Pharrell Williams Lego Biopic ‘Piece By Piece’ Is A Gamechanger For Animated Documentary
With the discharge of its first trailer, Piece by Piece went from being one of many extra mysterious American animated titles of 2024 to one in all its most intriguing.
The movie, due out October 11, is an animated biopic of Pharrell Williams created in a cg Lego type. It’s being distributed by Focus Options, a subsidiary of Common Footage. Watch it beneath:
Admittedly, the trailer was a bit complicated upon first viewing, however that’s as a result of it’s so conceptually unique. Whereas it seems like a high-end business animated function à la earlier Lego motion pictures, it’s really a genre-bending documentary from filmmaker Morgan Neville, who gained the 2014 Academy Award for his feature-length documentary 20 Toes from Stardom.
For Piece by Piece, he explores the evolution of Williams’s music artistry and profession. The movie contains new music by Williams, in addition to the (animated) participation of Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, Jay Z, and Snoop Dogg.
Neville, who’s making his function animation directorial debut with this movie, is well-known for documentaries about well-known up to date figures together with Fred Rogers (Received’t You Be My Neighbor?), Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr. (Better of Enemies), and Anthony Bourdain (Roadrunner).
There are not any comps for a way an animated biopic of this sort would possibly carry out, however it will probably’t be judged by customary theatrical animation metrics. Neville himself holds the field workplace report for the top-grossing biographical documentary, which is $22.8 million for Received’t You Be My Neighbor? If Piece by Piece exceeds that modest quantity, it doubtlessly opens the door for a brand new period of high-end animated documentary filmmaking.
This movie is a major instance of what many people have been arguing for years: Animation will not be a style; it’s a medium that’s able to telling any sort of story. Piece by Piece’s modern use of a business cg type for a biopic proves that time, and it’ll be value watching carefully to see if audiences are receptive to this recent strategy.
There’s some fascinating backstage drama that goes together with this movie, too. After Warner Bros. ended its function movie pact with Lego, Common Footage jumped on the IP and signed a five-year deal to supply new Lego animated options. For causes that aren’t fully clear, they’ve been unable to launch manufacturing on any narrative movies through the deal interval. Piece by Piece, which is being launched on the tail finish of Common’s five-year deal, will doubtless find yourself being the one movie to come back out of their partnership with Lego.
Piece by Piece produers are Pharrell Williams, Mimi Valdés, Caitrin Rogers, and Morgan Neville. Government producers are David Lawrence, Shani Saxon, Jill Wilfert, and Keith Malone.
