Transcript
Speaker: Today, we're doing something different. We started teasing the Tell Show almost a year ago, and when we said we would launch it in 2026, we intended that to be closer to January, and not all the way in October.
Speaker: What we did not know then was that Season 3 would be about art, creativity, and making, and that means the timing of launching the Tell Show makes more sense now. We will continue to drop episodes of The Tell Show throughout season three between the standard episodes featuring Jeremy's and my conversations and the conversations with special guests.
Speaker: The Tell Show is our sandbox, so we will use it to experiment with some new things. And in that spirit, the movie we will be discussing today feels like a fitting and appropriate selection that represents that spirit. Well, almost too well.
Speaker: Um, are are we in the right spot? If you're here for another Good Pain production, you are. Yeah, well, you know, that's just like, uh, your opinion, man.
Speaker: We're there! Yes! Yes! Yes! Who's gonna take his place? Is the answer Jesus? You're never gonna be Jello. To the death!
Speaker: No!
Speaker: This is The Tell Show, a spinoff of Good Pain Podcast where we explore our favorite movies with punch and depth without getting too academic. One of the first rules we learn in film school is show, don't tell.
Speaker: Today, we break that rule. to Today's movie is the Lego Movie. released in 2014 featuring the voice acting work of Chris Pratt as Emmett, Will Ferrell as Lord slash President Business, Morgan Freeman as Vitruvius, and Elizabeth Banks as Wildstyle. Start your timers because we're about to run through the movie in under two minutes, and if you have not seen the movie yet, this is your chance to get the broad strokes or to turn off this episode because spoilers are coming. So Emmett wakes up and he lives a monotonous life. He does the same thing every day. He thinks everything is awesome and he never questions anything. Then one day as he's going about his business, he stumbles upon a mysterious character, follows her, falls down a hole and he gets a piece of resistance stuck to his back. He doesn't know what's happening.
Speaker: That sets off the middle part of the movie. then he's interrogated and questioned. He doesn't have any answers and he's told that he should have all the answers. He is introduced to Wildstyle, who is the rebellious character. She breaks the system. She doesn't follow the rules. She doesn't listen to instructions and introduces some of the first conflict into Emmett's life. Then together,
Speaker: They escape his world. They go into all the different worlds of Lego. President of Business is going to end the world. All of the world. Did I say who President Business was? He's the bad guy. President of Business wants to use Kragle.
Speaker: The piece of resistance is the cap. Can I say that? Okay. It's glue. And the piece of resistance is the cap of the glue. He's going to use glue to what? Well, glue everybody down. It matters because they're what? They're Legos. Hence the title of the movie. They're all Legos. So yeah, present business is not awesome. Ugh.
Speaker: and he's the bad guy. And on Taco Tuesday, he's going to end the world and glue everybody down. But the piece of resistance can stop that. And Emma has the piece of resistance, which makes him the special.
Speaker: They assemble a team of characters from all the disparate worlds. And together, they form a rebellion group to take down Lord Business and all of his robot army. They make their way to Octan Building on the infinitiith floor. They invade and they take over. but yeah There's a coup. They do become friends though. He offers him a hand. The Lord Business takes the hand. Yes. Yes. yes Good. and They melt the craggle, all the stuff that he craggled.
Speaker: It was a close one. Yes. Like any of Special water.
Speaker: Act 1. In our first question, what happens when possibility and imagination becomes stuck, predictable, and limited? That's the core issue here. The nature of Kragle itself is permanent. Making my vision, Lord Business's view of the world and how it's supposed to be, making it permanent. Yeah, and so I noticed a lot of things about what what the Lego movie wanted to portray as being bad or who is the villain. And a couple things that I noticed was they don't have they have a negative portrayal of monotony, complacency, ah acquiescence, complete obedience, and vagueness. Say more about the vagueness part and give us an example of like how they do that. um Well, at the beginning, well, it's interesting because they don't show a negative portrayal by their mood because Emmett and everybody who lives Bricksburg, that's it Yes. Who lives in Bricksburg, they're all happy. Everything is awesome.
