Pharrell Williams is one weird dude.
Lucky for him, I am too.
I think in order to be a creative, you have to be to some extent. You have to be open to taking risks, trying new things and, potentially, failing.
In “Piece by Piece,” that’s exactly what Williams does. Except he doesn’t fail.
Everything about the movie is so weird. Such a concept shouldn’t work, but it does. And it does so well because Williams is unapologetically himself. He isn’t afraid to be different, which is something he’s built his entire career on. It’s one of the themes of the film, and further, one of the themes of his life. We find out a lot of his success and recognition came simply from his confidence and the people who noticed him for standing out.
“Piece by Piece” is a biopic about the personal and musical life of Pharrell Williams, his influences, and his success, starting with his childhood and working his way up to the present day.
But what’s strangest about the film is that it flows and acts just like any other documentary — except everything is in LEGO.
The film’s opening lines, set to majestic, theatrical music, chant, “It’s happening, yes, it’s really happening, this is real” — almost comically reminding the viewer that yes, they are indeed about to watch a 90-minute documentary animated entirely in LEGO about the life and career of Pharrell Williams, and yes, this actually exists.
It almost seems like a cash grab or marketing ploy — and maybe it is. But it’s so Pharrell.
The movie starts immediately with what seems like an actual home video of Williams and his family visually dubbed over with minifigures and bright colors. The dialogue and reactions are genuine as Williams picks his LEGO son up out of the tub and the film begins.
The two main characters are revealed as Pharrell walks on set and meets with the director, Morgan Neville.
Neville is a respected documentary filmmaker, finding recognition within the Academy for “20 Feet from Stardom,” “Best of Enemies,” mainstream success with “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and “Miss Americana,” the latter of which he produced. He’s somebody I had never heard of before and somebody I definitely never expected to see a minifigure of.
Williams looks at Neville as they sit, facing each other on a film set built with muted bricks.
“You know what’d be cool is if we told my story with LEGO pieces,” Williams says.
Neville laughs and looks at him.
“Seriously?” he says.
“Yes,” Williams says.
“LEGO?” he says.
“Just be open,” Williams says.
The result is one of the most wildly creative and niche things I’ve ever seen. As somebody with a deep love for both music and LEGO from a young age, I have no idea who this movie was made for, but it absolutely reached its audience. It’s made for adults, as it’s a documentary about hip-hop and includes some of the biggest and greatest names in the genre, but it’s also appropriate enough for children to watch, be enthused and be entertained.
New Minifigure pieces were even made for the film, with Williams and Neville partnering with The LEGO Group to forensically study the hairstyles and facial features of African-Americans to better represent them as LEGOs on the screen. New boomboxes and turntable pieces were designed for the film, and full recording studios were even recreated. And nothing could replace seeing the now-disbanded electronic duo Daft Punk as Minifigures on the screen.
As contradictory as it seems, the film itself is almost natural given the careers of the artists who appear in it. Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake and Snoop Dogg originally introduced themselves as boundary-pushing, culturally “edgy” artists who blended pop and hip-hop. Beginning the pop-R&B movement of the early 2000s, they’ve found such widespread mainstream success in American culture that they’ve universally become family-friendly icons. With hits such as Williams’ “Happy,” made for “Despicable Me 2,” and Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” made for “Trolls” as well as Snoop Dogg’s hosting of NBC’s coverage of the 2024 Olympic Games, all three are household names in America.
As the biggest, edgiest outlier of the three, Snoop Dogg has taken much longer to become a recognizable family icon because of his background. However, Pharrell changed this for him.
“I was always a bad gangster, but [no one could] see the fun in me,” Dogg says in the film. “You brought out a smile.”
Williams’ impact goes even further.
“This the crazy part that they may not know,” Dogg says. “‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’ was my first number-one single ever.”
“Drop It Like It’s Hot” was produced by Williams and his musical partner, Chad Hugo.
Still, nothing is erased from the past of any artist featured in the film, and despite its “family-friendliness”, the film rightfully keeps the integrity of the lives, personalities and histories of the artists featured. Snippets of the artists’ suggestive songs are played throughout, censoring most swears, as the movie’s dialogue does. But all songs, including the original ones made by Williams for the film, are left uncensored on the soundtrack. Pusha T is briefly seen “hustling” on the street during a low point in his career, and Williams and Hugo get high with Snoop, but nothing is seen or even mentioned. The LEGO bottle Hugo sprays around the room to create a smoky atmosphere as they lay dazed on the ground will only confuse children. Snoop’s background is referenced, though, and he’s seen wearing blue alongside other group members.
In the film’s climax, racism is discussed as minifigures march in a Black Lives Matter protest, carrying LEGO signs as Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” plays in the background. It is pretty heavy stuff for a LEGO movie, and almost impossible for a PG rating, but it’s all done so subtly and tastefully that it works. Nothing ever gets too weighty.
This would normally be a problem, but again, we’re talking about Pharrell. Williams is not known for being a particularly “deep” person, and his lack of writing ability has been consistently criticized by multiple music outlets. Pharrell can lay down some beats, but when it comes to writing about anything outside of women, he struggles. So it’s only right that a documentary about a non-introspective person would be fairly non-introspective itself. A LEGO format would be almost insulting to anyone else trying to tell their life story — but Pharrell’s main attribute is his creativity, so it works and comes across in the film as clearly as his synesthesia does to him.
I could say something cynical about this movie being representative of the current state of American culture — that we’ve lost our attention spans so much that we must have our documentaries animated in LEGO style in order to stay focused for more than an hour — but I won’t. Yes, more people are absolutely going to watch this because of the format, especially those who don’t care anything about Williams. Yes, this film would not be nearly as good or interesting if it wasn’t made the way it was, but that’s why it is this way. Despite what you think about Williams, he is creative. He didn’t make a boring, uninteresting film because he isn’t boring or uninteresting.
So despite its absurdity, the LEGO format is perfect for both Pharrell and for anyone as obsessed with pop culture as I am. The jokes and references, for both LEGO and music fans, are such a treat. It’s pretty impressive, and honestly, I couldn’t imagine it any other way. Pharrell always seeks to do his own thing, and with this, he definitely did.
We’ll just have to see what happens next with his follow-up biopic, live-action, out next year.
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