The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)

Let’s start with this: everything was awesome!

“The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part” (2019) picks up exactly where “The LEGO Movie” (2014) ended, then promptly jumps forward five years to account for the fact that the child actors were now five years older.

While the first movie was about a dad learning to let his son join in the fun of Legos, the sequel is about siblings learning how to get along, even when they don’t see eye-to-eye.
Assuming you’ve seen any of the trailers over the last six months, that’s not a spoiler. 
If you haven’t...oops?

Unfortunately the catchy song, literally titled “This Is A Catchy Song” was not as good as “Everything is Awesome,” but it was still cutesy.

Warner Brothers Animation Group (WAG, for some reason) took a note from Disney’s Broadway era and added a surprising number of musical numbers - though that might have been Will Farrell’s influence, since he willingly included a full musical piece in his (very “adult”) “Holmes and Watson” (2018) flick.

And, pleasantly, WAG does not shy away from poking at its parent company, WB. There were plenty of jokes at he expense of The Justice League, Aquaman (rendered to look like Jason Mamoa), the failures of “Green Lantern” (2011), and the eternally broody Batman that both Christian Bale and Ben Affleck scowled to life during their respective turns wearing the cowl. That said, Will Arnett voicing Batman is my favorite iteration of the caped crusader.

The best part of the movie was Chris Pratt. Not only did he revive the role of Emmet from the first film, but this time also he took the role of Rex Dangervest, a gritty space traveler who’s had all of the roles Pratt’s played in the past: “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014) “The Magnificent Seven,” (2016) and “Jurassic World,” (2015) with a few sporadic references to his time on “Parks and Recreation.” Much of the script is just Pratt talking to himself as two entirely different character, and it’s fantastic.

At one point, there’s a scene of a house that bears *striking* resemblance to the house in The Middle Place from “The Good Place” tv show, which may have been suggested tongue-in-cheek by Maya Rudolph, who played ‘The Judge’ in the show and the kids’ mom in this movie.

Phil Lord and Chris Miller wrote an outstanding movie that can be enjoyed by all ages, whether you want to watch it for the silly, heart-felt story, or just to see all of the cool things that the folks at LEGO dreamed into creation.

I 100% recommend you see this movie, even if you don’t have kids.