After the enormous success of 2014’s The Lego Movie, a sequel became inevitable. Somewhat surprisingly, it took five years for this to occur, but fans finally got The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.

In Bricksburg, Duplos invade and turn the location into a wasteland called Apocalypseburg. Despite these cataclysmic events, Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt) remains as sunny and cheerful as ever.

This disappoints his girlfriend Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), as she wishes Emmet would grow up and become more substantial. Emmet finds himself forced to move in more heroic ways when emissaries of Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi (Tiffany Haddish) kidnap Lucy and others.

While Part acts as the formal sequel to the 2014 film, that statement simplifies matters. Yes, it formally continues the story of Emmet and Lucy, but two other big screen Lego movies appeared since 2014: 2017’s Lego Batman and 2017’s Lego Ninjago.

Add to that a slew of small screen Lego adventures over the years and we can discern why Part disappointed at the box office. Whereas Lego Movie took in $469 worldwide, Part wound up with $190 million, a pretty steep decline.

I must believe that audience fatigue created a lot of that drop in revenue. After all, moviegoers got two theatrical spinoffs within the 24 months prior to the release of Part, and we went less than a year and a half between Ninjago and the formal sequel.

That seems like an awful lot of Lego, and the franchise already showed a substantial decline with Ninjago, as it took in a relatively weak $123 million worldwide. Obviously Part did better than that, but I must assume it would've been a much bigger success without the audience burnout that may’ve resulted from the two 2017 movies.

Some may blame a decrease in quality for the financial dropoff, but I don’t think that seems like the case, as Part works just as well as the first film – for me, at least. Some of that stems from the fact I can’t claim I loved the 2014 Lego Movie.

Not that I disliked it, of course. However, I just thought Lego Movie< became moderate fun that never quite entertained as well as I hoped.

Some of my problems with the first film persist here, as the theme I most disliked in Lego Movie plays a major role in the sequel. Whereas much of Lego Movie portrayed Brickburg as a “real place”, the film radically disrupted that notion by the end.

Instead, Lego Movie opted for the opposite of the Toy Story notion. Rather than treat the characters as “real”, the movie eventually tells us they’re just toys who’re manipulated by humans we meet in the third act.

I hated that choice in 2014 and still dislike it. The connection to the humans becomes an even bigger aspect of Part, so it continues to damage the overall impact of the story.

Granted, I recognize that since Lego Movie set up the way the toys interact with humans, this needed to get some attention in the sequel. Nonetheless, I think Part could’ve minimized these components and focused the vast majority of its attention on the Lego characters.

Part throws a slew of moral concepts at us, and these make the live-action elements superfluous. The Legos themselves spell out enough of a theme that we don’t need the human scenes to hammer home these notions.

When Part sticks with the Legos, it manages good entertainment, though as I felt with Lego Movie, the whole seems like less than the sum of its parts. The film tosses out scads of gags and only some of them stick.

That said, there’s at least as good a ratio as we got in the first film, and Part gets better as it goes. The somewhat sketchy story makes more sense along the way, and the jokes feel less random.

As was the case with its predecessor, Part enjoys a fine cast. The main participants in the original movie return here, and we get new talents like Haddish, all of whom perform well.

Part also delivers a lot of fun musical segments. Like 2018’s Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, Part boasts original songs that offer wit and charm – even during the end credits.

Ultimately, Part becomes a reasonably satisfactory sequel, if not a great film. It comes with the same strengths and weaknesses as its predecessor to turn into a fairly enjoyable affair.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a good but not great presentation.

Actually, my only complaints related to definition, as wide shots could seem somewhat soft. Since the three prior Lego films came with similar issues, I must believe the filmmakers did this intentionally to give the Lego materials a more organic feel, but it still seemed like a minor distraction.

I saw no jagged edges or shimmering, and edge haloes remained absent. The image came free from defects.

With a broad, peppy palette, colors acted as a highlight. Part boasted a wide array of hues, and these looked lively and full. The 4K UHD’s HDR added range and impact to the colors as well.

