“Benny gets everyone back to bricksburg with the power of autism.” There is nothing else beyond this point. All else is irrelevant in the face of true comedy.
- The power of heterosexuality - The power of misogyny - The power of autism These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect movie. But LEGO accidentaly added an extra ingredient to the movie: - The power to turn hearts and minds towards sympathetic ends
I can't believe how long it took me to get the "security cameras, all history books, voting machines... Wait a minute-" joke. I never got it till I was like 17
I guess when we were younger, we were never taught about despotic rule, or anything in-depth about governance or power. I ended up teaching myself quite a bit when I got older, and my brain also developed enough to form these connections more easily.
I could see that Octan was a massive corporation working with a corrupt government to do bad things, but I didn't get the significance of the items listed.
@@Rainfire-forgets-to-animate Exactly! That's what I thought too. I was stuck in a basic, child's mindset of "red team bad, blue team good", so I did not understand the following things.
I was so unbelievably shocked to see the Octan logo on a Lego City set after seeing the movie, then to realize it was always there. Felt like discovering the Illuminati or something
If I had a nickel for everytime Will Ferrell stared in a film that invokes existential thought that’s also based on a toy franchise, I’d have two nickels Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice
In his later career I cant stand him. Possibly Ive grown or he simply doesn’t have the same impact he used to. Barbie, Homes and Watson, The House. All giga shit performance
The piece of resistance is clearly a metaphor for reading theory, as it tends to make it difficult to move thanks to a massive protrusion from your body.
"Don't know what the fuck is up with the dude throwing the tomohawk" It's a dude. Throwing a tomohawk. In an old timey saloon. "Cowboy and Indian" lego sets were numerous.
@blackcontentcreator this isn't about history in any way, this is about modern life, so his lack of knowledge of history which you didn't explain means absolutely nothing.
"Comrade there's political dissonance in Lego Utopia" 👮♂"Heeeeeyyyyy!" "Build the Gulag" "Round up the enemies of the proletariat and give them a pickaxe!"
A bad kids movie has no deeper message for its story a good kids movie has a deeper message that older watchers can get and a great kids movie can tell that message in a way that even young kids can understand without sacrificing quality, that's what the lego movie is I loved the movie many years ago, and even though I wasn't very old, it managed to still get its point across while still being an amazing movie, even if I maybe didn't know all the terms and whatnot like I wouldn't say it told me "Communism is good and any other economy is bad", but it at least told me the message that capitalism isn't perfect by any means and that corporations aren't selfless entities but are more often then not some level of evil
Idk if every autistic person also has these but i get hyper fixations in specific things for a bit of time before moving on to the next interesting thing The Lego movie being released at the same time as my “space” phase definitely made him my favorite character
I think it's also really interesting how Emmett is completely oblivious to the redundancy of voting machines until he says it out loud, as if President Business is the only President there has ever been for quite some time.
I just realized this…oh my goodness. I got like “oh he’s voted cause his company makes the machines” but it just clicked in my brain that he’s been the ONLY one voted for who knows how long. Ironically, I find it more funny because it calls back to it being about the dad of the kid. The dad makes the rules so obviously he’s always be the one in charge when it comes to the legos LMAO
@@compassrose1466 Honestly, I think there's probably more candidates that people can vote for, but the voting machines rig them to all be in favor of President Business, just to give an illusion of choice.
@@compassrose1466 theres also a sign in the background of the Everything is awsome scene saying "I'm President, Because I said So" (or something to that effect) just adding to the beauty that is this film
15:40 Funny thing that, Octan was not invented for this film. Octan is a fictional fuel company that's been popping up in just about every single LEGO product line since 1992. While originally just a stand in for when LEGO couldn't license the rights to Shell or the like, it since became a piece of crossover establishing iconography and branched out into businesses other than fossil fuels. When working on this film it was just obvious to the people working on it that they could use the already established megacorporation from the old toys and add some lore beyond a color scheme and logo.
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When we were being taught about 1984 in highschool. At one point during analysis of the book I had an epiphany and I said out loud that the story, themes and messages in 1984 reminded me a lot of the LEGO movie. I then went back and rewatched the movie after finishing the book and it all made so much sense. The LEGO Movie is the true movie adaptation of 1984
I just read the book and now my TH-cam is all like: "You want to see this fun video about the Lego Movie and communism!" In the beginning of the video I was thinking: "This sounds almost like 1984." And the direct reference at 7:34 was like: "See, it is like 1984"
I hope, then, that you realize both the LEGO movie and 1984 are not communist propaganda but anti-communist, and that nothing described in here criticizes capitalism but the opposite.
you got a B because you were right and to give you an A is to agree, people dont want to admit they've been brainwashed, people dont want to admit they are wrong
@@Prororo brain washing is the perfect word. Tell me when you hear the word "communism" I guess you have a negative connotation to the word, but "capitalism" you do not, unless you are educated this is how you see the world. Communism is bad, capitalism is good. But in reality it is quite the opposite. You see communism as bad because it goes directly against capitalism and the power that the rich get in this society, in a communist society it's classless, there are no rich, there are no poor, we are just people, humans. This is further backed with how we go to war with any country that tries to convert to communism, not because communism is bad but because the second there's a proper successful communist country we will ALL realize we've been lied to. Brainwashing is the perfect term
@@bp42s56 always a possibility, not given enough information to say otherwise and I always like finding a place to call out society terrible, the more that accept it now with be more accepting of a revolution in the future, even if their hatred isn't fully real, which yes, is propaganda, and yes, it's not good, but it's very useful
@@deathisdead270 oh sorry I thought you were trying to provoke me with that statement. Communism has a very very active government that essentially aims to control society as much as possible.
Both are more or less the same in definition; a stable, stateless, classless, and moneyless society under a decentralized order. At some point of this video he pokes fun about utopian socialism being unrealistic which as a commie I'll admit if we live in a "utopia" a tiny mistake would bring a catastrophe. If we did ever reach communism even, it's the societies responsibility to keep themselves afloat.
Personally I would argue that it's flipped the other way around and that Bricksburg is a parody of communism in the worst case scenario (more especially the authoritarian aspects common in a few east asian countries), not a parody of an absolute monopoly in capitalism.
the reality is that all forms of authoritarianism (regardless of what their origin is i.e. communism, fascism, or monopolism) all end up being indistinguishable from one another
@rootigaroot9922 They are major differences between different forms of authoritarianism/ totalitarianism (fascism and especially nazism being objectively worse than maoism, for example).
Also I would like to point out that, because of the timer at the end of the movie, we know that *Mississippi is canonically a real place in the Lego world.*
@@theseus0467The kid is imagining all this (for the most part,I’m looking at you scene where Emmet moves on his own in the real world) so we can assume that’s how it got imported
I remember watching this in theatres, the movie hits the ground RUNNING with its comedy, the theatre was laughing out loud before our main character is even introduced.
6:18 "his double-decker couch, his one original idea, only works with friends." *fu@# that is such a good little detail* seriously, the Lego Movie IS one of the best animated movies.
I would way more argue that this story feels way more like 1984. Replace lord business with the government there and violla, Lego movie. It is certainly about individualism, but that stands in stark contrast to the ideas of communism.
I'm not sure how he was able to bunch up Communism, Individualism, and a little bit of Facism. All three of those ideologies are like the extreme opposite to eachother in most ways. I also felt like he was trying to review the lego movie than proving his points. It was however a solid review.
@@SideQuestStories uh, no, wtf are you talking about. “a socioeconomic order centered around common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange that allocates products to everyone in the society based on need. A communist society would entail the absence of private property and social classes, and ultimately money and the state (or nation state).” VS “a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and/or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.” They could not be much more opposed
I do hope you know that the LEGO Movie is digitally animated. They took photorealistic scans of bricks, including fingerprints for maximum authenticity.
when emmett is listing off all the things octan makes he lists music with a clear punk singer and band in the background something very anti capitalist becoming something a capitalist makes just something i noticed
“Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would *critique* capital end up *reinforcing* it instead.” Which has a double meaning here for both the corporate published punk music in universe, but also the movie itself.
