This one's fairly well known, but it bears repeating. Phil Lord and Chris Miller's LEGO Movie managed to defy all expectations last year, losing (undeservingly) out on a Best Animated Feature Oscar despite being boundlessly inventive and effortlessly charming in stitching a narrative together out of the essentially plot-less plastic Danish building blocks which have unlocked creativity in kids of all ages and foot injuries in countless more adults. One of the major criticisms launched at the film before it had even hit cinemas is that it was nothing more than a ninety-minute advert for LEGO products, except people were going to be paying to see it. Capitalism at its finest, getting customers to pay for commercials, before paying money for the stuff in the commercial. And yet the plot of The LEGO Movie is decidedly anti-establishment, with Chris Pratt's hero breaking out of his humdrum everyday life where everything is ordered and people are informed Everything Is Awesome, discovering he can choose what to do with his life and - more crucially - what to build. Which is way less straight laced, when you think about it.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
