The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part

So where do you go after "the LEGO Movie" with the mother of all twists? Knowing what we know about the world of the minifigures and their delightful tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement of their childishness?
You go full throttle and combine the imaginations of TWO children!
Time to celebrate the little plastic construction toys again with "The LEGO Movie 2: the 2nd Part."

Opening up right on the heels of the last movie with the DUPLO toddler creations declaring their intent on destruction, our favorite Special tries to make peace with them.
It doesn't work.
Years of attempted construction and destruction later, the only one still holding onto hope and bright cheery colors is Emmet. That all changes when a new invader comes and abducts the main cast of the last movie (sans President Business...he's no longer a threat...or much of a character anymore).
In his pursuit of the alien forces and their slender-er figures, the little orange dude comes across Chris Pratt as a LEGO dude...again...and he carries with him the antithesis to the Master Build, the MASTER BREAK! But is this dark power what Emmett needs to stop the pop-song-brainwashing aliens and their shape-shifting queen?

Lord and Miller hit it out of the park again with their borderline juvenile humor, references out the wazoo, boundless catchy tunes in song and score, and a cast of very likable distinct characters. The funny thing is that while the previous movie was about conformity vs creativity, this film decides to tackle the big doozy of themes: growing up. While as a child, the carefree attitudes and unbridled joy of experiencing life can make everything SEEM awesome, reality has a way of rearing its ugly head and disproving this notion. From there, a plethora of options open up on what seems like the RIGHT WAY to deal with it, and these various viewpoints on how to cope with this unfamiliar harshness is presented here with its own cacophony of clamoring noise. However, just as the last movie's conflict was solved not from unbridled creativity and not from rigid lack of change, but from the power of understanding, understanding comes at the (literal) breaking point of the characters' universe.  This compromise is displayed perfectly in the fanmade creations displayed in the latter half of the credits: sure it can look weird and their might be a smidge of a tonal problem, but balance doesn't always have to be pretty.    

Excellent film, and while still not as good as the first, a solid follow-up to the tale laid out in the first movie...and another ridiculous Batman ship for people to claim as their OTP.

And now with Rex Dangervest, there's 4 of him!