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PIECE BY PIECE

"God Has a Plan for Your Life"

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What You Need To Know:

PIECE BY PIECE is a unique twist on the autobiographical documentary genre. The movie relies on interviews of Pharrell Williams, and his friends, family and co-workers, to tell his story. Instead of using photos, old videos or staged emotional moments, Pharrell though it would be cool to uses animated LEGO pieces. That’s exactly what happens. The movie takes viewers from Pharrell’s beginnings in Virginia Beach to the heights of stardom, followed by a period of Mediocrity, then Revival.

PIECE BY PIECE is a unique, captivating experience. The use of LEGO bricks as the medium to tell Pharrell’s story is fun and full of strong emotions. On top of that, the music is phenomenal. which was not only a fun new experience. PIECE BY PIECE a surprising Christian, moral worldview promoting faith and family. It also promotes perseverance, perseverance, teamwork, gratitude, humility, and love. In addition, it tells viewers that God has a plan for your life. However, PIECE BY PIECE is marred by brief foul language, some Romantic and humanist elements, a comment about praying to the universe, and some allusions to drug use.

Content:

(CC, BB, Ro, H, FR, L, V, N, A, DD, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:
Strong Christian, moral worldview, but marred by some Romantic and humanist elements, in an animated documentary about popular musician and singer Pharrell Williams who often brings up his relationship with faith, there is a moment where Pharrell as a child is brought to Church by his grandma and his pastor says that God has a plan even if you don’t understand right now, pastor follows that up with a later statement when Pharrell feels like he has no options with music where the pastor reminds Pharrell that God always has a plan for him by which he can live his life, Pharrell is shown to have a very family-centric life and a strong respect for marriage, he tells his future wife that dating is supposed to result in marriage or otherwise you don’t really love your partner, Pharrell is also shown to be a loyal husband and father along with being a good son and friend, and the movie promotes family, perseverance, teamwork, gratitude, humility, and love, bit all this is marred by some Romantic elements such as Pharrell and his friends seem to make songs that encourage people to do what they want and enjoy life to the fullest, some of the other people in the movie determine right and wrong based on how they feel, Pharrell has also helped make songs with more profane messages even though his most famous songs seem to have some more profound messages and also marred by some humanist elements based on statements made by humanist scientist Carl Sagan and some false religion such as a fascination with the Roman demi-god Neptune and there’s a reference to praying to the universe;

Foul Language:
Foul language includes three “s” words are heard, three “s” words are bleeped out with “poop” emojis over the LEGO figure’s mouth, there’s one “What the H---,” one “d” word, and four light profanities;

Violence:
Band’s manager whacks an artist once;

Sex:
No sexual content;

Nudity:
Male LEGO characters are depicted without shirts (although sometimes it’s hard to tell) and there are a few moments in recreated music videos where there are a lot of LEGO women in bikinis;

Alcohol Use:
Three moments of alcohol use;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:
No tobacco use ,but there is some implied marijuana use in a scene involving a meeting with renowned stoner Snoop Dogg where lots of smoke is shown while someone sprays “PG Spray” around the scene, a side character says he returned to “hustling” (an implied reference to selling drugs) when his solo career bombed, and two character appear to be impaired by something; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:
Man says he and his friends skipped school to practice and play their music.

More Detail:

Trying to explain the documentary of PIECE BY PIECE, would be like trying to explain creativity itself. To simplify, it’s a documentary movie designed to tell the real-life story of music sensation Pharrell Williams. Instead of using newsreel footage and talking head interviews, however, the filmmakers use LEGO pieces for animation. What makes this incredibly interesting is that for the first time ever, a documentary is made not just for incredible storytelling but also for capturing childlike wonder. The animation makes PIECE BY PIECE one of the most unique experiences, especially for an autobiographical documentary.

The story itself comes from the perspective of Pharrell and his close friends and family, all while being interviewed by the movie’s director, Morgan Neville. Each of the statements that carry the parts of the story are done completely with LEGOs. As Pharrell himself says at the beginning of the interview, how cool it would be to tell the story using LEGOs.

The story starts with Pharrell explaining how he was an imaginative life-loving child from Atlantis Housing in Virginia Beach. Not only did he love life, he always experiences synesthesia when hearing any music, which is where you see color while listening to music.

Early, Pharrell made friends but struggled through school to the point of having to repeat the seventh grade. However, his grandma saw in young Pharrell a musical talent and encouraged him to take music and bought him a snare drum.

