Building Harmony: The LEGO and Pharrell Williams Fusion in 'Piece by Piece'

You might not expect a documentary about a music superstar to have a cinematic cameo from a favourite children’s toy. But perhaps it is fitting. Because, from the opening frames of Piece by Piece, the recent film about the global music superstar Pharrell Williams, to the final zoom-out of the end credits, the film can be considered one of the most interesting documentaries of the year. If not the most ambitious in its execution. Through the magic of LEGO, director Morgan Neville (the maker of Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, about the late Mr Rogers) tells the story of Pharrell’s life in a way a documentary has never done before.

A Symphony of Bricks and Beats

Music, like LEGO, is reconstructed from preexisting elements of building blocks. In the film, this belief is illustrated with gusto by Pharrell Williams (himself): the animation cuts over to four vibrant vignettes narrating his early life, rise to stardom with The Neptunes, and breakout success as a solo artist. The animations of Williams’s life offer viewers a kitschy, yet empathetic, understanding of the music industry through a visual lens of LEGO; a captivating glance into the creative process of making music and art.

The Harmony of Visual and Aural Sensations

The movie’s most daring innovation is how it visualises Pharrell’s synaesthesia – where one experiences sound as colour – using LEGO. It’s an attempt to materialise the singer’s auditory experiences in a way that feels real in a tangible, visual sense, and it makes the song ‘Piece by Piece’ into something reliant on all the senses. These entries where the physical and metaphysical collapse show that Neville wants to be more than just a director of animated films: he wants to be an animator of narratives.

Breaking the Mold: Moving Beyond Physical Constraints

This is part of the magic of LEGO movies – giving existence and personality to things that aren’t actually alive – but Piece by Piece goes further, daring to explore the invisible, the auras of inspiration and creativity. Once Neville steps into the virtual realm outside the LEGO universe, he sees blue plastic instead of water as the ocean hypnotically pulls at his boat’s bow hatch, and abstract polygons representing Pharrell’s obvious hotness.

A New Lens on Documentary Filmmaking

In terms of documentary form, it is a bold step further for Neville. Eschewing the aerial landscapes and group-think associated with LEGO’s previous epic productions, Piece by Piece is shot in an intensely personal vérité style, making its subjects appear even larger than life, particularly in the sequences that engage with unexpected political themes, yet do so with a serious respect that stops short of sobriety.

Challenges and Triumph: A LEGO Tale of Resilience

It’s true that, in a way, all good animation glosses over the messy realities and emotions of its subject, but Piece by Piece never forgets where it came from. It’s a testament to Pharrell’s fighting spirit, and to the creative team’s skill at navigating difficult territory. The setbacks and recoveries that shape the piece are reflected on but never linger too long in the shadows, and the appositeness of Pharrell’s genuine LEGO-brick optimism shines through. As any LEGO fan can tell you, sometimes, the only way out is through.

Beyond Bricks: The Film as a Beacon of Hope

‘Piece by Piece’ becomes less a documentary or a Pharrell ad than a story of hope and creative reinvention, the struggle to overcome the odds and to see things for what they are, to keep pushing the boundaries, to be innovative, to build new stories, to create art – all themes particularly relevant right now. By using LEGO this way, the film reminds us that ‘the only limit to what can be built is the imagination’.

Understanding the ADVANCE in 'Piece by Piece'

The term ‘advance’ employed in ‘Piece by Piece’ doesn’t just imply chronological, Pharrell-song sequencing but speaks to the narrative leap made in creative film-making and storytelling. Documenting Pharrell Williams’s life through the medium of LEGO, the film advances the conversation about what stories – especially stories about music/experience – can look like. It’s about advancement of multidimensional narrative created through storytelling with music, animation and documentary film-making. The repetition of the term ‘advance’ through this article isn’t just a homage to the LEGO narrative made in the film but serves to highlight storytelling evolution that ‘Piece by Piece’ in effect advances.