The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is a 2019 computer-animated adventure comedy film produced by the Warner Animation Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Directed by Mike Mitchell, it is a sequel to The Lego Movie, the fourth film in the franchise following the releases of 2017's The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie. The film stars Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Charlie Day, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, and Will Ferrell reprising their roles from the previous film, while new cast members include Stephanie Beatriz, Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph. In the film, Emmet Brickowski attempts to rescue his friends from the Systar System, while dealing with a coming cataclysm known as "Armamageddon".
Plans for a sequel began in 2014 and was announced to be in the works on February 3, 2014. It was announced a few months later that the film was being directed by Chris McKay while Phil Lord and Christopher Miller remained as writers and producers. The film since underwent many changes, such as rewrites, directors, and release dates.
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part was released in the United States and United Kingdom on February 8, 2019, in 3D, RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX, IMAX 3D, and 4DX formats. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who commended its humor, animation, soundtrack, and voice acting, although some said it was not as "fresh" as the first film. With a gross of over $192 million worldwide against a budget of $99 million, the film was a box office disappointment compared to previous films in the series, prompting Warner Bros. to sell the film rights to The Lego Movie franchise to Universal Pictures,, later set for a 5-year deal.
Plot
Following the events at the end of the first film, Duplo aliens arrive in the Lego universe and threaten destruction. Emmet builds the aliens a heart as a token of friendship, but one eats it and demands more. Lucy and the Master Builders believe this to be an attack and retaliate, and the ensuing battle ravages Bricksburg.Five years later, the now-teenaged Finn has rebuilt Bricksburg as "Apocalypseburg". Within the Lego universe, they have been ravaged by repeated Duplo attacks, and several of their friends have gone missing searching for the Duplo home planet. Emmet remains upbeat in stark contrast to Lucy and his friends, though he has visions of an impending "armamageddon". A mini-doll called General Sweet Mayhem arrives and kidnaps all of Emmet's friends and takes them to the shape-shifting empress of the "Systar System", Queen Watevera Wa'Nabi. Wa'Nabi is able to seemingly brainwash Emmet's friends into accepting the joy of her world, and convinces Batman to marry her as a way to unite the Lego and Duplo worlds, with only Lucy remaining skeptical of Wa'Nabi's plans.
Back in Apocalypseburg, Emmet tries to convince the Master Builders to help him save Lucy and the rest of his friends, but they refuse to help, believing that he isn't tough enough. Emmet subsequently crafts a spaceship to pursue Mayhem by passing through the "Stairgate". The ship is heavily damaged and nearly collides with an asteroid field, but is saved in time by rugged adventurer Rex Dangervest. After hearing Emmet's story, Rex offers to help and takes them to the Systar System, and en route, Emmet tries to emulate some of Rex's mannerisms. When they arrive, they quickly reunite with Lucy and learn of the marriage plans, which Rex insists must be a front to bring on "armamageddon".
As the wedding starts, Emmet, Rex, and Lucy split up to sabotage the event. However, Lucy is intercepted by Mayhem, who insists the wedding is intended to prevent "armamageddon". At the ceremony, Wa'Nabi reveals her true form: the heart that Emmett tried to give the Duplo invaders. Realizing that Mayhem is right, Lucy tries to stop Emmet, but he crashes the ceremony. In reality, Finn, after finding that Bianca had taken his Lego figures, has smashed her own creations. Emmet realizes his mistake, but is sized by Rex, who reveals he is a version of himself from the future. Rex had collided with the asteroids, and ended up under the dryer, forgotten by Finn. To ensure his future existence, he changed his appearance and created a time-travel machine to return to help Emmet but ensure "armamageddon" came to pass. When Emmet tries to fight back, Rex knocks him under the same dryer, ensuring that he would continue to exist.
In the real world, Finn and Bianca’s mother, who has had to step in when they brawled over the last 5 years, is finally fed up with the children's fighting, and orders them to put away the Lego toys as punishment; Lucy recognizes this as Emmet's "armamageddon". Both the Lego and Duplo figures are put into the "Bin of Storajj" and fear they will not escape.
Meanwhile, Finn and Bianca reconcile and start playing together. In the Lego universe, this act inspires Lucy and the others to escape the Bin and help rebuild Wa'Nabi's world. Lucy helps to save Emmet from Rex and destroy his time machine. Emmet comes to accept he will never be as skilled as Rex, and with this self-realization, Rex fades from existence, correcting a time paradox.
