badgerboy
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Welcome to the Scripting Thread for The Lego Movie Project. Here, we will discuss everything that has to do with the script. It’s very important that you read all the rules regarding this thread, which are below.
Rules:
1. Below are a list of Discussion Points that we will talk about in this thread. We will only talk about those points, nothing else.
2. It is only natural that discussions branch off, but stay as close to the Discussion Points as possible.
3. If you have a new idea completely unrelated to, or only slightly related to, one of the Discussion Points, do not post it in this thread. Post your new idea in the official LMP thread. The reasoning for this is so that we can stay on task and accomplish things briskly.
4. If I find your new idea worthy of discussion, I will clear it and add it to this thread for discussion.
Disobeying these rules will result in punishment. I’m serious.
Now, on a lighter note, the basic plot summary I originally wrote. I have inserted different “points” into the summary to make it easier to tell at which point in the story you are talking about.
“badgerboy” wrote:
(A) Josh, a poor, unloved farm boy in Castle Town, has discovered he has the ability to manipulate and create matter (LEGO bricks). Hoping to get some money (studs, we could maybe call them?) so his family will love him and to bring them out of poverty, he goes to the streets to perform “magic” acts for donations (think street musicians with their guitar cases open for money).
Rasputin, the advisor of the King, witnesses this and runs back to the King to tell him. The King’s thief has recently been captured by a neighboring kingdom, and the King sees the only way to get him back is to go to war, that is, until he met Josh and his extraordinry ability.
(B) The King tells Josh that he will provide him with everything he wants if he retrieves the thief. Josh sees this as the only way to win the love of his family, so he accepts. The King sends Rasputin, knowledgeable of the land, and Dash, a charming knight, with Josh.
(C) So they have an adventure. Maybe fight a monster or dragon or two, have some fight sequences, make some funnies, etc.
(D) They arrive at the neighboring kingdom. They break the thief (named Edward) out of jail, not without plenty of action and humor, of course, and leave the kingdom and begin their trek back to Castle Town.
(E) On the way back, they are attacked by soldiers repeatedly that were sent to take the thief back. They defeat them each time thy are sent. Soon they arrive back at Castle Town.
(F) Before the thief can be returned to the King, Castle Town comes under attack by a large army from the neighboring kingdom in one last ditch effort to retrive Edward. This is where the big battle scene will take place.
The neighboring kingdom is defeated. Josh, Dash, Edward, and Rasputin return to the King. The King is pleased and asks Josh what he wants.
(G) Josh reveals that he doesn’t want anything. On the adventure, he discovers that all he really wants is someone to accept him for who he is and not for what he did, and he found that person (Rasputin). They all live happily-ever-after.
DISCUSSION POINTS:
-Characteristics of Josh’s family. We know they do not love him, but why?
-Josh’s sister. Should we add her as a central character? Should she have the same power as Josh, or not? Should she become evil? What would be her motivation for becoming evil? I posted different scenarios for his sister on page 11 of the LMP thread.
-The villains. Should they be lovingly evil, or pure evil? Should there be one leader, or a group of leaders? What do they look like? Should the main villain be a female, as brought up in TLMP thread? How many of these monsters are there?
-What is the group of monsters’ motivation for capturing Edward?
-What is the King’s motivation for wanting to retrieve Edward?
-Where should the monsters live?
-To content of Point C will be discussed at a later date.
Additions:
-3/7: Should a skeleton be a principal character?
-3/16: What should happen at Point C? If there’s anything that you’d like to see in this film that wouldn’t fit anywhere else, and has no effect on the overall plot, post it for Point C!
-3/16: What kind of monsters should be sent to attack Josh on his way back to Castleton? What should happen during these fights?
-3/16: What should happen during the big battle? If you have ideas for the battle sequence, post them!
Once we have most of these plot points figured out, I’ll add smaller details to the list.
Hopefully we’ll be able to accomplish a lot with this thread. Thanks for taking a look.
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LegoMasterProductions
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Sorry, but I need to get this straight. So we talk about the story here, and we talk about names and such in the other thread?
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badgerboy
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That’s correct, but only as long as it has to do with the Discussion Points above.
