When you combine an everyday, rules-following plastic Lego man who is named the Lego messiah and is drafted into a Justice League-type group of strangers on an epic adventure to stop an evil leader, do you know what you get?

You get an unexpected brilliantly hilarious film with a subtle message. Robot pirates, a cute kitty, Will Ferrell AND Morgan Freeman, spaceships, laser sharks (yes, I said laser sharks) and Batman all have pivotal roles.  And that is just in the first 20 minutes.

“The Lego Movie” plays off the idea of conformity.  Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt), like the rest of his Lego contemporaries, wakes up happy every day, singing the catchy theme song “Everything Is Awesome” (it is nauseating how much I enjoy this song).  Emmet is thrown into an adventure against President Business (Will Ferrell) and his evil henchman, Bad Cop (Liam Neeson).  Emmet soon finds out that being just like everyone else is not the best way to live.

President Business reveals his plan to turn the “Kragle,” the real-world equivalent of a WMD, on the entire Lego World.  Emmet finds himself trying to save the world with an unlikely justice league-type group; a punk-girl named Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), a wizard named Vitruviues (Morgan Freeman), Batman (Will Arnett), Superman (Channing Tatum) and Shaquille O’Neal.

For kids, all the jokes evoke laughs, but in my mind the best jokes make light of limitations of the plastic-brick world.

The Lego franchise has roots deep in the pop-culture landscape: Marvel and DC super heroes, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings just to name a few.  Obviously, they could not use every character. People might feel like they don’t get to see their favorite character but there are so many cameos that work well even if you do not understand the genre reference.

I am no expert in the technical side of filmmaking, but even to the casual viewer, the animations are wonderful to watch.

Toward the end, there’s a twist in the plot that takes one of the characters on a life-changing experience, which makes everything seem clear leading to the conclusion.

I am sure there are much smarter people than me who might not think as highly as I do of this movie, but I challenge anyone to watch this movie and find something wrong with it.

5 stars out of 5.