Blacks came across as deep and firm, while shadows showed nice clarity and delineation. The disc’s HDR contributed depth and firmness to these elements as well. Outside of some potentially intentional softness, this turned into a pleasing presentation.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the film’s Dolby Atmos mix offered a rollicking affair. The movie came with plenty of action, and the audio made good use of those moments.

This meant a strong sonic barrage, as various elements such as rockets and planes and flying characters zoomed around the room. All this blended together well to create a lively and engulfing soundscape.

Audio quality also seemed solid, with concise, natural speech. Music showed brassy tones as well.

Effects became the most impressive part of the package, as those elements appeared accurate and tight, with firm low-end response. I felt happy with this dynamic soundtrack.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the Blu-ray version? Audio remained identical, as both discs sported the same Atmos mix.

Visuals benefited from the capabilities of 4K UHD, which mostly meant an upgrade related to HDR. That factor led to more dynamic colors and deeper blacks.

The 4K UHD looked s smidgen better defined than the Blu-ray, but that was the least significant step up. Between the intentional softness and the fact Part got finished 2K, there wasn’t much room for stronger sharpness. Still, the superior colors, blacks and contrast made this a decent step up in quality over the Blu-ray.

On the 4K UHD, we find an audio commentary with director Mike Mitchell, animation director Trisha Gum and writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. All four sit together for this running, screen-specific look at story/characters, art and animation, music, cast and performances, editing and connected domains.

Though a little off-topic at times, the commentary usually works pretty well. I like the way the participants differentiate between the movie’s kid-oriented perspectives, and we get a reasonable number of production notes. While never a great chat, this nonetheless turns into an engaging one.

The included Blu-ray copy offers additional extras, and we find a Sing-Along Version of the film. While this throws out the usual on-screen lyrics, it also includes trivia, other text and a variety of mini-tasks. These make it a more fun option than expected.

A featurette called They Come in Pieces goes for eight minutes, 49 seconds. It includes notes from Mitchell, Lord, Miller, Gum, producer Dan Lin, and actors Elizabeth Banks, Chris Pratt, Will Arnett, Alison Brie, Tiffany Haddish, Stephanie Beatriz, and Nick Offerman.

“Pieces” looks at the decision to make a sequel and story/characters, cast and performances, and animation. Much of “Pieces” feels promotional, but we still get a decent mix of notes.

10 Outtakes and Deleted Scenes span a total of 12 minutes, 22 seconds. These come to us in various stages of completion, with some closer to final animation than others.

Most offer very short clips, though we get a few longer bits that focus on Emmet/Rex. Called “Lucy Saves Mayhem”, the longest goes for five minutes, nine seconds and shows more of the Lucy/Sweet Mayhem interaction.

Do any of these add much? Not especially, as even the longer character moments seem fairly superfluous. The scenes can be enjoyable to check out but they got cut for a good reason.

A new short called Emmet’s Holiday Party runs two minutes, 43 seconds. As expected, it gives us Emmet’s take on Yuletide fun. It uses the original actors and offers a quick and fun reel.

Next comes a music video for “Super Cool”. The “Official Lyric Version”, it melds the song with movie shots and lyrics. It seems pretty forgettable.

Under Promotional Material, we get five clips. This area includes “In 2019 Be Whatever You Wanna Be” (0:43), “Me and My Minifig” (3:00), “Please Silence Your Cell Phones” (0:55), “Lego Sets in Action” (2:17) and “Lego Designers” (3:30).

As implied by the title, this domain presents a mix of advertising elements. All add some value, though “Action” feels semi-useless, as it consists of random action snippets without a lot of purpose.

The disc opens with ads for Detective Pikachu and Smallfoot. No trailer for Part shows up here.

As the fourth Lego movie since 2014 – and the third over two years - The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part lacks its predecessor’s ability to surprise. However, it comes with reasonable entertainment and matches up with the first flick pretty well. The 4K UHD brings good picture, excellent audio and a fairly engaging collection of supplements. Lego Movie 2 becomes a likable film, albeit one that seems a little less than fresh.

To rate this film visit the prior review of THE LEGO MOVIE 2