Lego: When video games bridge between play and cinema

• Main Author: Mattia Thibault
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ass.ne Culturale Ludica 2015-09-01
• Series: G|A|M|E The Italian Journal of Game Studies
• Subjects: Lego Movies; Intermediality
• Online Access: http://www.gamejournal.it/thibault_lego/

This paper proposes an exploration of the Lego Transmedia World. The starting point is a definition of a Lego aesthetics based on four characteristics: modularity, translatability, intertextuality and a tripartite nature of Lego minifigures. A brief analysis of the most popular types of Lego products – toys, games, video games and movies – will delineate a continuum that goes from different degrees of playfulness to mere readership: continuum in which videogames hold a special position. The final aim of this article is to underline, thanks to the Lego case study, the complexity and variety of the knotty intertextual nets that characterize transmedia realities.