A freezing cold day in early March may not be the best way to investigate the Legoland theme park in Windsor for the first time, but the launch of new Lego movie – or rather, a new LEGO® Movie™ – meant that the siren call of the all-day kiddie attraction could not be resisted.
What we got to see wasn’t exactly Lego Movie 2 – that’s still in production, and not due till 2018 – but a snappy 12-and-half-minute short designed to play in the theme park’s own cinemas, with “4D” effects, which in the case of A New Adventure amounts to light-show effects, party poppers and and a blast of snow-like mist, along with the 3D specs. But it is a warm-up for the big sequel: Lego Movie 2 director Rob Schrab is in charge of this one, and a number of the medium-sized names from the hit movie – Elizabeth Banks, Alison Brie, Charlie Day – have been persuaded to lend their voices again for this one. (That isn’t Chris Pratt doing Emmet though, nor is Will Ferrell back – though A New Adventure has secured a pretty decent sub, Patton Oswalt, for the lead villain, Risky.)
Risky turns out to be Lord Business’s brother, hence his groanworthy, Gen X-baiting full character name ... Risky Business. That sets the tone for the whole short, which like its mothership film, operates with the required two levels: a straightforward toy-on-toy demolition derby for the kids, and a stream of sardonic meta gags for the grownups. (Small note: though A New Adventure is ideal for five years and up, littler kids may well be overwhelmed by some of the grander fight scenes, or apparently-mild threat and peril sequences.)
What the original Lego movie did so brilliantly was to act as both a shameless product-shilling vehicle and a self-ironising, extremely funny satire on exactly the same thing. Plus it came across as if the film-makers had just downed a kilo of aspartame just before turning the cameras on. Well, A New Adventure keeps the pace up to a frightening degree, with the story – such as it is – thundering past in a blur. I concentrated really hard, but only made out a vague outline: something about Risky trying to lure Emmett and Wyldstyle to Brickworld, his knockoff Legoland, forcing them to try and escape somehow.
As with the product-placement, knock-offery and rubbish substitutes become a significant comic theme, with particular attention being drawn to a deliberately crummy almost-reworking of Everything Is Awesome, clearly not one of the wealth of assets available to the new film. Without giving too much away, the final scene indulges in a more theme park-specific meta narrative, and ends in a giant blast of scarlet party streamers. Your kids will be buzzing for hours; so, in all probability, will you.
