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Elizabeth Banks, Chris Pratt star in 'The LEGO Movie' – check out the trailer

Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, and other stars lend their voices for the film 'The LEGO Movie.' Elizabeth Banks is also starring in the new movie 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.'

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Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Elizabeth Banks stars in the film 'The LEGO Movie.'
  • By Sandy Schaefer Screen Rant

Chris Pratt will lead a ragtag group of aliens, genetically-engineered raccoons and talking trees (limited by vocabulary) into battle in Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy next year.

However, the Parks & Recreation fan-favorite will first join forces with LEGO Batman, LEGO Wonder Woman and other LEGO heroes in The LEGO Movie, an upcoming 3D animated feature co-written and co-directed by filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street), with Chris McKay (Robot Chicken) credited as the film’s third director for his work on the animation side of things.

A second trailer for LEGO Movie has dropped online and, like its predecessors, the footage is heavy on LEGO-based humor and cameos by characters like LEGO Abraham Lincoln, Ninja Turtles and many others. However, we also get some more information on the plot, which involves Emmet (Pratt) – a plain-as-toast, if more enthusiastic than normal, LEGO mini-figure – who is mistaken (?) for being a long-awaited warrior. Either way, Emmet must accept his new destiny and stop the evil President Business (Will Ferrell) from enacting his nefarious plan to ruin the LEGO universe and make it decidedly not awesome.

LEGO Movie appears to offer the wide range in jokes – pop culture references, meta-winks, LEGO-based physical comedy- that could make the animated feature an entertaining and appealing viewing experiences for kids, teens and legal-age moviegoers alike; that is, without just banking on the adults’ nostalgia for LEGOs. Indeed, much like Lord and Miller’s Cloudy 3D adaptation, it seems as though the LEGO Movie premise leaves room for some witty self-reflexive commentary, even amongst the nonstop comedy, action and LEGO puns.

Also helping is the talented voice cast for LEGO Movie, which (in addition to Pratt and Ferrell) includes Morgan Freeman, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Cobie Smulders, Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day and Liam Neeson as the “Bad Cop” personality of the LEGO Good Cop/Bad Cop. When it comes to the list of early-year releases in 2014, this definitely looks to be one of the better ones.

Sandy Schaefer blogs at Screen Rant.

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