As interesting as Oscar winning documentary filmmaker Daniel Junge and his co-director Oscar nominated Kief Davidson make this profile on the world’s most famous toy unless you are a AFOL (or a KFOL) you’ll find this a little too insular for your own good. Sure, they do a great job telling how this invention decades in a tiny Danish town has now exploded to such a state where there are now 100 Lego pieces for every person living on the planet, and the business is now a 4 Billion Dollar brand. They employ designers, encourage artists, support psychologists to make the world a better place where we can appreciate all the amazing things you can do with Lego, and the good that it can do for society in general and autistic children in particular.
It’s made clear that ‘Beyond the Brick’ has been made totally independent of the Lego Company, but as the movie cannot stop singing the brick’s praises and goes to such a great length to show its sheer versatility, it still seems one giant free public relations exercise. I guess that wouldn’t seem such a bad thing if you are one of the geeky types that worship at the altar of that small plastic brick, but if you don’t then, by the end of the 93 minutes you will probably need a drink. A stiff one at that.
Cutely narrated by Jason Bateman, and if you are aficionado ….sorry an AFOL …. then you’ll probably love it so much that you will want to nominate the movie for an Academy Award.P.S. AFOL = Adult Fan of Lego
Labels: 2015, documentary
