Chris Pratt lends voice to accidental hero, Emmet in ‘The LEGO movie’

In Warner Bros. Pictures’ new 3D, animated comedy “The LEGO Movie,” the world is due for a disastrous end if not for one accidental hero: Emmet.

A construction worker and self-described nobody, Emmet adheres to the rules in every aspect of his life, content in the belief that he is the most ordinary, unremarkable person ever, until a crisis of monumental proportions reveals a surprisingly extraordinary side of him he never knew.

Providing the voice of Emmet is rising star Chris Pratt (“Delivery Man,” “Moneyball”) who will soon be seen in the Marvel feature “Guardians of the Galaxy,” in which he plays Star-Lord.

“On day one, we talked about our experiences building something out of LEGO bricks and the frustration we’d sometimes feel when we couldn’t find a specific piece right away. That feeling encapsulates who Emmet is to us,” says Dan Hageman, who, with writing partner and brother Kevin Hageman worked on the story with screenwriters Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. “He thinks his happiness is tied to following the instructions yet the fate of the world will rely on him discovering his own creativity,” adds Kevin.

Pratt says, “This challenge takes him through LEGO realms he didn’t know existed, where everything is just ridiculous but in a good way. It’s all beautiful, imaginative, exciting and very funny. There are loveable characters, amazing sets, insane action, a lot of love and a really positive message that you can feel comfortable bringing your kids to see.”

Emmet never met an instruction manual he didn’t like. Whatever the rules are, he’s glad to follow; whatever song is playing on the radio, he’ll sing along; whatever everyone else has for lunch or watches on TV, well, he’s cool with that. He even consults a book to remind him to shower and put on his pants (in that order) every morning before joining the Bricksburg citizenry on their orderly commute to work.

“We wanted someone with incredible comedy chops as our lead, but someone who can also be sweet and endearing, and embody this ‘regular guy’ spirit. Chris Pratt was our first choice; right out of the box,” says Lord.

Each day on the construction crew, Emmet happily razes any buildings deemed “weird” and replaces them with ones that look exactly like all the others, on orders from President Business. Says Pratt, “The city of Bricksburg is this big sprawl where everything looks the same and it’s all pre-fab modular homes, and any areas that have any flavor are being destroyed. So it’s being built as a kind of homogenous, utopian model, though you quickly sense there’s some underlying darkness here; something is controlling the people of Bricksburg.”

But life as he knows it is about to change when Emmet accidentally veers off the path at his site, falls headlong into a freshly excavated pit, and meets the trespassing Wyldstyle: the most beautiful and exciting woman he has ever seen. From her graffiti-splashed black hoodie to the turquoise and hot-pink streaks in her hair, to her take-charge attitude, there’s clearly nothing ordinary about this woman.

When Wyldstyle encounters Emmet at the construction site, she is there searching for the one thing that can block Lord Business’s terrible plan, according to prophecy: The Piece of Resistance. So when that vital piece turns up inexplicably fused to Emmet’s back, like it or not, the guy whose only ambition in life is to fit in suddenly becomes The Special, the most important person in the universe. And the most hunted. Before he knows what’s happening, Emmet is careening at high speed through the Bricksburg cityscape with Lord Business’s robot assassins in fierce pursuit.

Opening across the Philippines on Thursday, Feb. 6, “The LEGO Movie” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.