@@sp4c1ng_0ut8 The original punks died out, however the values live on. Punks modify copyrighted works for their own creative interests, it's argued the free modding scene is the result of punk mentality, like modelling a Thomas the Tank Engine and slipping it into any game.
Honestly I think Benny’s representation of autistic hyper-fixation goes even deeper. Every time he says “spaceship!” but especially when he says it repeatedly when he actually gets to build and use one, I interpret it as him spouting out lots of technical terms and lingo, but since none of it registers with anyone else they just perceive it as him saying “spaceship!” Credentials: Have had many an autistic ramble myself that makes no sense to the average person.
Not autistic, but start foaming at the mouth any time I find any interesting telecom infrastructure. This is probably how people see me go on about bands and mimo, and microwaves lol.
He was never confirmed, therefore all you get out of him is a cartoony caricature of a space obsession. Reminds me of Benedict Cumberbatch ranting about his portrayal of ASD characters (Turing, Sherlock). He researched his Frankenstein scientist role for a stage play and had this to say: “I went to schools and met people, some of whom are very high functioning on the autistic spectrum. I met a 17-year-old who had the mental age of a one and a half year old. Everything was just about bodily functions. Smell. Sexual arousal. Shitting. Whatever. So when I hear people use diagnostic labels casually - Sherlock is autistic, Turing is autistic - it really upsets me.”
@@scrittle What’s wrong with noting the very autism-coded attributes of a character? If anything, Benny is a breath of fresh air compared to the horrible representation that autistic people (myself included) have to put up with. It’s nice to see a clearly autistic-coded character that isn’t just a bunch of stereotypes thrown together.
I'd say instead of communist the movie is more just general anti-authoritarian. "Lord Business" is also functioning as the state, and Libertarians and Socialists agree- Corporatocracy is shit. (The point they disagree on is that Libertarians think less government will solve the Corporatocracy conundrum while Socialists think more government will solve the problem)
i just thought how cool it would've been if the real life lego sets made to tie into the movie were only straight-and-narrow 'realistic' scenes that lord business wants. then you'd have to dissassemble them and ignore the instructions to get the fun mechs and cloud cuckoo land and whatnot. it undercuts the film a bit to give you instructions for the expressive, revolutionary builds. this could be taken as an analogue for corporations/governments that pretend to be gay/environmentally concious/morally sound, when in reality they are just trying to pull you back into the system.
Had you submitted this as a written essay to my university, i would have graduated you on the spot. /s but truly, this is far above the kind of reflection i expect from youtube at breakfast times. And its consise aswell? Im astounded.
@@DarkSackOfficial yes because socialism means that every one starves, no one starves under capitalism, no one ever, no one had ever starved under capitalism
So you said Vitruvius's death comes unexpectedly, however i think different. His death follows a very common part of the heroes Journey (a theory on how to build stories and is used pretty often in fantasy), when the protagonist loses the mentor. Vitruvius is literally a caricature of classic 'mentor 'type characters in movies eg. Dumbledore, Gandalf and Obi-wan. So really, the Lego movie is playing into another cliche by killing him off. It's just such a self aware movie and I love it.
@@divyankrana16 Ferrel + ussy Ferrel is the last name of the voice actor who played lord business I have no idea how to explain the meaning of ussy without triggering comment censorship but you can just google that part.
I guess It's because I'm eastern european, but I think this movie has a lot of stuff that's pretty anti communist... Of course only under capitalism and fascism can bad things happen...
Yeah this guy gets it completely wrong, I guess because he is a communist himself. The way he talks about secret police, surveillance, the pressure to succumb to be normal. That's communism! That's what the movie critiques! He mentions 1984... The book 1984 is anti-communist! This movie isn't anti-capitalistic or even that anti-communist. He thinks that it must be anti-capitalist, even though in reality it's anti-dictatorship in general and definitely more anti-communist and anti-fascist than anti-capitalist.
@@wictoriono George Orwell was openly a socialist. I think the attitude of "That's not capitalism, that's communism!" is a pedantic construct to distract people from the actual ideas of either system. Being limited by language is an extremely foregrounded theme in 1984.
@@Nameless_Individual Openly calling himself a socialist - sure, but I think over time his views changed, and he saw certain issues, as I believe Animal Farm was strongly refering to USSR, with 1984 that may allude to nazi state as well. Definitely wasn't communist or marxist, and we're not living in the times where opression and colonialism was still commonly prevalent. Either way, I wouldn't use it either way to defend my points for, or against capitalism/communism.
i think we communists tend to get stuck on interpreting every portrayal of authoritarianism as capitalism or fascism, but the lego movie is pretty clearly anti-corporate, so i think this interpretation is justified.
@@SideQuestStories i mean this is part of why we have this bias. We see how previous attempts relied on authoritarianism and caused a lot of suffering. Analysing them thoroughly and critically is an important part of modern socialist ideas. There are those among us who do support for example the Stalinist/marxist-leninist idea of communism, but also those who fundamentally oppose this.
What the heck, i watched this video full screen and was shocked after i zoomed out and realised it only had 1000 views, while i expected millions or smt, everything was top notch and made me think so much, just wow
I think the title doesn't help. People who dislike communism and/or socialism won't click cause they liked the movie and don't want it to be muddied by politics. And people who likes communism and/or socialism might be afraid that this video is anti-leftist political ideas. I might be wrong but it was what I felt seeing the title. I believed the latter btw ^^
I remember watching the Lego Movie back in late 2014 when I was 7 and it first released On Demand. Now I’m 16 somewhat close to 17 and it’s still one of my favorite movies of all time. Absolute masterpiece and has so many hidden messages and metaphors. I have yet to watch The Lego Movie 2 though.
14:45 This map looks creepy af. Like my brain immediately assumed that this is Europe, with the communist Eastern Block being Bricksburg (GDR reference, with the half-German name lol), and Vladek's realm is the Soviet Union 💀🗿
This is an amazing breakdown of what made the Lego Movie just.. stand out from the rest. I’m definitely on board for more and I can’t wait to see what else you can do. Here’s to 100k soon, you’d deserve it.
“Oh, you like the Lego movie! What do you think is the best part of it?” “Well, I suppose it’s the subtle hints towards communism and the manifesto of ignorance being bliss, it very smartly hides this premise hidden within a silly funny story for kids. Speaking about the kids, the movie seems to make children aware of the differences between social classes and how the rich benefit off the poor, and how we should rise against our so-called ‘superiors’.” “…” “So why do you like it?” “…Lego funny”
This video was the most eye-opening video essay on a film I've ever seen. The amount of depth that was revealed of this movie that I didn't even think about....wow. Great editing too.
8:24 I once went to a lego store where the only music that was playing was an accusic version of "everything is awesome", I have no clue how the employees survived there
I am happy to see you got this finished. I remember watching this movie when it came out, it was like the perfect age for me to watch this movie and I still fondly remember it. Hope this video gets more views because it's well deserved for the time and effort you put into it.
This is a really cool vid overall but I'm curious as to what was meant at 17:31 with linking Emmett's vision to the invisible hand of the market? I feel like that points a stretch and it wasn't really elaborated beyond saying "here is symbolism" so i don't get what pointing it out has to do with a broader argument anyway
Communist ideology believes in the idea of a classless and stateless society. Ergo meaning communism is an anti authoritarian ideology. You’re right in saying that it being an anti authoritarian movie doesn’t make in a communist movie. But apart from probably anarchism there isn’t really any other prolific ideology that is both anti authoritarian and is opposed to the mechanism of capital. Without the context of the movie as a whole you could say this was a libertarian movie, but liberalism and capitalism go hand in hand. That’s probably why he called it communist.
@@proleterriert8075 You are correct if we are using ideal textbook definition of communism but in practice most (if not all) communist regimes are very authoritarian. Thats why I find the use of communism in this case a bit misleading. Calling the message of the film anarchist or anarchocommunist would be a lot more accurate in my opinion but I still stand behind anti-authoritarian as best descriptor as the critique of capitalism didnt seem as prominent to me and it could in my opinion be seen more as a critique of being forced/brainwashed to conform to societal norms.