Speaker: yeah So it's not by their mood. And so what would make it what would make it bad in that case? So then i was wondering, well, then is it inevitable? what Is what inevitable? To to have something um pointed out to you that that's not all there is, that you shouldn't settle. The inevitability of of that everything is ah is awesome. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, for the illusion to be broken. Yeah.
Speaker: And you can't just rely on that. And you if you're just going blindly and you don't have a backup plan, yeah is it inevitable that you will need a backup plan or is it okay to just be fine with going day to day? But because... It's vague and there's nothing specific necessarily because everything is awesome. Not saying that one thing in particular is awesome or they don't have any other qualifiers about it.
Speaker: this Everything is great. Everything is awesome. It indicates that there is a lack of critical thinking, which limits free thought. So that gets at what the Lego movie is really trying to say, which is it's not necessarily a bad thing to be happy and to be content. It's more, it's more detrimental if you put your critical thinking on the back burner because free thought is a human it's a core human necessity yeah I think what you so there's some key things that in terms of this movie it's one there's a lot of movies that we could watch um that will illustrate some of these things and they do that they also get very very specific with just naming it in the most ridiculous ways
Speaker: One of those, which is Emmett in his loving everything is awesome, is is that what we know is everything is awesome based on what's being served up to him in Bricksburg, in in how it has been imagined. He considers it all to be awesome. And part of that is is a subservience that he has.
Speaker: to things like the instructions. Like one thing is is that he feels very safe in following instructions. and and um And he believes that's going to deliver him what it is that he wants. So I hear what you're saying in terms of like This outstanding question, which is the inevitability of, of I think, multiple things. one One is the inevitability of, well, actually think we're going to get there even more on the inevitability. One of the first things that we see that happens with Emmett we can see that everybody he greets, he thinks he has a rich relationship with.
Speaker: And it's not even just every person he greets. Everything, he is the embodiment of everything is awesome. But what we're all seeing is he doesn't see that it's not reciprocated. It's not nobody else feels the same way about Emmett that he feels about them. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: including the world itself. Like he, whatever version he has of the world, he still moves through it. He still is able to transition from one place to the next. And what he's increasingly coming to an awareness of is something else is going on in his relationships that is saying that what he believes, I mean, some of the best quotes, some of the funniest quotes, even when somebody's interviewed about him in the interrogation, One of the quotes is all he does is say yes to what everybody else is doing. And that's to denigrate the fact that nobody actually knows him. He thinks he knows everybody. But in that moment, we watch his bubble get burst that that that he can't. I mean, he he is introduced to the possibility that the way he sees the world itself is not actually the way it is. And that I wrote down too, because he says, I'm just a regular, ordinary, normal guy. And he had, he listens to all those interviews.
Speaker: And even at the end of that, he still says like, well, there you have it. I'm not a special. As he's tearing up. Yeah. But then good cop, bad cop's response is I can't break him, which then to me shows me that Emmett does have a natural tendency for resistance. It doesn't matter how much evidence he's given.
Speaker: So many people tell him that his reality is not what he he has a separate view on reality. And there is a disconnect. And he still sticks to his original narrative, even though there is probably something else there. He would prefer to take a little bit more of a resistant path and say, no, i'm I want to stay in my comfort.
Speaker: No matter how much is pulling him away from his comfort, he wants to stay there. And that shows me that resistance is natural to him. I mean, what you just described, he a crack emerges for him that shows his reality is not what he actually believes it to be. And the and the initial pull is to try and rebuild that reality.
Speaker: He still feels and wants to get there. He almost wants to crazy glue, to craggle himself. Mm-hmm. Back to the original. But it's unrelenting. like that's That's the thing. is is that But it's it's unrelenting, not necessarily in the way that he, through his own volition, moves towards it. It's that something happens that keeps him moving forward to that crack starting to get wider and wider.
