Topic: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

This thread is inspired by the recent Cafe Corner posts and a recent discussion I had with someone
about arcade games in movies.

Basically, the same premise as the above YouTube super cut link, but with Lego being featured instead.
A video link or an image link would be helpful to avoid confusion and to keep this thread factual.


Movies
Big (sorry for the terrible audio)

TV Shows
The Simpsons
The Big Bang Theory  other occurances
Silent Library (@ 11:05)

"Tell stories that matter to you, not stories that'll sell." - Stephen Tobolowsky

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Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

*cough*TheLEGOMovie*cough*


I'm not sure if it strictly counts, but in the later chapters of Death Note, Near is often seen playing with toys that bear a strong resemblance to LEGO bricks and minifigs, though they are never explicitly identified as such (they could equally well be generic "plastic block" toys, though one would hope that Near's tastes are more refined than that).

Retribution (3rd place in BRAWL 2015)

&Smeagol      make the most of being surrounded by single, educated women your own age on a regular basis in college
AquaMorph    I dunno women are expensive

Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

A giant LEGO cityscape gets destroyed in the movie Elf:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tIcnydrwFY

A giant LEGO tower gets destroyed in the TV series Brooklyn 99:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYmM30mT0tE

A giant LEGO brick appears in Honey I Shrunk the Kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rcf89x12fd

LEGO appears in all three Toy Story films and some of the Toy Story shorts, though it's pretty well hidden and not called out by name until Toy Story 3 I think.

Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

Minifigures are indeed seen rather clearly in Disney Pixar's Toy Story 3, as well as two Toy Story Shorts, "Hawaiian Vacation" and "Toy Story of Terror" Pixar Wikia Article. "Toy Story of Terror" also includes a brick built rabbit as a character:

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/pixar/images/5/5f/TST-LEGO-Bunny-tstpromovid.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131129232210

Here, two minifigs can be seen in "Hawaiian Vacation"
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/pixar/images/a/a6/Lego_mjnjfigurestshwap011.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20111208215558

Last edited by Brickcrazy (February 2, 2015 (02:47pm))

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Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

Mr Vertigo wrote:

I'm not sure if it strictly counts, but in the later chapters of Death Note, Near is often seen playing with toys that bear a strong resemblance to LEGO bricks and minifigs, though they are never explicitly identified as such (they could equally well be generic "plastic block" toys, though one would hope that Near's tastes are more refined than that).

Yeah, I know what you're referring to.
Although, I cannot confirm if this is Lego, Mega Bloks, knock-off brand or custom figs made by Near.
I'm assuming since Lego and Mega Bloks both do not have Death Note themed sets, they must be customs.
I guess this would fall in the 'unknown' category.

"Tell stories that matter to you, not stories that'll sell." - Stephen Tobolowsky

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Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

In the climax of Time Bandits the lair of Evil seems to be built of giant LEGO bricks, and I think you can also see actual LEGO on the floor of the room in the opening.

Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

In Chronicle, the main characters use Lego bricks to test their powers.

Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

dewfilms wrote:
Mr Vertigo wrote:

I'm not sure if it strictly counts, but in the later chapters of Death Note, Near is often seen playing with toys that bear a strong resemblance to LEGO bricks and minifigs, though they are never explicitly identified as such (they could equally well be generic "plastic block" toys, though one would hope that Near's tastes are more refined than that).

Yeah, I know what you're referring to.
Although, I cannot confirm if this is Lego, Mega Bloks, knock-off brand or custom figs made by Near.
I'm assuming since Lego and Mega Bloks both do not have Death Note themed sets, they must be customs.
I guess this would fall in the 'unknown' category.

I'm guessing they kept the specific brand deliberately vague to avoid any copyright repercussions.  I'm not sure how LEGO not having an official Death Note theme is complete proof that it isn't LEGO, given that LEGO-style toys exist in the Death Note universe and not the other way around.  Though, Death Note doesn't exactly seem like the sort of thing LEGO would want to associate itself with, given the fact it's not exactly child-friendly and isn't really suited to LEGO's target group.

I read an interview in the "Death Note--How to Read" add-on with the author and artist of the original Manga, and as far as I recall they only referred to them as "block toys" and not by any specific brand name.  (Incidentally, the reason Near switches back to finger puppets in the finale is because they're apparently easier to draw than minifig-style figures.)  As far as the character of Near himself goes, it's also difficult to establish since he doesn't really seem to have any specific brand loyalties.