@@ondrejsvehla425 I was actually going to talk about how the discussion was only applicable to communist theory and actual countries that call themselves communist obviously do not conform to the ideology completely. I removed that from my initial comment because I didn’t want to completely bore people with a wall of text so I shortened it just so I could make my point. in hindsight to me making my original comment I concede that you’re probably right in that this is more anarcho-communist than outright communism but I still stand by my point that this is still very much so a communist movie in its message
@@proleterriert8075the overall message shifts from just anti authoritarian depending on your interpretation of the beginning, where we see bricksburgs society, which is very subjective. That means there is sadly nothing more to debate about so fare well and may the force be with you.
I love how incredibly straightforward this is. no intro, gets straight to the point, various random "this doesnt prove any point that im trying to make i just love it" bits throughout, the wonderful social commentary, the just general awesomeness of the video, the line "the unstoppable power of autism" this is one of the best videos ive watched so far this year. it, and im autistic so i mean this as a compliment, exudes autism energy. like before you proofread or edited it you wrote in in one stream of consciousness infodump. incredible.
This is one of the Smartest Videos I´ve ever seen. The Comparison between Emmets falling into the Cave and Platos metaphor with Emmet "falling" into a Cave and the hypothetical prisoners of Plato leaving voluntarily is brilliant.
I'd like to point out something I only just now noticed. Benny builds the spaceship in the same amount of time it takes for the entire group of Master Builders to build the base of the sub. (Which was like maybe five seconds.) So, either Benny gets hopped up on meth levels of autistic stimming, or he's genuinely just *that* fast.
I think honestly that the Lego Movie focuses more on themes of will and the self rather than any form of socialistic positivity. Hell, I could easily argue the opposite comparing Brickburg to Stalins USSR, the CCP's dictatorship etc. Marx himself, a stan for Hegel considered society before the individual, himself saying that "the so called rights of man are nothing but the rights of the member of the civil society, " Honestly, I think that the writings of Kierkegaard offer some interesting insites that the Lego Movie also deals with. While I don't agree with this video, and I think that some of the arguements brought up don't really work, I'm glad to see somebody else who likes the movie as I do.
9:33 When you said “like Ben sheperio” I laughed out loud before the punch line I just heard his name and started laughing the jokes in here are so funny help 💀💀😭
I LOVE THIS VIDEO!!! It is conecting so well the movie aspects as well as the symbolic ones. Great job! I will definitely show it to other people. And yes, it is high time, that some things should end forever
I know its a bit of a joke in reveiws to say "X" is communist/capitalist propaganda. But I don't think that sort of semi-ironic tone really does the analysis justice. Here are my honest thoughts on why I think the Lego Movie is so memerable. The Lego Movie is the heros journey; perfected. I mean, it has all the clichés, but it's written so well, it's incredible. A prophecy, a dying mentor who comes back as a ghost, genaric loose cannon love intrest, exceedingly boring protagonist whoes just like a normal guy, worthless animal sidekick, sappy inspiring speech to tell the citizens to think for themselves, greedy corperate/political villan ect. It isn't even using these tropes ironically or deconstructing them. It full-heartedly embraces them. Only when irony starts being introduced in Lego Movie 2 does the whole thing fall apart. How come it does everything right to make such a boring story work so well? I think one of the best reasons is that everything is carefully designed to support the main motifs of creativity as an escape from a society. Emmet is a backseat rider for the majority of the plot and letting the more colorful charaters take the wheel, while emmet himself serving as comic relief, and also serves as a reminder of the evil the resistance is battleing. Id imagine he would get annoying if he took the spotlight for the middle third of the movie. Despite the bulk of charaterization comming from a trickle of new quirky charaters, and Emmet being a backseat protagonist for the middle third of the movie, we still get to learn about his journey. The audience has sutle hints dropped to him that he has some sort of untapped creativity.(The double-decker couch bit that ends up saving everyone, the fact that his mind is so empty that there is nothing to clear in the first place, ect) This conflict is echoed on 3 separate levels; scocietal, literal, and personal, and all of them are resolved in the exact same beat at the climax. First, the scocietal. "Honey, Where's my Pants " show is just like the "Ouch my balls" show from idiocracy. What's funny about it is that Emmet nearly thinks for himself in like the first 5 minutes of the movie. The famous line "What was I thinking? Eh, I don't care. " It is nearly explicitly clear that that is designed for the populace to stay conforming and to ignore how the people in power hold onto that power. From the only music on the radio being a dong about not worring. "Everything is awesome! Everything is cool when you're part of a team!" Are very orwellian lyrics when you co sider the state the scociety is in. In Mr Presidents Tower, the robot minions draw a lot of parallels to the citizens of Brixville. The robots behave in a way that is litterally indistinguishable from the citizens at large. The logical next step for this society is to reach a litteral state of conformity, which is the main evil plot that drives around, but it serves as a more methe story on a more surface level. They need to stop the bad guy from freezing people into place. It is a much more concrete goal than freeing the citizens from their shackles and letting them think for themselves. Mr. President literally plans to glue the citizens into position. This conflict is echoed a third time when the dad charater gets mad at his son for playing with his lego models. He sees it as just someone messing up his perfect world, but comes to realize that his son is just expressing his creativity. The big strategical mistake that the President makes is that he had subdued his own men to the point where stealth is trivial. Emmet is hard to track because his face is "too generic." Emmets plan is to"follow the instructions" a weakness that allows them to infiltrate the tower. Of course, a bold and bombastic plan where you build a super mega rainbow cannon would fail. Mr. President built up an organization that is a foil to creativity. Part of the reason why Emmet is special is because he is not, because he's just like everyone else. In the possi3 of master builders, he is a new perspective. The reason he is the chosen one is because he lived a life of conformity. Through his style of work, he is the only one to see that he can use conformity as a means to an end to trick the villan. The reason I think it's a good story is because it's a tight thematic ship. Each conflict goes to support the moteif of conformity vs. creativity. Just like a good joke. It makes the audience think of multiple things at once. Every conflict supports a singular message on the battle between free expression and order. This battle between "free expression" and "building the perfect world" is sort of emblematic of legos as a toy. We all mashed together some ugly multi-colored spaceship as kids. When we get older, we might enjoy the simple joy of following the instructions to assemble something like an owl sculpture or a movie set. But we lose some of that creativity which makes legos fun. Its okay to be the Dad, as long as we don't force order on others. A simple message, but one I think the lego movie makes quite well.
I've only read like half your comment so far, but that third paragraph which basically boils down to "it's playing all the tropes super straight but it's done so well" makes me think of what people (myself included) say about 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.
Yeah i feel that this message was less about communism, infact it feels individualistic with a emmet chooses his own personality. Its more non conformist than any commu or capi. Its just anti authoritarian
the starting scene of emmet rising from a lying position is clearly a reference to lenin's masoleum in of which it is visually similar to a bed...... the lbeisrlas are coming
I see a lot of people talking about the title and I gotta wonder if the title is satire or completely serious. I don’t judge either way, but it’s hard to tell and the comment section seems to be either not talking about it or criticizing the title for being misleading. I just wanna know which is it, that’s really it. Otherwise, loved the video essay, got some new perspective out of it :D
>Modern dystopia that seems good on the surface until you realize what's really going on >Villain is a capitalist overlord AND capitalism itself in the real world >Main working class protagonist overthrows the capitalist villain and lives a happy life alongside everyone else >Perfect world where everything is quite literally awesome >"This is communist propaganda" >What did Max mean by this?
> The capitalist tyrants are overthrown just so that the power vaccum is filled by communist tyrants that instead of enslaving the workers(which is bad) completely ruin the nation with a failed ideology(which is also bad) and then a new capitalist regime takes over and then communist and then capitalost again and the cycle repeats itself until society colapses
It shows an inherently non-capitalist society where no one works in the name of profit motive, the state and large businesses are so intertwined that the market is not free, it's not a free market society, then advocates for a collective focused style of life with no government.
Honestly surprised you’re the only one in this comments section that has said that. This is an admitedly good video essay, but to call the entire movie in support of communism is missing the point entirely. When the corporation becomes what the state used to be, forces conformity and destroys competition, it just becomes the state. That’s not capitalism. I also don’t see how this is a critique of individualism; at the beginning we see conformity being pushed in a way that can only be compared to countries like the former Soviet Union, and the characters constantly needing instructions for everything is very, very similar to the society that came as a result of countries like the Soviet Union - braindead, with no critical thinking, constantly looking up for orders. The entire time I was thinking; okay, but, where is the capitalism that is being critiqued, exactly?
