When Pharrell Williams and Morgan Neville decided to embark on a movie about Williams’ life but animated in Lego pieces, they knew there would be culture shocks. But making “Piece by Piece” still led to some places that neither Williams,

“Piece by Piece” is a bright, clever song-filled biopic that pretends it’s a behind-the-scenes documentary using small plastic bricks, angles and curves to celebrate an artist known for his quirky soul. It is deep and surreal and often adorable. Is it high concept or low? Like Williams, it’s a bit of both.

Pharrell Williams is thankful someone took a risk on his brand of unconventional storytelling. At a recent screening of his new animated documentary Piece by Piece, the 13x Grammy winner expressed his gratitude to Lego‘s head of global entertainment Jill Wilfert for saying “yes” and collaborating on the film.