No, Fox News, “The LEGO Movie” is Not Anti-Business
Posted on February 9, 2014 at 12:55 pm
Perpetuating its favorite ploy of simultaneously riling up and soothing its viewers with its message of victimhood, Fox News now claims that the charming, funny, and very smart “LEGO Movie” is anti-business propaganda, designed to inculcate the next generation into hating capitalism. The absurdity of this assessment is evident on its face — this is a movie that is fundamentally a feature-length informercial for one of the world’s biggest toy brands. 
As I have often stated, corporate villains are found in movies in every category and genre. They make convenient villains because everyone knows them, they are impersonal, they don’t have the kind of defenders that various ethnic groups do, and they fit very well in the almost-universal theme of films of the individual against the machine. That does not mean that the people who make films are anti-corporate. On the contrary, films are utterly capitalist enterprises, often costing and making hundreds of millions of dollars. They are produced by corporations and they make a lot of money for the executives and shareholders. They have “partners” — in the case of “The LEGO Movie” the licensing arrangements include McDonald’s, Barnes & Noble, Delta, Microsoft, and Stride-Rite. If corporations think that a movie will make money making some other group the bad guys, they will make it.
However, this is not a movie with a corporate bad guy. While the villain, played by Will Ferrell, is called “Lord Business” or “President Business,” the film’s conclusion makes it very clear that the name comes from an idea that is much sweeter and heartfelt than a generic attack on big, impersonal, companies. It isn’t “The LEGO Movie” that is stuck in a cliched narrative. It’s Fox News.
After the Great Depression Hollywood pushed the big bad bankers vs the little guy as there ideology. Now Hollywood is pushing the liberal agenda that was the 99 percent versus the one percent that was champion during love 2012 election. You obviously agree with that agenda. You don’t even watch Fox News because you do not agree with it. You only know about this because of a Hollywood driven news site that published an article about it. Now you pretend to know what you’re talking about when you are obviously ignorant of the other p out of view. You should stick to writing movie reviews and stop trying to slam legitimate news stations for views they have because they are obviously a business oriented station. Fox Business is correct in everything they said and it is a terrible tragedy that you are taking offense with it. If you can’t understand the opposing viewpoints then don’t comment on it.
I might say that I can tell you believe Fox News because you jump to a lot of conclusions about me that are completely contrary to the facts, but unlike you I don’t make sweeping generalizations. You should know, however, that you are unlikely to persuade anyone of your credibility or Fox’s with this shrill and unsupported attack. It always saddens me when those to purport to speak for conservatives represent those views so poorly, playing into media stereotypes of right-wing blustering and bigotry. I would like to see some evidence of the traditional conservative value of civility.
I presume you have not seen the film or you would know that it is clearly not anti-business. But if you have seen the movie and would like to explain why it is anti-business, I would be glad to hear what you have to say. If you have not seen it, your assertion that the Fox commentary was correct is not very persuasive. I believe that if the commentator on Fox had seen it, he would never have made that accusation.
It happens that in addition to writing about movies, I write about business, economics, and finance. I have started businesses and I have co-managed investments. I have a law degree. And I saw the movie before commenting on it. I am comfortable with what I wrote and with my ability to understand what is and is not an attack on capitalism. If you would like to provide evidence to the contrary in a respectful manner, I would be happy to respond.
Exactly. I watched it and all I saw was a morality story against fascism. Lord Business was a communist who wanted to build a Utopian society where “everything is awesome” i.e. everyone has all the same things and does all the same job. No creativity. Which in turn destroyed the creative intellegence of his entire society. Very similar to what happened to Russia and China during the rise of communism in those countries.
And for all the sad “oh Legos are so expensive and make so much money” parents, QUIT BUYING THE PRODUCT. Obviously Lego has value or else people wouldn’t buy the product for their children.
Thanks, Ms. Eggleston! Well said and I agree entirely.