“How Do Those Danish Bastards Sleep at Night?”*: Fan Labor and the Power of Cuteness

This article considers the relationship between LEGO and the company’s fans; their labour or “playbour”; and how fan labour was appropriated and/or mobilized to create The LEGO Movie. A number of aspects of this film make it a compelling case study in the context of ludic economies, such as the film’s self-conscious, auto-reflexive humour that suggests a keen awareness on the part of the LEGO Group, the filmmakers, and fans of the company’s brand-growing strategies. My argument will touch on fans’ response to how LEGO has farmed and relied on their labour in making the film, as well as the seeming lack of resistance encountered in the extraction thereof. I will also suggest a few explanations as to why this might be the case, including the kinds of affect generated by LEGO and encountered in LEGO narratives as they are transmediated across and through platforms, from toy bricks, to stop motion fan animation shorts, to The LEGO Movie. This investigation will likewise provide an occasion to discuss LEGO’s staying power in light of one particular aesthetic—namely cuteness—that contributes to the strong affective bonds that people form with the interlocking bricks, as well as to the impact of this bond on consumer subjectivities. As I will argue, it is precisely these affect-inducing properties that contribute to LEGO’s strong fan-base attachment and some fans’ contentment with scant remuneration for their creative input and intellectual property.