Finn and Bianca's mother sees them playing together, and happily watches them. The Lego universe is recreated as a mish-mash of Apocalypseburg and the Systar System, renamed "Syspocalypstar". Emmet's home is rebuilt, and the film ends with Lucy gifting Emmet with the original album of "Everything Is Awesome", revealing that she co-originated the song, causing Emmet to gasp in shock.
Cast
- Chris Pratt as:
- * Emmet Brickowski, an everyman, construction worker, and inexperienced Master Builder from Bricksburg.
- * Rex Dangervest, a self-declared "galaxy-defender, archaeologist, cowboy and raptor trainer." He is eventually revealed to be Emmet's future self, having assembled a time machine from Lego sets based on Back to the Future, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, Doctor Who, The Terminator and Hot Tub Time Machine. His character is based on Pratt's most famous roles, including Star-Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy, ' and '; rumours that he might portray Indiana Jones in the future; Joshua Faraday from The Magnificent Seven, and Owen Grady from Jurassic World and its sequel, .
- Elizabeth Banks as Lucy / Wyldstyle, a Master Builder and Emmet's girlfriend.
- Will Arnett as Batman, a DC Comics superhero who is a Master Builder.
- Tiffany Haddish as Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi, the shape-shifting alien queen of the Systar System that was made by Emmet as a heart. Her name is a pun on the phrase "whatever I want to be", itself a descriptor of her shape-shifting abilities, which are displayed when she changes into multiple forms throughout the movie.
- Stephanie Beatriz as General Sweet Mayhem, an intergalactic mini-doll who serves as the intergalactic naval commander and law enforcer of the Systar System Armed Forces and works under the orders of Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi.
- Charlie Day as Benny, a Master Builder who is a spaceship-obsessed 1980's spaceman. In contrast to the previous movie, he has a metallic arm.
- Alison Brie as Unikitty, a Master Builder who is a unicorn-horned cat. In this film, instead of turning red when angry, she is red right from the beginning. Over the years since the first film, she has developed the ability to become a giant version of herself called "Ultrakitty" when combat is about to occur.
- Nick Offerman as MetalBeard, a Master Builder who is a large bionic pirate with a severed head after he lost his original body in an earlier encounter with Lord Business' forces.
- Jadon Sand as Finn, a young teenager in the real world, whose imagination drives the events happening in the Lego universe.
- Brooklynn Prince as Bianca, Finn's younger sister, who is the reason why the aliens from the planet Duplo attacked Bricksburg.
- Maya Rudolph as Mom, the unnamed mother of Finn and Bianca in the real world. She has a hatred of Lego toys. In the Lego universe, she is the harbinger of doom, bringing about "Armamageddon", along with Emmet and Rex. She was previously voiced by Amanda Farinos in the first film.
- Will Ferrell as:
- * President Business, the former President of the Octan corporation and the Lego World, who served as the main antagonist of the first film.
- * The Man Upstairs, a Lego collector who is Finn and Bianca's father. Outside of re-used footage from the first film, Ferrell does not appear on-screen in this role, performing only an off-screen voiceover like shouting to the kids to listen to their mother and asking his wife where his pants are.
- Richard Ayoade as "Ice Cream Cone", a talking ice cream cone and citizen of the Systar System who serves as Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi's aide.
- Channing Tatum as Superman, a DC Comics superhero, and one of the Master Builders.
- Jonah Hill as Green Lantern, a DC Comics superhero, and one of the Master Builders.
- Cobie Smulders as Wonder Woman, a DC Comics superhero who is an ambassador of the Amazon people as well as a Master Builder.
- Jason Momoa as Aquaman, a DC Comics superhero who is the king of Atlantis and is also a Master Builder. Momoa reprises his role from the DC Extended Universe.
- Margot Rubin as:
- * Harley Quinn, a Gotham City criminal and Master Builder. She was previously voiced by Jenny Slate in The Lego Batman Movie.
- * Susan, a mini-doll, and one of Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi's servants.
- * Mermaid, an inhabitant of Apocalypseburg.
- * Wonder Woman mini-doll, an inhabitant of Harmony Town.
- * Panda, a panda-masked inhabitant of Apocalypseburg.
- Ike Barinholtz as Lex Luthor, a DC Comics villain, Master Builder and arch-enemy of Superman.
