Brickfilms

Submission 8,817

Part of a series on LEGO. [View Related Entries]

About

Brickfilms are movies made with LEGO bricks that are often produced using stop motion animation techniques.

Origin

The earliest known brickfilm, En rejse til månen (Journey to the Moon), was produced by Danish filmmakers Lars and Henrik Hassing in 1973, which was made on Super 8 film in both stop motion and live action (shown below, left). In 1980, filmmaker Fernando Escovar made a brickfilm titled Lego Wars, which parodied the 1977 science fiction film Star Wars (shown below, right).

Between 1985 and 1989, filmmaker Lindsy Fleay created a brickfilm titled The Magic Portal, which is often considered one of the first brickfilms with a high production value (shown below). In 2000, the term "brickfilm" was coined with the launch of the site Brickfilms.com,^[1] created by filmmaker Jason Rowoldt. The site initially featured LEGO films collected by Rowoldt and eventually became a user submitted brickfilm database.

Spread

In September 2001, brickfilmmaker True Dimensions released a film titled The Rescue, inspired by a scene from the 1981 adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark (shown below, left). In October, the Monty Python and the Holy Grail DVD was released, which included a brickfilm of its "Knights of the Round Table" scene produced by Spite Your Face Productions (shown below, right).

In 2004, Spite Your Face Productions was commissioned by Sony Pictures to create a Spider-Man-themed brickfilm (shown below, left). Until YouTube was launched in 2005, the majority of brickfilms were hosted on the Brickfilms.com website. On May 25th, 2006, YouTuber sing4u2day reuploaded a LEGO animation by brickfilms.com user Jamesfm titled The Letter (shown below, right).

On January 17th, 2007, YouTuber Blunty3000 uploaded an animated music video for the song "Circle Circle Dot Dot" by comedian Jamie Kennedy and actor Stu Stone (shown below, left). In the next seven years, the video gained over 17.5 million views. On July 16th, LEGO launched an official stop motion animation contest to promote the Star Wars product line, sparking a surge of Star Wars-themed brickfilms. Animator eanimation won the contest with his film An Average Death Star Day (shown below, right).

After Brickfilms.com was sold to Cynthia Price December of 2008, many users left due to several controversial site changes. Former administrator of Brickfilms.com, Schlaeps, created his own brickfilming site called BricksInMotion.com, which received more praised from brickfilmers. Over time, YouTube and BricksInMotion^[2] became the primary websites for LEGO stop motion videos, while Brickfilms.com faded into obscurity. On August 6th, 2010, the Plastic Planet Productions YouTube channel uploaded a brickfilm titled The Dandelion, which garnered upwards of 4.2 million views and 1,400 comments in the first four years (shown below, left). On October 13th, 2011, YouTuber HiffieLego uploaded a brickfilm titled Lego Ninjago Fire Temple, accumulating over 3.2 million views and 430 comments in the next three years (shown below, right).