Recently I was on a road trip and miraculously escaped a massive accident at Van Reenens Pass in KZN, where I could have lost my life. God protected me from being involved in this accident and I was glad to be able to see my family after this ordeal.
On the same trip I bought the Lego Movie as a gift for my grandchildren. After returning home I sat down with my grandchildren to watch the movie. What was supposed to be a pleasant, relaxing experience, turned out to be a restless chase for answers coming from the uneasiness in my heart about the underlying messages in the movie.
At first I thought that I was being overly critical and asked my daughter to watch it with me. She picked up on the same subtle, twisted and disturbing misrepresentation of God and the ways of God. I watched the movie again and feel compelled to warn parents who are concerned about subtle media indoctrination. The article is not a movie review per se, but a call to parents to be more watchful about what they let their children repeatedly feed their minds and soul on. Even the most seemingly innocent movie can be used to indoctrinate our children. Lego Movie is an exciting, imaginative and impressive movie where actual animated Legos are used. The plot is about a Lego character Emmett, who in the world of LEGO's, is nothing special. He, along with his "friends" work in a construction yard, with everyone getting along and everything is going exactly as planned. Emmett has the perfect life. One day, while he is out working in the yard, he notices some suspicious activity from a female LEGO. Emmett warns her that she is trespassing on construction property and needs to leave. When she refuses to listen, he follows her and accidentally falls down a giant hole. Inside the hole, he discovers a powerful gem buried in the ground. After carelessly touching the gem, he blacks out, only to find himself in a police station, being questioned by Bad Cop, about why he was down there and what he knows about the gem. Just then, the mysterious girl we met earlier rescues him and helps him escape from police custody. She explains that he is "The Special," the person who it was prophesied with the help of the other Master Builders, to free the LEGOs from the tyranny of President Business (whose goal is to achieve world domination through force of will. It has a very happy theme song that says: Everything is awesome, everything is cool when you part of a team, everything is awesome when we’re living our dream.
When I asked my oldest grandson (6) at the end of the movie what the lesson was for him, he said, that we must believe in God. Now, this is exactly why I am writing the article as I sat with confused thoughts about why this could not just be a Lego movie. Why did the movie have parallels with God and prophecies, and the Special one and a prophecy that was not true in any way?
My first awareness was that there is a reference to a prophecy of a Special one that will come. I felt saddened that children of a young age must have a distorted view of prophecies and must be indoctrinated when watching a movie aimed at them.
It is written in Acts 2:17, that in the last days the sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions. I do not want my grandchildren not to believe that they can receive dreams and visions that can be relevant to God's people.
In this movie it says that the prophecy was all a lie. I don't want my grandchildren to be confused about prophecies from God. If we read 1 Peter 2:4-8 we see that "The stone that the builders rejected has become the capstone." Emmet represents the one that was prophesied over and is also rejected because he was so ordinary.
It is disturbing that there is a reference in the movie to "the man upstairs", which refers to God. The "man upstairs" is the oppressive creator of everything, who wants to prevent everyone from experiencing anything fun and different, in order to keep creation static in nature. The "man upstairs" is corrected, taught and converted by his creation in the end. This movie is an anti-God allegory.
What I know about God is that He is not unsettled with the diversity of people. He gave us command to reign over the earth and He gave various gifts so that people can bring creativity to the world around them and His people. In the Lego Movie it also speaks about master builders. Firstly, Emmet is called a master builder:
Vitruvius: Master Builders spend years training themselves to clear their minds enough to have even a fleeting glimpse of The Man Upstairs. And yet, your mind is already so prodigiously empty that there is nothing in it toclear away in the first place. With proper training you could become a great Master Builder. Emmet Brickowoski: I could?
Vitruvius: The prophecy chose you, Emmet.
Emmet Brickowoski: But I can't do any of the stuff that the prophecy says I'm supposed to do.
Vitruvius: All you have to do is to believe, then you will see everything. Are you ready, my son?
Emmet Brickowoski: "Yes, I am. I think." In Ephesians 2 the Apostle Paul speaks of himself as a master builder. Apostles are supernaturally gifted people to help build churches and keep them spiritually healthy. Prophets help the church understand the purposes of God. In my opinion there is a trend of downplaying the efforts of God's people trying to build His Kingdom in the right way. The Lego Movie also refers to the fact that there will be a torturing of the Master Builders.
Heaven is depicted as Cloud Cuckoo Land with muttons, torture weapons, poverty, leaches, and illiteracy - in fact, all which is bad.
Emmet Brickowoski: Uh... is this Cloud Cuckoo Land? I don't see any clouds, or cuckoos.
Vitruvius: No, no. This is Middle Zealand. A wondrous land full of knights, castles, muttons, torture weapons, poverty, leaches, illiteracy, and um... [suddenly a dragon flies towards them]
I thought I was just a doubting grandmother but I believe that the creators of this movie had a definite goal in mind to bring confusion to the mind of a child. The movie script even uses direct Scripture quotes like, "And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand" (Mark 3: 25 / Matthew 12:25). Other double mindedness that also comes through in the movie is where it portrays the cop as a good cop / bad cop, and one that even loses its face. The "man upstairs" expected the police to harm his own parents. In an imperfect world where there is such an excessive emphasis on abuse and the family and authority figures not being a safe place, I find it unnecessary that children must be fed these messages. Call unto parents.
My suggestion is that parents of young children watch movies with their kids first and also take more notice of what they download on their tablets. I was doing it 20 years ago with my daughter (now 28), and gave her the tools, even then, to discern right from wrong from a Biblical perspective. Today I see how she has awareness with her own children and not granting the enemy a foothold through media and other sources.
We cannot let our children watch movies repeatedly where it leaves the child in confusion about God's heart for His people. It is easier for parents to see aspects of witchcraft and the occult, like ghosts, a sorcerer's staff, glowing eyes and such like, but what about principles of the Kingdom that's being twisted from such a young age?
Everything around us is not just awesome. We live in a broken world. We don't just need "faith in ourselves and then everything will be awesome," as the movie suggests, but we have a real need of God.
I suggest parents play the Word of God in audio form in their kids' rooms when putting them to sleep to be soaked in Truth. There are also resources available intended to grow kids spiritually rather than confusing them.