Speaker: and And I think that's... And it would be easier to just go towards it, but he still chooses to run away from it. So... And in it and and the part for me, that i I agree. that's That's the thing. The part for me that is even before that is is that I think in the first act, we see two glimpses of this. You named one, which is the having his reality shuttered shattered.
Speaker: Having his reality shattered in a way where he wants to go back to that. He's feeling despondent. He wants to go back to the way things were. What we saw right before that was at the end of his workday, um everybody else is going out and he is ignorant to the fact that he's actually not being included. He's fully convinced that he's being included, but we all know he's not being included and something else grabs his attention. What was it? It's... The whoosh. A whoosh.
Speaker: He hears whoosh and he goes over to investigate it. and When he goes to investigate it, he is he he is smacked across the face, not literally, by something different. A character that does not look like all of the other construction men is is very different. and The first thing that we see that he does is he drops the instructions. He was carrying the instructions around with him. And he takes the first step because there's something that's pulling, something different, something that's beckoning him that he is attracted to. But what that requires is him absentmindedly at this point, actually letting go of the formula, letting go of the predictable. He doesn't even pay attention to it.
Speaker: But then, like you said, is is that when it is actually literally confronted with him, that his reality is completely different. His inclination then is to flight back to the way things were, to actually embrace the idea of, I feel uncertain, insecure out here in this world of possibility, in this realm of nothing is as predictable as what I thought it was. I want to go back to predictability. Act two.
Speaker: What does it mean to be special? And what does it mean to be part of something bigger? I feel like the Lego movie, it labels things as fluid because even when they say monotony and repetition is dangerous in some ways, they also say that everybody is special, which is a good thing. So everybody can be special. Everybody has the potential to, but the only thing that gets in the way is yourself.
Speaker: They repeat everything. the prophecy you're the most important most talented most interesting and most extraordinary person in the universe over and over and they keep saying it could be anybody it could be anybody and even when wildstyle comes up to vitrevious and says that she found who it was he turns to her and he's he says wow of course it was you you were the chosen one and she goes it's not me and he Doesn't even think twice about it. He doesn't really care about who it is. He just says, oh, it's Emmett. Okay, you, it's you.
Speaker: And so it really, in a weird way, is meaningless to be special because it doesn't really mean much because everybody is special. But the thing is, if you don't think you're special, then you're not. Through the movie, there's really two definitions of special. And one of the scenes that really picks this up, there's a certain point when they are escaping cloud cuckoo land and they are on the boat and there's some impending risk and everybody has to fight against it. They're all trying to vie and compete for who has the best idea.
Speaker: As if the best idea is going to determine who is most approximate to the special. And at the close of the scene, one of the one of the things that comes out here um is that Emmett also has an idea.
Speaker: And everybody denotes that his idea is absolutely worthless. Now, in the turn of of this working out is is that his stupid idea is so stupid that it allows them the ability to hide from Lord Business's minions. We start to see this notion of who is it that holds the definition of what special is. Who gets to control the definition of what it means to be a true artist? In fact, there's this point where we've learned that Wildstyle is her boyfriend is Batman. and he plays the song he wrote for her. And Wildstyle specifically says, see Emmett, this is real music.
Speaker: Batman's a true artist. There's this inherent competition for individuals against each other, which shows up again when Emmett actually steps up and says, you're all awesome in your own way. You're really, really bad at working together as a team.
Speaker: Well, it's also interesting because in Wilde Style's exposition where she's explaining to Emmett what President Business did way back when, he erected walls between worlds. And when they're building what is supposedly a cohesive ship altogether, they're all from different worlds, but they want their pieces to stay over there. So they are also erecting walls between their worlds and they're doing it to themselves in a way. Yeah, separation. So, so I mean, what you just said is there is this prevailing theme throughout of of actually, I mean, this is of of creating separation that is permanent. And and the interesting thing about this is is that that the nature of what we're talking about itself is Legos.
