'Piece by Piece' review: Pharrell Williams' story told through Lego animation is lively, innovative

About halfway through “Piece by Piece,” a Lego minifigure version of the super-producer Pharrell Williams picks up a beat. Literally -- he holds it in his curved plastic hands. It’s made of one-dot bricks and specialty pieces, and it pulses with light as well as rhythm. The beat is a physical manifestation of something Williams has sensed since he was a child: Whenever he heard music, he says, “I was seeing colors.”

This isn’t just a short animated sequence within a live-action film. All of “Piece by Piece” is told using Lego animation, a concept that came from Williams himself. Yes, it's a gimmick -- and a brilliant one. This is the rare music doc that’s informational but also visually delightful, a rarity in a genre usually assembled from sit-down interviews and studio footage. Morgan Neville, the director, is a veteran in this area – his documentary about backup singers, “20 Feet from Stardom,” won the Oscar for 2013 – and you get the sense he’s thrilled to be reconstructing his own format. He gets to be a minifigure, too.

Even after four “Lego Movie” installments, the plastic bricks remain captivating. (Technically, these are computer-generated, but let’s not quibble.) Legos turn out to be an ideal medium to tell the story of a musician who brings a childlike joy to his work and who, with longtime collaborator Chad Hugo, has helped many familiar artists sound fresh. Lego Snoop Dogg marvels at Williams’ tongue-click rhythm track for “Drop it Like It’s Hot,” while Lego Gwen Stefani credits Williams with helping her bring rock and hip-hop audiences together with hits like “Hollaback Girl.” Other Williams beneficiaries, from Uniondale's Busta Rhymes to Jay-Z to Pusha T, also make Lego-ized appearances. (There are also five new Williams tunes, including the sprightly title track.)

In “Piece by Piece,” Williams goes through a familiar arc, from young dreamer to superstar to subliminal cultural force (he was a co-writer of the McDonald’s jingle “I’m Lovin’ It”). When a now-successful Williams revisits his hometown of Virginia Beach, Virginia, he pauses to remember his late grandmother's steadfast love and support. Even here, Legos enhance the effect, turning what could have felt like standard-issue sentiment into a truly poignant moment – a flashback to childhood, constructed with a child’s toys.

This has been a good year for adventurous music docs. There’s “Pavements,” a fictionalized treatment of slacker-rock heroes Pavement, and also “Eno,” a film about Brian Eno that used proprietary software to change its content with every showing. But “Piece by Piece” is the one expressly designed to send you out of the theater feeling – to borrow the title of Williams’ Oscar-nominated hit from 2013 – happy.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com@raferguzman