The Lego Movie came out a few years ago but the deeper message of the movie bears repeating. It was a big success, earning hundreds of millions dollars and plenty of stars from critics and audiences alike. And while I enjoyed the parts of the movie I saw (my family loved it) it wasn’t my kind of movie, so I never really watched it. That is until my daughter Liz started quoting the movie in the context of Right & Left brain conversation we’re having on bettefetter.com.

So I watched it – start to finish – and I’m here to say – Everything is Awesome!!

The Lego Movie is an entertaining, highly creative commentary on the struggle between the Left and Right side of us – complete with an evil villain who wants order at any cost and a wild and crazy group of right brain creative types! As they struggle to coexist – they find out they’re Special when they work together and appreciate what each of them has to offer.

Here are the Lego Movie players and plot from the Left-Right Brain point of view.

Warning – Spoiler Alert!

President Business represents the Left side of the brain. He’s the bad guy who wants the creativity to stop. He wants things built the way they’re ‘supposed’ to be. He wants things neat and tidy. He wants order. He wants things to stop changing. And, he’s ready to use his secret weapon – Kragle (Krazy Glue) – to make it happen.

Master Builders are the creatives. They’re the ones driving President Business crazy. They can build anything they want and need without instructions and everything around them IS always changing. All through the movie WyldStyle, Vitruvius and other Master Builders are busy fighting the President’s attempts to suppress their creativity. 

Eventually we meet Princess UniKitty who lives in Cloud Cuckoo Land, the place with no rules, no bedtimes and absolutely no consistency. Hey – I know that place. It sounds like the right side of my brain! Cuckoo Land, like the right side of the brain, is unknown to most people which is too bad because it’s the happiest, most positive, creative place in the universe and the secret meeting place of the Master Builders.

Enter Emmet a construction worker. Vitruvius – the ancient wizard, prophesizes that Emmet is the Special – the one who’s going to save them all and become the greatest Master Builder of all time. No one’s sure how that’s going to happen since he’s not a Master Builder and not very creative. He doesn’t know how to build anything but he has the “Piece of Resistance” stuck on his back – the top of the Krazy Glue – so there’s got to be something he has to offer.

While spending time with the Master Builders, looking for a way to defeat Lord Business, the Builders help Emmet get in touch with his creative side. Vitruvius says; “believe in yourself and follow your own set of instructions inside your head”.  They teach him to trust and imagine and he finds out he can. His invention, the double decker couch, eventually saves the day.

Meanwhile the Master Builders are racing wildly around Cloud Cuckoo Land building anything and everything they can imagine to defeat Lord Business. But instead of success – there’s chaos. Seeing that all this random creating isn’t working Emmet saves the day. He knows they need a plan and he’s the one who gets the creative Master Builders to work together and defeat President Business.

The logical linear left side of the brain wants order. The right side of us is all about possibilities, no rules, no boundaries. But neither one works on its own. We all need Emmett. We need to know we can all be creative – and the creative part of us needs a plan.