Speaker: that are able to be separated but then brought back together to build something new. And and that, I mean, this is what I mean by like, it's ah it's a movie that is really on the nose in a very playful way that that asks the question of what in in what it means to be special is not actually this defined definition of this makes me special and you not. And what you just said is what Lord Business did is actually the same things that everybody else is doing is constantly competing for whose definition right, better, of right. Or even just labeling as something as it doesn't belong. Because just even mechanically with how Legos work, if they fit together, they're all bricks, then they should belong. So why wouldn't they be allowed to be together if they're following the rules of their nature? They are following the rules. Yeah. What other rules are there?
Speaker: Yeah, that starts to get at the heart of, of i i i think, this movie itself and the topic of of play, of what it does mean to play. And that the more, I mean, I think um I remember growing up and playing where where we spend more time debating um who gets to be the villain, who gets to be the good person, or who or or Or what are we going to play that that we we never get to playing? And and and part of, I think, the the invitation here um is is that the what does how do we surprise ourselves in new ways um by surrendering to the possibility that we break rules?
Speaker: the rules. And and and I think this is there is something significant about breaking the rules and reincorporating them with new things that have already been built or adapting them without demanding that they have to learn lead you know look and be a certain way. Which brings us to the most direct version of that is when Emmett goes into and and it falls into what is the what is it called? the um i have, ah I had, ah oh man, where did it go? i just had it here. It's the something of, oh yeah, the infinite space of nothingness. Yeah.
Speaker: Well, that's what came up for me, too, actually. Well, because, um well, even the first time that Emmett is OK with just going with the flow in a way, because it's after he's being interrogated and he's being told that he's a special. And he says, no, I'm not. No, I'm not. I am not the special. No, I'm not. And then Wildstyle shows up and she goes, you're the special, right? And he goes, yes, that's me And he's okay with it because, oh yeah, because it's after the first action scene, which I think is the first demonstration of creativity throughout the movie because it sets the potential rules. So Bricksburg shows the rules that they do follow, but it shows with wild style how it the world can possibly change.
Speaker: have more honest rules about what they're allowed to do because so she in comparison to how all the other legos move throughout the beginning first 15 minutes so they all march and it's rhythmic but it matches the rhythm beat by beat of the music when wildstyle shows up she's the first character to not move in marching style she kind of dances and she doesn't follow the beat of the music necessarily in a weird way it but i i wrote it had the first action scene unlocks artistic beauty aesthetics style and an overall fun it's the first kind of fun thing that you observe in the movie outside of flourish i guess and this is the first time that it's portrayed as a valid goal to attain or strive for beyond just contentment because it looks like she's having fun It looks like magic to a degree. Yes. And that is the first time that Emmett is okay with going with the flow. So that's the first time that he surrenders a little bit and he goes with a rhythm rather than a march. Yeah. So he, what I, that is, he breaks a rule and he is intrigued by it. Yes. And then the second time that there's an action scene is when Emmett participates in the action.
Speaker: So that's when they're in the Western world and good cop, bad cop and his entourage who, guess. His minions. Yes, his posse. Yeah, and his posse show up. Then Vitruvius, Wildstyle, and Emmett are on a wagon and they're all in the wheel brakes. And so Vitruvius says the first key is to trust your instincts.
Speaker: And Emmett throws, he puts two one by two pieces together and then he throws a throws it at them. And they the entire they just run over it and it doesn't work at all. And he says, unless your instincts suck.
Speaker: Yeah. So that shows that that's not enough. So the second thing he says, we need to attach the wheel to something that spins around. And Emmett has a bright idea they attach it to his head because he realizes that it can spin around. He becomes the wheel.
Speaker: Yeah, he becomes the wheel. And it's fun. It's a fun solution. Yeah, I, yeah, he, I mean, there's, um it's funny that you mentioned that one because maybe 10 minutes earlier when they were in the Western world and they're, they're testing him. They're like, Vitruvius says like, okay, okay, man, build something.
Speaker: And he's like, okay, I need a wheel three more. Other wheels. Yeah. and And it's this picture of even the perception that for him that he when he thinks of a wheel, he can only perceive that which has been defined to him outside of himself as this equals a wheel. hmm.
