The concept is gone.
We are in a golden age of concept folding and our experimental loft is popular film. When the filmmakers hit a sweet spot and adventure in self reference is carried in a hit movie, the whole society becomes more cognitively elaborate.
The original was folded in a few new ways. 'Folding' in general are techniques that play with the filmmaker/viewer contract for cocreating a narrative. In a straight film, the onscreen narrative is distinct from the viewer's world and the filmmaker is simply delivery. When you read the plot description, the film is nothing more but conveyance. A folded film places the viewer somehow in the film, for example a traditional mystery has the viewer co-create the narrative, often with an on-screen surrogate.
The first Lego film was genius. First, a counterpoint to the Pixar philosophy of realism in animation, and the long tradition of animals as humans, this was in your face alternative. The plastic pieces were themselves rendered hyper-realistically and the motion (in that first one only) unusually choppy. These were characters that many of us physically animated and the effect makes us at least potentially comakers.
Add to that another two layers of creators. The main one of course is the storyline about the master builder. It did not matter that it was couched in that old 'kid who is unknowing the saviour'. It had folding power. And then the extra layer at the end. Corny and poorly done, but so effective because it was yet another layer of folding, and unexpected. And the side folds of characters from other films. All pure genius, but only because it caught us by surprise.
That element of surprise folding only works the first time. After that, you get Scooby Doo.
We are in a golden age of concept folding and our experimental loft is popular film. When the filmmakers hit a sweet spot and adventure in self reference is carried in a hit movie, the whole society becomes more cognitively elaborate.
The original was folded in a few new ways. 'Folding' in general are techniques that play with the filmmaker/viewer contract for cocreating a narrative. In a straight film, the onscreen narrative is distinct from the viewer's world and the filmmaker is simply delivery. When you read the plot description, the film is nothing more but conveyance. A folded film places the viewer somehow in the film, for example a traditional mystery has the viewer co-create the narrative, often with an on-screen surrogate.
The first Lego film was genius. First, a counterpoint to the Pixar philosophy of realism in animation, and the long tradition of animals as humans, this was in your face alternative. The plastic pieces were themselves rendered hyper-realistically and the motion (in that first one only) unusually choppy. These were characters that many of us physically animated and the effect makes us at least potentially comakers.
Add to that another two layers of creators. The main one of course is the storyline about the master builder. It did not matter that it was couched in that old 'kid who is unknowing the saviour'. It had folding power. And then the extra layer at the end. Corny and poorly done, but so effective because it was yet another layer of folding, and unexpected. And the side folds of characters from other films. All pure genius, but only because it caught us by surprise.
That element of surprise folding only works the first time. After that, you get Scooby Doo.