This post is in partnership with Warner Bros. Pictures
With the exception of a few films, Marvel and DC, most moviegoers leave the theater as soon as the end credits start to roll. They lack taste and artistry, showing only credits against a black backdrop. However, whenever there’s something like The LEGO Movie, audiences tend to stick around to see what sort of creativity is put on display. And they will find themselves hooked by what The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part has to offer.
The original end credits looked like interlocking stop-motion LEGO vignettes, with each credit representing a character and the actor who voiced them. Slowly as it came to its conclusion, we saw that it was all happening at once. But rather than just repeat themselves, The LEGO Movie 2 has something just as creative and fun as the first, but with a slight twist.
This will be slightly spoilerish, but it really doesn’t have to do with the plot or any of the sequel’s twists. This is a piece that is focused solely on the mechanics and logistics of the end credits.
Sitting with our fellow bloggers, ThatsItLA had a chance to talk to directors Mike Michelle and Trisha Gum about the film. That’s when I asked about how they came up with the end credits for The LEGO Movie 2. Rather than just repeat themselves, the LEGO team came up with a very elaborate sequence that involved two wheels of LEGOs, one side would rotate clockwise, while the other would rotate counterclockwise. Each side would have a character and their counterpart meet in the middle where they would join hands.
Mitchell described it as “Insane.” He added, “that was one guy made that in a warehouse somewhere. Is that not incredible?”
So I asked him how they came up with it since it is so much different from the original and their spinoffs. The key thing to know about this end credits sequence is that it is all very real. “Isn’t it super creative? Super creative,” Mitchell said. “That–just–it started with a very simple conversation where we’re like–they pitched it to us and then we’re like, ‘We want to make this real thing that could actually be built.’ And they just asked us about our movie because our movie wasn’t done yet. We’re halfway done. And we’re like, ‘This is really a movie about contrast, and like characters that don’t fit together.’ And I think we did a few sketches of like little sketches like an old man with a baby, you know, and just like the contrast. And that’s all they had was a few posted notes. And then those guys went and built that thing.”
Mitchell then talked about how Beck and Lonely Island collaborated for on the end credits’ song:
“And then beyond that, Beck got involved and came up with an awesome song that just fits perfectly for the end credits,” Mitchell said. “And then Lonely Island came in, and they put–they worked with Beck and did a rap. And then Beck went back to them and he added some of his song, and it’s all about the credits. So, it was really like a magic trick, how that whole thing came together.”
Gum then chimed in with how the end credits being practical was very important because the LEGO Movies and their spinoffs are a celebration of creativity. “But again, the original concept was to make it feel built again,” Gum said. “So, like something that you could build in your garage, and it needs to feel really practical because that’s what these movies are all about.”
Mitchell then chimed in with “We want kids to go home and start building with LEGO, right? Get their faces out of the phones and get them–for real, get their heads out of the iPads, that’s my favorite thing. That’s my favorite thing about LEGO is it’s a toy, you don’t have to plug it in, it doesn’t have batteries, man, you just start creating with your hands in real life, and there’s no screen in your face. So, I think it’s really–that’s really important to me.”
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part opens in theaters on February 8, 2019.
Get Tickets Now to #TheLEGOMovie2, in theaters February 8!