- Ralph Fiennes as Alfred Pennyworth, a DC Comics character and Master Builder who is Batman's loyal butler. Fiennes reprises his role from The Lego Batman Movie.
- Will Forte as Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States and a Master Builder.
- Bruce Willis as himself, a Lego caricature of the actor who appears in several scenes, including a running joke alluding to his character John McClane from Die Hard.
- Ben Schwartz as Banarnar, a sentient banana peel who is a citizen and the perpetual jester of the Systar System.
- Jimmy O. Yang as Zebe, a lavender and black zebra who is a citizen and the bus driver of the Systar System.
- Noel Fielding as Balthazar, a sparkly-faced teenage vampire, spa expert, and DJ from the planet Sparkle in the Systar System describing himself as an "attractive and non-threatening teen vampire." He also wears women's jeans, and is a nod to Edward Cullen from The Twilight Saga.
- Jorma Taccone as Larry Poppins, a male counterpart of Mary Poppins.
- Gary Payton as Himself, a Lego caricature of the basketball player who Emmet encounters in Apocalypseburg.
- Sheryl Swoopes as Herself, a Lego caricature of the basketball player who Emmet encounters in Apocalypseburg.
- Todd Hansen as:
- * Gandalf, a wizard from Middle-earth and a Master Builder. Hansen reprises his role from the first film.
- * The Swamp Creature, a gill-man from Lego Monster Fighters and a Master Builder. This creature was also a Master Builder in the previous movie.
- Doug Nicholas as Chainsaw Dave / Purgatory Dave, formerly known as Surfer Dave, who is a citizen of Apocalypseburg, formerly known as Bricksburg. Dave was seen in the first film.
- Mike Mitchell as:
- * Sherry Scratchen-Post, a cat lady who is a citizen of Apocalypseburg, formerly known as Bricksburg, who was also present in the first film.
- * A royal guard that works for Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi.
- * "Eight", an octopus who does massages and works at the spa in the Palace of Infinite Reflection.
- * A Harmony Town citizen
- * An announcer who announces the guests on the bride and groom's side
- * An Apocalypseburg warrior.
- Christopher Miller as:
- * Chad, a citizen of the Systar System who is the DJ of the Pop-Up Party Bus under the stage name Tempo.
- * A horse
- * A talking chocolate bar that resides in the Systar System.
- * Plantimals, plant-like creatures in the Systar System that live in the jungles near Harmony Town.
- * Paper Boy, a resident of Harmony Town.
- Emily Nordwind as Cleopatra, an Egyptian queen and Master Builder who was present in the first film.
- Chris McKay as "Larry", a barista that works in Bricksburg who was present in the first film.
- Ralph Halprin as "Dolphin Clock," an orbiting clock in the Systar System that is based on Bianca's actual clock.
Production
Development
On February 3, 2014, Jared Stern was hired to write the sequel, along with Michelle Morgan. On March 12, 2014, Deadline reported that animation co-director Chris McKay would direct the sequel with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller as producers. On April 10, 2014, it was reported that McKay wanted to have more women in the sequel than men. On July 28, 2014, it was reported that Chris Pratt wanted to return to reprise his role as Emmet. It was also reported that Will Arnett might return to reprise his role as Batman, but hadn't decided.In October 2014, Warner Bros. scheduled The Lego Batman Movie for 2017, and The Lego Movie 2 for May 25, 2018. On October 25, 2014, it was reported that Lord and Miller had signed on to write The Lego Movie 2. On October 30, it was announced that Australia-based animation studio Animal Logic was in talks to produce the next three Lego films and the New South Wales government would make financial contributions to all the films. On November 12, during an interview with BBC News, Lord and Miller revealed that there would be more female characters featured in the film.
On February 24, 2015, the sequel was retitled The Lego Movie Sequel and Rob Schrab was announced as the film's director, replacing McKay as director as he was scheduled to direct The Lego Batman Movie instead. By November 2015, Miller announced that the first draft of the script was completed. Subsequent rewrites were provided by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Dominic Russo and Matthew Fogel. By February 2017, Schrab had been replaced by Mike Mitchell, reportedly due to "creative differences". Production started in Canada on October 2, 2017. In an interview with Collider, producer Dan Lin confirmed that Lord & Miller were rewriting the script during production. He also said that the sequel was going to include more songs due to the success of competing Disney musical films like Frozen and Moana.
The production of the film took advantage of Animal Logic's latest update to its trace renderer, Glimpse, to improve on-screen detail and depth-of-field.