@@void-creature The stage we are currently in is not free market capitalism. *Free* market capitalism would have zero state intervention, but that is not the case. Today, we have a mix of state intervention and private businesses. In fact, it's hard to even pinpoint a time in history when the market even was fully free. The british got close to it in the 1850s, but ultimately, almost every market out there has had and continues to have some degree of state involvement.
when this movie came out i watched it almost every day, because i appreciated how smart the story is and gives kids the benefit of the doubt. its not talking down to you, or treating you like you need your hand held to understand it, its genuinely a good story for anyone to watch. and the writing is so clever and thorough and fast paced that you could watch it 100 times and see a new bit every time. its probably still in my top 5 movies of all time. thank you for making this video!
Its kinda funny that wild style’s revolution was televised, which is an ironic twist on the quote “the revolution won’t be televised” from gil scott-heron
Hey so usually I don't like to comment about "oh this has so few views crazy" but like, damn bro. This is some good content. God speed. Edit: called it
As a kid I didn’t really have any friends and I was really lonely, Emmitt really helped me come to terms with that when I was younger. I also I have autism and it’s always been really hard for me to “fit in”, the Lego movie was a really good way for me to understand that it’s ok that I’m not the same as everyone else.
a special one, with heart of red
Undertale reference?
More like: A special one, with a heart of yellow (yes, that is a Balls Undertale Clover reference from the hit fangame Undertale Yellow)
idk what to put here
toby fox??!!?1!?!?!?11?!!?1?!
What a bunch-a hippy, dippy, baloney
Took this man 9 minutes to put lego movie and Adolf Hitler in the same video
I now understand why Lego movie goes around my head almost always when I read about Marxist theory and history of anti-communism.
“Benny gets everyone back to bricksburg with the power of autism.”
There is nothing else beyond this point. All else is irrelevant in the face of true comedy.
Benny is the final form of autism
Benny is my favorite character BECAUSE of that hyperfixation of his
Never underestimate the power of your special interests
Ideed
@@glowdonk What’s even funnier to me is my special interests involve space too. I felt really connected to bennys character as a kid lmfao
- The power of heterosexuality
- The power of misogyny
- The power of autism
These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect movie. But LEGO accidentaly added an extra ingredient to the movie:
- The power to turn hearts and minds towards sympathetic ends
Its like the fucking infinity stones.
But turns out
I'm ALL of them
yep, romance, with drama, and weird stuff, = perfect movie
"until they were met with an even bigger threat
women"
the power of socialism
I can't believe how long it took me to get the "security cameras, all history books, voting machines... Wait a minute-" joke. I never got it till I was like 17
I guess when we were younger, we were never taught about despotic rule, or anything in-depth about governance or power. I ended up teaching myself quite a bit when I got older, and my brain also developed enough to form these connections more easily.
I could see that Octan was a massive corporation working with a corrupt government to do bad things, but I didn't get the significance of the items listed.
@@Rainfire-forgets-to-animate Exactly! That's what I thought too. I was stuck in a basic, child's mindset of "red team bad, blue team good", so I did not understand the following things.
Yeah, when you notice the problems with modern society, you'll understand a lot more of the deeper jokes within some of these films.
I'm cryinf i realized when I was like 10 or 9😭😭
Fun fact: octan has been a fake lego brand since 1992
It's also in one of the oldest lego games, Lego Island (although it isn't really important, just the logos are there like the actual stickers)
before octan there was shell, im happy that they switched to a fictional brand
Yeah it suits the whole legos sets rarely have more than like two corporations as an in-universe explanation for the monopolism dynamic.
I was so unbelievably shocked to see the Octan logo on a Lego City set after seeing the movie, then to realize it was always there. Felt like discovering the Illuminati or something
Protogen Spotted.
Must. Not. Boop.
Barbie had 3 times the budget, 10 years of hindsight, and 1 times the Will Ferrell
If I had a nickel for everytime Will Ferrell stared in a film that invokes existential thought that’s also based on a toy franchise, I’d have two nickels
Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice
In his later career I cant stand him. Possibly Ive grown or he simply doesn’t have the same impact he used to. Barbie, Homes and Watson, The House. All giga shit performance
@@lChaseMouseoh! Interesting take
@@retrotaco11 I fucking love that show
0.5 times the will ferrell
"Thankfully they are prevented from being sent to room 101 through the power of Heterosexuality"
Absolutely Banger line
E
Literally 1984
The piece of resistance is clearly a metaphor for reading theory, as it tends to make it difficult to move thanks to a massive protrusion from your body.
your protustion is massive? thats gotta be atleast 4 inches
"This is how cops are made in real life" had me dying
so glad someone liked that one
It's true, you never see cops with a second face on the back of their heads, it gets removed during training 😔
@@maxmunich More than you think. Great joke.
same
I thought It was a genuine metaphor for how people have their humanity essentially erased through the training process
The unstoppable power of autism is something that I just have to use more regularly
LMFAO I AM STEALING THIS
Would like to upote but you currently have 1111 likes and I do not want to disturb this nice order.
@@zafranorbian757 you know how to respect the peace. ✌️
but isn't the power of autism balanced by the fact that it is hyper-specific?
@@clintonbehrends4659 hmmmm you got me there
"Don't know what the fuck is up with the dude throwing the tomohawk"
It's a dude. Throwing a tomohawk. In an old timey saloon.
"Cowboy and Indian" lego sets were numerous.
I mean it should've been obvious like 2 minutes into the video that this guy knows 0 about any history
@blackcontentcreator this isn't about history in any way, this is about modern life, so his lack of knowledge of history which you didn't explain means absolutely nothing.
"Comrade there's political dissonance in Lego Utopia"
👮♂"Heeeeeyyyyy!"
"Build the Gulag"
"Round up the enemies of the proletariat and give them a pickaxe!"
I cant tell if this is Anti Leninist or not💀💀
While I disagree with your likely political leanings this comment is hilarious
@@anitaremenarova6662 wdym, it's a sarcastic joke, ofc it's not to be taken seriously lol
☝️🤓
@@aturchomicz821The answer is yes.
the birds being not real in this film is a reference to the fact that birds aren't real irl
Who knew The Institute was watching them too?
yeah because theyre goverment drones
Fallout 4 reference? Under a video about the lego movie... i love it!
@@pendremacherald6758
@@pendremacherald6758r/unexpectedfallout
IF IT FLIES IT SPIES!!!
remember when stalin built the double-decker couch? hundreds died....
I think that’s a folk tale by some random person who said he was the only person who lived through the couch of 47’
Can't forget the big communist bed made out of the flesh of siberians, poles and baltic nationalities
Truly a horror of cummunism..
Communism couch incident 100 million dead
@@Cascade7155 100 gorbillion died when lord business ate the lego kulaks with his spoon
@@Cascade7155 *200
A bad kids movie has no deeper message for its story
a good kids movie has a deeper message that older watchers can get
and a great kids movie can tell that message in a way that even young kids can understand without sacrificing quality, that's what the lego movie is
I loved the movie many years ago, and even though I wasn't very old, it managed to still get its point across while still being an amazing movie, even if I maybe didn't know all the terms and whatnot
like I wouldn't say it told me "Communism is good and any other economy is bad", but it at least told me the message that capitalism isn't perfect by any means and that corporations aren't selfless entities but are more often then not some level of evil
Reminds me of Kung Fu Panda
as an autistic guy, i can confirm we become incomprehensible when allowed to engage in our hyperfixations
Idk if every autistic person also has these but i get hyper fixations in specific things for a bit of time before moving on to the next interesting thing
The Lego movie being released at the same time as my “space” phase definitely made him my favorite character
@@toxi101yt5 I get the same thing, I go through "phases" I always thought it had something to do with the fact that I also have ADHD.
sometimes i play genshin so hard that i have to get up and jump around the room. same with subnautica when i get the fear-of-deep-spaces jitters
As another autistic rabbit uh
Yeah can confirm I go utterly silent when I do my trains
one glimpse of a rotary phone and it's so joever for me i will simply go wacky
I think it's also really interesting how Emmett is completely oblivious to the redundancy of voting machines until he says it out loud, as if President Business is the only President there has ever been for quite some time.
