Netflix Removes The Lego Movie, a 96% Rotten Tomatoes Animated Classic
This month, Netflix quietly removed The Lego Movie, which is widely considered one of the best animated movies of all time.
Nobody expected The Lego Movie to be anything special when it came out in 2014. After all, it was a movie based on children's toys. How much depth could it possibly have?
As it turns out, it had tons. The film, starring Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, and Morgan Freeman, was universally praised by both audiences and critics for its humor, heart, and surprisingly engaging story. It boasts a near-perfect 96 percent score among critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and an 87 percent score among fans.
"[The Lego Movie is] one of the few movies based on a toy with no explicit story behind it," critic Katey Rich wrote in Vanity Fair. "And it is, so far, the only one that's really good."
How 'The Lego Movie' Paid Tribute to Classic Brickfilms
Obviously, The Lego Movie was also a huge hit at the box office, raking in $468 million - nearly half a billion! - and was the highest-grossing animated film of 2014.
The Lego Movie took inspiration from old-school fan-made Lego "movies." Back in 2000, the company released Lego Studios kits, which came with tools to create stop-motion animated shorts using Lego characters and sets, called brickfilms. Steven Spielberg even put his name on the product - the first Lego Studios box released was called the Steven Spielberg MovieMaker Set. In addition to the Lego characters and sets, it also came with a webcam and editing software, and sold for $180.
Of course, technology improved over the 14 years leading to The Lego Movie. So while most of the animation is CGI, directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord made sure to incorporate plenty of Lego stop-motion. "The explosions are LEGO, the water is LEGO undulating, everything is processed LEGO pieces," Miller told Gizmodo. "It's crazy."
While The Lego Movie is no longer on Netflix, it is available to stream in full on YouTube for free - as long as you're ok with some ad breaks.
This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 5, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 12:15 PM.