It looks like positive reviews are, er, building for the new animated flick The LEGO Movie.
As it pretty much states right there in the title, the film is based on the popular plastic interlocking blocks that folks, young and old, have enjoyed playing with for years.
Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Morgan Freeman, Will Ferrell and Charlie Day are just some of the stars who lend their voices to a variety of colorful characters.
Here's a sampling of what the critics are saying...
• "A full-throttle, giddily inventive, all-ages joyride that buoyantly boosts the bar for 3D computer-animated movies," writes Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter. "It's a non-stop blast from beginning to end, jam-packed with a wacky irreverence, dazzling state-of-the art CGI and a pitch-perfect voice cast."
• "It may be a helter-skelter kiddie adventure built out of plastic toy components, but it's fast and original, it's conceptually audacious, it's visually astonishing, and it's 10 times more clever and smart and funny than it needed to be. Here, at last, is an animated comedy that never stops surprising you," states Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman.
• "The LEGO Movie proves you can soar directly into and then straight past product placement into a realm of sublime, if you're clever enough. This isn't just the funniest PG-rated animation in too long; it's the funniest film, period, in months," notes Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune.
• [Directors] Phil Lord and Christopher Miller irreverently deconstruct the state of the modern blockbuster and deliver a smarter, more satisfying experience in its place, emerging with a fresh franchise for others to build upon," shares Variety's Peter Debruge, who adds, "The film functions as a massive homage to a shared childhood experience, amplified and projected on the big screen."
• "It rushes things a bit too much in the beginning, and drags things out too much in the end...but like the toy it's based on, it's goofy and colorful and something adults and children can enjoy together," Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger opines.
The LEGO Movie hits theaters on Friday, Feb. 7.