''Everything is Awesome'' Spreadability and The LEGO Movie

This essay addresses The LEGO Movie as a transmedia text that references or includes a remarkable collection of characters and “bits” from other films and TV series. As I argue, the movie is assembled with a kind of cynical humour reminiscent of the exhausted irony described by D. Foster Wallace, and effectively short circuits possible critiques of the LEGO company itself, while presenting a Trumpian dictator who is plotting the end of the minifigures’ world. The essay also discusses the economy of transmedia storytelling and its characteristic diversification which mirrors LEGO’s own corporate strategy, thus making the LEGO business model cute and entertaining.