10 Movies Nobody Wanted But Ended Up Loving

When The Lego Movie was first announced, you could basically hear the collective groaning of film fans, who had quite understandably low expectations for a movie adapted from a series of miniature plastic blocks.

It felt like a film destined to be a cynical exercise in brand reinforcement, and yet The Lego Movie ultimately turned out to be one of the most unexpectedly brilliant movies of the entire last decade.

Courtesy of prodigiously talented writer-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, it was an hilarious, endlessly creative, and best of all visually stunning animated film that paid tribute to the joy of play without feeling like it was a mere crass commercial for Lego.

That's an insanely tricky balance to strike, and yet imagination and heart pour from basically every drop of this movie, causing it to score rave reviews, become a breakout box office hit, and even land an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.

In fact, there was considerable outrage that the film itself didn't receive a Best Animated Feature nomination, which prior to the movie's release would've seemed like an absolutely ridiculous piece of news.

It's always sensible to expect studios to do the laziest, most cash-grabbing thing possible where majorly merchandisable brands are concerned, but in the case of The Lego Movie they let the filmmakers harness their vision to deliver one of the greatest animated films in years.