Chris Pratt's chipper LEGO counterpart Emmet celebrates the holidays in The LEGO Movie 2 short film, "Emmet's Holiday Party: A LEGO Movie Short". It's been four years now since The LEGO Movie defied expectations to become a critically acclaimed box office success and, thus, kicked off Warner Bros.' LEGO cinematic universe. A LEGO Movie sequel entered development shortly after the original film hit theaters, but ended up being delayed by a few rewrites and changes in director. Fortunately, that's all in the past now, as The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (to use its full title) is basically done and ready to hit theaters this upcoming February.

Written by LEGO Movie duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller, The LEGO Movie 2 was directed by Mike Mitchell (Sky High, Trolls) and picks up in real-time, e.g. five years after its predecessor. However, things are decidedly not awesome in Bricksburg when the film begins. The town's miniature LEGO residents are still reeling from the aftermath of Taco Tuesday in the first movie, which culminated with an invasion by the aliens of Duplo. Of course, that's not going to stop Emmet from interrupting his friends' brooding and spreading a little winter holiday cheer.

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Warner Bros. has released the short "Emmet's Holiday Party" online, as you can see below. It appears this is a web-exclusive clip and won't be playing in theaters this month. Still, it's a good way to keep the fires burning for The LEGO Movie 2, in lieu of a new trailer.

By the look of it, "Emmet's Holiday Party" doesn't include any actual footage from The LEGO Movie 2. It does, however, provide another look at two new characters in the film: the shape-shifting alien Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi (Tiffany Haddish) and her servant, General Sweet Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz). The short also teases "Apocalypseburg", aka. the Mad Max-ified version of Bricksburg that has emerged since the original LEGO Movie. Returning characters like Lucy/Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett), and Ultrakatty (Alison Brie) - or, as she was formerly known, Princess Unikitty - have similarly gotten a Fury Road-inspired makeover for The LEGO Movie 2.

"Emmet's Holiday Party", like The LEGO Movie 2 trailer footage released so far, is pretty innocent and perfectly kid-friendly. At the same time, shorts like these and The LEGO Movie 2 trailers seem to be missing that special something that made the original film so, well, awesome to begin with. To be fair, the marketing for The LEGO Movie didn't really focus on its thoughtful storytelling either, which is part of what made it such a pleasant surprise to begin with. It's possible The LEGO Movie 2's actual plot will also be smarter than its marketing has let on, especially since Lord and Miller came back as writers.

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Source: Warner Bros. Pictures

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