The Lego Movie and the first steps of the hero’s journey:
For the first step of the hero’s journey, the lego movie has two different scenes applicable to two different versions of the hero’s journey template. The first version is our learned 17-step journey in which the first step is Call to Action. Call to action is defined as “setting the story rolling” by disrupting the hero’s ordinary world by “presenting a challenge” the hero is intrigued to take. For this version, the call to action would be when Emmett sees a person at the construction site where he works. She has purple and blue hair and her name is Lucy. Emmett becomes intrigued by this girl. She is searching for something when Emmett decides to go investigate. In doing so, he falls down a giant hole in the ground and finds a special object. This lego block that he finds is called The Piece of Resistance. When he touches this piece he sees a vision that tells him he is “special.” Despite not feeling very special this experience forces Emmett to start his journey in order to save the city from President business’ plan to freeze the city with Kragle. This represents this version of the call to action step because this outside force gets Emmett to step out of his comfort zone and take a risk by joining in on this plan to save the world.
The 12-step version of the hero’s journey starts with a step called the ordinary world. This step could also be easily applicable to Emmett’s story because of the simplicity of Emmett’s life before he falls in the hole and meets Wyldstyle, also known as Lucy. The title is pretty self-explanatory but basically the ordinary world step refers to the hero’s life before the journey begins. Yourdictinary.com gives a great word to this by saying, “It’s a starting point, and it gives a glimpse into the character of the hero before the adventure begins.” In Emmett’s case, before the adventure begins, he lives a rather simple life, he follows all the rules and quite literally does life by the book. He reads manuals to know what to do, how to act, and what to say. He is routined and listens to the same song, wears the same thing, and eats the same foods. Every. Single. Day. He is incredibly comfortable and used to his ordinary world that when faced with a challenge he genuinely doesn’t know how to act. His exact line is, “What do I do? I don’t have my instructions.”
The next steps after the call to adventure or ordinary world are refusal of the call and meeting the mentor (also known as supernatural aid). For the refusal of the call step, this happens when Emmett is captured by the police who are investigating him on why he is “the Special one” They are sure that he is the one they are looking for but to Emmett, he doesn’t understand. He continuously denies that he is special at all because he doesn’t feel special.
The meeting of the mentor or supernatural aid could be interpreted in two different ways or could possibly happen twice in the movie. The first time is when Lucy rescues him from the police interrogation and tells Emmett that he is, in fact, “The Special.” With Lucy’s help, they fight off the police officers and escape into a new realm/world that is completely new to Emmett. This part begins to overlap with the next step as well, Crossing the First Threshold. The other scenario that could be the supernatural aid or mentor is when Emmett and Lucy meet Vitruvius, a wise, wizard man (of sorts) that plans to teach Emmett how to be a master builder. He is probably the most notable mentor as his most famous line is, “Believe in yourself.”
Overall, the Lego Movie is a brilliant masterpiece of a Hero’s Journey and teaches a pretty amazing lesson which is that anyone and everyone can be special no matter how ordinary they may seem. Emmett has no training, is far from a master builder, and truly comes across as incredibly average. This movie teaches a valuable lesson about self discovery relating to the hero’s journey. As long as you know your strengths and talents (as silly and useless as they may seem) you can achieve anything. Who knows? Maybe a double decker couch might save your butt someday too.
I agree with the steps you laid out and the movie scenes they connect to. For the Meeting of the Mentor stage, I had always thought that the mentor would be Vitruvius since he teaches Emmett how to be a master builder. From your post, though, I can definitely see how Lucy also plays an important influence on Emmett as a mentor, too.
ReplyDeleteI’ve read several other blogs about the Lego Movie, but yours did a really nice job of explaining the opening of the movie and the Call to Adventure especially. I also liked the dictionary definition of the ordinary world that you included, because I hadn’t been 100% sure what the ordinary/unknown worlds really were. I thought it was interesting that you mentioned there could be multiple interpretations of which scene should go with each step, because I think that’s true for most movies/books. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI think the Lego Movie does a really great job of setting up the illusion of a perfect world for its first few steps. It looks like a complete utopia, right until the hero exits it. I like that you added a dictionary entry to make your argument even more clear (even though I know every line of the Lego Movie, it was still helpful.) I appreciate that you analyzed the first few steps, it made me want to reexamine how I had framed the rest of the movie with the Hero's Journey.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post! I like how you explained Emmett's ordinary life before his call to adventure and how this tied into his refusal of the call. When we watched the movie, I viewed Vitruvius as more of a mentor figure for Emmett, but now I can see how Lucy could've also been a mentor.
ReplyDeleteI definitely had originally viewed Vitruvius as the mentor figure for Emmett but I now agree with you that I could have been Lucy. It reminded me of in Siddhartha where different people act as mentors throughout the narrative. I also enjoyed your initial description of life before the Call to Action, it helped me to relate his origins to his future steps.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I like how you pointed out just how ingrained "normal life" was in Emmett before the adventure. It serves as a great starting point for character development. I also agree that the mentor could be both Lucy and Vitruvius (although Vitruvius's age and death later on makes him the more conventional mentor).
ReplyDelete