The best family films to watch in the BT TV Player
May 30 | 2 min readChris Pratt and Elizabeth Banks are two of the big name stars in The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part - the witty and hilarious sequel to the 2014 family film.
Directed by Mike Mitchell (Trolls), the film follows Emmet Brickowski (Pratt) as he attempts to rescue his friends from the Systar System, while dealing with a coming cataclysm known as 'Armamageddon'.
It's been five years since everything was awesome and the citizens are facing a huge new threat: Lego Duplo invaders from outer space, wrecking everything faster than they can rebuild.
Here, we reveal the best bits about the movie, fascinating facts you didn’t know and Easter eggs you didn’t spot, who voices the characters, and more, as The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is released in the BT TV Film Store.
Who voices the characters?
Chris Pratt (Jurassic World, Guardians of the Galaxy) stars as the voice of construction worker Emmet, above middle, and also voices raptor trainer Rex Dangervest.
Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games, Pitch Perfect) voices Master Builder and Emmet’s companion, Wyldstyle / Lucy.
Crossing over from The Lego Batman Movie, Will Arnett (Arrested Development, Riviera) voices Batman (he’ll also be back for The Lego Batman Movie 2).
Comedian Tiffany Haddish voices the shape-shifting alien queen of the Systar System, Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi, while Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) voices General Mayhem / Sweet Mayhem, who works under the Queen’s orders.
Alison Brie (Glow), Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) and Charlie Day (Horrible Bosses) complete the main voice cast, alongside cameos from stars including Channing Tatum (as Superman) and Jonah Hill (as Green Lantern).
Maya Rudolph (Bridesmaids) and Will Ferrell (Anchorman) feature in the live action scenes as 'Mom' and 'Dad'.
3 reasons to watch The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part…
Comedy geniuses Phil Lord and Christopher Miller returned to pen the script for The Lego Movie 2 after writing the hilarious script for the first film.
Between them, the pair have worked on 21 Jump Street and its sequel 22 Jump Street, both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (winning an Oscar for the latter).
TheWrap's Yolanda Machado praised the pair’s screenplay, writing that it "expands on the original film's premise, adding new worlds and characters to the growing Lego universe, while also crafting a story that is timely, inventive, hilarious and perfect for all ages.”
As well as the family-friendly humour, the pair also added new characters to their world - notably more women.
This is after they promised the second film would feature more female characters and represent female audiences better.
"It's important to us that the movie plays broadly and that we inspire young women as much as we inspire young men," Lord told the BBC.
The film also features more live action scenes with Maya Rudolph and Will Ferrell, with Hannah Wales from The World of Celebrity writing: “There are more frequent cuts between the live-action home scenes… with what’s occurring there directly influencing the animated Lego story.”
2. The pop culture references
The Lego Movie 2 sees the return of most of the Justice League, including Channing Tatum's Superman, as well as Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, to name but a few.
But the biggest Easter egg of the film is Rex Dangervest, who’s a mash-up of all of Chris Pratt’s previous roles, according to ScreenRant.com.
Andrew Dyce from the site writes: “Blasting into the film with a spacesuit, face-obscuring space helmet, and jetpack, the ‘galaxy defending archaeologist’ is a clear nod to Star-Lord, Pratt's leading role in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.
“The ‘cowboy’ would be a reference to his role in the ensemble Magnificent Seven remake, with his overall expertise as a ‘raptor trainer’ showing some love to his part in the Jurassic World movies.”
Even the raptors take the mick out of Pratt’s role in Jurassic World, creating a massive in-joke for Pratt fans.
On the subject of Easter eggs, a scene featuring Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter was reportedly cut from the movie so as not to upset any Wizarding World enthusiasts.
3. The catchy songs - literally
There are more songs in The Lego Movie 2 than in the first film, thanks largely in part to the success of the first film’s earworm, Everything Is Awesome.
This movie has loads of catchy musical numbers that will undoubtedly get stuck in your head.
In fact, producers of the film created "Catchy Song", which main lyric is the repeated phrase "This song's gonna get stuck inside your head".
Trivia: Did you know...
1. Two of the raptor's names are Ripley and Connor - named after sci-fi hero Ellen Ripley, from the Alien franchise, and John Connor, from the Terminator franchise.
2. When Emmet makes his spaceship to rescue his friends, he says to “buckle up”. This is a reference to Guardians of the Galaxy, when Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) tells Groot (Vin Diesel) to buckle up.
3. Velma from the Scooby-Doo franchise makes a cameo appearance, possibly to tease Warner Animation Group's upcoming full-length feature film, Scoob, which is set to be released in 2020.
4. Will Ferrell, who plays the dad, and Maya Rudolph, who plays the mum, have worked together before - they were castmates on Saturday Night Live.
5. [SPOILER ALERT] When the Justice League go to fight the alien invaders, someone asks where Batman is, to which Superman replies that he's off on a solo adventure. This suggests that the events of The Lego Batman Movie (2017) took place before the events in this movie, according to IMDB.
What the fans are saying about The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part:
Fans of the film called shapeshifting alien Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi, voiced by Tiffany Haddish, one of their favourite characters in the movie...
More in the Store
Find out where it all began with The Lego Movie (2014), available to buy or rent on BT TV now. The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie are also available now - perfect for a rainy day.
