Animated Pharrell Williams Doc 'Piece By Piece' Sets Peacock Block Party Date
Lego to Peacock, it’s an animated time
It’s time to press play with Lego again, and clap along. Piece by Piece, the first film to come from The Lego Group’s partnership with Universal Pictures after moving over from Warner Bros., will arrive on NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service on Friday, February 7.
Piece by Piece is a biographical documentary about musician, singer, and producer Pharrell Williams done entirely with Lego animation, following the evolution and discography of one of music's most innovative minds. It was originally released theatrically by Focus Features domestically on October 11, against the wide expansion of Saturday Night as well as Terrifier 3, The Apprentice, and My Hero Academia: You're Next. A February 7 Peacock arrival continues the consistent 120-day windows that the 2024 film slate has gotten. It is getting very difficult to believe that Wicked will be brought forward from the what should be expected March date. Saturday Night, which was made by Sony Pictures, also took 120 days to hit its Netflix pay-1 window spot, at least based on its initial September 27 limited release. Piece By Piece’s particular arrival was announced on January 24, but got around to Forbes and The Hollywood Reporter in recent days.
Piece by Piece was directed by Morgan Neville, who recently directed SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night for the streamer, and the film features appearances from him, Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, and Missy Elliott, all voicing their own mini figures. At the box office the film earned $9.7 million domestically, started off by a $3.85 million 5th place opening weekend, but just over $906,000 internationally for a worldwide box office tally of $10.6 million. I have no context for why either total is what it is, especially the latter. Maybe it’s a reciprocation of Better Man not quite being picked up by American audiences, but the production budget here was only about $16 million.
Still, the film was critically acclaimed, being awarded Outstanding Animated Motion Picture by the NAACP Image Awards, as well as Best Documentary by the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards and the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards. Overall this seems to have been a low-risk first outing in the partnership that was dip of the toe before sprawling out with bigger, scripted narrative-driven films they have lined up directed by Jake Kasdan, Patty Jenkins, and Joe Cornish, while a fourth film bringing Ninjago back to the big screen has original series writers Kevin and Dan Hageman attached to write.
