With the 2025 Academy Awards come and gone, one obvious snub from the nominations was for Best Animated Feature. Behold, “Piece by Piece”: a LEGO-animated documentary on music producer extraordinaire Pharrell Williams.
The film, which includes voiceovers from the real-life figures depicted therein, follows Williams’ from his inner-city upbringing in Virginia to his ascent to music megastardom in the early 2000s. Most Americans know him as half of the prolific production duo The Neptunes or from his latter-day solo career hits “Get Lucky” and “Happy.”
The beginning of the film is truly mind-blowing, mostly due to the sheer volume of hip-hop icons revealed to have lived near and collaborated with Williams in his early years in Virginia Beach. Missy Elliott, Pusha T, Timbaland, and Williams’ early mentor Teddy Riley are just a few, all of whom were interviewed in “Piece by Piece.”
The narrative arc, from his early experiences with synesthesia—seeing music in the form of colors—to his exploration of music-making and his fortuitous connection with Neptunes partner Chad Hugo, is fully engaging to the senses despite the intentionally imprecise LEGO rendering. (Built mostly on existing songs from Williams, the film's soundtrack is also superb, garnering the film's only Oscar nod for its eponymous title track.)
The 90-minute adventure is ultimately a compilation of how Williams’ most famous songs were conceived and created, which gives historical color to music embedded in the American millennial psyche. The film illustrates how generational his production catalog really is, not just in volume but also in its spanning of different eras, genres, and styles.
It’s no overstatement to say Williams has helped shape the history of 21st-century music, including on the international level. This is covered deftly by director Morgan Neville (“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”, “20 Feet from Stardom”), who does well to fit two decades of music into a relatively short runtime.
“Piece by Piece” is also quite personal, documenting Williams’ early family dynamics, his struggle with fame and celebrity, and the vagaries of his career, which has been anything but conventional or linear. The featured expertise of other music celebs—including collaborators, fellow producers, and music executives—only adds to the unexpected cinematic weight of what, on first appearance, could be mistaken for a children’s film.
It’s interesting that the film mutes many of the more recent developments in Williams’ professional life—including his 2013 marriage and becoming a father—and outright ignores his extended legal battle with Hugo over the right to The Neptunes’ name. (The latter has resulted in the two no longer being on speaking terms.)
Ultimately, though, “Piece by Piece” is the sort of film that carries you along gaily without garnering much complaint. It’s unique, it’s peppy, and it brings gravity and context to a figure we are wont to see merely as an entertainment product. That, in itself, is worth celebrating.
Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.
