Beautiful animated fantasy of a young boy and his LEGO’s.
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In a world made of LEGO bricks, one day the snake, who lives in a small house on top of a very high building, discovers a serious threat that approaches the city he lives in: The Grey, a lava-like organism, freezes everything it touches into a grey solid mass.
While trying to save the city, things only get worse. The dinosaur escapes from the zoo and it’s also attacking the city. How are the citizens going to survive this?
Here is the story behind the making of the video:
This video was made for LEGO China. The people of LEGO told me that in China children are often told exactly how to play. They have actual LEGO teachers telling the young children to put which brick on which other brick ending up making all the exact same car, boat, animal, or whatever. LEGO wanted to change that with a campaign that, amongst other material and information, featured our video to give the parents and other adults that live and or work with children an idea about what can go on in a child’s mind. Especially in their fantasy. The main target was to introduce LEGO as a toy children could use to trigger their imagination. My idea, that I also explained in a few interviews we had for this project, is that you should not tell a child how to play and where his next brick should come. You should ask what the kid just made, ask it to tell a story about it and when you give them a new brick, ask them where it should come and what it represents. That way a child can really surprise you with idea’s you’d never think of as an adult.
That’s not new to most western adults, but in China, it’s a brand new way of thinking for most people.
I was asked by LEGO China to come to Shanghai, watch some very young children play with LEGO Duplo, have a short interview with them about the creations they made with it and then, pick out one that was “the best”, write a short story with it and make a stop-motion animated video with that story.
I picked out a boy, named Qui Qui. He had made a weird object that turned out to be a house in which a snake lived. Qui Qui told me that the snake actually lives on top of the large building and when I asked him how the snake gets to his house (because I didn’t notice a staircase or an elevator) he immediately said: “with his rocket!”. I loved that thought and decided to make a story starting with that idea.
Back in the Netherlands I made up the idea’s of The Grey and the dinosaur that was escaping from the zoo. Together with my interns and freelance animators and set builders we made this stop-motion video in about three months. To get an idea of how that process goes you can have a look at the Making Of, below:
MAKING OF LEGO_ADVENTURE IN THE CITY from Rogier Wieland on Vimeo.
Written and directed by Rogier Wieland.
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