEGO bricks are being used educationally, therapeutically, and have provided a universal system for human creativity and our innate desire “to build.” This documentary playfully delves into the extraordinary impact of the LEGO brick, its massive global fan base, and the innovative uses for it that has sprung up around the world.
In 2014, a family-friendly Danish-American documentary titled “A LEGO Brickumentary” was released.
Co-directed by Kief Davidson and Daniel Junge and featuring narration by Jason Bateman (“Arrested Development”, “Juno”, “Horrible Bosses”), the documentary focuses on the popular Danish construction toy that took the world by storm and continues to be the hottest toy product released each year with many different sets and how it has captured the imagination of many people, young and old, for generations.
From the introduction of master creators, enormous projects including the X-Wing Fighter (the largest LEGO project built), those who create LEGO films, those who are LEGO artists and have made a career of building LEGO and of course, the history of LEGO, celebrities who are fans of LEGO’s, LEGO terminology and more.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“A Lego Brickumentary” is featured in Anamorphic widescreen (1:78:1) and in Dolby Digital 5.1. A pretty cool documentary that features both digital video and also animated LEGO characters. For the most part, the quality is as one can expected on DVD and audio is clear. While most of the film is in English, there are scenes which feature people from other countries and the film features English subtitles. But Jason Bateman’s narration is clear and for the most part, picture quality and audio is good for this documentary.
Subtitles are in English SDH and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“A Lego Documentary” comes with three deleted scenes (21:07) which include Bro-LUG, Little Guys and Brick Films and X-Treme Team.
EXTRAS:
Comes with a LEGOLAND Discovery Center (One Child Free) coupon.
“A LEGO Brickumentary” is a captivating, enjoyable, family-friendly documentary that showcases the love for the popular Danish construction toy.
While the documentary is positive and for the most part focuses on the love of LEGO’s versus showing the positive and negative aspects within a documentary, the subject matter will no doubt be subjective to the viewer.
By venturing to other publication reviews, its understandable that there are those who show disdain because the film doesn’t go into the negative aspects. Perhaps those who have an addiction problem to LEGO’s, corporate corruption or any negative that one can think on top of their heads.
But this is a film targeted to fans who enjoy LEGO, people of all ages and call me biased, but even I am an AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) that purchases and builds LEGO for the sake of creativity but also more of needing moments of serenity to get my mind off other things. And it seems to work rather well as I found LEGO’s to be a good way to focus my energy and creativity and for the most part, have fun.
After seeing music artists, celebrities and athletes like David Beckham, Brad Pitt, Dwight Howard, Ed Sheeran proclaim their love for LEGO’s, it was my passage of telling myself, it’s OK to venture into LEGO’s once again and to discover that the toy line I was so familiar with long ago, has evolved, to not just for children but for adults and to also learn that there are people who made LEGO’s a career, made LEGO’s an artform and also taking their LEGO creativity to another level.
And that is why I was so captivated by director Daniel Junge and Kief Davidson’s “A LEGO Brickumentary”. Watching children who have grown to become creative talents thanks to LEGO, watching those who are young at heart, go on to make LEGO as a career or to create something so complex and beautiful as works of art. And also professionals who use LEGO for therapy and helping people for treatment.
Suffice to say, I was inspired watching this film.
While I know there are people who want to see the history of LEGO, there are few books on the subject that go into better detail and also what kind of toys or sets were released during the decades, but the directors do not shy away from showcasing LEGO during its good years and also their bad years. Interviewing employees who discuss why LEGO went through a rough patch nearly a decade ago.
But that is probably the most negative thing you will find in this film, if you can call that a negative, because it was the major reason for LEGO to get back to its basic roots and continue to become the world’s most popular toy among boys, girls, men and women back then and also today.
Sure, I’m sure there are people who will look at this film as a LEGO corporate video, but there are some, including myself, who look at this video as inspirational but also a wonderful film about the global love for this Danish construction toy that has been part of our lives, may it be when we were younger or continued to captivate us even in our adulthood.
As for the DVD, picture quality and audio quality are very good on DVD. You get 21 minutes worth of deleted scenes and also information on Disney resorts. And parents will get a one child free ticket for a LEGOLAND Discovery Center.
Overall, “A LEGO Brickumentary” is captivating, inspiring and an enjoyable documentary! Highly recommended for fans of LEGO of all ages!
