Directed by Morgan Neville, the film follows Williams' route from hot shot producer to global megastar. But it does so using animated Lego characters. Real life musicians - Jay-Z, Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dogg - voice their own cartoon selves.

Critics love it. According to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 84% of reviews are positive.¹ The Guardian's Radheyan Simonpillai calls it a "hilarious, propulsive and disarmingly joyous ride", while Telegraph critic Robbie Collin praised its "razor-sharp comment on celebrity".

These critics feel that Neville and Williams have managed to say something serious, even beautiful about life using 3D animated avatarsA figure representing a specific person in a video game or online world.  for coloured plastic blocks.

It follows the enormously acclaimed 2014 The Lego Movie.² Piece by Piece is not even the only music film this year to tell its story using unconventional methods. Better Man tells the story of British pop star Robbie Williams - with the twist that Williams is played by an animated monkey.

Animation has often been used to tell stories about serious topics, from the Iranian RevolutionAlso known as the Islamic Revolution. A series of events in Iran that led to the Pahlavi dynasty being overthrown and an Islamic Republic being created in 1979. It shocked the world at the time. in Persepolis (2017) to adoption in My Life as a Courgette (2016). It allows filmmakers to do things that would be difficult with actors and a real set.

From mythology to movies, storytellers have also often used non-human characters to tell serious stories about our lives. Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) uses fantasy journeys to lands of tiny people, giants, and talking horses to explore politics, society and human nature.

Edwin Abbott Abbott's Flatland (1884) mocked Victorian culture using a two-dimensional world inhabited by shapes. George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945) uses farmyard animals to depict authoritarianEnforcing strict obedience to authority. regimes.

Yet all of these books are satireA genre of art which ridicules the shortcomings and hypocrisies of society. - works that use humour to point out vicesMoral faults or weaknesses in someone's character. . A work that aims to hold a serious mirror to a life has to play by different rules.

Many commentators have claimed that true art should depict the real world. RenaissanceThe "rebirth" of Western learning began in the late 15th century, as European scholars rediscovered ancient manuscripts and began to make developments in science and art. artist Giorgio Vasari wrote that the goal of art was "the imitation of the most beautiful things in nature". Talking Lego figures are too unrealistic.

Some believe that a great work of art has to take a multi-faceted look at its subject, Piece by Piece does not do this. As Alissa Wilkins writes in The New York Times: "The rhythm of the film emphasises Williams' successes far more than his failures."

The film exists to promote Williams and Lego. It is a story and an advertisement. Many think that advertising is not art. It exists to sell people a product, rather than to interrogate our lives and the world.

Yet art has long had commercial connections. The 19th century French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec made paintings for galleries and posters for advertisements. Pop artist Andy Warhol blurred the boundaries between high art and magazine photography. Piece by Piece might be the next evolution.

Is it a serious work of art?

Yes: Artists have explored their own lives for centuries, from Saint Augustine's Confessions to Rembrandt's self-portraits. Piece by Piece attempts a similar project, using the technology of our time.

No: It may be creative and thoughtful, but Piece by Piece exists ultimately to sell music and Lego figurines. True art asks you to open your mind. Piece by Piece tells you what to think.

Or... Some say serious art has to depict the world as it is. But in today's screen-obsessed culture, virtual objects sit alongside the physical. Piece by Piece is true art for reflecting our hybrid world.

Avatars - A figure representing a specific person in a video game or online world. 

Iranian Revolution - Also known as the Islamic Revolution. A series of events in Iran that led to the Pahlavi dynasty being overthrown and an Islamic Republic being created in 1979. It shocked the world at the time.

Authoritarian - Enforcing strict obedience to authority.

Satire - A genre of art which ridicules the shortcomings and hypocrisies of society.

Vices - Moral faults or weaknesses in someone's character.

Renaissance - The "rebirth" of Western learning began in the late 15th century, as European scholars rediscovered ancient manuscripts and began to make developments in science and art.