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Staff Favorite

Overall: 8.4
Story: 8.7
Animation: 8.2
Cinematography: 8.1
Effects: 8.1
Sound: 8.4
Music: 8

The Citizen Of The Year

Directed By: Watson

Genre: Comedy, Drama, History, Western
Length: 09:48
Released: September 10th, 2005

Director's Comments

Congratulations. You've reached what you've been looking for. True joy, happiness, and personal enlightenment. The meaning of life.

All you have to do is watch one, simple, seminal film. Your life will never be the same. So sit back, relax, and get ready to have all of your problems instantly erased. This is...

The Citizen of the Year.

Staff Reviews

Hoogle:
I absolutely love and recommend this brickfilm. This is definitely one of the strongest brickfilms out there with every aspect of it making it a classic. The plot is absolutely terrific and Watson truly is a master of storytelling with excellent pacing and brilliant characters. Talking of characters it has to be said that The Bum is one of the best characters in any work of fiction. With his instantly quotable lines and amazingly springy body what's not to love about this deliciously derelict vagabond? I can't explain how good this film is in one review there is too much in the film for me to do it justice. The film is littered in gold from the hugely superb shaking of the musicians head to the best use of parrots in a film. This review does not tell you how great the film is you can only find it out by watching, right now,  The Citizen Of The Year.

:
I loved this movie. Loved loved loved loved loved this movie. Loved it. Loved every gripping, amazingly fulfilling audience-gratifying moment of it. Loved the sensibility that knew everyone would like it. Loved the implied respect to the audience by its belief that everyone would be entertained by it.

david reino :
This is truly a masterpiece. "TCOTY" is far and away the most brilliantly conceptualized, beautifully written, and meticulously executed brickfilm of all time - which is saying a lot. Watson demonstrates his connoisseurship of the medium not only through  his rich development of the characters but also in the superbly crafted story, fluent camera work, mind-blowing cinematography, and Oscar-worthy voice acting - which, alone, is ample reason to watch this masterwork. You will cheer the down-to-earth and sensible hero, hiss at his ruthless competitor, and laugh out loud at the loveable yet saucy hobo - a character for whom there is no suitable description save "pure genius". All in all, an incredible work of art which has forever changed the definition of a brickfilm and set an often-imitated but never surpassed precedent for brickfilms to come. Watch it. It will be the best almost-ten-minutes of your life.

Jonathan Vaughan:
Though I didn't know it then, when I saw The Citizen of the Year for the first time I was witnessing a phenomenon. Here is a Brickfilm that wonderfully captures the triumph of the human spirit. Through stunning cinematography, thrilling editing and countless twists and turns in the plot, it explodes with narrative force. The characters, from the charismatic lead to the hilarious and veracious bum, run away with the picture. The limitless appeal, sparkling screenplay and deft direction make this a bona fide masterpiece. To put it bluntly, if you do not like this film, it's hard to believe that you like films at all.

NXTManiac:
After watching, I feel like I died, went to Heaven, then came back to Earth with all the benefits of Heaven. I feel young and rejuvenated, I think I lost 10 pounds. This is perhaps the greatest story ever told in the history of mankind (or any other kind for that matter). Set this film on Repeat, and watch it for the rest of your life. There are no flaws. There will never be flaws. I wish to devote the rest of my life to watching this masterpiece, in order to learn the true meaning of perfection. I love you, Watson.

Colin Boyle:
Well, let me tell you. This film is something else. It reaches into you, and touches you in places you didn't know you had. It starts with the heart. I don't mean that nasty blood-pumping organ, no sirree. I'm talkin' about the place your mother resides. I'm talking about the happy thoughts. I'm talking about that place that lights up inside of you when you hear a kind word. I'm talking about that part of you that loves. Because that's what COTY does, kiddies. It not only gives you love, but compels and allows you to love it back. Love is not a one-way street with COTY, everybody, no, it most certainly is not. It's a two-way street, congested with cartloads of pure AFFECTION travelling to either side.
You may think that sounds like a lotta hooey. You may also think babies laughing is a small thing. You may also think when a man and a woman love each other very much, they should cut it out. Well let me tell you something, you cold-hearted cynics. There's enough pain and strife in this world without you refusing to give a REAL brickfilm a chance. Does it have a white expanses? No. Does it have two guys named Jim and something else that no one gives a hoot about? No! Does it feature walk cycles by rich kids trained in a smelly cave over a span of some decades in the art of animation by Shaolin monks? Hell no!
What it DOES have is a little hard to describe, aside from the obvious (touching story, brilliant script, awesome characters, and playful execution - we know of these already). It touches that special place, lifts you up, makes you go higher, higher, until the clouds are but a carpet at your feet, your only companion the sweet sweet whisper of the wind, like a long-lost lover comforting you with the greatest and most eloquent pillow-talk you're ever going to have enter your earhole.
Look, Frankenstein made kids weep out of fear. I never had that reaction with that film. I had it with COTY. Why? Because I was afraid. I was afraid the power would be cut to my house and I'd never be able to see it again. But I didn't weep for long (well, I did, but those later tears were born of joy). Because COTY reached out and comforted me. I knew even if the power were cut to my house, I'd be alright. Because COTY had already changed my life. From that day forward, I was no longer a boy watching LEGO movies. I was a man who had seen Great Things.
Everyone who sees it is touched. Maybe to some it means more than others. Maybe some deny its significance. I dunno why they profess not to like good things. That's for their therapist to find out. All I know is that it cured my leprosy, helped me ask out that 'special girl' (I think we all know one of those, fellas), and GOT me that sports scholarship. So watch The Citizen of the Year today, kiddos. See what it can do for you.

- Shale ('Like a Rock')

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