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FLIPaBRIK
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-a possible reason for his family not to accept him…
they feel that he is superior to them (due to his special “ability”) while they wish to stay at the top of the authority list. which makes things all the worse with his efforts to prove himself to them by his actions, and he cant understand quite why they do not love him…
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Mousequeso
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“FLIPaBRIK” wrote: -a possible reason for his family not to accept him…
they feel that he is superior to them (due to his special “ability”) while they wish to stay at the top of the authority list. which makes things all the worse with his efforts to prove himself to them by his actions, and he cant understand quite why they do not love him…
kinda like a cinderalla thing?
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LegoMasterProductions
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Yeah, mayby they think he’s evil or something so they kick him out.
Or mayby like this incident happens in the village and someone frames him. Then his parents believe the rumors and they kick him out.
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badgerboy
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Well, here are my ideas on the points:
-Josh’s family doesn’t love him because they don’t understand him. Instead of seeing him as something special, they see him as a “freak” and oppress him. They are selfish and ignorant beings, and they don’t care for anybody else as long as they are getting by. When I wrote up the summary, I imagined Josh and his family being poor peasants.
-I already commented heavily on Josh’s sister in the other thread. I’m still undecided on whether I think she should be a main character or not. I’d like some more thoughts on this subject.
-The villains: I’m swaying towards making the villains pure evil. They are despicable scum. However, I’m not sure if we could do this because of the audience that will be watching this. My personal opinion on this is that if we make them lovingly evil, then that will take away their basis as a villain.
As for the leaders, I’m thinking that there should be one head leader, a female “Queen.” She would have servants and advisers, but in the end, she gets the final say on everything. The Queen would be physically different from the rest of the monsters. While they’re all ugly, grotesque things, she’s beautiful…well, as beautiful as a monster could be. I think there should be different “classes” of monsters. Some would be humanoids, others giant trolls, skeletons, etc. And I think there should be a ton of monsters. Just a ton. That’s why the King is afraid of going to war with them: they outnumber them 10 to 1.
-The motivation behind the capture of Edward (the thief). I think this should be a big secret that isn’t revealed until at least halfway into the film. The audience will originally believe that the monsters are just savages, but eventually they will learn that they’re relatively intelligent.
So here’s an idea for their motivation: the monsters capture Edward because an ancient relic of theirs was stolen by a different kingdom. This relic lets the monsters keep their strength. Without it, they will wither away, which is why its so important to them. However, Edward resists a lot, which is why he still hasn’t left to retrieve it when Josh and company arrive to take him back.
-The King wants to retrieve Edward because Edward is an important asset in war and learning information about others kingdoms. A nearby kingdom (the same one that stole the relic) is considering going to war with the King’s kingdom, so Edward is more important than ever to him.
-One thing I was thinking of was that the monsters lived in a moderately sized settlement with a large network of caverns beneath it.
So here are my thoughts. I’d like some input and some new ideas (that pertain to the Discussion Points) as well. If everything comes from me, then I have a feeling the film might get a little boring. So get creative! 
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LegoMasterProductions
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“badgerboy” wrote: Well, here are my ideas on the points:
-Josh’s family doesn’t love him because they don’t understand him. Instead of seeing him as something special, they see him as a “freak” and oppress him. They are selfish and ignorant beings, and they don’t care for anybody else as long as they are getting by. When I wrote up the summary, I imagined Josh and his family being poor peasants.
-I already commented heavily on Josh’s sister in the other thread. I’m still undecided on whether I think she should be a main character or not. I’d like some more thoughts on this subject.
Yes, that’s what I thought. His parents don’t understand him so they reject him. I did imagine that they were peasants. I think having Josh’s sister as a main character is good. There could be like two seperate ‘stories’. One about Josh’s adventure, and one about his sister’s adventure. Then at the end, they both come together to where Josh and his sister join together and fight.
“badgerboy” wrote:
-The villains: I’m swaying towards making the villains pure evil. They are despicable scum. However, I’m not sure if we could do this because of the audience that will be watching this. My personal opinion on this is that if we make them lovingly evil, then that will take away their basis as a villain.
As for the leaders, I’m thinking that there should be one head leader, a female “Queen.” She would have servants and advisers, but in the end, she gets the final say on everything. The Queen would be physically different from the rest of the monsters. While they’re all ugly, grotesque things, she’s beautiful…well, as beautiful as a monster could be. I think there should be different “classes” of monsters. Some would be humanoids, others giant trolls, skeletons, etc. And I think there should be a ton of monsters. Just a ton. That’s why the King is afraid of going to war with them: they outnumber them 10 to 1.