I just realized this…oh my goodness. I got like “oh he’s voted cause his company makes the machines” but it just clicked in my brain that he’s been the ONLY one voted for who knows how long. Ironically, I find it more funny because it calls back to it being about the dad of the kid. The dad makes the rules so obviously he’s always be the one in charge when it comes to the legos LMAO
@@compassrose1466 Honestly, I think there's probably more candidates that people can vote for, but the voting machines rig them to all be in favor of President Business, just to give an illusion of choice.
@@compassrose1466 theres also a sign in the background of the Everything is awsome scene saying "I'm President, Because I said So" (or something to that effect) just adding to the beauty that is this film
ohhhhhhhhhhhh 😮
@@thorinpixelshield3951 you can see the poster your talking about in this video at 8:51
,,after everyone hugs and congratulates themselves on ending capitalism, we are immediately met with an even bigger threat, women"
this killed me
15:40 Funny thing that, Octan was not invented for this film. Octan is a fictional fuel company that's been popping up in just about every single LEGO product line since 1992. While originally just a stand in for when LEGO couldn't license the rights to Shell or the like, it since became a piece of crossover establishing iconography and branched out into businesses other than fossil fuels. When working on this film it was just obvious to the people working on it that they could use the already established megacorporation from the old toys and add some lore beyond a color scheme and logo.
I love it when benny's like
"it's spaceshipin' time"
and spaceships over all those guys
Thanks for the gold kind stranger! YOU sir have won the Internet for today! This. Pfp checks out. [Everyone liked that.] [Everyone disliked that.] Speech 100 Sneak 100 Wholesome 100 Me, an intellectual: Allow us to introduce ourselves. *Surprised pikachu face* Is that a jojo reference? Big floppa bingus doge doggo pepe may mays!😂😂😂
@@cranberrysaucekrazybloke1.891The dying breaths of your final braincell be like
Ksp lore
@@lakaboss9313 average reply in ohio ☠☠☠
This is actually pretty much how it goes in the movie, first time a comment like this was accurate
When we were being taught about 1984 in highschool. At one point during analysis of the book I had an epiphany and I said out loud that the story, themes and messages in 1984 reminded me a lot of the LEGO movie. I then went back and rewatched the movie after finishing the book and it all made so much sense. The LEGO Movie is the true movie adaptation of 1984
I just read the book and now my TH-cam is all like: "You want to see this fun video about the Lego Movie and communism!"
In the beginning of the video I was thinking: "This sounds almost like 1984." And the direct reference at 7:34 was like: "See, it is like 1984"
Capitalism is productive communism is destructive
“Ignorance is strength
Smiling is happiness
Instruction is creativity”
-President/Lord Business
1984 is a garbage attempt of piracy.
I hope, then, that you realize both the LEGO movie and 1984 are not communist propaganda but anti-communist, and that nothing described in here criticizes capitalism but the opposite.
11:00 "prevented from being sent to room 101 through the power of heterosexuality" why did that joke get me?
this title goes so hard like what do you MEAN taco Tuesday is included in a communist manifesto? thats crazy
Guys I have a theory!!!
Octan: Began in 1992
Cold War: ended in 1991
collusion ⁉️
4th Reich ass conclusion
Octan is actually the SOVIET UNION confirmed. Illuminati confirmed
Real
😮
I used the lego movie in an eglish paper once in high school. I had to write about how fictional dictatorships relate to real world ones. I got a B
you got a B because you were right and to give you an A is to agree, people dont want to admit they've been brainwashed, people dont want to admit they are wrong
@@ahuman9391I think brainwashing would be seen as “too extreme” in today’s world
That’s why a I think a better word to use is indoctrination
@@Prororo brain washing is the perfect word. Tell me when you hear the word "communism" I guess you have a negative connotation to the word, but "capitalism" you do not, unless you are educated this is how you see the world. Communism is bad, capitalism is good. But in reality it is quite the opposite. You see communism as bad because it goes directly against capitalism and the power that the rich get in this society, in a communist society it's classless, there are no rich, there are no poor, we are just people, humans. This is further backed with how we go to war with any country that tries to convert to communism, not because communism is bad but because the second there's a proper successful communist country we will ALL realize we've been lied to. Brainwashing is the perfect term
@@ahuman9391ngl i like the idea but his paper itself might have just been a B anyways
@@bp42s56 always a possibility, not given enough information to say otherwise and I always like finding a place to call out society terrible, the more that accept it now with be more accepting of a revolution in the future, even if their hatred isn't fully real, which yes, is propaganda, and yes, it's not good, but it's very useful
22:04 "With the unstoppable power of autism".
As an autistic, I can confirm that with my autism, I am unstoppable!
I wish you'd mentioned that Lord Business's cape is actually a giant red tie, like the one a businessman would wear
not something i'd noticed, good observation
I NEVER NOTICED THIS
more specifically the tie that the dad wears
or agent 47
his helmet is the knot of the tie
chris pratt voicing the most regular guy in the world makes s much sense
Only gets truer the more movies they decide to shove him into
It’s a me. Mario.
@@user-jj9qd9bi8c not Mario, *A Mario*
Normally, I hate hate Chris Pratt's roles placements but I actually like his acting in this movements.
Aren’t most of these arguments for it being anarchist propaganda?
Communism and anarchism are very similar, both are societies without government.
@@deathisdead270 not falling for the bait
@@noutwf the bait?
@@deathisdead270 oh sorry I thought you were trying to provoke me with that statement. Communism has a very very active government that essentially aims to control society as much as possible.
Both are more or less the same in definition; a stable, stateless, classless, and moneyless society under a decentralized order. At some point of this video he pokes fun about utopian socialism being unrealistic which as a commie I'll admit if we live in a "utopia" a tiny mistake would bring a catastrophe. If we did ever reach communism even, it's the societies responsibility to keep themselves afloat.
Personally I would argue that it's flipped the other way around and that Bricksburg is a parody of communism in the worst case scenario (more especially the authoritarian aspects common in a few east asian countries), not a parody of an absolute monopoly in capitalism.
Not really, it's more so a criticism of authoritarianism
@@Ralzone yes exactly
the reality is that all forms of authoritarianism (regardless of what their origin is i.e. communism, fascism, or monopolism) all end up being indistinguishable from one another
@rootigaroot9922 They are major differences between different forms of authoritarianism/ totalitarianism (fascism and especially nazism being objectively worse than maoism, for example).
Also I would like to point out that, because of the timer at the end of the movie, we know that *Mississippi is canonically a real place in the Lego world.*
I figured it's a time measurement in the Lego world and is just an import from the real world, since there are real people in the movie
@@memerminecraft585 I mean Idk how they'd import concepts when other concepts which Lego people haven't discovered are completely unknown.
The location of Middle Zealand implies both a knowledge of New Zealand and its connection to Middle Earth
@@theseus0467The kid is imagining all this (for the most part,I’m looking at you scene where Emmet moves on his own in the real world) so we can assume that’s how it got imported
I remember watching this in theatres, the movie hits the ground RUNNING with its comedy, the theatre was laughing out loud before our main character is even introduced.
I hope you make another video essay someday, the sheer lack of fluff was so heartening!
Bro where did this amazing video come from? This video is incredible and just a great job all-around!
22:02 "Benny gets everyone back to BricksBurg with the unstoppable power of autism." I'm dead 😭
as a wild autisticm, i can agree
6:18 "his double-decker couch, his one original idea, only works with friends."
*fu@# that is such a good little detail*
seriously, the Lego Movie IS one of the best animated movies.
I would way more argue that this story feels way more like 1984. Replace lord business with the government there and violla, Lego movie.
It is certainly about individualism, but that stands in stark contrast to the ideas of communism.
I'm not sure how he was able to bunch up Communism, Individualism, and a little bit of Facism. All three of those ideologies are like the extreme opposite to eachother in most ways. I also felt like he was trying to review the lego movie than proving his points. It was however a solid review.
@@gruby_0924 Communism and fascism are basically the same thing, the latter was just a competitive reaction to the former.