In his first seventh grade class, Pharrell met his best and lifelong friend, Chad Hugo, whom he calls a “Musical Savant.” The rest of his friends soon formed a band called “The Neptunes,” based on the name of the Roman water god. A big-time music producer, Rob Walker, moved to Virginia Beach and held a talent show. Walker selected Pharrell and his friends as interns. During this time, Pharrell created his first famous beat at 19. This inspired him to make his own music.

Pharrell left for New York City. With the help of Walker and Chad, Pharrell presented his music to every major producer in New York. However, because he was considered an amateur, he wasn’t selected. Despite this, Pharrell remained positive.

Pharrell was described as the kid brother who everyone wanted to protect. He “dressed street but he wasn’t street,” somebody says. So, Pharrell became a music producer himself and created beats and songs for others to sing, including Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dogg, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Daft Punk. During his career rise, Pharrell met his future wife, went on into stardom and became a musical household name. He even released his first single, which was his only one for three years.

Pharrell then fell into a period of mediocrity. He made things based on the ideas of various business partners who cared more about sales and product endorsement. This seemed to drain and destroy Pharrell’s creativity until he crashed. The final straw was the death of his beloved grandmother.

Pharrell then took some time out to reflect and improve his life. He accepted God’s plan for his life, quite literally. He married his sweetheart and had his son. These experiences inspired his song “Happy,” which became a worldwide phenomenon and truly cemented him as a musical legend.

One of the best parts about watching PIECE BY PIECE is how family friendly it chooses to be, despite having some not family-friendly celebrities and moments. For example, popular rapper Snoop Dogg is a well-known stoner. Instead of having marijuana when he works with Pharrell, the LEGO figures use something called “PG spray.” This got a barrel of laughs from many viewers in the movie theater. Also, moments that would be deemed inappropriate for children if it was seen as live action became more palatable when animated. The LEGO pieces in the movie don’t entice the bad behavior but continue to exert a vibe of childhood innocence. Speaking of which, the amount of artistic license the filmmakers showed by using LEGO pieces to represent the music and the emotions in PIECE BY PIECE is fun and extraordinary. This also helps viewers understand the love that Pharrell’s fans feel for him. It also humanizes Pharrell.

On the surface, viewers might think PIECE BY PIECE has a Romantic worldview. For example, many of Pharrell’s songs seem to be indulging in Romantic ideas and basic immorality. Ironically, however, PIECE BY PIECE has more of a Christian worldview. For example, the movie shows that Pharrell’s Christian pastor and his religious grandmother play a huge part in many of his decisions. He even says that he knows God has a plan for him and that everything he does is because he trusted God’s plan for him. Even when he met his future wife, he talked to her for hours. When she was asked if she had a boyfriend, he asked her if she intended to marry the man. She replied “no.”

PIECE BY PIECE has some foul language, but nearly all of it is bleeped, with the characters having poop emojis over their mouths. The movie has no sexual content, although some male LEGO figures have their shirts off and there are some female LEGO minifigures in bikinis. A scene with Snoop Dogg, the famous rapper and notorious marijuana user, gets a hilarious fourth wall break with the LEGO producers spraying the scene with “PG spray.”

PIECE BY PIECE is a one of a kind experience. It has a wonderful message about trusting in God’s plan for your life. Thus, the movie says everything that happens in a person’s life happens for a reason. God has a design and when situations seems to change God’s design on you, Pharrell says people should change it back again to what God intended.

The movie also shows Pharrell has a very family-centric life and a strong respect for marriage. He tells his future wife at one point that dating is supposed to result in marriage, or otherwise you don’t really love your partner. Furthermore, the movie shows Pharrell is a loyal husband and father along with a good son and friend. Finally, it promotes family, perseverance, teamwork, gratitude, humility, and love.

However, in addition to the brief foul language and implied drug references, the Christian, moral worldview in PIECE BY PIECE is also marred by some Romantic, humanist content. Pharrell and his friends seem to make songs that encourage people to do what they want and enjoy life to the fullest. Also, some of the other people in the movie determine right and wrong based on how they feel. Pharrell has also helped make songs with more profane messages even though his most famous songs seem to have some more profound messages. PIECE BY PIECE is also marred by some humanist elements based on statements made by humanist scientist Carl Sagan. It’s also marred by some false religion, such as a reference to praying to the universe and a fascination with the Roman demi-god Neptune.

So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children and teenagers.