In “Piece by Piece”, Pharrell states that Lego fits his life story

TORONTO (AP) – When Pharrell Williams AND Morgan Neville decided to make a movie about Williams’ life, but animated from Lego bricks, they knew there can be a culture shock. But the creation of Piece by Piece still led to places that neither Williams, Neville or Lego could have predicted.

“We had a long discussion about the width of the back of the bikini bottom on the minifigure in the ‘Rump Shaker’ music video,” laughs Neville. “We had a lot of conversations about things I thought I would never talk about as a filmmaker.”

“Piece by Piece” didn’t include any easy assembly instructions. It’s part musical biopic, part documentary, part family film. It is, like many things in Williams’ life, stuffed with hits, radiating highs, beats and distinctiveness.

“Society likes to put us in boxes, pun intended,” Williams says, chatting with Neville. “It was a moment where this guy’s perspective on my life and the way he put it together was incredibly liberating for me. Even though I never saw myself in a box, now it helps other people too.”

“Piece by Piece,” which opens in Focus Features theaters on Friday, begins like many documentaries, with director Neville sitting with a camera crew focused on its foremost character, Williams. But on this case, Williams – and the whole lot else, including the bearded, bespectacled Neville – is Lego.

“What if we told my life in Lego?” – Williams asks within the film. “That will never happen,” Neville replies.

What follows is something of a conventional documentary, stuffed with colourful tales of past struggles and triumphs, from his childhood in Virginia Beach to a string of chart-topping hits, told through Williams’ voice and multiple talking heads. It was recorded this manner during interviews on camera, Zoom or phone, after which animated into Lego characters. Here’s finally a probability to see Busta Rhymes as Lego together with many others including Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and Missy Elliott.

“Our first meeting was with Lego, because if they said no, there would be no film,” says Neville, director of documentaries including “20 Feet from Fame.” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” AND “Steve!” To their credit, they not only agreed, but I feel they understood what development it might force them to make.”

For Lego, the Danish toy company, making “Piece by Piece” was its biggest challenge since entering feature-length movies with “The Lego Movie” from 2014 Neville approached the corporate’s director of world entertainment, Jill Wilfert, with the thought of ​​making a documentary that can be the primary to be made not about himself. Wilfert reacted immediately.

“The whole idea of ​​Lego is infinite creativity and limitless possibilities, and Pharrell really embodies that,” he says.

To prove the concept, Neville shot a 90-second video of Williams reflecting on his upbringing and his inspirations from artists like Stevie Wonder. (The “Songs in the Key of Life” vinyl record is one other one in all those belongings you never expected to see as Lego.)

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“I went away from saying, ‘This is definitely going to work,’” Neville says. “And everyone we showed it to understood. They said: I need to see this movie.

Still, Neville and Williams knew the Lego approach would mean working inside PG parameters. Some things about Williams’ life – comparable to being young and famous while performing in the highest circles of pop and hip-hop – would not fit right into a family film. Williams claims the film “paraphrases” his life.

“There were definitely some areas that didn’t meet my expectations of where we could go,” Wilfert says. “We had good dialogue throughout the entire process. Morgan and Pharrell, there was mutual respect because we are a brand that people have high expectations of and expect certain things from. So we worked with them on the areas that we thought made sense and the areas that didn’t make sense.”

It also pushed Lego in other ways. Williams is especially happy with the actual fact that Lego has expanded the range of skin tones and hair textures available because of the film. Williams’ Lego – which he carried proudly for the premiere of Piece by Piece on the Toronto International Film Festival – it was specially designed to match his skin tone.

“Name the type of person. We fought hard for its existence and recognition,” Williams says. “Lego has made a commitment and I think the brand is better for it.”

One of the film’s most inventive designs is illustrating songs that Williams created on his own or in collaboration, comparable to Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl,” Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” and Pharrell’s “Happy.” Each one is rendered as a novel, small, glowing set of Lego bricks put together.

The other, less completely happy facets of Williams’ life are out of the query. You won’t see anything “Blurred Lines” lawsuit by which Marvin Gaye’s estate sued for copyright infringement and won. There’s also nothing within the video about Williams’ recent legal spats with Neptunes co-founder Chad Hugo. Earlier this 12 months, Hugo filed a trademark opposition to the duo’s name, alleging that Williams had “fraudulently” tried to realize control of it. Williams’ representatives disagreed, saying Williams “contacted the company on numerous occasions to share ownership.”

However, “Piece By Piece” provides a positive portrait of Hugo, particularly from Williams’ early days in Virginia Beach when the 2 began making music together.

“There is nothing bittersweet. I am grateful for my experiences. “Chad is an integral part of the beginning, the genesis of my musical exploration and being there,” Williams says. “I met him in second grade in band class and the memories we have of making music together, I wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t for our meeting.”

Williams, who’s Men’s Creative Director at Louis Vuittonhas a talent for brand management. He released his debut solo album “In My Mind” in 2006 and way back got here into the highlight himself. However, as he himself admits, he remained a producer at heart. Not the whole lot in Piece by Piece was easy for him.

“A lot of this stuff felt vulnerable to me,” Williams says. “I cried twice during this story. I didn’t consider that he might ask questions that would trigger emotions. I’m such a manufactured person. I have produced so much of myself.”

It’s a sense that Neville can relate to, as a protean documentarian who’s accustomed to adapting to the style and attitude of his subjects.

“Pharrell, as a producer, often holds a mirror up to artists so they can see themselves. My job is to put a mirror in front of him so he can see himself,” Neville says. “I have a strange feeling that we have the same job.”

When Neville interviewed other musicians for the film, he told them they might be animated. But he didn’t say how. Only later did they learn that they might be Lego minifigures.

“Everyone was shocked and excited,” Williams says. “I feel prefer it brought out the inner child in each of them. Some of them take a look at life that way anyway. Others, even the tough ones, said, “Oh man, this is great.”

Capturing Williams’ life in a fun, even childlike way will definitely help some younger viewers connect with his story. Becoming a world-famous multi-hyphenate could seem unattainable to most, but “Piece by Piece” makes it seem almost like a lightning bolt.

“Lego highlights universality,” says Neville. “I have the impression that this whole film is an experiment in the tension between the specificity of real life and documentaries, and imagination and the universality of imagination.”