In a bold move that has intrigued fans and critics alike, musical legend Pharrell Williams has teamed up with Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville to tell his story unexpectedly – through the lens of LEGO animation.
“Piece by Piece,” which premiered to positive buzz at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals, is a refreshing take on the traditional music documentary. It blends elements of fact and fantasy to provide a unique window into Williams’ remarkable life and career.
The project’s genesis came when Williams pitched the idea to Neville, known for acclaimed films like “20 Feet from Stardom.” As Neville recounts, “His pitch to me was: I like your documentaries, and I had the idea that you would make a documentary about me, and then when you were done, you would throw out the visuals and make it again in LEGO.”
Intrigued by the unconventional concept, Neville soon realized its creative potential. “After our first meeting, I started to think about all the things you could do with animation that you can’t do in a documentary,” he said. “You can’t visualize synesthesia; you can’t visualize beats. But there’s a whole other type of storytelling, and in a way, you can be inside somebody’s head, and you can also time travel with animation and create connections with the music, which is fascinating.”
The result is a film that seamlessly blends documentary interviews, animated sequences, and musical performances, all rendered in the instantly recognizable LEGO aesthetic. This approach allows “Piece by Piece” to tackle the highs and lows of Williams’ journey in an inventive, visually stunning manner.
The film traces Williams’ rise to mainstream stardom, from his restless childhood in the Virginia Beach projects, where he was fascinated by water and music, to his struggles as a teen to gain acceptance for his R&B-influenced hip-hop group, The Neptunes. It delves into the creative process behind his chart-topping hits like “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” “Get Lucky,” and “Happy,” as well as his influential fashion ventures.
Crucially, the film also doesn’t shy away from Williams’s challenges, such as when he struggled to maintain his commercial success. “It’s a story about a creative person, but there are many of these issues that I’ve thought about in my career: How do you stay true to who you are?” Neville said.
The LEGO animation proves to be an inspired choice, allowing the filmmakers to transition seamlessly between documentary realism and imaginative fantasy. One particularly striking example is the visualization of Williams’ synesthesia, which causes him to experience colors and visuals when listening to music. This neurological phenomenon is brought to life through a dazzling sequence of swirling colors and pulsing beats.
“That demo was first and foremost a way to prove to me and Pharrell that this idea was going to work,” Neville said of the early LEGO synesthesia test footage. “It’s listening to Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Wish’ as a boy and the synesthesia coming in. We hadn’t figured out how to do synesthesia, but the whole room is changing color, and it worked.”
The LEGO animation also enables the film to experiment with different storytelling “gears,” as Neville describes it—from a documentary-style replication of events to a more cinematic, anecdotal retelling to a full-blown musical fantasy. An example of the latter is the performance of Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl,” which Neville reimagines as a high school cafeteria jam session with a marching band climax.
Ultimately, “Piece by Piece” represents a bold step forward in the music documentary genre, using the whimsical world of LEGO to explore the creative mind of one of pop music’s most influential figures. As Neville puts it, the film “opened more creative doors for me than any film I’ve ever done. I mean, just in terms of flexing muscles I didn’t know I had and trying new things. That was part of the fun of just seeing how far we could push everything.”