Pieza por pieza

Pharrell Williams is one of the most iconic and creative artists of all time. Many generations can recognize his music, but few may know his story. From childhood to becoming a global brand, this is the unique story of Pharrell Williams.

This is a unique biopic told through Lego animation, which makes it enjoyable for both adults and children. The story does not get into the nitty-gritty of Pharrell's journey through the music industry. It sticks to what inspired him and how he became one of the greatest music producers ever. The animation is colorful and captivating, and with Pharrell's music, it is even better. The movie feels less than one hour and thirty-three minutes, and it will have you tapping your foot and bobbing your head the entire time. This is a great movie to introduce the new generation to some of the hits we grew up with and share the story of someone who has accomplished so much.

The idea of having a Lego movie that documents the life of Pharrell Williams is so unique and creative and it is the type of thing I would love to see more of in Hollywood. The film has some really nice animation and when the animation moves to the music it looks really cool. The movie basically serves as a documentary about Pharrell Williams which is nice and it's really funny seeing all of these legends from the entertainment industry in Lego form, especially Snoop Dogg. In classic Lego movie form this movie has heart and humor, and can be enjoyed by the whole family. I also like how even though this is a Lego movie the film didn't really hold back on some of the more adult elements of Pharrell's story. Morgan Neville did a good job directing and I think this is a pretty solid and entertaining watch.

6.6/10 (Recommend, but not in theatres)

This is a mostly family friendly because it's a LEGO-esque style movie, but in reality it's definitely not geared towards families. Nothing really drew me to this film other than LEGO. I like Pharrell Williams' music, but he's not someone I'm dying to listen to or see.

I like the style he decided to take in telling his life story. As a LEGO movie you're able to create anything you want with whatever your imagination can come up with, but despite the flashy pieces and the catchy tunes that some of us would recognize, it still falls flat. I don't feel this biopic is a "woah is me" story despite the rags to riches perspective, but the way things are told you don't get to truly feel the hardships that Pharrell went through to make it big.

The film isn't a total waste of time. I never realized how big of an impact on music that Pharrell had. Creating music for artists such as Snoop Dogg, Jay Z, Gwen Stefani, and Justin Timberlake to name a few. So I did learn something. I would definitely watch this movie once, but I wouldn't see it in theatres if I could go back.

Overall, it's a 90 minute surface story that gives only a fractional bit of info on the road Pharrell to make it big. It definitely has a "go after what you want" subplot, but you also need to work hard. It's a flashy film that uses LEGO, but it never truly hits the emotional chord. I wouldn't recommend seeing in theatres, or as a family (unless you like the genre of music). There's only one swear word in the film, but it's mostly bleeped out except for maybe three times. In the end though you can't deny the impact of Pharrell. He's had his hand in some of the biggest songs that I've heard, but would never have pegged him to.

That's it for now. Thanks for taking time to read my review. Happy watching and enjoy the show!

So this movie is just a documentary of Pharrell Williams life. But it is done amazingly well. The idea to make a documentary about a music guy in Lego is genius, cause it can visually show what someone is feeling.

The movie was executed well. The pacing is really solid and keeps you intrigued while keeping the story slow enough to process.

Acting is pretty great, Pharrell Williams did a good job but his mom is who stood out the most to me, said lines and made it feel like they were said in that time. Same with the director, his acting was so good and added a lot to the story.

Emotional impact is meh, it's an inspiring story and emotionally ig you can get mad at the bad buisness men.

The cinematography is beautiful. Gorgeous for a documentary. There is more than one great shot in this movie but one of my favorites is a shot from behind Pharrell Williams when he is watching the speakers as they play music and there is like lights coming out of them.

The music is incredible, sound design is pretty good but one of my favorite things about this movie is that it is integrating music constantly and using that to keep flow. It's so dope.

There is a theme of working hard and not quitting which is always good. But there is also some really unbiblical themes which makes me really mad and frustrated (easily one of the reasons I dropped it a rank)

I have watched this movie twice and it's enough, watching it 2 times is good but after that now I'm not super excited to see it.

Really great movie, just a disagreement with themes, seeing cursing in an animated movie isn't fun. But yeah great movie for the family is the kids are over the ago of 12.

Disclaimer: I am primarily a symphonic metal listener who has had very limited familiarity with this musical scene and have not heard of the lead until Happy became a breakout hit.

With that disclaimer aside, I must say that Pharrell Williams undoubtedly deserves credit just for taking a risk to do this style of film about himself - and Morgan Neville for taking him up on it. A risk which, to be clear, does not appear to have paid off commercially, as even though Piece by Piece apparently cost a surprisingly low $16 million, it still grossed a bit less than that - rather than the >2X which are normally thought to make a film's theatrical run profitable. (Though it still fared incomparably better than Better Man, which had taken a far greater and more expensive risk that would have required a miracle to be commercially successful, and such a miracle did not occur.)

The entire LEGO approach does in fact often result in some cool vistas we would not have seen otherwise. Any scene to do with water or space in particular (and there are quite a lot of them) looks stunning in this format. Since Neville obviously had the subject of the story in front of him (not having to reconstruct the story about a subject who had already passed away like many other biopics are forced to), all that was really needed was to pace it right - and it doesn't get there.

That is, in spite of being just 93 minutes long, Piece by Piece still manages to really noticeably drag in the middle. The film appears to cover something like 35 years of Williams' life - but after a certain point, it becomes hard to tell what happened when, after how long, and why it was even important. Specifically, after Williams becomes successful a second time (the montage of him blowing his first taste of wealth and success is an unquestionable highlight), the events become a kaleidoscope of him meeting important people (Snoop Dogg! Jay Z! His wife!) and it's unclear what it is actually leading up to.

Sure, a Williams documentary had to include Happy! As the capstone, and there presumably had to be some kind of a fall before that. That all occurs relatively suddenly and feels frankly belated. Given that this film which felt fine with a on-screen counter of William's earnings in the aforementioned montage, it could have had flashed years on the screen a few times to give us some basic grounding.

As for the message Williams is trying to convey....on one hand, "creativity is about mixing pieces" may sound offputting to some, but he is far from the only creator to have said the same, and those who consider themselves sui generis often just don't know enough about those who came before them (and may ironically end up doing exactly what was already done many times earlier.) I also appreciate him talking about the social context of Happy, or the deep inspiration Carl Sagan had on him.

On the other hand, Williams and Neville are clearly avoiding sharp edges - even when it's not hard for the attentive viewers to spot them anyway. Williams talks about the inspiration he's taken from Sagan in the same breath as he praises the role of local church - and yet, Sagan himself didn't just talk about the wonders of the universe but was also the author of "Demon-haunted World", a work deeply critical of any religion. This is just one of the contradictions the two aren't even really trying to square.

In the same vein, the film is honest enough to acknowledge that Williams started out in this scene in large part due to the interest local police had taken in music as a way of keeping the youth out of trouble - and yet, the fighter jets roaring above Williams' neighbourhood are only treated as an uncomplicated Cool Thing - and not as an extension of the same system which often privileged hard power ahead of the prosperity for all Americans.

Likewise, BLM protests of 2020 do get a mention, with Williams speaking with pride of the motivating power of his song. The immediate aftermath of those is not discussed - even though by the time the film finished production, a strong case could already have been made that the backlash to protests had more lasting impact than the protests themselves.

In all, this is ultimately a flawed experiment. One still more interesting than many other films - yet also frustratingly distant from what it could have been.