Speaker: And what you're saying is in this moment, he realizes, oh, I can be a wheel. I can become the wheel. um and And going back to what we were talking about with the special, it kind of parallels, which is I'm not the special. I'm not the special.
Speaker: I don't fit the definition of what I currently have in my mind of what a special is until Wildstyle says I'm the special. And then I have something to gain from that. I can actually participate in it. And so now I am the special. It's this expansion of ah outside of whatever limiting beliefs he had before.
Speaker: The only way for him to imagine a different world is to change his beliefs. I am now a wheel. Even still in the Western world, Emmett is fun. He has a lot of fun and he has way more fun than Wildstyle because when she says act natural, he goes in there. Oh, wait. She says act like a stool or something. Yes. And he's like, hey, everybody come sit me. He takes it literally. Yeah. Which I think what you're pointing out is- And you can do improv. Yes.
Speaker: So so you what you just pointed out for me is, again, I think for for me, the rules aspect of this starts to become itself playful.
Speaker: Because what you just pointed out was Emmett is the one that is completely beholden to the rules. And then Wildstyle shows shows up and starts inviting him into maybe the rules aren't as static and as stagnant as they once once were. And being able to for her capabilities, her abilities to um to actually look around and see that there's so much more possibility is is that then she starts assembling something using her her skill set. The problem is is is that she's still beholden to a rule itself, which is he can't possibly be the special because he doesn't resemble the the wheel of what a special is supposed to look like. And so she starts to experience now the limits of her her beliefs and her imagination and her possibility that she that it must be suspended and even she is struggling to suspend it when the stakes are huge.
Speaker: The stakes being Lord Business taking over the world. Yeah. And even with The fact that they're master builders, ah that would probably imply that they're the best at playing with Legos. They know how to get the most out of their capabilities and Legos are toys. So that probably means that they're having the most fun out of any Lego in the movie. Act three.
Speaker: How does play invite redemption and reconciliation? Because i guess the first question is, is that in this movie, what what are we being, what what is what is being redeemed? What is being reconciled? And maybe start with what we start to see upstairs.
Speaker: In the live action world. We've gone from this animated Lego world into the live action world where all of the worlds we see are exist in this basement on separate tables with signs that are posted. Well, it's also interesting because i think part of the reason the Lego movie is hesitant. I noticed throughout they don't.
Speaker: label anything as specifically one way or the other because and I think it's smart that they didn't because the main thing is that everything can change everything has the potential for change unless you glue it which is why that's the antagonist because if you if you take away something's ability to change to them that's killing them. That's murder. So that's ending its life. So everything has the potential for redemption. Even if somebody is a bad guy, so you don't have to be the bad guy forever. You can change.
Speaker: Yes. what you just so So there is the the core conceit here about the evil that's being visited. we we We all actually get to understand that in a very visceral way with ah a specific scene within the movie where the special and the piece of resistance have escaped. And there was a character that was responsible for making sure they didn't escape. That was good cop, bad cop. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: and The punishment is we get we get to see the seriousness of of Lord Business choosing in that moment to punish Good Cop, Bad Cop in two ways.
Speaker: One is he Lord Business brings Good Cop, Bad Cop's parents. It's the saddest scene, I think, in the movie. Yeah. Yeah. Because it is absolutely apparent that his parents love good cop, bad cop.
Speaker: It's apparent that he loves them. and And Lord Business is putting him in a position of choosing between them actually getting to live freely and maintain a relationship or he is going to glue them And he doesn't even let them touch. He doesn't.
Speaker: yeah He's like, get away from each other forever. Yes, yes. He will permanently separate, back to the what we were talking about, separate them from each other by gluing them down. And good cop, bad cop, we have been referring to as a good cop, bad cop because in the Lego world, it is the Lego head that has a smiling face and a serious cop face on the other side. And one of the things that Lord Business essentially does is he freezes good cop, bad cop into always being bad cop.
