20 Mar Movie Review: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
A synopsis of the story
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is the sequel to the original 2014 film The Lego Movie. Five years after the events of the first movie, the persistently cheerful Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt) and his brooding best friend Lucy/Wyldstyle (voiced by Elizabeth Banks) are stuck in an apocalyptic city after the attacks of the cute Duplo alien invaders.
Without warning, a new masked alien called General Mayhem (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz) arrives. She kidnaps Batman (voiced by Will Arnett), Metalbeard the Pirate (voiced by Nick Offerman), Unikitty (voiced by Alison Brie), Benny the Astronaut (voiced by Charlie Day), and Lucy/Wyldstyle.
The five friends are whisked away to the Sis-star system to participate in a matrimonial ceremony for the suspiciously generous Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi (voiced by Tiffany Haddish), who seems hell-bent on brainwashing them into cutesy zombies. Emmet decides that he must find a way to save them, and with the help of the super cool Rex Dangervest (voiced by Chris Pratt), he comes up with a plan to stop the Queen before it’s too late.
Themes: Friendship; family; sibling relationships; love; loneliness.
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:
- Being yourself. Not trying to change who you are to please others.
- Sharing.
- Friendship.
This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as.
- The impact and consequences of deliberately ruining other peoples’ games or toys.
Use of Violence:
- Mild cartoon violence throughout. For example, throwing objects at each other; hitting or punching each other; Lego-brick explosions; falling off cliffs; etc.
- Use of laser guns.
- In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:
- Unikitty (a cute Lego kitten) transforms into a large monster-like version of itself when angry. This may frighten young children, particularly those in preschool.
- Mad Max: Fury Road-style battle vehicles participate in a fight scene. These sequences may distress very young children.
- A character transforms into a large and menacing Octopus creature.
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part is not quite as innovative or novel as its predecessor, but still maintains the engaging, visually spectacular, and emotionally-driven aspects that made the first film so enjoyable to watch. Children and adults of all ages are likely to enjoy this film, but parental guidance is recommended for very young children due to mild themes and cartoon violence. Not recommended for children under 5 and parental guidance to 8 (mild themes and cartoon violence). Run time: 107 minutes
This review of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 11 February 2019. (released in 2019 in the USA on February 8th ).
See official trailer here.
