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Movie Review: Piece by Piece
November 21, 2024
By Bessy ADUT
I would like to tell you about the latest animation I have seen at movie theaters this weekend and absolutely loved: Piece by Piece! This might be the first documentary film you are going to see in an animation format. I think it was a brilliant idea. I didn’t have any idea how much I loved Pharell’s music until I have seen it. This is a 2024 animated bio doc film about Pharrell Williams and the format is LEGO animation.
To give you an idea, here is the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snmHd1ytL6k
There are so many artists featured in this movie along with Pharrell. You will see Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg alongside Williams and Neville. I didn’t know that he had creative collaborations with all these world-known and accomplished artists. He has a lot of salt in the soup as we say in Turkish.
We learn how Pharrell became an artist starting from a very young age. He gets encouraged by his beloved grandmother to play an instrument and get enrolled in a music class at school. Then a very famous music producer comes into their town and they win a talent contest. That’s just the start of everything.
The development of an artist’s career is very interesting to watch. He encounters many obstacles on his path. He just keeps going forward and finds his voice along the journey.
Starting a family and having a kid definitely adds energy to one of his most famous songs that we all know.
Throughout the movie, Pharrell Williams answers the questions of documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville and explains why he prefers it in Lego form. He thinks of the world as a Lego set; a metaphor meaning that artists keep creating from other pre-existing materials.
We find out Pharrell grew up in Virginia Beach with his family and that he had synesthesia, which made him see colors in music. This is particularly used wonderfully with lights and colors when he makes music throughout the movie. I always enjoyed how he puts colorful lights and pieces together in his music-making. I think this was visualized really nicely.
One of the first important milestones of the movie is when Pharrell and Chad collaborate to form The Neptunes. They perform at their school's talent show for famed record producer Teddy Riley.
Pharrell also befriends an intern working in the music industry and he starts producing music for him.
Down the line, Pharrell and Chad would work with rapper N.O.R.E. on his hit single "Superthug", before also working with Pusha T and fellow rapper Malice and later Mystikal on his song "Shake Ya Ass". This caught the attention of other major artists like Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, Gwen Stefani, and Justin Timberlake. It’s really lovely to see all the animated and Lego characters of these artists.
Pharrell and Chad are later called to work with Snoop Dogg. After a session involving 'PG Spray’ the guys come up with "Drop It Like It's Hot". PG spray was a funny use most adults will immediately get what it’s implied for and very common in California and anywhere in the world amongst artists.
Snoop noted that this was his first number-one single and that he felt Pharrell brought out a playful side of him in the song.
Pharrell starts his career as a solo artist after many hesitations and some insecurities, with the single "Frontin'" that he did with Jay-Z.
I was nailed to my seat and couldn’t get up even to use the ladies room until I heard two of my favorite songs “Get Lucky” with Daft Punk as well as the “Happy” music for the Despicable Me films. He meets his wife at a party, they get married and have a child together. Then he spends time with his family, and his infant son, inspiring him to create "Happy". It becomes a smash hit across the world, with people in various countries recreating the famous music video. I didn’t know it was such a viral phenomenon all over the world. That was one of my favorite montage sequences in the movie. Pharrell has an input in Kendrick Lamar's song "Alright", which became a popular phrase among groups like the Black Lives Matter movement.
In the third act of the movie as well as the ending, Pharrell mentions how he thinks deeper about the universe, inspired by Carl Sagan, and looking into doing more philosophical and meaningful things for the world. His contributions as an artist and musician are amazing but it sounds like he is on his way to make even more of a difference in the world and spread goodness as well.
As a filmmaker, aside from being a movie critic, I really dream of collaborating with Phareell Williams someday in a movie, it would be so wonderful. And as the whole movie shows and tells, anything is possible with the right connection in both senses. In terms of critics and box office, the movie is a success story. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the voice acting, direction, humor, soundtrack, and animation, and grossed $10.1 million on a $16 million production budget.
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