Lego Movie

How well does The Lego Movie fit the Hero's Journey narrative? Emmet is told he is the Special (the Hero), but like Star Wars, The Lego Movie is missing several of the final stages of the Hero's Journey such as 'freedom to live' or even 'crossing the return threshold.' As we saw in Star Wars, though, that apparently doesn't matter too much, so I won't worry about it here. 

I think the first moment where it becomes obvious in The Lego Movie that it is following the Hero's Journey is when Emmet touches the Piece of Resistance and is thrown into a completely new environment. He sort of experiences a Call when the Piece speaks to him, but the first clear stage is when Emmet crosses the first threshold and enters the world of master builders, characters from all over the Lego universe that don't use the instructions. It's a really distinct threshold, and the movie even shows Emmet breaking through what appears to be the sky to cross said threshold.

Another large moment in The Lego Movie that happens to be a stage of the Hero's Journey is the road of trials, which has two separate parts present in the film. The first encompasses Emmet's time in the Wild West until approximately his time on Metalbeard's ship. The second spans across the protagonists' experience in Octan Tower, arguably ending with Emmet falling off the Tower and entering the human world. While having two roads (or one very long road) does cover a large chunk of the movie, I think it fits the plot of the movie and gives Emmet and the other protagonists a lot of training opportunities, helping Emmet effectively go from Zero to Hero.

One of the final scenes in the Lego Movie fits the Hero's Journey stage of ultimate boon, that being placing the cap on the Kragle. This is like the destruction of the Death Star in Star Wars or killing Voldemort in Harry Potter. Big explosions, evil minions fall in despair, justice is delivered, etc. Capping the Kragle is such a climax that the movie just ends almost immediately after the act is done, leaving no time for the rest of the Hero's Journey stages! Unlike in Star Wars, where the Journey is stretched out between multiple films, The Lego Movie only has one sequel (but I'll pretend it doesn't exist to explain the awkwardness - the movies did come out five years apart after all). The lack of a happily ever after is somewhat refreshing to see I suppose - and The Lego Movie does pull off the "new enemy appearing at the end" trope well.

To conclude, The Lego Movie adheres to the Hero's Journey format for the most part, but does have some discrepancies, those being a lack of closing (and several middle!) stages and a fairly long road of trials (but that could just be my interpretation). I'd like to know the reader's opinion of the Journey in comparison to The Lego Movie, so please leave a comment below. I'd also like to know if The Lego Movie can even be considered a Hero's Journey film, so maybe look at my Where can we draw the line? post and leave your opinion there? Thanks for reading!

Comments

  1. Stella YouseNovember 28, 2022 at 3:17 PM

    Ahhh! I love that you're connecting it back to Starwars. I think there are some interesting similarities and differences between the two. I like your interpretation of how it's missing a few steps and how long the road of trials is. I don't know if I agree wholeheartedly, but I definitely see the interpretation of the hero's journey starting when Emmett touches the resistance piece.

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  2. Ben DeMarcoDecember 9, 2022 at 9:06 PM

    I think it's interesting how closely the Lego movie follows some steps from the hero's journey, especially since I doubt the writers of the movie were really thinking about it. I don't think it really has atonement with the father or temptation, and it leaves out the last stages like you mentioned, but it does follow a lot of the earlier stages relatively closely. If the hero's journey model wasn't so rigid it would probably be fit it more closely, but it does do some things from it.

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  3. EleanorDecember 18, 2022 at 8:52 AM

    I like how you pointed out how much more physical and clear some of the stages are than others. Some, like the crossing of the first threshold, are very easy to see because he is literally entering a new world. However, other stages are more vague or seem to be skipped entirely.

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  4. David RDecember 20, 2022 at 11:11 AM

    I really like this post. I find it very interesting how common the Hero's Journey narrative is. You can even find it in things that would be considered kids movies like the Lego Movie while still keeping a very good representation of the Hero's Journey.

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