@@SideQuestStories uh, no, wtf are you talking about.
“a socioeconomic order centered around common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange that allocates products to everyone in the society based on need. A communist society would entail the absence of private property and social classes, and ultimately money and the state (or nation state).”
VS
“a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and/or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.”
They could not be much more opposed
@@SideQuestStories In theory communism isn't like fascism, but in practice that's what always happens
@@SideQuestStories Smartest centrist. everyone how disagrees with me is literally a fascism
I do hope you know that the LEGO Movie is digitally animated. They took photorealistic scans of bricks, including fingerprints for maximum authenticity.
when emmett is listing off all the things octan makes he lists music with a clear punk singer and band in the background something very anti capitalist becoming something a capitalist makes just something i noticed
“Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would *critique* capital end up *reinforcing* it instead.”
Which has a double meaning here for both the corporate published punk music in universe, but also the movie itself.
Sounds like you've never heard of the pop star conspiracy in South Korean.
The entire subculture of punk has been actively commoditized since its inception
@@sp4c1ng_0ut8 The original punks died out, however the values live on. Punks modify copyrighted works for their own creative interests, it's argued the free modding scene is the result of punk mentality, like modelling a Thomas the Tank Engine and slipping it into any game.
@@scrittle fair enough
Honestly I think Benny’s representation of autistic hyper-fixation goes even deeper. Every time he says “spaceship!” but especially when he says it repeatedly when he actually gets to build and use one, I interpret it as him spouting out lots of technical terms and lingo, but since none of it registers with anyone else they just perceive it as him saying “spaceship!”
Credentials: Have had many an autistic ramble myself that makes no sense to the average person.
I love that
What my friends hear when i talk about hoi4
Not autistic, but start foaming at the mouth any time I find any interesting telecom infrastructure. This is probably how people see me go on about bands and mimo, and microwaves lol.
He was never confirmed, therefore all you get out of him is a cartoony caricature of a space obsession. Reminds me of Benedict Cumberbatch ranting about his portrayal of ASD characters (Turing, Sherlock).
He researched his Frankenstein scientist role for a stage play and had this to say: “I went to schools and met people, some of whom are very high functioning on the autistic spectrum. I met a 17-year-old who had the mental age of a one and a half year old. Everything was just about bodily functions. Smell. Sexual arousal. Shitting. Whatever. So when I hear people use diagnostic labels casually - Sherlock is autistic, Turing is autistic - it really upsets me.”
@@scrittle What’s wrong with noting the very autism-coded attributes of a character? If anything, Benny is a breath of fresh air compared to the horrible representation that autistic people (myself included) have to put up with. It’s nice to see a clearly autistic-coded character that isn’t just a bunch of stereotypes thrown together.
I'd say instead of communist the movie is more just general anti-authoritarian. "Lord Business" is also functioning as the state, and Libertarians and Socialists agree- Corporatocracy is shit. (The point they disagree on is that Libertarians think less government will solve the Corporatocracy conundrum while Socialists think more government will solve the problem)
Correction, socialist think workers owning the means of production is what will solve the issue. Socialist don't like big government at all.
so you're just the "socialism is when the government does stuff" meme but an actual person huh
i lost my edging streak to this scrumptous vidéo i love u
I'll give this, the anti democratic title got my attention. Now it's getting my ⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️
A true patriot
This must be the work of the Automatons. We've got another Major order.
HELLDIVERS 2 REFERENCE SPOTTED
Doesn't have enough aoe, gonna use ⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️➡️
Helldivers is everwhere. Keep spreading patriotism men
"after everyone hugs and congratulates themselves on ending capitalism, we are immediately met with an even bigger threat. wome-"
i just thought how cool it would've been if the real life lego sets made to tie into the movie were only straight-and-narrow 'realistic' scenes that lord business wants. then you'd have to dissassemble them and ignore the instructions to get the fun mechs and cloud cuckoo land and whatnot. it undercuts the film a bit to give you instructions for the expressive, revolutionary builds. this could be taken as an analogue for corporations/governments that pretend to be gay/environmentally concious/morally sound, when in reality they are just trying to pull you back into the system.
Had you submitted this as a written essay to my university, i would have graduated you on the spot. /s but truly, this is far above the kind of reflection i expect from youtube at breakfast times. And its consise aswell? Im astounded.
I can’t believe the goddamn Lego movie is the greatest piece of modern socialist media but I’m so glad it is
I know now why I turned out why I did, it’s because I watched this movie as a kid
Finally, a worthy successor to Chicken Run.
The greatest piece of-not Robots from 2005? Not a A BUG’S LIFE??
I watched this a TON yet I'm still capitalist. I guess I just don't do starvation lol.
@@DarkSackOfficial yes because socialism means that every one starves, no one starves under capitalism, no one ever, no one had ever starved under capitalism
And we even got Lego Batman Movie out of this AND a fun musical sequel.
sadly also lego ninjago
Lego batman was s tier childhood movies
'Fun musical sequel' was shit same as ninjago movie (The others are great though)
@thetoastnbutterpodcast64 debatably
@thetoastnbutterpodcast64 yeah it wasn't as good as the first movie but I like the music!
So you said Vitruvius's death comes unexpectedly, however i think different. His death follows a very common part of the heroes Journey (a theory on how to build stories and is used pretty often in fantasy), when the protagonist loses the mentor. Vitruvius is literally a caricature of classic 'mentor 'type characters in movies eg. Dumbledore, Gandalf and Obi-wan. So really, the Lego movie is playing into another cliche by killing him off. It's just such a self aware movie and I love it.
Max you really have a talent for video essays, this video introduced me to your channel and I can't wait for more video essays.
14:22 to be fair, the prophecy does say “[…] this *master builder* […]”
fuck
@@maxmunich The only acceptable answer
It still works if the line was just changed to "Wildstyle assumes the Special must be a *stereotypical* master builder" 😋
@@maxmunich thanks for this thoughtful insight on this newfound information
He *is* a master builder! Not of actual lego pieces, but a builder of relationships and an integral part of the revolution.
I didn't expect hearing "Ferrellussy" in a video essay about communist lego media but it became infinitely better because of that
what does that word mean? I tried to search it on google; surprisingly no results.
@@divyankrana16 Ferrel + ussy
Ferrel is the last name of the voice actor who played lord business
I have no idea how to explain the meaning of ussy without triggering comment censorship but you can just google that part.
I guess It's because I'm eastern european, but I think this movie has a lot of stuff that's pretty anti communist... Of course only under capitalism and fascism can bad things happen...
Thank god. Only we who have been through actually know how communism is like.
@@raininginside Noooooo guys! That wasn't REAL communism! Hurrr durrrrrrrr
Yeah this guy gets it completely wrong, I guess because he is a communist himself. The way he talks about secret police, surveillance, the pressure to succumb to be normal. That's communism! That's what the movie critiques! He mentions 1984... The book 1984 is anti-communist! This movie isn't anti-capitalistic or even that anti-communist. He thinks that it must be anti-capitalist, even though in reality it's anti-dictatorship in general and definitely more anti-communist and anti-fascist than anti-capitalist.
@@wictoriono George Orwell was openly a socialist. I think the attitude of "That's not capitalism, that's communism!" is a pedantic construct to distract people from the actual ideas of either system. Being limited by language is an extremely foregrounded theme in 1984.
@@Nameless_Individual
Openly calling himself a socialist - sure, but I think over time his views changed, and he saw certain issues, as I believe Animal Farm was strongly refering to USSR, with 1984 that may allude to nazi state as well.
Definitely wasn't communist or marxist, and we're not living in the times where opression and colonialism was still commonly prevalent.
Either way, I wouldn't use it either way to defend my points for, or against capitalism/communism.
13:59
“Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.”
Is that line from Ratatouille or something?
I am genuinely unable to tell if this is a critique of fascism, communism, capitalism or all authoritarianism all at once.
i think we communists tend to get stuck on interpreting every portrayal of authoritarianism as capitalism or fascism, but the lego movie is pretty clearly anti-corporate, so i think this interpretation is justified.
