10 building blocks in Pharrell’s LEGO movie

Pharrell Williams wears many hats, from giant stetsons to a red LEGO baseball cap. Less literally, he is a recording artist, music and movie producer, songwriter, children’s book author, philanthropist (he partnered with Woolworths in South Africa in 2015), fashion designer, and, since 2023, Menswear Creative Director for fashion label Louis Vuitton. 

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Pharrell hasn’t had much downtime since his hit song “Happy” went viral in 2014. But how did he get here? As we find out in his new animated, biographical LEGO documentary Piece By Piece, he built his way to stardom – step by step and without an instruction manual – using his unique set of skills to connect to the people around him.

Now find out how he built his life story in LEGO, and scroll down for our LEGO-lovers watch list!

Watch Piece by Piece on DStv Stream and on Showmax. Also on Wednesday, 26 November at 4:05PM, and Sunday, 30 November at 3:05PM on M-Net Movies 1 Channel 104. 

10 building blocks in Pharrell’s LEGO documentary

1. Seeing double: Piece by Piece was made twice – intentionally. After Pharrell pitched his concept to Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville in 2019, Morgan negotiated to get approval from LEGO, then conducted all the interviews in real life through 2020. These interviews were pieced together with archive footage from Parrell’s life and projects, with an artist drawing animation concepts into the edit, to create a film. Once everything was assembled, it was then completely re-storyboarded before being shot as an animated LEGO movie. 

2. Bigwig minifigs: Pharrell didn’t feel represented by any of the existing LEGO animated hair or skintone designs, so animation director Howard E Baker negotiated with LEGO to broaden their available options, referencing an in-depth study of African American hair types and facial features.

3. Fit as a brick: The animation team created around 80 different outfits for Pharrell’s animated minifig, based on his iconic past outfits including his 2014 “Happy” era Buffalo Hat from Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s 1983 Autumn-Winter collection.

4. Building on synesthesia: Pharrell has a condition called synesthesia, which allows him to see sounds as colours. Howard E Baker brought in Michel Gagné, who created the synesthesia animation sequences in Ratatouille, to help shape how Piece By Piece would represent this.

5. Sold in 90 seconds: To get Universal (then the licence holders for using LEGO in movies) and movie production company Focus Features onboard, Morgan had a section from his interview with Pharrell animated by Maggie Condol and Jeff Capili of CC Pixels, to create the 90-second sequence about him listening to Stevie Wonder as a boy.

6. PG spray: Musician Snoop Dogg approached Pharrell’s production company The Neptunes to record “Drop It Like It’s Hot” in their studio. Snoop’s story involves a lot of marijuana smoke. But since Pharrell wanted kids to be able to watch Piece By Piece, the animation team built in a joke by giving the characters a can of PG (parental guidance) spray to spritz on screen when things were getting a bit too adult!

7. It’s a blind bag: Pharrell’s friends and long-term colleagues were interviewed for the documentary, including Missy Elliott, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, Jay Z, and Snoop Dogg. But they weren’t told that they would appear on screen in LEGO form until a couple of years later, when Morgan sent them the 3D renders of their minifigs to sign off on. Missy’s only request was that they change her earrings!

 

8. Brick beats: After Pharrell explained how he finds the perfect beat for a track, or an artist, Morgan and his team came up with the idea of turning each unique beat into an on-screen LEGO sculpture that takes on a life of its own. Apparently Pharrell really can tell you the colour and shape of every beat he has created, and the LEGO sculptures match what he sees in his head.

 

9. Built by Tongal: Instead of working with a traditional animation studio, Howard E Baker’s Pure Imagination Studios worked with Zebu Animation Studios in India, and collaborated with over 100 individual creatives through the Tongal online creator platform. Nineteen-year-old Iranian refugee and self-taught Tongal animator Amir Qurbani, for example, created 400 character designs for Piece by Piece, including the Louis Vuitton-inspired camouflage suit that Pharrell's minifig wears in the movie's poster. 

 

10. The endpiece: During the end credits, we see rapper N.O.R.E – who earlier compared Neptune to a little bakery that people become obsessed with thanks to word of mouth – standing at a bakery with a long line of customers outside.