Watch PAIRD, a wildly ambitious stop-motion sci-fi feature made entirely with Legos

If you, like us, have been less than thrilled with the Lego movies of late, might we recommend PAIRD, a DIY Lego movie with a fascinating backstory? Joseph DeRose began shooting the stop-motion project in 2011, when he was just 12 years old. As he outlined back in 2014, PAIRD began as a 20-minute short, but, over the past eight years, blossomed into a feature-length story, with DeRose uploading it in parts. Last week, he uploaded it in full, “the way it was meant to be seen.”

Set in the near future, the globetrotting sci-fi actioner follows “two men who wake up with no memory and find themselves in a world plagued with overpopulation and terrorized by machines created by the robotic research company known as PAIRD (Practical Artificial Intelligence Research and Development).” It’s a pretty stunning achievement, from the breadth and choreography of the stop-motion to the restrained pacing to the stirring score, which comes from composer Mozzaratti. The story, which runs just over 105 minutes, features a number of cleverly staged “action” sequences, as well as some sweeping crowd shots and one particularly badass robot. Read more about its creation here.

Watch the full thing below and ask yourself: What the hell was I doing when I was 12?

Send Great Job, Internet tips to [email protected]