@@st0lf Of course you would, it's not like there's ever been terrible authoritarian communism
tbh we should go back to tribe ideology lol
It's undoubtedly anarchist in nature
@@SideQuestStories i mean this is part of why we have this bias. We see how previous attempts relied on authoritarianism and caused a lot of suffering. Analysing them thoroughly and critically is an important part of modern socialist ideas. There are those among us who do support for example the Stalinist/marxist-leninist idea of communism, but also those who fundamentally oppose this.
“Benny gets everyone back to Bricksburg with the unstoppable power of autism” (22:02)
- Maxmunich 2024
What the heck, i watched this video full screen and was shocked after i zoomed out and realised it only had 1000 views, while i expected millions or smt, everything was top notch and made me think so much, just wow
It‘s got more than 100.000 now :)
YT doesn't like spreading videos that would make people think too hard. We might rise up agains them if we do.
@@DolphinsAreWeird Hasan clips and videos get millions of views though?
@@DolphinsAreWeird Half a mil now from a youtuber with under 10k subscribers.
I think the title doesn't help. People who dislike communism and/or socialism won't click cause they liked the movie and don't want it to be muddied by politics. And people who likes communism and/or socialism might be afraid that this video is anti-leftist political ideas. I might be wrong but it was what I felt seeing the title. I believed the latter btw ^^
I remember watching the Lego Movie back in late 2014 when I was 7 and it first released On Demand. Now I’m 16 somewhat close to 17 and it’s still one of my favorite movies of all time. Absolute masterpiece and has so many hidden messages and metaphors. I have yet to watch The Lego Movie 2 though.
14:45 This map looks creepy af. Like my brain immediately assumed that this is Europe, with the communist Eastern Block being Bricksburg (GDR reference, with the half-German name lol), and Vladek's realm is the Soviet Union 💀🗿
This is an amazing breakdown of what made the Lego Movie just.. stand out from the rest. I’m definitely on board for more and I can’t wait to see what else you can do. Here’s to 100k soon, you’d deserve it.
Can't believe i got neobing jumpscared on accident.
Can't believe i got neobing jumpscared on accident.
why is this man jumpscaring people is he fnaf at freddies
NeoBing??? What the hell lmao
I think you weren’t trying to tell us this was about communism, you just wanted to talk about the best movie ever
I want more of this please
ok
“Oh, you like the Lego movie! What do you think is the best part of it?”
“Well, I suppose it’s the subtle hints towards communism and the manifesto of ignorance being bliss, it very smartly hides this premise hidden within a silly funny story for kids. Speaking about the kids, the movie seems to make children aware of the differences between social classes and how the rich benefit off the poor, and how we should rise against our so-called ‘superiors’.”
“…”
“So why do you like it?”
“…Lego funny”
the algorithm that keeps me trapped in an endless cycle of media consumption cooked with this one
There was absolutely no dead air in this video, big props for that
This video was the most eye-opening video essay on a film I've ever seen. The amount of depth that was revealed of this movie that I didn't even think about....wow. Great editing too.
8:24 I once went to a lego store where the only music that was playing was an accusic version of "everything is awesome", I have no clue how the employees survived there
An interesting fact about about Octan is that actually has been appearing in Lego sets for decades as a generic company.
I am happy to see you got this finished. I remember watching this movie when it came out, it was like the perfect age for me to watch this movie and I still fondly remember it. Hope this video gets more views because it's well deserved for the time and effort you put into it.
thanks king
I watched it when it was pretty new too, Im happy to say it and others like it affected me very positively
Man, i love these videos, geunine comentary without sacrificing context and context without being a play by play and insane good writing
This is a really cool vid overall but I'm curious as to what was meant at 17:31 with linking Emmett's vision to the invisible hand of the market? I feel like that points a stretch and it wasn't really elaborated beyond saying "here is symbolism" so i don't get what pointing it out has to do with a broader argument anyway
I wouldnt really think of lego movie as communist I would istead say that it certainly is anti authoritarian
Communist ideology believes in the idea of a classless and stateless society. Ergo meaning communism is an anti authoritarian ideology. You’re right in saying that it being an anti authoritarian movie doesn’t make in a communist movie. But apart from probably anarchism there isn’t really any other prolific ideology that is both anti authoritarian and is opposed to the mechanism of capital. Without the context of the movie as a whole you could say this was a libertarian movie, but liberalism and capitalism go hand in hand. That’s probably why he called it communist.
@@proleterriert8075amazing observation
@@proleterriert8075 You are correct if we are using ideal textbook definition of communism but in practice most (if not all) communist regimes are very authoritarian. Thats why I find the use of communism in this case a bit misleading. Calling the message of the film anarchist or anarchocommunist would be a lot more accurate in my opinion but I still stand behind anti-authoritarian as best descriptor as the critique of capitalism didnt seem as prominent to me and it could in my opinion be seen more as a critique of being forced/brainwashed to conform to societal norms.
@@ondrejsvehla425 I was actually going to talk about how the discussion was only applicable to communist theory and actual countries that call themselves communist obviously do not conform to the ideology completely. I removed that from my initial comment because I didn’t want to completely bore people with a wall of text so I shortened it just so I could make my point. in hindsight to me making my original comment I concede that you’re probably right in that this is more anarcho-communist than outright communism but I still stand by my point that this is still very much so a communist movie in its message
@@proleterriert8075the overall message shifts from just anti authoritarian depending on your interpretation of the beginning, where we see bricksburgs society, which is very subjective. That means there is sadly nothing more to debate about so fare well and may the force be with you.
I love how incredibly straightforward this is. no intro, gets straight to the point, various random "this doesnt prove any point that im trying to make i just love it" bits throughout, the wonderful social commentary, the just general awesomeness of the video, the line "the unstoppable power of autism"
this is one of the best videos ive watched so far this year.
it, and im autistic so i mean this as a compliment, exudes autism energy. like before you proofread or edited it you wrote in in one stream of consciousness infodump. incredible.
The mix of deep analysis and mentioning small fun details was really entertaining! Great video!
I think I saw Friedrich Engels in the credits
15:26 "He really does put his whole ferrellussy into this persona" made me do a double take lmao
This is one of the Smartest Videos I´ve ever seen. The Comparison between Emmets falling into the Cave and Platos metaphor with Emmet "falling" into a Cave and the hypothetical prisoners of Plato leaving voluntarily is brilliant.
in the DVD commentary, one of the people who worked on the film says they went with 8 1/2 years because it was the age of his kid
great video
I'd like to point out something I only just now noticed.
Benny builds the spaceship in the same amount of time it takes for the entire group of Master Builders to build the base of the sub. (Which was like maybe five seconds.)
So, either Benny gets hopped up on meth levels of autistic stimming, or he's genuinely just *that* fast.
it's both
benny solos goku, easily /j
Can confirm, the power of autism lets you build Legos fast
I think honestly that the Lego Movie focuses more on themes of will and the self rather than any form of socialistic positivity. Hell, I could easily argue the opposite comparing Brickburg to Stalins USSR, the CCP's dictatorship etc. Marx himself, a stan for Hegel considered society before the individual, himself saying that "the so called rights of man are nothing but the rights of the member of the civil society, "
Honestly, I think that the writings of Kierkegaard offer some interesting insites that the Lego Movie also deals with. While I don't agree with this video, and I think that some of the arguements brought up don't really work, I'm glad to see somebody else who likes the movie as I do.
CCP is a dictatorship? I thought members of the CCP were voted in by the Chinese people?
9:33 When you said “like Ben sheperio” I laughed out loud before the punch line I just heard his name and started laughing the jokes in here are so funny help 💀💀😭
I LOVE THIS VIDEO!!! It is conecting so well the movie aspects as well as the symbolic ones. Great job! I will definitely show it to other people. And yes, it is high time, that some things should end forever
it is just a movie, and this is just a guy seeing whatever he wants to see in the movie
for those Nut will love those ideology, political, religious and belief, those are idiot.
I know its a bit of a joke in reveiws to say "X" is communist/capitalist propaganda. But I don't think that sort of semi-ironic tone really does the analysis justice. Here are my honest thoughts on why I think the Lego Movie is so memerable.
