Hilarious and heartfelt in the right ways, The Lego Movie also successfully pokes fun at the genre cliches we're all so used to.

| Original Score: A- | Apr 23, 2015

It's one of the few movies based on a toy with no explicit story behind it. And it is, so far, the only one that's really good.

| Jan 3, 2015

The movie is a wonderful surprise, cleverly written and executed brick by brick with a visual panache.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 3, 2015

Lord and Miller's sensibilities are continually clever, and The Lego Movie works hard to gradually deliver surprising payoffs to what seem to be throwaway bits.

| Original Score: 8.3/10 | Jan 3, 2015

The Lego Movie has enough wit and wisdom to send a recession-age message to families on the importance of thinking through problems with creativity.

| Jan 3, 2015

The Lego Movie is a brilliant technical achievement.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 4, 2014

State-of-the-art software has been used to make the characters look like actual plastic figurines brought to life through the magic of stop-motion animation. In other words, this is a digital movie with an analogue soul.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 2, 2014

With all this going for the film, you can understand why Lego should be so pleased with it and why it's already had such world box-office success. But its relentless action and pounding soundtrack sent me out feeling battered rather than uplifted.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 2, 2014

As a rule, movies about toys need to be approached with extreme caution; some of them have been bad enough to count as health hazards. This one is the exception.

| Mar 3, 2014

A thrilling, consistently funny, all-ages extravaganza, The Lego Movie is virtually critic proof, in that we can't find a darned thing wrong with it.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 28, 2014

While younger viewers will delight at the whiz-bang animation action and hugely likable familiar figures, adults will laugh themselves silly at the smart consumer satire gags and goggle in wonder at the undulating Legoland vistas.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 16, 2014

Adults who go to The Lego Movie out of a weary sense of parental duty are in for a very pleasant surprise.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 14, 2014

Though not everything about The Lego Movie is awesome, you'll leave the cinema wearing a real smile.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 14, 2014

A work of unbridled imagination, apt to delight sociologists, stoners and six-year-olds alike.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 13, 2014

It's playtime on film, done with wit, warmth, and respect for the business of imagination.

| Original Score: 4.0/5 | Feb 13, 2014

The film is never hampered by its chosen medium. It goes everywhere and does everything, from pitched aerial battles to cities at bay against inferno.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 13, 2014

Is this a glossy feature-length advert for toys? Nope, it's a whimsical and hilarious piece of animated nostalgia from Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 13, 2014

The Lego Movie: Merely a great film, or the greatest film ever in the history of cinema?

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 9, 2014

The visuals are spectacular, the 3D technology is artfully used and the story is jam-packed with so many funny lines, it's hard to catch all the jokes that are delivered in rapid-fire succession -- constantly tweaking many popular culture icons.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 7, 2014

The brightly-imagined Lego Movie is a wickedly smart and funny free-for-all, and sassy enough to shoot well-aimed darts at corporate branding.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 7, 2014