Kenny Ortega says his new LEGO Friends movie "Heartlake" brings the bricks to life in the most amazing musical capacity.

Kenny Ortega is the talent behind iconic films from Hocus Pocus to High School Musical, as well as dozens of music videos, concerts and two Olympic opening ceremonies. So it's no surprise that he was the perfect choice when Lego thought of making their first musical feature based on the Lego Friends line. Ortega, who […]

Ortega, who says Lego "has been a part of my life for over 30 years," was added to executive produce LEGO Friends: Heartlake the Musical, shaping the story and choreography, as well as choosing the director (longtime collaborator Paul Becker), location (London, UK) and cast. He called the British cast "triple threats" who could sing, dance and act, and said they reminded him of working with 15-year-old Christian Bale on "The News." RELATED STORIES Netflix scores exclusive 2030 FIFA World Cup rights to Spain and Andorra in historic 'East of Aden' deal hits 6.5 million views in four days on Netflix

The 50-minute film, set to premiere on the LEGO YouTube channel as well as Peacock and Netflix on October 16, follows a young girl named Daisy (Jada Langley) who is magically transported to the world of Heartlake City, where she makes fast friends and helps them save a certain landmark. Popular in Variety

Ahead of filming, Ortega spoke with Variety to discuss what it's like to work on the project, whether he has any ideas for a sequel, and his plans for the Los Angeles Olympics.

Hannah Draper and Michael McKenna [of Final Pixel] called me and said, "Do you like Lego?" I was like, "Lego has been a part of my life for over 30 years." I have a nephew—every birthday, every holiday, every special occasion [it's] Lego, Lego, Lego. I was like, "We love Legos!" So it was easy for me to say, "I'd like to attend a meeting, I'd like to hear more about it," and that's how it started.

Final Pixel is an award-winning global creative virtual production innovation studio, and so the way they pitched it to me was [they] were basically creating a 3D virtual world where we were building sets in front of and on this giant curved LED screen. And that was the moment for me. Because I mean, I've been making movies since there was no virtual reality. The visuals were painted on glass, or you know, wiring, and so it was an opportunity for me as a producer and a storyteller to work in a niche that I hadn't been in before, and that really excited me.

oh yes I originally came on board as an executive producer to develop the story and help the writers understand how the production of music, song and dance could move the character and story forward in our film's storytelling.

My work is older than what this project was intended to do. Where the Lego Friends world is like from six years up, mine is a little bit bigger than Disney, with High School Musical and Descendants and Cheetah Girls and Julie and the Phantoms on Netflix, and so I thought that's what they wanted. So at first I would say what changed was I had to age myself down and put on a new thinking hat and say, "Okay, now I'm making something for maybe five." So it was interesting, it was different, it was unique.

We went back and did some reshoots, so all in all, I'd say maybe - under 30 days? Like 25, 26, days.

We had a lot of fun deciding how to make Heartlake, what to put in it, what characters would play the lead roles in the first mini-musical. I mean, it was all an experiment. We came up with it with a small amount of money and time, because they had never done it, and it was an experiment. Let's see what we can do here, and then maybe that gives us an opportunity to go bigger and beyond, and hopefully that's the story.

I'm not. However, I'm very excited. I hope to be invited to the opening and closing ceremonies. I want to buy tickets to see the events. I was an athlete growing up. My father was an Olympic athlete, a runner. I am not invited. I don't even know who would want to creatively perform this aspect of the Olympics. But this was the time of my life when I was working with Don Misher and Mitt Romney in Salt Lake and the people of Atlanta for the summer games and I wanted to at least be there to see what was coming to Los Angeles.

This interview has been edited and condensed.