The film is dedicated to Charie Miller, Christopher Miller's mother, who born on July 27, 1949 who died on December 27, 2018, before the film was released.
Writing
The Lego Movie 2s narrative starts after the events of the first film, just as Finn's toddler sister Bianca starts to play with Duplo blocks and tries to take over Bricksburg. In the intervening years, Bianca has taken more of the Lego sets to incorporate into her own creations. The animation team recognized that girls would likely not only use Lego bricks but also incorporate other materials, such as fabrics and paper, creating a challenge for their rendering team. They wanted these elements to appear as if a child was manipulating them through their stop-motion animation process. They explored multiple design styles for each playset that is within Bianca's room, the "Systar System", and developed new animation approaches for some of these styles, including using fewer frames as in inbetweening.They also incorporated the Lego Friends line of toys aimed at girls, which include mini-dolls like General Sweet Mayhem. However, unlike traditional Lego mini-figurines, the Lego Friends' mini-dolls do not have the same articulation, for example, having no separate leg movement or wrists that rotate. The production team, working with Lego, did not want to create walking and movement patterns that did not match the articulation the real figurines could do, and came up with creative solutions for animating these in the film. This also created a challenge for at least one song and dance number; production brought in a choreographing team to help plan out the dance taking into account for the restrictions of movement for the mini-figures. For Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi, the production team decided to simply assign a pile of random Lego bricks for her, but required that each of the forms that she could shape-shift into used only those bricks from that pile.
According to Lord and Miller, each Lego Movie takes place in the imagination of a child. Miller explained that “we wanted to try and tell a more complicated and sophisticated version of that story, where we had two different imaginations coming together. And part of the fun of the movie is trying to figure out what’s happening in the real world and how that’s represented in the world of the Lego." With The Lego Movie 2, both Finn and Bianca's imaginations drive certain scenes, and the creators opted to leave parts of the film vague if the scene was based on Finn's version, Bianca's version or some combination.
Among the mini-figures within the film is one based on Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Lord and Miller had considered figures that would be unexpected within the film, with Ginsburg as one of their ideas. They received Ginsburg's blessing for this appearance, though she did not perform any voice work for this role. Subsequently, the Ginsburg mini-figure would then be made as part of the movie's toy line.
Casting
On March 23, 2018, it was reported that Tiffany Haddish had been cast in the film to voice a new lead character, while returning actors would be Chris Pratt as Emmet, Elizabeth Banks as Wyldstyle, Will Arnett as Batman, Channing Tatum as Superman, and Jonah Hill as Green Lantern. Stephanie Beatriz and Arturo Castro were announced to be part of the film on June 4, 2018. Castro was replaced by Richard Ayoade in the final film. During San Diego Comic Con 2018, it was announced that Pratt would also voice a new character in addition to Emmet, Rex Dangervest, who is based after Pratt himself. In November 2018, Maya Rudolph joined the cast. In early January 2019, it was revealed that Jason Momoa would reprise his role as Aquaman from the DC Extended Universe. Gal Gadot was to also reprise her role as Wonder Woman from the DC Extended Universe, replacing Cobie Smulders from the previous film, but Smulders ended up returning shortly before the film's release.Daniel Radcliffe was originally set to voice a look-alike of his Harry Potter known as Larry Potter, but his scene was ultimately cut. It was revealed by Mike Mitchell that Radcliffe's cameo was deleted due to not wanting to risk anything that would upset the Harry Potter fandom. The character was replaced by Larry Poppins.
Music
Following the attempt to create an earworm with the first film's "Everything Is Awesome", the producers of the film created a similar song for the sequel, titled "Catchy Song", which principally features as its only lyric the repeated phrase "This song's gonna get stuck inside your head". The song was written by Jon Lajoie, produced by Dillon Francis, and features vocals by rappers T-Pain and Lay Lay. According to Lajoie, he found that "Everything is Awesome" was "annoyingly catchy", and the only way that they could outdo that was "Dial the 'annoying' up to 11!".Mark Mothersbaugh, who composed the first film's soundtrack, as well as the score for The Lego Ninjago Movie, returned to compose the score for the sequel.