Speaker: And again, i this is another reason that points towards why i think the Lego movie reemphasizes the fact that resistance is a human core trait because ah when President Business is seeking to achieve order and perfection, he would have stopped at just dividing people and putting up walls, and but it's not enough for him to sort and just arrange it. He has to go a step further and take away their ability for free thought, free movement, choice, because he expects resistance to come up. He doesn't have faith that if he puts them where they're supposed to be, allegedly, that would be a happy ending for everybody.
Speaker: If that was the case, then nobody would want to move or feel the pull to move or feel a pull to change. But he anticipates that conflict coming up because he says, i need to glue it down.
Speaker: But I agree with you on all of those pieces. But I think there's one thing that's coming up here, which is why does he do it? He's confused by the chaos. That's right. So chaos for him equals bad. um He says at multiple points, he says that um they're always messing with my stuff. that that um That whenever, yeah, he says people are always trying to mess with my stuff. um he He inherently, the very things that we're talking about, the possibility for crossing worlds, of violating categories, of breaking the rules, of becoming unpredictable it's it's not so much that that it leads to um a completely unstructured world it's it's that when you don't follow the rules of structure when you are introduced to new ideas it leads to chaos oh go ahead keep if if you have thoughts Well, the other thing, too, is when you see and ah the real life version of President Business and he's just a dad who's coming home from work. Yeah, yeah. Do the crosswalk here first.
Speaker: The crosswalk from when you said just a dad, right? So the split between Lego World, we have Lord Business. And then in live action world, there's a big reveal here. Will Ferrell.
Speaker: Will Ferrell, who is the voice of Lord Business in in LEGO world, animated world, is also the dad in the real world. and It's revealed that all of all of the LEGO movie so far, the scripting, the storyline and everything is just a manifestation of, think it's a 12-year-old boy Playing with his dad's toys. It's his make-believe story.
Speaker: Yes. And so that's basically the and entire plot point is coming from this 12-year-old boy's ah expression of what he's observing from his dad. So it's how his dad plays with the Legos versus how this young boy wants to play with the Legos. And how does his dad play with the Legos? Well, it's interesting because he just wants to come home and he probably feels a lot of stress as an a adult in the real world. And he just wants to feel like he has control over something. And so, and as a toy, they are serving their purpose of bringing him back to a simpler time.
Speaker: And that's all he wants from them. He wants it to be a simple thing. He wants not a lot of noise. He wants ease. So if he comes home and he finds out that he has to resort or potentially he's set back, that's chaos for him. And that's not what he's going for. What you just described, I think, um by ascribing this other story that possibly could be going on with him is is that this idea of being against chaos um actually takes on a bigger picture here.
Speaker: is that the possibility is that he does navigate a chaotic world. In the live action, Will Ferrell, he feels that he navigates a a chaotic world. And so the Legos and the sets that he buys and the separation and the organization that he has at home is a coping mechanism that is possible for him to feel like he has more control in a world that broadly for him might be chaotic. Now, regardless of whether that's actually what is going on or not, what it does point to is this, is is that in his attempt to deal with his own feelings about navigating a world that is chaotic and using Legos and the plans and the expectations as all of the means as a, let's say, a mental health exercise. is is that he believes that his ability to follow the rules there, to actually keep everything separate and categorized and is the buttress against the chaos, but it's become tyrannical. It must stay the same. If the Legos change,
Speaker: then his work his ability to feel stable and structured itself changes. And and that leaves little room for expression. it He believes that the way to keep the world organized, the way to keep the world structured and stable is the inevitability of of the only way this stuff so that we fight the chaos is. is by permanently affixing it. and and And I'm using the word inevitable here because that is a word that has shown up in our modern day lexicon is is that we are trying to talk about, well, chaos itself you know is inevitable. The only thing we can do is capitulate to actually, and you I think alluded to this earlier, is to killing the spirit of what these things actually represent. And I thought it was interesting the way that the Lego movie delivers that message because there's a lot of times they don't shy away from showing how things, how different dynamics between characters can cause conflict. But they don't say that that's the bad guy or they, Emmett gets beat up.
