10 Movie Secrets They Actually Managed To Keep Before The Film Started
6. The Live Action Sequence - The Lego Movie
The fact that The Lego Movie wasn't a soulless exercise in brand extension was enough of a surprise, but in addition to being a great film, it also featured a totally unexpected third-act twist.
Late in the movie, protagonist Emmet (Chris Pratt) ends up hurled into the "Infinite Abyss of Nothingness," which ends up transporting him to the real world of all places.
At this point the film transitions into a live-action segment as the boy playing with Emmet, Finn (Jadon Sand), squares off against "The Man Upstairs" aka his controlling father (Will Ferrell, who also voices the villainous President Business).
For starters, the medium shift created an ingenious parallel between the gorgeous animated Lego world and its more tangible "real" equivalent.
Better still, this surprise subplot gave the movie an unexpected emotional boost right in the final stretch, serving as both a touching story of father-son bonding and a lively tribute to creativity in general.
That it still did all this without feeling like an excess commercial for Lego is staggering, honestly.
Brilliantly, the trailers for the movie made no mention of any live-action element whatsoever, making it all the more awesome of a surprise when it turned up totally out of nowhere.