It is very easy to be cynical about a movie like Piece By Piece. An animated documentary about Pharrell Williams’ life and times but told with LEGO bricks, it’s a combination of mediums and elements that are already dismissed by casual moviegoers on their own, let alone when infused together. Sure, audiences ate up The LEGO Movie, but can they buy into the same aesthetic for a documentary? Even for more ardent cinephiles, who usually maintain an open mind to almost all kinds of cinema, the unique conceit can’t escape an air of celebrity fluff amidst an era where bio-docs are a dime a dozen. No other film this year has viewers more sincerely wondering, who asked for this?
Well, Pharrell Williams did. In interviews promoting the film’s World Premiere at this year’s edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, the musician and bonafide hit-maker spoke about wanting to tell his story in the way he imagined it: with LEGO bricks. Like many children before him, the musician unlocked his sense of creative discovery and expression through building LEGO sets, so why not capture his musical coming-of-age using the same tools? Though the film certainly isn’t made by hand, Piece By Piece is as much a LEGO creation as any that have come before it yet elevated to a new level. The result is an explosively imaginative, genre-defying film that makes Pharrell’s real-world experiences feel larger-than-life.
Though animation is by no means exclusively for children, Piece By Piece feels like a beautiful entry point for young people to introduce themselves to the art of the documentary. In its very first moments, director Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?) translates familiar documentary techniques into animation. A hand-held camera follows LEGO Williams into his home, where there is some commotion from his children. He tells his wife he is about to sit down for an interview and asks for them to be quiet, after which he walks toward a room where a LEGO Neville has lit a makeshift set for a sit-down interview. Already, Neville has cinema verite and talking-head interviews novelly rendered in LEGO form, ensuring audiences that this film is still interested in maintaining the medium’s enduring form.
However, soon after this, the film takes a drastic turn into the surreal as Williams describes his obsession with water as a child and how he perceives the ideal version of himself as a merman-like water nymph, swimming amongst sea creatures. He also recounts his first exposure to music; Williams has synesthesia, a sensory condition that makes music appear to him as colors and shapes. This, perhaps conveniently, makes it easy to physicalize music with the colorful whimsy of LEGO bricks; songs are represented as stacks of studs and other pieces, something Williams can literally hold in his hands. This, however, should not discount the animation’s thoroughly detailed design and vivid color palette, both of which transport viewers into Williams’ unorthodox imagination, something that has long seemed elusive.
The film goes on to tell Williams’ story, beginning with his humble school daze in the projects of Virginia Beach into forming the Neptunes alongside musician Chad Hugo (the two’s current relationship – not on speaking terms – is not addressed, unsurprisingly). The two’s bangin’ experimentation within the world of hip-hop gets them discovered by producer Teddy Riley, who would give Williams the leg up he needed to begin working on hit records. Featuring appearances by LEGO versions of numerous beloved artists, from Gwen Stefani to Daft Punk to even Snoop Dogg, Williams’ rise is given the inspirational scope needed to convey just how singular it remains in the world of music. However, it never loses its sense of humor, channeling LEGO’s signature brand of cheeky antics into some cheekier moments.
All of this clues viewers into the secret sauce behind Williams’ success: a commitment to his vision and spirit no matter how many eyebrows he raises. The film embodies that same spirit, both in what it includes about Williams’ journey but also its unwillingness to pander to its perceived demographic. Williams’ rise has its fair share of less-than-child-friendly material, and Piece By Piece makes efforts to represent that. Though by no means offensive, the film features scantily clad LEGO minifigures, references to weed and alcohol, and even recreates scenes of Black Lives Matter protests. Many may discount all of this as cheeky at best and tone-deaf at worst, but Williams knows that through portraying all of this in the style of LEGO, a language all ages can understand, he can convey the gravity of his message.
Sure, Piece By Piece can’t escape the trappings of a studio-made celebrity puff piece – the film heralds Williams with minimal critique and similarly doesn’t dig deep into his adversities, thus feeling a bit surface level – but that ultimately matters little. Williams and Neville’s collaboration does not seek to reinvent the wheel in its content but rather in its execution. Piece By Piece is a landmark entry into the still-limited animated documentary canon, one that introduces how the visual language of LEGO can far exceed the trademark characters it has previously relied on, such as superheroes or lightsaber-wielders. The medium’s sense of imagination and wonder can bring our own stories to new, engrossing life. If it takes a Pharrell Williams bio-doc to show us the way, then so be it.
Piece By Piece held its World Premiere as part of the Special Presentations section of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. It will be released in theaters nationwide on October 11, 2024, courtesy of Focus Features.
Piece By Piece proves that the power of LEGO animation can exceed its typical franchise fare, channeling its vivid animation and larger-than-life imagination into Williams' one-of-a-kind story.
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GVN Rating 8
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Larry Fried is a filmmaker, writer, and podcaster based in New Jersey. He is the host and creator of the podcast “My Favorite Movie is…,” a podcast dedicated to helping filmmakers make somebody’s next favorite movie. He is also the Visual Content Manager for Special Olympics New Jersey, an organization dedicated to competition and training opportunities for athletes with intellectual disabilities across the Garden State.