Piece by Piece (2024) on Netflix
PG20241h 34mAnimationDocumentaryMusic
Pharrell Williams asks a documentary filmmaker to tell his life in Lego bricks. He grows up in Virginia Beach seeing colors in music, and with Chad Hugo he forms The Neptunes.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.9/108,195 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes83%
Trailer
Plot summary
A documentary filmmaker hears Pharrell Williams explain that he wants his story told in Lego form: he sees the world the way he sees a Lego set, built from pieces that already exist. He grows up in Virginia Beach, in the Atlantis housing projects, with his parents, Pharaoh and Carolyn. Synesthesia makes him see colors in music, and artists like Stevie Wonder spark his passion for it. School is a struggle, and he repeats the seventh grade. He befriends Chad Hugo and makes music with him, and the two form The Neptunes.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Piece by Piece (2024)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- At the Toronto premiere, a PETA protester targeting Pharrell Williams's Louis Vuitton men's fashion collection climbed the stage, shouting; Williams said "God bless you" and urged the audience to applaud before she was ejected. Two more protesters crashed the BFI London screening with the same banner.
- Neville and Williams held "a number of conversations" with The Lego Group to create hairpieces and skin tones more inclusive to African Americans, pushing Lego to forensically examine different hairstyles and facial features.
- Pharrell Williams rejected a "traditional" biopic, wanting to tell his story in a more imaginative, "genre-defying" way, and recalled: "Everyone was doing them at the time, and I was like, 'Hell no.' I never want to do what everybody else is doing."
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, Neville recruited Williams's friends and collaborators remotely, speaking with them from his living room and sending audio personnel when they had no studio access; he said not one person hesitated to take part.
- For the film, the Lego Group made new pieces for boomboxes and turntables and recreated recording studios for the first time, and also designed minifigures of Williams's collaborators.
