It’s understandable if one is initially skeptic of “The Lego Movie.” For starters, it’s a movie based on a toy, and usually such films either lack a cohesive story or whack the audience over the head with product placement. Perhaps the biggest surprise about “The Lego Movie” — and there are many surprises — is that it actually manages to overcome both of those obstacles. The result is a movie that is constantly funny, consistently smart and surprisingly heartfelt.

"CONSTANTLY FUNNY AND CONSISTENTLY SMART" 

The film begins in a Lego metropolis called Bricksburg, and the city is run by a very controlling President Business (Will Ferrell), who tells the citizens to follow instructions, what kind of music to listen to and the like. He’s got a bigger plan, however — a much more sinister plan. One of the Bricksburgian citizens, Emmet (Chris Pratt), a lowly and forgettable construction worker, discovers the Piece of Resistance and it is attached to him. Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), a Master Builder, comes to Emmet’s rescue and informs him that he is The Special, and he is the one that will stop President Business.

To tell any more about the plot would be spoiling too much. It’s frenetic and wild, starting off at a jog and ending in a sprint. Along the way, the audience is introduced to well-known Lego characters from franchises and even from real life, like Green Lantern, Shaq and Abraham Lincoln. There is travel through different regions, from the wild west to medieval times, and each location is brimming with charm, detail and most importantly, comedy.

The movie’s strongest asset is that it is constantly funny. After all, this is a movie by the same directors who made “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” and “21 Jump Street.” The movie takes a joke-a-minute approach and the results are wildly successful. There is so much going on, from spoken jokes to one-liners to throwback jokes to parodies to visual gags — it’s enough to make your head spin. Best of all, the film is highly engaging, featuring a story that is stronger than it first appears and filled with emotional depth.

MAGNIFICENT VOICE CAST 

The voice cast is magnificent. Chris Pratt is the perfect mix of loveably silly and charming as Emmet, Elizabeth Banks makes Wyldstyle into more than just a bad chick, and Morgan Freeman’s sagacious character Vitrivus perfectly takes a crack at making light of Morgan Freeman’s movie stereotypes — and amazingly pulls it off. Various voice supporting roles from actors like Charlie Day, Nick Offerman and Alison Brie are also worthy of a mention.

At its center, “The Lego Movie” is not a kid’s film — it is a film for everybody. It speaks to the inner child in all of us, and it reminds us that we all have big dreams and ideas. The message at the end solidifies the greatness of the film. It’s easily the best the animated film since 2010’s “Toy Story 3.” It’s the best Lego-themed movie anybody could have ever built.