I loudly, frustratingly bemoaned the Lego movie when it was officially set into motion back in November, all in spite of talents like Phil Lord & Chris Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street) and Chris McKay (Robot Chicken) at the helm. I mean, Legos? Come on. They’re not even fun to play with.

But when you combine the experience of seeing/pretty much loving 21 Jump Street and reading this news, things not only become easier to digest — it sounds flat-out interesting. During an interview with /Film, for instance Lord and Miller invoked, in no particular order, The Matrix, The Magnificent Seven, Time Bandits, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars when trying to illustrate what we can expect when it comes to vibe; in terms of story, the film (tentatively titled Lego: The Piece of Resistance) will center on “the least qualified Lego characters in the universe having to keep the world from being frozen together.” Make of “frozen together” what you will. This isn’t so much story-related, but it was also pointed out to Collider that the Lego property gives them the rights to a few other lines — Star Wars, Harry Potter, and the like possibly among them. That could be very interesting to see play out.

And it sounds as though they’re really holding this one close to the creative chest. While product placement is certainly not exempt from the whole endeavor, they told ComingSoon that this film is “not a big LEGO commercial for products,” rather “the medium that we’re using to tell a story.” (I quite liked Miller‘s way of raising a comparison: “It’s not like they’re selling clay when they do a claymation movie.”)

Then there are the aesthetics. With Cloudy having a unique design and texture to its character designs, you’d be none too surprised to learn that Miller and Lord are trying to deliver something both consistent with the product and the imagination one puts in with them. So, knowing that, it’s especially nice to hear from the Collider chat that, when making their leads, a main question is “What if we put this head on this body, and we could give it these legs from this horse?” They also explained to /Film that these figures “can’t move any differently than the real minifigs”; awkward physical illustrations of fight scenes thus ensued. Animation-wise, ComingSoon learned that we can look forward to something that’s “CGI with a stop motion feel to it.”

Don’t get me wrong: I still think there’s a good chance that a Lego movie will end up being a bungled and silly mess, but the plans held by this team are still promising enough to make me far more optimistic than the last story out. So, somehow, I actually want to see a Lego movie. That feels weird to type.

Has this information made the Lego movie sound any more appealing?