In the days prior to the February 7 release of  ‘The Lego Movie,’ I was ecstatic.

The movie had a lot of promise and seemed not only to be a very enjoyable cartoon but a very enjoyable movie. Unfortunately, some of my peers did not share the same excitement. However after watching it all agreed that this movie was not something to be missed.

‘The Lego Movie’ is directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. This duo also directed ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ and the hilarious ‘21 Jump Street’ movie in 2013.

‘The Lego Movie’ uses a mix of stop motion and CG animation to hook viewers.

It stars Emmet a normal Lego figure, voiced by Chris Pratt from the show Parks and Recreations and the upcoming Marvel Sci-fi epic Guardians of the Galaxy, who is mistaken as “the special” a prophesized hero that will save the world from Will Ferrell’s President Business super weapon the kragle.

Ferrell’s performance is amazing and his character is one of the most evil villains I can remember in animation since Lotso Bear from ‘Toy Story 3.’

The movie also does have a dark tone to it. In one scene in particular shows Business erase “good” cop face from Liam Neeson’s Bad Cop character then forces him to use the kragle on his own parents. One more scene has a character literally get beheaded by Business.

The audience knows they are all toys and the movie does make fun at that point but there is that violence that is reminiscent of an old Disney cartoon.

Emmet meets many new characters on his flee from Business and Bad Cop. The first is love interest, WyldeStyle, is voiced by the Hunger Games’ Elizabeth Banks. Then Morgan Freemans Vitruvius the mystical and Mr. Maggio (dated reference I know) level blind, master builder who made the prophecy about the special.

They have to take Emmet to gather with the rest of the master builders, Lego figurines that can build with their world around them in imaginative and creative ways, and form a plan to beat President Business. These include various pop culture icons that Lego has the rights too.

These include the teenage mutant ninja turtles, Gandalf from lord of the rings, wonder woman, Leonardo Da Vinci, superman and green lantern (who are voiced hilariously by Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill).

Those with the most screen time and stay with the main cast of characters are a UniKitty voiced by community’s Allison Brie, a 1960s spaceman named Benny voiced by ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ star Charlie Day (who has one break out scene which had me almost crying of laughter) and Batman, yes Batman voiced by the very talented Will Arnet who absolutely stole the show.

This is one of the best comedic takes of the Dark Knight ever. It’s up there with the YouTube series ‘How It Should Have Ended’ which if you haven’t seen any of their takes on super heroes and the huge block buster movies they appear in.

Batman in this movie is the boyfriend of WyldeStyle and is a huge jerk but gets away with it because he’s batman and batman is awesome so it makes it funny.

To give the rest away would dwell into spoiler territory and considering this movie was built (no pun intended) for nerds I won’t break that seal.

‘The Lego Movie’ works for some many reasons but it uses the Toy Story 3 technique of making the audience remember the fun of being a kid playing with your toys. In this case it is Legos. The debate of whether to follow the directions or just let your imagination run wild is the main theme of the movie and it works. Like any family film it also teaches a lesson that even though you’re not a chosen one you are special because you are you and no body can be a better you than you.

‘The Lego Movie’ is a great movie that can stand up to classics like Shrek and any of the Pixar films.  It’s fun for the whole family kids will love the silliness parents will love the adult humor and college students will enjoy both. With movies like Despicable Me 2, Frozen, The Croods, and now the Lego movie dominating the box office over huge “blockbusters” it’s evident at this point that animated movies are proving to be the best experience at the movies.