The Lego Movie is the heros journey; perfected. I mean, it has all the clichés, but it's written so well, it's incredible. A prophecy, a dying mentor who comes back as a ghost, genaric loose cannon love intrest, exceedingly boring protagonist whoes just like a normal guy, worthless animal sidekick, sappy inspiring speech to tell the citizens to think for themselves, greedy corperate/political villan ect.
It isn't even using these tropes ironically or deconstructing them. It full-heartedly embraces them. Only when irony starts being introduced in Lego Movie 2 does the whole thing fall apart. How come it does everything right to make such a boring story work so well?
I think one of the best reasons is that everything is carefully designed to support the main motifs of creativity as an escape from a society. Emmet is a backseat rider for the majority of the plot and letting the more colorful charaters take the wheel, while emmet himself serving as comic relief, and also serves as a reminder of the evil the resistance is battleing.
Id imagine he would get annoying if he took the spotlight for the middle third of the movie. Despite the bulk of charaterization comming from a trickle of new quirky charaters, and Emmet being a backseat protagonist for the middle third of the movie, we still get to learn about his journey. The audience has sutle hints dropped to him that he has some sort of untapped creativity.(The double-decker couch bit that ends up saving everyone, the fact that his mind is so empty that there is nothing to clear in the first place, ect)
This conflict is echoed on 3 separate levels; scocietal, literal, and personal, and all of them are resolved in the exact same beat at the climax. First, the scocietal. "Honey, Where's my Pants " show is just like the "Ouch my balls" show from idiocracy. What's funny about it is that Emmet nearly thinks for himself in like the first 5 minutes of the movie. The famous line "What was I thinking? Eh, I don't care. " It is nearly explicitly clear that that is designed for the populace to stay conforming and to ignore how the people in power hold onto that power. From the only music on the radio being a dong about not worring. "Everything is awesome! Everything is cool when you're part of a team!" Are very orwellian lyrics when you co sider the state the scociety is in. In Mr Presidents Tower, the robot minions draw a lot of parallels to the citizens of Brixville. The robots behave in a way that is litterally indistinguishable from the citizens at large.
The logical next step for this society is to reach a litteral state of conformity, which is the main evil plot that drives around, but it serves as a more methe story on a more surface level. They need to stop the bad guy from freezing people into place. It is a much more concrete goal than freeing the citizens from their shackles and letting them think for themselves. Mr. President literally plans to glue the citizens into position.
This conflict is echoed a third time when the dad charater gets mad at his son for playing with his lego models. He sees it as just someone messing up his perfect world, but comes to realize that his son is just expressing his creativity.
The big strategical mistake that the President makes is that he had subdued his own men to the point where stealth is trivial. Emmet is hard to track because his face is "too generic." Emmets plan is to"follow the instructions" a weakness that allows them to infiltrate the tower. Of course, a bold and bombastic plan where you build a super mega rainbow cannon would fail. Mr. President built up an organization that is a foil to creativity. Part of the reason why Emmet is special is because he is not, because he's just like everyone else. In the possi3 of master builders, he is a new perspective. The reason he is the chosen one is because he lived a life of conformity. Through his style of work, he is the only one to see that he can use conformity as a means to an end to trick the villan.
The reason I think it's a good story is because it's a tight thematic ship. Each conflict goes to support the moteif of conformity vs. creativity.
Just like a good joke. It makes the audience think of multiple things at once. Every conflict supports a singular message on the battle between free expression and order.
This battle between "free expression" and "building the perfect world" is sort of emblematic of legos as a toy. We all mashed together some ugly multi-colored spaceship as kids. When we get older, we might enjoy the simple joy of following the instructions to assemble something like an owl sculpture or a movie set. But we lose some of that creativity which makes legos fun. Its okay to be the Dad, as long as we don't force order on others. A simple message, but one I think the lego movie makes quite well.
I've only read like half your comment so far, but that third paragraph which basically boils down to "it's playing all the tropes super straight but it's done so well" makes me think of what people (myself included) say about 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.
Yeah i feel that this message was less about communism, infact it feels individualistic with a emmet chooses his own personality. Its more non conformist than any commu or capi. Its just anti authoritarian
Write more of those around the internet, you’re making the quality of spent time better
Good lord take it to a publisher
the starting scene of emmet rising from a lying position is clearly a reference to lenin's masoleum in of which it is visually similar to a bed...... the lbeisrlas are coming
I see a lot of people talking about the title and I gotta wonder if the title is satire or completely serious. I don’t judge either way, but it’s hard to tell and the comment section seems to be either not talking about it or criticizing the title for being misleading. I just wanna know which is it, that’s really it.
Otherwise, loved the video essay, got some new perspective out of it :D
This video essay is diabolically underrated. Well done lad
>Modern dystopia that seems good on the surface until you realize what's really going on
>Villain is a capitalist overlord AND capitalism itself in the real world
>Main working class protagonist overthrows the capitalist villain and lives a happy life alongside everyone else
>Perfect world where everything is quite literally awesome
>"This is communist propaganda"
>What did Max mean by this?
> The capitalist tyrants are overthrown just so that the power vaccum is filled by communist tyrants that instead of enslaving the workers(which is bad) completely ruin the nation with a failed ideology(which is also bad) and then a new capitalist regime takes over and then communist and then capitalost again and the cycle repeats itself until society colapses
Everything Is Propoganda
It shows an inherently non-capitalist society where no one works in the name of profit motive, the state and large businesses are so intertwined that the market is not free, it's not a free market society, then advocates for a collective focused style of life with no government.
But remember the second Lego movie is a communist world hell scape
Communism promises everything but takes away the little things
>The next movie has the Utopia turn into an apocalypse
ok- im only 2 minutes in and you've convinced me to bookmark this video, watch the movie again, and then come back to this. great work dude!
You got all this from a movie about some dude wanting to glue his LEGO sets together?
Somewhat surprised you didn’t mention Lazar 1987 when you mention the city’s limit wall
Big issue: This isn’t a capitalist society. Everything is run by a single corporation. There is no free market. The society is endgame corporatism.
Honestly surprised you’re the only one in this comments section that has said that. This is an admitedly good video essay, but to call the entire movie in support of communism is missing the point entirely. When the corporation becomes what the state used to be, forces conformity and destroys competition, it just becomes the state. That’s not capitalism. I also don’t see how this is a critique of individualism; at the beginning we see conformity being pushed in a way that can only be compared to countries like the former Soviet Union, and the characters constantly needing instructions for everything is very, very similar to the society that came as a result of countries like the Soviet Union - braindead, with no critical thinking, constantly looking up for orders. The entire time I was thinking; okay, but, where is the capitalism that is being critiqued, exactly?
That is true, though at the same time a lot of the critique is still very applicable to free market capitalism in it's current stage
@@void-creature The stage we are currently in is not free market capitalism. *Free* market capitalism would have zero state intervention, but that is not the case. Today, we have a mix of state intervention and private businesses. In fact, it's hard to even pinpoint a time in history when the market even was fully free. The british got close to it in the 1850s, but ultimately, almost every market out there has had and continues to have some degree of state involvement.
Free market capitalism will always lead to one company owning everything
@@Ironmatt999 then the Free Market ceases to exist and the name no longer applies. How is that much different from the state owning everything anyhow?
“Be communist! (But buy our products)”
when this movie came out i watched it almost every day, because i appreciated how smart the story is and gives kids the benefit of the doubt. its not talking down to you, or treating you like you need your hand held to understand it, its genuinely a good story for anyone to watch. and the writing is so clever and thorough and fast paced that you could watch it 100 times and see a new bit every time. its probably still in my top 5 movies of all time. thank you for making this video!
I never thought of it this deeply before... wow...
Its kinda funny that wild style’s revolution was televised, which is an ironic twist on the quote “the revolution won’t be televised” from gil scott-heron
Hey so usually I don't like to comment about "oh this has so few views crazy" but like, damn bro. This is some good content. God speed.
Edit: called it
As a kid I didn’t really have any friends and I was really lonely, Emmitt really helped me come to terms with that when I was younger. I also I have autism and it’s always been really hard for me to “fit in”, the Lego movie was a really good way for me to understand that it’s ok that I’m not the same as everyone else.
No one's talking to me too
This is my favorite video essay, I love your style/ comedy
man art analysis really is a load of hippy dippy baloney