No way! 'Wayne's World,' other movie scenes created from Lego bricks at McKinley museum

CANTON − McKinley museum staff reacted excitedly when they opened a crate containing 40 movie posters depicting iconic scenes made of Lego bricks.

Employees at the McKinley Presidential Library and Museum reveled in the mystery of discovering what the next image would be as they unpacked the posters for the new exhibit "Brick Flicks." Among them were "Jaws," "Wayne's World," "The Matrix," "The Terminator," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Gladiator," "Casablanca," "The Godfather," "Mary Poppins," "West Side Story," "King Kong," "Back to the Future," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Dr. No," "2001: A Space Odyssey," "The Shining," "Tron," "Men In Black" and "Citizen Kane."

Kimberly Kenney, executive director of the museum, said she expects exhibit visitors to similarly enjoy "Brick Flicks" when it opens Saturday.

Scotland-based Lego artist Warren Elsmore constructed the movie scenes from the plastic toy bricks before carefully photographing the models to mimic the staging and lighting of the original film. Photos were then framed to resemble movie posters.

"We want everyone to come and geek out," Kenney said with a smile. "That's what we want. All the staff did the same thing. We expect it to be popular."

Photos are high quality and vivid, resembling oversized glossy magazine images. Scenes include the lift scene in the lake from "Dirty Dancing." John Travolta looking cool on the dance floor in "Saturday Night Fever." Charlton Heston discovering the ruins of the Statue of Liberty in "Planet of the Apes." Rocky Balboa raising his arms atop the art museum steps. The flying bicycle in "E.T."

"There's no murky interpretation," Kenney said of the installation. "You don't need an art degree to figure it out. You're going to recognize the movie scenes right away. It has universal appeal."

The traveling exhibit is on display in the Keller Gallery through Sept. 30 at the museum at 800 McKinley Drive NW. The Belden Brick Co. and Visit Canton (the Canton/Stark County Convention & Visitors' Bureau) are sponsoring "Brick Flicks."

"I hope that visitors have fun," Elsmore said. "It’s also great to expose Lego as something that you can create art out of. There are so many different facets to the hobby that sometimes can be forgotten. If it inspires anyone to go home, dig out their old bricks from the attic and get building, then it’s all worthwhile."

Also showcased is a replica of the McKinley National Memorial that Elsmore constructed using roughly 50,000 Lego bricks. The museum commissioned the monument, which will go on permanent display in the future.

"I was floored," Kenney said of the replica. "It was better than I expected. We're thrilled."

Also on display are seven Lego models created by Stark County students in a museum contest. Lego bricks were used to recreate events in American history, including Abraham Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theatre, the Boston Tea Party, Underground Railroad and the D-Day Normandy landings of World War II.

"Those blew me away," Kenney said of the attention to detail in the student work.

The Lego exhibit is included with regular admission to the museum. Tickets are $13 for adults; $11 for students and children ages 3 to 18; $12 for those age 60 and older; and children under age 3 are admitted free.

Tickets can be purchased at https://mckinleymuseum.org/plan/ or at the museum's box office. Museum hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Lego toys have a timeless quality, she said.

"As you age, it doesn't seem that it goes away," Kenney said of the iconic brand. "It's like a lifelong thing. Parents who are into it, get their kids into it, and it's generational, and they just grow to love it, and it's self-perpetuating."

Here's more about Elsmore and the new exhibit.

How did the Lego artist pick the movies?

"Initially, the idea came about as a collaboration between myself and my publisher at the time," Elsmore said. "They wanted to create a book (also called 'Brick Flicks') of famous movie images. It was a tough job to decide which movies to create though.

"Some of our favorites would have been very difficult to re-create in Lego or had licensing issues that meant we couldn’t include them. I’m very happy with the 40 that we chose though; it’s a great selection of films across time, genre and location."

Who helped Elsmore create the Lego models?

"Thankfully, I could work on this project with a brilliant team," he said. "Otherwise, it would have taken many, many months. We worked each image through one by one. Whilst I would come up with the idea for the scene, my wife Teresa ... would hunt down the correct parts and LEGO mini-figure faces.

"For a couple of the images that needed really specific mini-figures, I used a brilliant UK-based company who were just setting up business to create custom mini-figs. We also worked alongside a fabulous photographer, Michael Wolchover, who did all of the work behind the camera. Working together in the studio, we could create our own little sound stage with all the lighting and props necessary. All in, we managed to build the models and shoot the images in about a month between us."

McKinley Monument was built to scale

Elsmore constructed the McKinley National Memorial to scale based on its actual dimensions.

An opening in the model also intricately reveals the interior, including the tombs of President William McKinley and First Lady Ida Saxton McKinley and the floor design.

Assembling the monument was challenging, Elsmore said.

"Creating smooth, round surfaces in Lego can be difficult to do as most bricks are square," he explained. "The second challenge was that the rotunda is very round, so I needed to make sure what detail there is could be seen. This meant that I wanted to follow the overlapping large stone pattern, too."

Reach Ed at 330-580-8315 and ebalint@gannett.com.

On Twitter @ebalintREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Lego exhibit at McKinley museum features 'Rocky,' 'Jaws,' 'The Matrix'