Make your own little Lego movie (yes, even PG-13)

Perhaps you, like me, struggle with the trusting people thing.

Humans have a way of taking something precious and twisting it to squeeze untold pain and gore from it.

I am therefore, marveling very greatly and shivering very slightly at the bravery of Warner Bros. and Lego. For they are offering up the assets of "The Lego Movie" for the great unwashed to make their own little versions.

Skit!, which despite the exclamation point is not owned by Yahoo!, reveals to me it's aware that kids and adults are into different things.

Animated movies try to bridge that gap. Many, like "The Lego Movie," do it very successfully.

However, wouldn't it be fun if kids could make their own mini-versions of the movie, while adults could just run along and be adults?

The Skit app gives you the characters, the backgrounds, special effects, and a whole lot more, so that you can exercise your inner Pixar or Zeffirelli to the fullest.

Just as "The Lego Movie" is being released on Blu-Ray DVD on Tuesday, you can begin to release your imagination and let it build true art.

But please don't think that kids will suddenly be able to see adults' versions. Within the Skip app, there are G-rated pathways, compliant with COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection). Skit tells me it's gone far beyond the norm in ensuring it's a safe place to play.

Naturally, skit creation is also moderated, just in case someone thinks they're being excessively humorous when they're not.

The idea, at heart, is that people can make and share their own stories featuring the Lego characters.

You can share your creation outside the Skit community and make yourself famous on YouTube. (Warning: Those YouTube people are a harsh audience.)

At heart, though, is an interesting decision by Warner Bros. and Lego. Both companies realize that people now have not only the means of production, but also the channels of exposure to do their best and their worst.

By actually offering up the assets, they are hoping to engender that terribly popular word: engagement. This may be translated in lay terms as "Like me, please really like me. Like me all the time. I can never be liked enough."

Clearly, by allowing for PG-13 skits, there is some risk involved. But given that whatever you create will be first moderated by humans, it makes for a delightful scenario where you make a movie and it has to go through the equivalent of the Motion Picture Association of America.

Indeed, the moderators use precisely the same ratings system as the MPAA. In order to create PG-13 content, you have to register as a PG-13 user.

If a G-rated user uses a naughty word, the moderators will upgrade the content immediately to PG or PG-13, depending on how naughty the word is.

Yes, you too can feel like an exhilarated, frustrated auteur. And without pain and angst, there is no art.