[Comicsstudiessociety] IJOCA animation review book available WORLDWIDE - The LEGO Movie

[Mike Rhode]

As usual, first to respond to me gets the review opportunity. In the US, we
can have a hardcopy sent to you, but I have a pdf for worldwide reviewers.

If you get it done by early Dec it will be in the next physical issue of
the journal.

Mike Rhode
mrhode at gmail.com
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In this first book on *The LEGO Movie*, renowned film and TV scholar Dana
Polan shows how, through irony, savvy self-awareness, and knowingness about
the culture industry, the blockbuster animated film makes for essential
cinema.


What happens when we set out to understand LEGO not just as a physical
object but as an idea, an icon of modernity, an image—maybe even a moving
image? To what extent can the LEGO brick fit into the multimedia landscape
of popular culture, especially film culture, today? Launching from these
questions, Dana Polan traces LEGO from thing to film and asserts that *The
LEGO Movie* is an exemplar of key directions in mainstream cinema,
combining the visceral impact of effects and spectacle with ironic
self-awareness and savvy critique of mass culture as it reaches for new
heights of creativity.

Incorporating insights from conversations with producer Dan Lin and
writer-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Polan examines the production
and reception of *The LEGO Movie* and closely analyzes the film within
popular culture at large and in relation to LEGO as a toy and commodity. He
identifies the film’s particular stylistic and narrative qualities, its
grasp of and response to the culture industry, and what makes it a
distinctive work of animation within the seeming omnipresence of animation
in Hollywood, and reveals why the blockbuster film, in all its silliness
and seriousness, stands apart as a divergent cultural work.
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://utexas.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af878bb055ac8d7c49a6a1cd7&id=6ca4c00508&e=8aa739d7e4__;!!KGKeukY!jdDqBZ1c7rKz7UFvGqG_kl7XjJK_NRxdGTtJ3WilJFSRMI8Y0rpIpBGqfrC3ieLIH8Up2KEW42tV$ >

$21.95, Paperback
978-1-4773-2157-7

PUBLICATION DATE:
*10 November 2020*

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*
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*Dana Polan *is a professor of cinema studies in the Tisch School of the
Arts at New York University and former president of the Society for Cinema
Studies. He is the author of eight books in film and media studies,
including *The Sopranos* and *Pulp Fiction*, and approximately two hundred
essays and reviews.
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PRAISE FOR *The LEGO Movie*
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“Dana Polan is one of the most respected scholars in media studies and his
book, *The LEGO Movie*, displays his rare ability to weave together a
shrewd and refreshing array of insights. He systematically proves that this
smart, savvy movie is well aware of its place within both consumer culture
and the entertainment industry.”—*Richard Neupert, author of John Lasseter
and the Rise of Pixar Style*
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