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PHOTOGALLERYMore than 100 Long Island celebrities newsday.com/celebs

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BY FRANK LOVECESpecial to Newsday

Emmet the construc-tionworkermay be aLegoMinifigure, buthes no blockhead. Infact, like all of us, hesinterconnectedwithall things.

Theres amoment in thestorywhere hes heartbrokenwhen he discovers that thesepeople hes considered hisfriends all his life dont evenreally rememberwho he is,

muses Chris Pratt, who voiceshim in the animated adventureThe LegoMovie, openingFriday. Hes truly alone, whichis kind of a heavy and deep thingto think aboutwhen it comes tomost animatedmovies. But itresonates, says the Parks andRecreation co-star by phonefromLosAngeles. You root for

this guy; youwant him to feelspecial, to have an opportunityto be extraordinary, eventhough he isnt necessarilyequipped to be extraordinary.

PRATTS BREAKING OUTWere still talking about

Emmet, right? Because Pratt, 34,whos had supporting roles in

Moneyball, ZeroDarkThirty, Her and other films, isabout to have his ownextraordi-nary opportunities as the lead oftwohigh-profile films:Disney/Marvel Studios Guardians oftheGalaxy, scheduled for re-leaseAug. 1, and JurassicWorld, forwhich, he says, Illbe leaving to do soon. But, for

now, hes giving his all to Emmet.We knewChris a little bit

socially, andwe always thoughthewas funny, says Phil Lord,whowith co-directorChristo-pherMiller did the animatedCloudyWith aChance ofMeat-balls (2009), forwhich Prattswife, Anna Faris, did a starringvoice. Luckily in animation ittakes so long for themovie tocomeout that by the time youredone, enough other people havenoticed that the guy is a star. Iwant to state for the record thatwe cast him as a superhero

Up-and-comingactorChrisPrattmakesaheroofEmmet theLego figureandgiveshimasensitive side, too

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beforeMarvel did! he says.Pratt is, indeed, endearing as

Emmet, though calling thecharacter a superhero is astretch. An obedient consumerwho happilywatches the sameTV shows, listens to the samemusic and enjoys the sameleisure activities as everyoneelse in one nation underpresident Business (voice ofWill Ferrell), Emmet doesntgain superpowers or anythingafter stumbling onto a plot tofreeze the universe in place,endingwhatever little chaoticcreativity exists. ThinkTimesSquare cleanup, onlywith,yknow, extra added evil.

RELUCTANT HEROEmmet does, however, find

himself attached to the fabledPiece of Resistance, which,according to a prophecy by themysticVitruvius (MorganFreeman),makes him TheSpecialwhowill save the

universe. Asmuch as Emmetwould like to believe that, hereally doesnt and neither dofreedom-fighterWyldstyle(Elizabeth Banks), her boy-friend, Batman (Will Arnett),the anarchicUnikitty (AlisonBrie) and the pieced-togetherpirate-cyborgMetal Beard(Pratts Parks andRec cast-mateNickOfferman), amongothers. Emmetmust both over-come and embrace his ordinari-ness if the various interconnect-ed Legoworlds are to survive.That pice de rsistance pun

is just one of themany signalsthat Lord andMillersmovieowesmore to Bullwinkle than toBionicle, a fellowLego line thatinspired four direct-to-DVDmovies. Like the filmmakers

CloudyWith a Chance ofMeatballs and live-action 21JumpStreet, The LegoMoviehas the same off-kilter witand, for amovie squarely aimedat young kids, a surprisingamount of cheerfully blatantsocial satire about consumerismand conformity.Were interested in doing

things that are both silly andsophisticated at the same time,saysMiller, who cameos as theannouncer of a reality show thatcould have come straight fromMike Judgeswicked satireIdiocracy. Thats usuallywhatwere trying to do: some-thing thats a lot of fun but isalso smarter than youd expect.We, in our way, want to

celebrate unique thinking,

adds Lord. Were telling astory about a guy who lookslike every other guy, and theonly difference between himand the million other guys whoare manufactured to lookexactly like him is whats goingon in his head. And my momalways says, They cant arrestyou for what you think.

QUESTMOVIEThemovie has been in the

works since 2009, initially underbrothersDan andKevinHageman (Hotel Transyl-vania), who share a co-storycredit. Theywere at Sony atthe same timeweweremakingCloudy, and they said, Wevebeen toyingwith this idea for aLegomovie, andMichel Gondryis going to direct it, andwhenthat didnt work out, we alltalked, andwe thoughtmaybewewould take that on,Millersays. They had the idea thatthiswas a questmovie and that

it would have the kind of twist atthe end that ourmovie does. Sotheres a certain amount ofinspiration that we got fromtheir original take, and thenwewent off and did our own com-pletely different thing.The completely different

part extended to the recordingsessions, which, in animation, isgenerally done by each actorsolo. But the directors often hadPrattwork in groups, which is agiant pain in thefor theaudio department, Prattobserves, but the payoff is thatyou get to create these organicmoments. Actors get to react toone another and interact, andtheres a little bit ofmagicwhenyou get to look each other in theeye, as opposed to reading linesfrom a page in differentways.And thats just onemore

reason, it seems odd to say,given the sourcematerial, that itmight be fair to Lego of yourexpectations.

Lego construction blocksarent the only toys tohave inspired movies, ofcourse. But most such filmsare animated. Not so thesefour live-action flicks:

MASTERS OF THE UNI-VERSE (1987) DolphLundgren as He-Man! FrankLangella as Skeletor!Courteney Cox as Julie! AndJon Cypher? Man-at-Arms!Despite that cast, the Mattel-based movie earned littleexcept critics' enmity.

TRANSFORMERS (2007)The Takara Tomy / Hasbroline of vehicles thattransform into giant robotswas transformed into ablockbuster movie fran-chise from director Mi-chael Bay though thefourth film, Junes Trans-formers: Age of Extinc-tion, likely wonttransform any critics opin-ion of these transgressions.

BRATZ (2007) MGA Enter-tainments line of dolls forlittle girls became a poorlyreceived, wholesome movieabout high-schoolers.

G.I. JOE: THE RISE OFCOBRA (2009) Fans felt itwas more Generic Joe thanG.I. Joe, and critics wererooting for Cobra. But whileit did only so-so box officecompared to its cost, lastyears sequel proved greatguns commercially.

FRANK LOVECE

Chris Pratt voices the everydayhero Emmet in The LegoMovie, which opens Friday.] Video:newsday.com/movies

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More than meets the eye:Optimus Prime, voiced byPeter Cullen, in theTransformers franchise

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Nothingpersonal, butthese youngladies areBratz: Fromleft, LoganBrowning,Janel Parrish,NathaliaRamos andSkyler Shaye.

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