Recently, a creeping bias has taken hold of me concerning the state of animated features. Because of the creative stranglehold of the Disney-Pixar model, I’ve cooled somewhat to the sterility of the form, but there’s something I can’t quite put my finger on in the trailers for The Lego Movie (from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who have helmed Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street among other movies) that tells me this isn’t just another Toy Story, and I’m looking forward to seeing if these master-builders have created “the” animated tale that restores my faith. Opens wide Feb. 7. (PG) Not reviewed
This article appears in Feb 5-11, 2014.