(On a side note*, I've been contemplating doing a quick Death Note-themed Brickfilm, but I have yet to figure out a good way to recreate Ryuk in minifig form.)

*Pun not intended.

Last edited by Mr Vertigo (February 2, 2015 (06:14pm))

Retribution (3rd place in BRAWL 2015)

&Smeagol      make the most of being surrounded by single, educated women your own age on a regular basis in college
AquaMorph    I dunno women are expensive

Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

In the anime series Death Note a character named N frequently demonstrates things using toys, and sometimes he holds what appear to be poorly draw mini-figures to represent other characters in the series.

I couldn't find a few good example, but I saw an episode with the LEGO figures as a thumbnail and found that specific clip in a longer video here: http://youtu.be/gBr2527PZA0?t=20m2s (The specific time index of the episode is included in the link)

Spoiler (click to read)

Oh, wow, N is played by Spike from MLP in the English dub, that feels weird.

Last edited by Squid (February 3, 2015 (07:11am))

Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

Even though Dew films mentioned The Simpsons, I'd like to mention that there are a couple of episodes featuring Lego.
"Brick Like Me" was an obvious one. "Hungry, Hungry Homer" was an episode that took place in Blockoland, a parody of Legoland.
I am pretty sure that there are more but these two were the most notable one.

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Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

Malcolm in the Middle, Season 2 Episode 9

For me this is one of the funniest lego moments on television. The whole episode has a little more lego in it but there are multiple storylines with different characters. The scene above is the climax.

Jared

Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

Robot Chicken has a lot of sketches that involve LEGO, as does Cartoon Network's MAD (skip to 1:55).

Have you seen a big-chinned boy?

Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

I just saw Lego on TV recently, and I can't remember where!!!!!  Now I'm going to rack my brains over it.

About 8 months ago, I saw JohnDThunder's "Contrast" entry "Perpetual Twilight" on national TV.  It was cool hearing Brick7's voice through my television speaker, and not because I was playing a Brickfilm on DVD.

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"None practice tolerance less frequently than those who most loudly preach it."

Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

Kd2000 wrote:

Even though Dew films mentioned The Simpsons, I'd like to mention that there are a couple of episodes featuring Lego.
"Brick Like Me" was an obvious one. "Hungry, Hungry Homer" was an episode that took place in Blockoland, a parody of Legoland.
I am pretty sure that there are more but these two were the most notable one.

What Kd2000 is referring to.

There's also an episode of The Simpsons called "The D’ohcial Network" where Lisa visits the Blocko Store.

"Tell stories that matter to you, not stories that'll sell." - Stephen Tobolowsky

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Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

It never made it into pop culture, but the guitarist in my first band had his own new wave band and he wrote a song called "Lego World".  I had a demo of it but in the early 1990s my dog ate it.  Never heard the song again.  I've got to see if I can get a new mixdown from him.

https://vimeo.com/channels/holdingourown      http://holding-our-own.tumblr.com

"None practice tolerance less frequently than those who most loudly preach it."

Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

mini/eh
Reeling this topic back in…

Just came across a list of media references on a Lego wiki…
http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_refe … O_in_media

"Tell stories that matter to you, not stories that'll sell." - Stephen Tobolowsky

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Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

dewfilms wrote:

mini/eh
Reeling this topic back in…

Just came across a list of media references on a Lego wiki…
http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_refe … O_in_media

That's pretty cool! On the downside, looks like we can pretty much wrap this topic up now... No one can top that! mini/lol

Last edited by Brickcrazy (February 5, 2015 (12:59pm))

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Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

Brickcrazy wrote:

That's pretty cool! On the downside, looks like we can pretty much wrap this topic up now... No one can top that!

Uh, not really. If anything, we can contribute to the wiki list.
The movie "Big" and the tv show "Silent Library" were not on their list.

I know there's more references out there, I just can't find any pics or video of it.
(The classic kids game show Double Dare comes to mind.)

"Tell stories that matter to you, not stories that'll sell." - Stephen Tobolowsky

YouTube/Twitter/SG

Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

Bloomberg Television has a special from 2012 called "Inside Lego".  They air it occasionally, usually on weekends.  I recorded it to DVD for personal viewing.

https://vimeo.com/channels/holdingourown      http://holding-our-own.tumblr.com

"None practice tolerance less frequently than those who most loudly preach it."

Re: Lego Appearances in Film & Television

I've watched that on Netflix, nothing I didn't already know. mini/lol

I'm....................................... A brickfilming noob.