While The LEGO Movie’s graphics were made by using a fuck ton of CGI, the hit movie also occasionally built its sets using a boatload of actual LEGOs—3,863,484 LEGOs, to be exact. According to the film’s extensive production notes, many of those bricks were used to create the film’s scenes, though if someone were to try and recreate the entire movie just using LEGOs—and no doubt someone will—they’d have to use 15,080,330 total bricks and 183 different minifigs just to pull it off. Production designers used free software LEGO Digital Designer (and a lot of patience) to add in those 12 million additional bricks.
For those interested in detailed information about the actual production of the movie, check out this 30-minute video about the making of the film. Put together by FXGuide, the short features interviews with three of the key production staffers on the film: cinematographer and layout supervisor Pablo Plaisted, CG supervisor Aidan Sarsfield, and production designer Grant Freckelton.