For those expecting a dumbed-down feature-length advertisement for the toy line, our full review of The LEGO Movie should be more than enough to convince you otherwise. However, after you exit the theater this weekend, there should be one major question on your mind: how exactly did directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller pull off this unprecedented animation style? From an entire ocean to the clouds to the intricate blocks, everything looks like a genuine LEGO you could hold in your hand. As the film gears up for a release, today we have the answer.

Before we get to that, it looks like Warner Bros. knows they have a hit on their hands, as The Wrap reports a sequel is already in motion. After Hotel Transylvania‘s Kevin and Dan Hageman worked with Lord and Miller on the first film’s script, it’s reported that Jared Stern (The Internship, Mr. Popper’s Penguins) has already been hired to pen the sequel with another undisclosed writer. Considering the upcoming film’s message of originality, a follow-up feels a bit disingenuous, but this sort of news is to be expected and the material is trusted in the hands of these directors.

Back to the more intriguing matters of their visual approach, developed during the three-year production, Lord shared with us on Twitter that it’s a mix of stop-motion and CGI, but mostly the latter. He added that there is indeed photography of real LEGOs incorporated, particularly when it comes to the matte paintings. With the help of the Australia company Animal Logic, they were able to develop the photo-real CGI, which impresses from the first few frames. “A lot of the research went into figuring how to make it look imperfect like it had smudges, thumbprints, scratches, dust, dandruff, and all that kind of stuff,” Miller said in a recent junket interview. While we imagine much more will be unveiled in the coming weeks, for more on the process, check out two videos below, with the first highlighting the animation process and the latter a behind-the-scenes look at the voice acting, as well as more from the creation.

Are you planning to see The LEGO Movie this weekend? What do you think about the animation process?

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