Topic: Penta's picks for the top 5 brickfilms of each year
Happy September, to those who celebrate. I have decided to start up a series of YouTube Shorts ranking my picks for the top 5 brickfilms of each year, starting from 2001. Links to watch the films will be in the pinned comment on each Short. I was thinking that what I consider to be the essentials that surely everyone has seen are probably actually largely unknown by a couple of generations now, and so I thought YouTube Shorts might be a good medium to quickly talk about each one and potentially introduce them to some new people. If the picks seem obvious to you, that's the idea.
We have recently been a bit more overt in keeping Bricks in Motion positioned as primarily favouring brickfilming as filmmaking, so perhaps there is some value in giving people a quick window into the foundations the community has been built on over the years. As time goes on, the broad perception of what seems "good for its time" gets further away from what this part of the community considered exceptional in each year, and in some cases what hold up as all-time greats that still have the potential to influence brickfilmers to make more impactful films. I plan to release one of these Shorts every couple of days, and I will also post the blurbs here as I release them. To kick things off, still a year in which people were figuring things out, but here are my picks for the top 5 brickfilms of 2001:
Number 5: Legos Are Not Enough by 4 Guys, 1 Brain. The first of two lengthy James Bond brickfilms with a parody style that suits the old-school LEGO vibe.
At number 4 is LeGorSIKA by Joona Poikonen and Lauri Mäki. An offbeat action-comedy that is quite bizarre, and ambitious in its scenarios.
Number 3: I'm going to cheat here and include both Also thwacked Zarathustra and The Big Match by Thomas Foote. Released simultaneously, these films each feature amusing character animation and antics, including with the beloved classic LEGO monkeys.
At number 2: Monty Python and the Holy Grail in LEGO by Spite Your Face. Part recreation and part parody, this official brickfilm is one of the best known of the era, and still has a strong aesthetic and fun feel.
And at number 1, of course, is The Gauntlet by Jay Silver. A game-changer that helped pave the way for making brickfilms that actually felt like movies, The Gauntlet was a staple for years to come and remains an unassailable classic that can still be learned from today.
Also shown: