After five years of waiting, “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” has come to theaters to remind the world how everything is awesome with plastic, Danish bricks. The first “Lego Movie” was a fantastic film that turned obvious product placement into a film with outstanding animation and creative characters, and the sequel delivers the same magic tenfold while also incorporating new ideas into the canon.

The film takes place five years after the ending of the first film, when the adorable Duplo Legos have decimated the town of Bricksburg and turned it into an apocalyptic nightmare. Everyone is now bitter and tough, except for Emmet, voiced by Chris Pratt, who’s still his cheery self. One day, his friends and girlfriend Lucy, voiced by Elizabeth Banks, are forcibly taken to the Systar System, so the shapeshifting Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi, voiced by Tiffany Haddish, can marry Batman, voiced by Will Arnett. Armed with his building skills, Emmet teams up with a tougher version of himself called Rex Dangervest, also voiced by Pratt, to save his friends and the world.

The film’s underlying theme will interest children and adults alike. In the first film, it’s revealed that the events of “The Lego Movie” are inside the imagination of a child named Finn, played by Jadon Sand, who struggles to connect with his father, played by Will Ferrell. In this installment, Finn is now a teenager, and he has trouble getting along with his sister Bianca, played by Brooklynn Prince. Anyone who has ever had siblings can relate to this movie. When siblings play, what goes on in one’s imagination can be incredibly different from the other’s. In one instance, the creations of Bianca, from the Systar System, are fired upon by Finn’s creations with lasers, to which they reply, “I eat lasers for breakfast.”

The animation of the film is, once again, an achievement. It strongly resembles stop-motion Lego films, only with CGI, famous voice actors and a bigger budget. That’s how realistic the animation gets. It’s amazing how even though the characters move stiffly, they still seem so alive and fast paced.

Emmet’s character is where the heart of the film is. In the first film, the audience sees him struggle to become a hero, but, ultimately, he proves his worth. In the sequel, Emmet now has these powers but has to know to control them, much like Finn. Finn can get annoyed with his sister, but he has to learn she is smaller than him, and he can hurt her. Everyone with younger siblings has learned this at some point.

“The Lego Movie 2” is very similar to “The Empire Strikes Back.” While their predecessors were seen as game changers, these films took what was established to create a more mature narrative. “The Lego Movie 2” is bright and colorful while also examining what it means to be a kid. It’s sure to bring out the imagination of all ages and make everyone see just how awesome everything truly is.