How Animal Logic Studios crafted the LEGO movie: brick by brick.

http://www.fxguide.com/featured/brick-by-brick-how-animal-logic-crafted-the-lego-movie/

How the animation is done:

• Create a fluid simulation.

• Create a 3D grid.

• Measure fluid on grid points (being solid water, turbulant water, foam, parsial foam)

• Replace grid points with blocks corrosponding to measured fluid

• Render

• ...?

• Profit

That looks like it took a long time!

Yes, it took them 2 years to make the movie:

The world of The Lego Movie is enormous and meticulously detailed, and McNally notes that you could pause the movie at any point and build everything you see. (Lego’s own designers helped Animal Logic with the set and character design.) The film still feels very much like Lord and Miller, though, a constant string of winking references and off-topic pop culture jokes to go with crazy sight gags and physical humor. The cast may be needlessly star-studded — Channing Tatum’s Superman has all of about three lines — but it’s hard to imagine a lesser group pulling off this mix of irreverent and sincere. Will Arnett might be my favorite Batman ever.

More on the making of: http://screencrush.com/making-of-lego-movie/