Remember The Lego Movie? The so-good-you-almost-can’t-believe-it, Academy Award-nominated film that spawned a whole franchise turns 11 years old this year. Here are some cool behind-the-scenes facts about it:
2.
The film racked in a whopping $468 million worldwide.
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Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller planned to include R2-D2 in the film, but had to scrap him after a battle over ownership rights. However, they were able to work out a deal to have Anthony Daniels reprise his famous role as C-3PO for the film.
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The film’s success will spawned three separate Lego-themed films: The Lego Movie Sequel, a direct sequel to the original film; The Lego Ninjago Movie, which will be based off the Lego Ninjago product line; and The Lego Batman Movie, in which Will Arnett reprised his role as the Caped Crusader.
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After the film dominated box offices, Lego profits skyrocketed by 15%. In 2014, approximately 62 billion Lego pieces were sold, which equates to about 102 Lego pieces for every single person in the world. Whoa.
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All Lego pieces in the film were digitally rendered, resulting in a total of 3,863,484 pieces. However, if the producers had chosen to make the film stop-motion animation, it would have taken 15,080,330 pieces.
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When the idea was initially pitched, Lego executives weren’t interested. Their company was already doing very well, and they didn’t want to risk it. They eventually changed their minds after reading the treatment by Kevin and Dan Hageman.
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The corporation Lord Business runs is called “Octan,” which is a fictional brand of gasoline Lego created back in 1992.
10.
Morgan Freeman, who voiced Vitruvius, assumed he’d be doing scenes with the other actors, because he thought that’s how animated movies worked. Nope. He ended up doing his part alone in a room.
11.
Posters in Emmet’s apartment clearly reference 21 Jump Street, which Phil Lord and Chris Miller directed in 2012. Macho and the Nerd is actually the Russian title of that film.
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Consequently, both Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill from 21 Jump Street have cameos in the film as Superman and Green Lantern, respectively.
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This ended up making Phil Lord and Chris Miller battle with Warner Bros. about letting Superman and Green Lantern have a certain storyline in the film.
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Both Robert Downey Jr. and Emma Stone were considered for the main roles, but Chris Pratt and Elizabeth Banks ended up playing the parts.
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In an older draft of the script, Unikitty ends up with Batman. However, in another version, she ends up with Metal Beard.
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The directors wanted the Lego pieces to look used and played with, so they worked with their effects team to add fingerprints, fading, and scratches.
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No one ever says the word “Lego” during the entire movie.
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Liam Neeson insisted on doing his Good Cop and Bad Cop characters at the same time, instead of during separate sessions like the directors wanted.
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According to Will Arnett, Batman was chosen as Wyldstyle’s boyfriend to make Emmet feel completely out of her league. No one can compete with Batman.
21.
Will Forte, who voiced Abraham Lincoln, actually played the president years earlier in the short-lived TV series Clone High. This show was created by The Lego Movie directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
22.
Benny the spaceman’s helmet is cracked in a certain spot because Lego’s space-line products from the 1980s would tend to break in that exact location.
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