One of the few enjoyable moments during Sunday night's draaaaaagged out Oscar ceremony – no, please NPH, keep teasing the mystery box; I'm sure this gag will be worth it – was Tegan and Sara's performance of Best Song nominee "Everything is Awesome" from "The Lego Movie."
With random stuffed dogs, The Lonely Island rapping and fake Lego Oscars for a weirdly pumped Channing Tatum, it was easily one of the show's joyful highlights – emphasis on high. Yeah, it lost out to "Glory" – which, after the nomination snubbing of "Selma" and the powerful performance that left Captain Kirk in tears, how could it not win – but hey, at least "The Lego Movie" won Best Animated Feature (shut up, I know; let me dream). Plus, we even got a dash of the angsty Batman song! Everything IS awesome!
For those hoping to keep that brick-related sugar rush building, this week didn't disappoint, as yesterday "The Lego Movie" sequel announced its official title ... "The Lego Movie Sequel." Sounds about right.
The other big news was the newly appointed director: Rob Schrab, a veteran of TV shows like "The Mindy Project," "Children's Hospital" and, most notably, NBC's beloved cult hit "Community." He also wrote the indie hit comic book "Scud: The Disposable Assassin."
Oh, and he's also from Wisconsin! Everything is local! Everything is cool when you're from Milwaukee!
Schrab was born in Mayville, eventually making his way down to Milwaukee to attend MIAD to study illustration. While in Milwaukee, Schrab also got into the local comedy scene, performing with ComedySportz and The Dead Alewives. While with the latter troupe, Schrab performed alongside Dan Harmon, the two going on to work together on comedy albums, skits and – further down the road – "Community," which Harmon created.
"The Lego Movie Sequel" will mark Schrab's feature film debut, so this will mark a huge step for his career. However, it comes with huge footsteps to fill as well. He's replacing directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, two of Hollywood's most in-demand filmmakers. They've made a reputation of taking terrible ideas – like a big screen adaptation of a long-forgotten 80s cop show or, say, a movie based on a toy – and turning them into energetic, hilariously self-aware and surprisingly emotional jolts of entertainment. The two will still play a role in "The Lego Movie Sequel," just only in a writing and producing capacity.
That leaves Schrab to face something Lord, Miller and the first movie had nothing to worry about: expectations. No one thought anything good would come from "The Lego Movie," seemingly Hollywood at its most soullessly brand-happy unoriginal. Then it ended up being genius. Now the sequel has that bar to get up to, in terms of its script and in terms of its vibrant Lego visuals.
Is the former Milwaukeean and motion picture directing newcomer Schrab up for the gig? Looking at his track record, signs point to yes.
His TV resume nicely lines up with a lot of his soon-to-be cast members – Alison Brie from "Community," Chris Pratt and Nick Offerman from "Parks and Rec." The comedy style of "Community" – smashing together as many whip-sharp pop culture references, clever meta jokes and colorful characters as possible without causing an explosion – fits perfectly with "The Lego Movie," and he's hopefully picked up some animated feature experience from co-writing the story and script for 2006's "Monster House."
I guess we'll have to wait until "The Lego Movie Sequel" arrives in 2018 (after two other Lego-based spinoffs, of course). Hopefully he pulls it off and makes a sequel just as good and as worthy of being ignored by Oscars voters as the first film. And if not ... well, maybe have that angsty Batman song on standby.
As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.
When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.