Soundtrack
Score
Release
The film was theatrically released in North America and the United Kingdom on February 8, 2019. The film was released one day earlier in Denmark. This was its third rescheduling; it was first scheduled to be released in the US on May 26, 2017 and then on May 18, 2018. On January 24, 2019, Warner Bros. announced it would hold one-day previews for the film in 500 theaters in the United States, two days later.Marketing
On June 4, 2018, the first poster was released along with an announcement that the first teaser trailer would be released the following day. The second trailer was released on November 20, 2018, along with the second poster. On Black Friday 2018, Warner Bros. released The Lego Movie on YouTube in its entirety for one day only, with a trailer for The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part attached. The third and final trailer was released on December 19, 2018.In the UK, DFS Furniture ran a marketing campaign that tied in with The Lego Movie 2.
Other brands that partnered with the film include Chevrolet for promoting the Silverado, Chiquita, McDonald's for Happy Meal toys, Discover card, and Turkish Airlines.
Just like the first film, Lego released a toyline theme of over 20 sets based on scenes from the film, including collectable Minifigures.
Video game
Based on The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, the next videogame in the series was announced on November 27, 2018 and was released in North America on February 26, 2019 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows; on March 14, 2019 it was released on macOS.Short films
On August 1, 2018, Turkish Airlines and Warner Bros. released a special safety video featuring characters from the franchise. Warner Bros. released a short film, titled Emmet's Holiday Party, as a Christmas styled promotion for the film in December.In January 2019, a month prior to the film's release, Lego released a music video titled "Everything is Awesome" Dance Together Music Video, on its official YouTube Channel. The video uses the titular song. From January 5 to January 26, 2019, the Lego channel released a series of short films, Saving Bricksburg, in which characters from the film were shown in short reenactments of The Lego Movie.
Home media
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part was released on digital and Movies Anywhere on April 16, 2019, and was released by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray, and DVD formats on May 7. It includes the short Emmet's Holiday Party, the filmmakers Audio Commentary, a 9 minute behind the scenes featurette and a sing-along version, among others.Sets
The first sets were released in the United States on January 5, 2019 and in the United Kingdom that based on the film The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part with 17 sets being released. The largest of the sets is "Rex's Rexplorer!" which included 1187 pieces and two minifigures. In addition to the sets five polybag sets have been released as promotions are "Emmet's 'Piece' Offering", "Rex's Plantimal Ambush", "Lucy vs. Alien Invader", "Mini Master-Building MetalBeard" and "Mini Master-Building Emmet".The second sets were released in the United States on April 22, 2019 and in the United Kingdom on May 1 with 6 sets being released. The two largest sets are "The Rexcelsior!" and "Welcome to Apocalypseburg!". In addition to the sets two Magazine Gift sets have been released as promotions are "Emmet with Tools" and Rex with Jetpack".
Reception
Box office
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part grossed $105.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $86.5 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $192.3 million.In the United States and Canada, The Lego Movie 2 was released alongside What Men Want, Cold Pursuit and The Prodigy, and was originally projected to gross $50–55 million from 4,303 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $1.5 million from Thursday night previews, and when combined with advance screenings held at 550 theaters on January 26, 2019, made a total preview gross of $2.1 million. After making $8.5 million on its first day, weekend estimates were lowered to $31 million. It went to debut to $34.1 million, finishing first at the box office but marking a 50% decline from the first film. Deadline Hollywood attributed the low opening to franchise fatigue due to the release of two spin-offs prior to The Lego Movie 2, as well as Warner Bros. promoting the film using similar marketing tactics from the first film, leading audiences to assume the sequel to be derivative and indistinguishable from its predecessor.
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 84% based on 290 reviews, with an average rating of 6.97/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "While it isn't quite as much fun as its predecessor, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part fits neatly into an animated all-ages franchise with heart and humor to spare." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 51 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average 4 out of 5 stars; social media monitor RelishMix noted online responses to the film were "great".Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club called the film "lovable", giving it a grade of B and writing "Like Brad Bird's recent Incredibles 2, it follows up a dazzling animated original with some big ideas that don’t cohere with the same streamlined magic as its predecessor." TheWrap's Yolanda Machado commended the screenplay and directing and wrote that the film "expands on the original's premise, adding new worlds and characters to the growing LEGO universe, while also crafting a story that is timely, inventive, hilarious and perfect for all ages."
Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly says that while it was better than most other films it didn't recapture the surprise of the first film, saying "Everything is still awesome. Just a little bit less so." For The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Rechtshaffen wrote that the film brought "little that's fresh or funny to the interlocking brick table despite boasting a script penned by originators Phil Lord and Christopher Miller."