LEGO is having a spotlight moment outside its playbox of iconic toy blocks. There’s The Lego Movie, The Lego Batman Movie, The Lego Ninjago Movie, and even Lego Star Wars. But, have you ever seen a biopic in LEGO format outlining the career of cultural phenomenon Pharrell Williams?

An animated movie starring LEGO characters might seem like a gimmick, but Piece By Piece perfectly captures the modus operandi of Pharrell Williams. LEGO isn’t simply a visual medium used to tell his story. It is the story. It’s a metaphor which captures his essence of thinking outside the LEGO box. He isn’t trying to be different. He is different.

Creating Something New From What Already Exists

Williams’ artistry encompasses the concept of creating something new from what’s already there in all his ventures. His creativity isn’t simply a rebellious response to the mainstream, but an indication of how his mind works.

Through his eccentric use of synthesizers, samplers and other electronic and actual musical gadgets, Williams has worked with megastars including Madonna, Gwen Stefani and Justin Timberlake which invited his influence.

Pharrell Williams and Gwen Stefani. Photo courtesy of Focus Features

Piece By Piece is a biopic chronicling Pharrell’s restless dreaming nature in his native Virginia Beach to infusing his inimitable thumbprint on many aspects of popular culture including music, fashion, film and philanthropy. He built it all – piece by piece. Sure, he has help from his cohorts – many of whom he went to school with. It wasn’t so much about proving that it could be done, but rather, creating an outlet to express his musical impulses which he couldn’t previously do. He was an outcast with a singular vision in search of an identity.

Williams’ formative years inspired other artists like Pusha T, Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Jay Z and Kendrick Lemar to name a few. They fed and fuelled each other’s creativity to push the bounds of rap, hip, and infectious music beats.

Heck, Pharrell even wrote that catchy “I’m Lovin’ It” jingle for McDonalds. Piece By Piece isn’t your traditional rags to riches story either. It delves into Pharell’s unshakable sense of individuality and how that might fit into the rigid container of commercial mainstream artistry. Being an outsider was his superpower – but outsiders don’t sell records. Yet, Pharrell Williams is the emulsifier that blends these two seemingly opposing worlds.

Inside His Mind’s Eye

Pharrell has a vision – not just what he can tangibly see with his eyes, but what he can see with his mind’s eye. His imagination is a swirl of colors and sounds that shapes his eclectic music.

But like many artists who become wildly successful, Williams shifted to become a construct of the industry. He fell into the trap of not honoring his future self, but rather, succumbing to executives and re-engineering his past to cater to current paying markets. His career reached a critical moment. His music was no longer hitting those perfect beats. Williams’ creativity short-circuited and he burned out for a while. It was three years between releasing music.

Snoop Dogg. Photo courtesy of Focus Features

Piece By Piece embraces Pharrell’s driving philosophy to serve humanity as he evolves, morphs, and toggles between his broad kaleidoscope of art forms. His music is a gateway to unifying humans of all shapes, colors, and ages to create a better world. “There’s strength in numbers.” He is driven by hope, love, and compassion.

Creating Piece By Piece

Pharrell resisted the idea of a biopic for many years because “everyone else was doing it.” But when he suggested that the entire film would be animated LEGO characters, he changed his tune and others listened. He’s used to rejection and people telling him his ideas were crazy. That became his impetus.

He incorporated his weirdness into his unique, idiosyncratic personal brand although he wasn’t always entirely comfortable in that skin.

Emmy award-winning documentary director and co-writer Morgan Neville (Won’t You Be My Neighbor) became equally anxious and excited when Piece By Piece was greenlit. What would it even look like?

Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Williams. Photo courtesy of Focus Features

Piece By Piece had to tell a story and discuss many little-known aspects of Pharrell Williams’ life in a high-concept documentary format with the standard interviews, cutaway footage and musical sequences audiences expect.

It started with a 90-second proof of concept

After Neville and team recorded all the interviews, they assembled a “radio edit” which combined audio with visual storyboards for musical sequences and raw footage.

“Documentary and animation are opposite instincts,” says Neville. “Animation is all about invention, where you get to decide everything. Documentary is all about limits. You don’t always get to decide what the room you walk into looks like. That lack of control, inherent to documentary filmmaking, taking place in animation was a really interesting tension the whole time,” he adds.

The sonic wave propelled the narrative. Popular songs were deconstructed, reconstructed, reinvented, and remixed against the backdrop of a world of LEGO blocks.