Speaker: There's a lot of violence. Lots of Lego violence. Pigs get thrown off. They turn into sausages. Yes. And bacon. Exactly. There's a lot of bad stuff that happens. but the Consequential stuff. Yes, consequential. Yes. But they don't villainize those things almost ever. The entire movie is pretty playful because they don't villainize almost anything until the consequence is removing expression.
Speaker: Yes. Because, well, I mean, it even shows up with the fact that, I mean, technically, all the people from Bricksburg were saying pretty mean things. So why aren't they the bad guys? Why aren't they evil like President Business?
Speaker: they hurt his feelings. Why isn't Wildstyle a bad guy? Because she's the one who takes them away from his happy life and that's the first time he feels upset ever in his life. Well, I think what you just pointed out, like going back to even the people of Bricksburg, is is that really we have a word for that. it's He's excluded. He he is again, that idea of separation, of the world isn't big enough to contain him in their world. And what we have with Lord Business is the same thing just at its fullest expression, which is no amount of other expression other than my own as Lord Business belongs here. It's a it's it's an aspect of you don't belong.
Speaker: and And unless you fit my version of what should or should not belong. or and And we reach this point where what we forget is belonging itself matters.
Speaker: and and And there's something here about the nature of of Legos themselves where you are sent a set to assemble that has four. you know, 667 pieces in it. And all of those pieces are to be used.
Speaker: and And it excludes certain pieces. And the live action Will Ferrell version of Lord Business is essentially saying that if you're not a part of the set that has been defined by this is what's included in this piece, in this set, then you don't belong either. He'll kill you. And he will kill you. With a Q-tip. That's exactly right. Yes. If you are crossways with with not being a part of your group, your tribe, your set, then you deserve to be put to death, to be removed. And and like you pointed out, it wasn't... just lord business who is doing that his may have been the most dramatic the largest the most prophecy foretold version of it but there were so many others even the other heroes the other in the other protagonists wildstyle and the other master builders
Speaker: That we're all doing the same thing, inherently saying you don't belong unless. And instead, the call here is to to ask the question, OK, what if we suspend those rules even temporarily, even if we just said right now, I believe if I follow these rules, then I will get X.
Speaker: I will get the set built. But if I make believe that the rules don't require only the things that are included in the set that I could potentially grab for other things, what's the kind of world then we might imagine? And even when ah it's ah it's that kind of moment of epiphany for Emmett when he makes the shift from accepting his mission.
Speaker: It's when Vitruvius says, I think he says, do you accept base pretty much? Do you accept your mission? And Emmett says, yes, I think. Which is funny, but at the same time, it also shows that that's all you need.
Speaker: You don't need to know. You don't even need certainty that you can do it or that it will work out. You just need to believe in yourself. And he says, um oh, Vitruvius says, all you have to do is believe. Then you will see everything. So again, you just need to believe in yourself. You need to have the creativity and the open-mindedness.
Speaker: to accept all the possibilities and surrender. what i mean what you're What you're saying, one thing that started to come up for me is in that, you said you don't need to know the destination. There is something about buying a set, you know what it is that you're building, you're working towards that. There is also something about that being the training ground for for exploring this of what's possible, but that's not where it stops. But then, even during the process, if you look at all the pieces individually, you know what the end result is, it's on the box. But they give you a bag of frogs.
Speaker: But you have a bonsai tree. Yeah. Like, where are all these frogs going to go? And you can't you couldn't have predicted they're going to be the leaves. You don't have to think that.
Speaker: You don't have to see them as leaves, but. They reveal themselves in the process. Exactly. And then if once you've built it, are you going to say that's a whole bunch of bark with frogs on top of it? No, you're going to believe their leaves. Just have to believe. Yeah. Yes. So, I mean, what what you're saying is, and I think this is going to get into our the first Easter egg that that we'll talk about. There is something about making... Me and me. Touche.