About the queen, what if she could have the power to shape shift? But she still keeps her beauty no matter what she turns into. I like the idea of having a ton of monsters.
“badgerboy” wrote:
-The motivation behind the capture of Edward (the thief). I think this should be a big secret that isn’t revealed until at least halfway into the film. The audience will originally believe that the monsters are just savages, but eventually they will learn that they’re relatively intelligent.
So here’s an idea for their motivation: the monsters capture Edward because an ancient relic of theirs was stolen by a different kingdom. This relic lets the monsters keep their strength. Without it, they will wither away, which is why its so important to them. However, Edward resists a lot, which is why he still hasn’t left to retrieve it when Josh and company arrive to take him back.
I was thinking that the other kingdom could be full of dark knights who are also thiefs. We could also throw in that Edward used to live in that kingdom but he ran away or he was kicked out. So the dark knight’s kingdom frames Edward for stealing the relic for their revenge.
“badgerboy” wrote:
-The King wants to retrieve Edward because Edward is an important asset in war and learning information about others kingdoms. A nearby kingdom (the same one that stole the relic) is considering going to war with the King’s kingdom, so Edward is more important than ever to him.
Right. The dark kingdom could go to war with Castleton because they were planning to do it anyway and since Castleton doesn’t have Edward.
“badgerboy” wrote:
-One thing I was thinking of was that the monsters lived in a moderately sized settlement with a large network of caverns beneath it.
Yeah, the monsters could live underground. They could this mine and so they kidnap people to work in it. This is where I think Edward could be.
These are just ideas of course.
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FLIPaBRIK
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i like all of these ideas except for the shapeshifting, it goes a little to far in my opinion because of the viewers we want, it might be slightly harder for the littler ones to keep up with the story and enjoy it if the main evil keeps changing forms 
about the monsters…since we want a variety of different monsters- some can be purely evil (say the trolls) who can voluntarily follow the queen, but others (skeletons) could be bound to the evil queen by an oath that their ancestors made, which they regret to the deepest degree but think that their only way to survive is to fulfill that oath,- maybe something like when the queen is killed it shows all these skeletons gaining flesh and becoming normal loving people 
as for the sister, maybe she secretly understands her brother and doesnt see him as freak but is afraid of being kicked out as well, so she conceals it.
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badgerboy
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About the queen, what if she could have the power to shape shift? But she still keeps her beauty no matter what she turns into
I like this idea, but I think she should have one “main” form that she reverts back to whenever she is done with whatever needs to be done in a different form.
it might be slightly harder for the littler ones to keep up with the story and enjoy it if the main evil keeps changing forms
That’s a good point, but I think as long as she always reverts back to her main form, clearly establish that she can shape shift, and show her shapeshifting, they’ll understand it.
but others (skeletons) could be bound to the evil queen by an oath that their ancestors made, which they regret to the deepest degree but think that their only way to survive is to fulfill that oath,- maybe something like when the queen is killed it shows all these skeletons gaining flesh and becoming normal loving people
I really like this idea.
as for the sister, maybe she secretly understands her brother and doesnt see him as freak but is afraid of being kicked out as well, so she conceals it.
That’s an interesting idea. Any other thoughts on this?
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LegoMasterProductions
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Good point on the shapeshifting. I sort of visualize the queen as some beautiful woman with like body armour and stuff but with the characteristics of a troll or monster.
I like the idea of the skeletons being cursed under the queen and then turned back into humans at the end.
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badgerboy
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I’ve added another discussion point.
Should a skeleton be a principal character?
I think that if we’re to really expand on why the skeletons are who they are, we would need one of the skeletons to be a principal character. This skeleton could betray the Queen and help Josh and company rescue Edward. Then the skeleton could join Josh’s crew. And maybe it could be a female skeleton to keep the film from being to guy heavy.
If we were to make the skeleton a main character, I wouldn’t want Josh’s sister to be a main character, as it would make things way too complicated. In fact, I don’t think I want her to be a character at all, but that’s not my decision to make (well, I suppose it is, but I don’t want to be a jerk  )
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LegoMasterProductions
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Well, we could take The Docter’s idea about the female skeleton.
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badgerboy
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No way we’re going to have a human fall in love with a skeleton. No way
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Leonardo812
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“badgerboy” wrote: No way we’re going to have a human fall in love with a skeleton. No way
Come on. It could be hilarious.
- Leo
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