LEGO bolster their Rebuild the World campaign with a series of creative animations by studios Mr Kaplin and Voxel Wolves exploring the limitless possibilities of the LEGO Universe. With helicopter-lions and rocket-cars abound, LEGO encourage us to have fun and use our imagination, to fully realise the constructs of our mind.
As long-time worshippers of LEGO, Box of Toys Audio were thrilled to be invited by production agency Highly Unlikely to create the sound for the series. We wanted to craft a soundtrack that straddled imagination and reality, combining our own original recordings of LEGO blocks with the real world sounds of the build subject. Our aim was to reflect the mindset of building and playing with LEGO, immersing the audience in a world where literal and make-believe exist happily together.
It all started, as it always does, with a big box of classic LEGO. The different shapes, sizes and materials of the LEGO pieces provided an abundance of source material to create sounds with. We were able to experiment with our approach, trying out different combinations and narrowing down what worked best for the project. The result was a collection of core sounds that could be used across the entire suite of deliverables. In particular, each animation features an accelerated building sequence that was key to the overall concept of the project. We augmented these sequences with our own signature LEGO build sound, created by tapping and connecting a range of different LEGO blocks and placing them in a rapid playback arrangement. Another frequent element in the animal animations is the lion who transforms into a lion-copter. The sound of the rotor blades was created by subtly blending real life helicopter recordings with an elongated LEGO block being rattled around the inside of a LEGO window frame. This successfully tempered the recognisable character of a real life helicopter with the scale and personality of the animation.
A key element in bringing all the different animations together under one umbrella was the music. A contemporary brass sample was used to create a recognisable motif that featured across all the animations. This motif was extracted from the longer 30s music compositions and used as resolve identity - but also a retort to the punchline of the shorter animations. Where sound design takes the fore in the shorter animations, music is lead in the two longer form edits. A largely percussive foundation was built around the narrative, taking cues from on screen action and looking to connect with the animation itself. Organic sound effects were added to make up part of the percussion in play, ensuring everything felt in time and on beat and imbuing a sense of fun throughout the story.