Speaker: There's something about making it up as you go along or for it to reveal itself to us as it goes along. And and and going back to the idea of of almost there is a point when as kids where we're negotiating what game we're going to play today, what thing we're going to imagine, where where it can feel like increasingly we're talking about where things need to end up in order to get down to the business of playing. as opposed to providing enough of guidelines and some rules, some defining some sandbox that we're going to play in and and then just getting down to playing within it.
Speaker: And there is, so even though there is something about um the breaking of the rules here, there there is something about um having enough structure and stability that we we can just get down to the business of making it up as we go along. And in a way, you could say that Emmett does. He is the most creative person in Bricksburg. Everybody says that he's nothing. He's not their friend. He's not interesting. He's zippy zap. yeah And but he makes believe every single day. He says that everybody's his friend. And he says that that's he he makes up his own story every single day. And he plays pretend even when Wild Style is telling her story. He makes believe.
Speaker: Despite the reality that all of us can see. Mm-hmm. He, I mean, he lives in a different reality. And it's one where he is happy. And he can choose whatever rules he wants. He can choose that everybody is his friend. It doesn't matter what everybody else is saying.
Speaker: Those aren't the rules of his world. He's happy. And he's going to be happy. Easter eggs, Easter eggs, Easter eggs. Yay!
Speaker: Okay, so the first Easter egg that we're going to talk about is Vitruvius. In the movie, Vitruvius is the sage. He is one of the first ones that's introduced in the opening scene where we actually get the prophecy foretold.
Speaker: Vitruvius is the one who delivers and channels the prophecy. But Vitruvius is actually a real person in Rome way back before the Renaissance. who was an architect. And the interesting thing about what the writers pulled from is the fact that Vitruvius outlined three predominant pieces of architecture that were really important, virtues of architecture. The three virtues were stability, utility, and beauty.
Speaker: Fermitatis, utilitatis, and venistatis. Veris. Very. Veristatis. Those were the words. And what I think that was really interesting about this is, first of all, in everything that we've talked about around giving imagination and making believe of something new from the old, how we can deconstruct um and take some of the core elements that still have utility, that still have virtue, still have
Speaker: beauty and build it into something new. The philosopher-engineer Vitruvius, that's really what he was advocating for, was defining the principles of engineering that he wanted others to take and use those as foundational, primordial material and build new things on top of that.
Speaker: And what that gave birth to, the new birth that gave to was something called the Renaissance, which the word Renaissance means new birth. And that's what a number of people, whether it was Da Vinci or Michelangelo or other artists or other engineers, they all pointed to Vitruvius as being highly influential in giving them the building blocks for imagining world the world differently. That was Easter egg number one. Easter egg I need to define. Octane. Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Okay. Easter egg number two is Octane. Now, when I was growing up with Legos, there were some typically cityscape sets that you could build and they had different brands associated with them. Some of them were known brands in the world, but one brand was not known in the world. That was Octan. And Octan was a oil and gas company. It was the Lego oil and gas company that When you built it, it could be an oil tanker um that was delivering fuel to the gas station. But what we know here is is that in the movie, Octan represents a conglomerate who is using its conglomerated power to take over various aspects of the world. Natural resources, that's the oil and gas.
Speaker: media that was with octan tv where they're producing such great hits like honey where's my pants and this picture of and this throwback to octan being the brand of the bad of the villain is something that goes far back into lego history and ah as in eight that's two more than six which is the double number exactly mm-hmm Good Pain podcast and the Tell Show are recorded at the base of the Rocky Mountains in Denver, Colorado on ancestral Northern Arapaho, Ute, and Cheyenne lands. All limited clips are used for education purposes only. Lego is a trademark of the Lego Group.
Speaker: The Lego Movie and related characters and elements are trademarks and or copyrighted by the Lego Group, and Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. This podcast is an independent fan production and is not sponsored, authorized, or endorsed by The Lego Group, Warner Brothers, or any other rights holders. All other trademarks and copyrights mentioned are the property of the respective owners.
