American singer and songwriter Pharrell Williams’s biographical animated movie “Piece by Piece” follows his early life and career. What makes the movie lively and fun is that the storytelling is filmed using only Lego pieces. As you can imagine, many new ones were constructed for the film.
The director is Morgan Neville from Mr. Rodger’s movie “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” Using Legos to tell the story is definitely a great idea, as the screen is full of bright colors and imagination. I appreciated learning about his High School friends and their band, “The Neptunes,” as I didn’t realize Pharrell was in a band or that he was a successful producer.
“Piece by Piece” premiered at the 51st Telluride Film Festival on August 30, 2024, and the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2024. It is slated to close at the 68th BFI London Film Festival on October 20, 2024. It opened theatrically in the United States on October 11 through Focus Features, with Universal supervising the international distribution.
Kids will love all the new Lego pieces and characters, as well as the music. It’s a great, fun family film. I do feel we missed out a bit on his family, as his first son is shown as a Lego, yet his triplets were not. Through research, I was able to find out more about his family and his composing credit for Barry Jenkins’ new “Mufasa: The Lion King,” opening December 24, 2024.
October 14, 2024 ©Sarah Knight Adamson