Newsreader: The toy company Lego's characters have ended up on the role list of several American films. Lego men and women play in scenes with sex and violence. The company now wants to stop this.

Carsten Mørk Jørgensen (speaker): It is all about sex, violence (1) and drugs (2). Strong social realism. These are the so-called Brick films (3): animation films where the actors are Lego men and women.

Jakob Stegelmann (cartoon critic): Animations like these use humor (4) which means they go to the limits and try something grotesque.

Speaker: But the Lego company is not at all pleased with the double-life of the Lego characters. Communications officer Thomas Reil says to TV2: "We clearly disapprove of this and we wish to stop it through legal action. It does not correspond to our values. This is a children's toy which should support children's playing and children's world. And these films don't."

(5) The films are often produced in the USA by amateurs and are shown at festivals and on the Internet. It is also here you can meet Rick and Steve - the happiest gay couple in the whole world (6) not to mention the disadvantaged/socially maladjusted (7) Lego girl whose father drinks and whose mother is a drug addict.

But Jakob Stegelmann does not quite understand the reservation of Lego: Jakob Stegelmann (cartoon critic): "I find their reaction strongly exaggerated. They ought to say: 'Thank you very much for using your imagination for something funny. This is not quite what we imagined - but we are happy, anyway.' Speaker: What's left is the question whether Lego will succeed in stopping the careers of the world's most happy gay couple, Rick and Steve, and their colleagues.

Newsreader: The story about Rick and Steve has received large approval in film circles. Among other places it has been shown at the prestigeous Sundance festival in the USA.

(1): sequence from 'Girl' - father committing suicide

(2): sequence from 'Girl' - mother sniffing drugs

(3): Brickfilms.com screen

(4): this is said with irony/sarcasm: "use socalled 'humor'"

(5): the Thomas Reil quotation is shown in text on the screen

(6): sequence "I must have more sperm"

(7): the Danish adjective "samspilsramt" is difficult to translate - 'disadvantaged/socially maladjusted' is the best bet

Translation of the Information article

Lego men as obscene filmstars by Jeppe Villadsen, December 18th 2001 Lego characters are on the role list in new satirical animation films with elements of sex, violence and drugs. Lego wants to stop this. The old bricks have come alive. Lego men and women who fuck, fight and use drugs are realities of a new type of film: 'Brick films'. A large number of animation films with Lego characters on the role list have appeared and they are shown at American film festivals. Also, several hundred 'Lego films' may be found on the Internet. The Lego corporation is far from enthusiastic about the creative film making and will try to stop it. "We clearly disapprove of this. We have never given permission to that kind of films and would never give permission if we were contacted. Therefore we will try to have it stopped if that is juridically possible" says communication officer at Lego, Thomas Reil. Films like "Rick & Steve - The Happiest Gay Couple in all the World" with explicit sex scenes with male Lego characters have caused this sharp reaction from Lego. "This is absolutely not in accordance with our values" Lego says. The film - which with a playing time of 25 minutes belongs to the longest in the genre - has won several film prizes in the USA and has been shown at the prestigeous Sundance Festival, among other places. Legoland Is Not Enough The most common genre among the new Lego animation films is the film parody. For instance, the James Bond satire Legoland Is Not Enough showing a Lego Bond first in a speedboat race in New York Harbor, then in a helicopter and, finally, in an extremely fast hunt on skies in the French Alps. Or the short film One: A space odyssey instructed by Tim Drage and Tony Mines. A pastiche over Kubrick's Space Odyssey 2001 with a Lego man as the main character. Lego started it all themselves Not all the films are mere satire. In the more serious end of the scale you will find Girl, following a disadvantaged Lego girl whose father drinks and beats Lego mother, who - on the other hand - sniffs cocaine. It seems that Lego themselves have contributed to starting the whole show. The company actually led the bricks to the film world. Last year Lego established a partnership with Steven Spielberg about combining film and Lego. This led to the introduction of the so-called "Lego and Steven Spielberg MovieMaker Set" which entered the market in the autumn. A full featured film instructor set with a PC film camera, a CD-ROM with editing software and Lego scenary, Lego bricks and Lego characters. Ready for use for children from eight years and up. When it was introduced, MovieMaker product developer Richard L. Siegrist said about the potential of the set: "This is a magic triangle: the camera, the film editing and the Lego bricks. Children will create their own scenaries and make their own stories which they will record. This will be story telling in a new way and that is what Lego is all about: the child as the ultimate story teller" It soon appeared that the children - or perhaps rather their older brothers and sisters - are creative story tellers. Immediately after the first rumours of the partnership between Lego and Spielberg the first Lego animation films started to appear - long before Lego's own Moviemaker set was released. You can get an impression of the level of initiative and creativity at the web address http://brickfilms.topcities.com which offers a major collection of animated Lego films"

A big thanks to Kjeld for the translations.