Philosophy in The Lego Movie - Essay Example

The Lego Movie: Philosophical Analysis The animation of the The Lego Movie is almost perfect. The movements and actions are all changing in effective ways, making the movie more animated and creative. The vibrant and lifelike action sequences and soundtrack with colorful characters quickly creating new forms, images, and structures composed of red bricks. If one were to view this movie with a shallow point of view, it may appear somewhat predictable and generic. Emmet, an ordinary construction worker, is shoved into an action-packed adventure when he all of a sudden stumbles across the piece of resistance. An underground group of master builders took him into their custody, and proclaimed since he discovered the piece, that he is the Special as prophesied. Then we are introduced to the other heroes—Vitruvius, Wyldstyle, and Batman. They have a common goal, which is to destroy President Business who ruthlessly controls all things in the Lego world. The Lego Movie could appear to be a mere animated action-adventure movie derived from the popular Lego bricks. However, it is the portrayal and explanation of the disagreement about the connection between reality and art which has been broadly discussed by Plato. Plato explains a connection between the artist and the craftsman (Braembussche 18). He argues that the craftsman envisions a mental picture of a perfect Form and applies it as an illustration to create a particular, observable, concrete and readily usable product. Similar to nature, this created product is an image, a flawed imitation of a perfect Form. On the other hand, the artist imitates nature or a particular, created product, without having knowledge of their internal mechanisms. The artist is not aware of how this product is created. He only copies the sensorial exteriors of objects thereby merely making an imitation of an imitation (Braembussche 18-19). In The Lego Movie, the craftsman is the boy Finn and the artist is Emmet and the other characters in Finn’s Lego world. Emmet sees himself existing and in the actual world, where the story’s episodes are being created in Finn’s imagination—the craftsman. Recognizing the serious risks his comrades are in, Emmet pushes himself to act and draws the interest of Finn. The craftsman Finn puts back the piece of resistance and Emmet to the setting where Emmet, this time holding the capabilities of a Master Builder because of his faith in his abilities, faces Lord Business. Imitation is where the film starts, as the protagonist Emmet abides by exact orders on how to begin his day and how to act in front of or toward others. In addition, insofar as imitation is involved, Emmet, being Plato’s artist, obeys orders instructing him precisely how to construct Lego structures, as a member of a crowd of Lego construction workers. Nevertheless, imitation necessitates other things, which we often identify as ‘creativity’ or ‘expression’. This implies that what the craftsman forms is somehow new. This is another kind of imitation which is observed in the movie, in the character of the Master Builders, particularly powerful ones like Vitruvius, Batman, and Wyldstyle who are capable of building Lego structures with no guidelines or directives, exercising just their imaginations or creativity. This is the form of imitation which has been specifically popular in the Western world from the time Romanticism introduced the notion of poetry as a natural surplus of influential or dominant emotions. It appears to provide a relief from simple imitation and obedience to fixed patterns. Nevertheless, this is not a depiction in The Lego Movie because the Master Builders acknowledge a greater, almost all-powerful entity—the Man Upstairs, the architect of the Lego world they live in. However, the movie never bypasses the notion that art is in some way the manifestation of truth. Once the Master Builders survey or explore the Lego surrounding them, they identify ciphers labeling the various forms of blocks, suggesting a more profound system which enables their imagination to work openly and without restrictions. The Lego Movie is a different illustration of that repetitive irony that we are simply starting to make sense of—a very traditional tale of revolt against traditions. It praises and promotes individual originality and imagination through a perspective initially created and expanded by state bodies to promote warfare and strengthen capitalism all around the world. However, there are still several revelations in the movie, which are signs that filmmakers have an aspiration to avoid merely reiterating state agenda. Emmet is seen as an unquestioning, obedient entity by the imaginative, self-realized Master Builders, and by the electronic followers of Lord Business who cannot locate him in their electronic records because his appearance is the same as everybody else, but also as all the believed traditionalist or obedient people of his community. Almost all depictions of social conformism view it as a clear philosophy where submissive characters say common expressions about the qualities of passive conformity. The film’s Bricksburg is oddly realistic, portraying a traditional society whose people nevertheless view themselves as imaginative, independent, and creative ones. Then there are also what they call ‘realm above’, or those that have entered their domain that they can exploit, utilize, and manage but cannot completely make sense of. These are similar to the objects of religion and faith we see around us that we cannot understand yet can merely apply and exercise for either righteous or immoral acts. Indeed, although everybody, even President Business is seriously taking into consideration this ‘historical object’ they call the Piece of Resistance, Emmet is able to witness infinity. It all of a sudden becomes apparent that what we seriously embrace or strongly accept here in the real world is actually nothing in face of the infinite. Hence, what we refer to as ‘religion’ in the actual world is only a hint of the future, of which we can in no way fathom throughout our mundane life. And as shown in the entire history of humanity, human being’s incapability to own or control the infinite often brings about disunity, disagreement, and conflict, which to an omnipotent God should appear as ridiculous as a set of Lego creations competing for the Krazy Glue. Hence what is revealed here is a small-scale version of the insufficiency of the human experience of spirituality raising dilemmas, but since the father adores and loves his child, he receives the child’s effort toward salvation all for the creativity and imagination and the boy’s passion for instilling the unreachable indefinable ‘specialness’ into the ‘system’ of such product of imagination, and the outcome is that creation is transformed into an especially fair, humane, compassionate, and sympathetic product. Conclusions This is the film’s remarkable quality—how almost all things in it is actually about our connection to the spiritual realm in our daily existence, the ‘Special’ as they refer to it. I was really stunned by the extent of deep enigma working in this film. It is obviously anti-capitalist, which is shown in how President Business was portrayed. But what strikes me the most is how the movie explained the social structure, capitalism, and social classes, or how everything falls into places in order to bring back order, justice, and equality. However, what is truly remarkable in this film is how it illustrated Plato’s theory of imitation of the imitation. The film was a perfect illustration of the relationship between the craftsman and the artist and how art expresses the ideal Form in a way that is still grounded on reality. Works Cited Braembussche, A.A. Van Den. Thinking Art: An Introduction to Philosophy of Art. New York: Springer Science and Business Media, 2009. Print. Read More