dex14

<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jipelBrPFOU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3014284/

Mabuse

Three years between Lego Movie and Lego Batman. How'd they squeeze this out so fast ?

I doubt I'll see this. I know nothing about ninjago other than eight year olds like it.

mattysemo247

RichC2

It was made simultaneously alongside Batman.

Mabuse

Was this just made to sell to China?

TomOpus

If it was....so?

GoldenJCJ

I prefer my Legos to speak English, thank you very much.

And I'm offended. Offended, I say, that those Legos are yellow colored! What is this, the 1950s?!

Mabuse

Hollywood has long had to weather the storm of accusations that they too often tailor their films to the lowest common denominator. That used to mean the lowest commone denominator of USA, recently it has shifted to the lowest common denominator of Asia. The bar keeps going lower and lower.

I don't mean to go after Ninjago really. I know it's fiercely popular with American 9 year olds, so maybe it has a reason to exist.

I also think that popularity is waning. This probably should have been made 5 years ago.

TomOpus

The bar keeps going to where the funding comes from. If China wants to pay for film production, and box office is bigger there than the US, then let them dictate.

I'm still doing my part to help with domestic box office.

Mike86

I'm still not one hundred percent into the Lego movies yet but think this looks like it could be fun. I just feel like the films have sort of a limited appeal to me personally. The Lego jokes and gimmicks of the style of animation are only funny for a while to me. The Lego Batman Movie worked for me somewhat because I like Batman and liked all the nods to the character's history and whatnot but even with that I found myself getting tired of it.

hal9000

They didn't. It was in development in early/mid 2013 when word was coming in that The Lego Movie was tracking well prior to it's release. But Ninjago went through a couple producer/head creator changes. I knew someone that was going to move to Australia to work on it. It was kicked around to keep the Australian studio busy between projects.

dex14

Opens this week. 83% so far on RT: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_lego_ninjago_movie

fujishig

From the previews, this kinda seems like a Power Rangers movie to me, but we'll see.

Orbi-Wan Techno

I saw it today, knew nothing about Ninjango going in, and laughed my butt off through a lot of it. Review coming later.

Orbi-Wan Techno

From my review page, Orbi-Wan Goes To The Movies:

The Lego Ninjago Movie (PG) - The Green Ninja and his team defend their city from...his dad

I will admit this upfront. I have never seen a single episode of Ninjago, which has been a very popular series on Cartoon Network for several years now. I do, however, have a grandson who is VERY much into Legos, and I thought both The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie were brilliantly written and extremely entertaining. So, while going in blind, I had hopes that The Lego Ninjago Movie would provide me with a least a few laughs and be imaginatively staged.

And guess what? I was NOT disappointed, and now I may have to go back and seek out some of the shows online. The Lego Ninjago Movie may not reach the completely sublime and absurd nostalgic heights that Lego Batman did for me, but it did tickle my funny bone in a reasonable way, while telling a story of a boy wanting a relationship with his absentee dad.

You read that right. Jackie Chan, as a shopkeeper, tells the tale to a kid (Kaan Gulder) in live-action bookends to the animated portion of this film. The story focuses on Lloyd Garmadon (Dave Franco), the son of supervillain Lord Garmadon (Justin Theroux), who so regularly tries to conquer Ninjago City, that there’s an entire TV network devoted to just covering Garmadon’s evil intents (hosted by Lego representations of Michael Strahan and Robin Roberts, naturally). What’s worse - the entire city knows that that Lloyd is Garmadon’s son, and blames every attack on the 16-year-old boy.

However, Lloyd secretly belongs to the ninja force that regularly stops Lord Garmadon's efforts. Together with the other members (Fred Armisen, Michael Pena, Abbi Jacobson, Zach Woods, Kumail Nanjiani), Lloyd is under the tutelage of the sage Master Wu (also Jackie Chan), who is also Lloyd’s uncle and Lord Garmadon’s brother.

Though frustrated by his team’s inability to stop Garmadon’s attacks once and for all, Lloyd is even more frustrated by his father’s refusal to acknowledge his existence and be part of his life. Lloyd decides to steal The Ultimate Weapon to use against Garmadon’s, but ends up unleashing an even worse threat upon Ninjago City. This development requires uneasy alliances, a dangerous and unpleasant journey, and the eventual familial bonding.

The Lego Ninjago Movie is bright, colorful and action-packed, filled with visual and verbal humor that comes from every corner of the screen. There were asides and wisecracks that had me rolling that I am positive the kids in the audience missed completely. I appreciated, and was astounded by, the attention to detail throughout the design, from the part numbers stamped on every brick and piece, to the scuffs and other distress marks on every Lego character. The weakest part, however, is the predictable story of a son seeking his dad’s approval, but the hero versus foe aspect added an interesting twist.

I enjoyed The Lego Ninjago Movie very much, giving it 4 out of 5 lightsabers. I am sure once it hits video, I will be watching it many, many times when my grandson comes to visit, and I’m very okay with that.

NOTES FOR PARENTS: The Lego Ninjago Movie is rated PG for cartoonish action violence and some rude humor. NinJago City is attacked multiple times, and its citizens are in constant peril. At one point, buildings are destroyed by a real cat (!). There’s a LOT of animated martial arts-style fighting. One sequence sees our heroes undertake a mission on a dark and scary part of the island. Garmadon’s generals are literally “fired” through the top of a volcano. The word “butt” is used multiple time as part of insults.

MID-CREDITS SCENES: There are mid-credit outtakes showing Jackie Chan performing a stunt with china cups from the live-action portion of the movie.

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Orbi-Wan Goes To The Movies is protected under Creative Commons.

Cardsfan111

I didn't know anything about Ninjago but took my son since he was interested in it. I was pleased as well, especially with the comedic element.

Goldberg74

My 8yo son was VERY EXCITED to see it until he realized that they changed all of the voices (he has watched all of the previous Lego Ninjago cartoons/movies/etc), but he recently told me that he still would like to see it.

We will, but no rush.

funkyryno

Probably will watch this sometime with my kids. If it's near to the quality of the Lego Batman movie, I'll be entertained (and so will they).

Side note: I always felt that the Ninjago Lego sets were pretty lame, but some of the ones from the most recent series are pretty impressive.

milo bloom

Saw this on Sunday with my son. He's not super big into Ninjago, but still likes Lego stuff and we both had a good time with this.

It had a lot of funny moments, and even tugged at the heartstrings a bit.

And the absolute best gag was .

fujishig

My son is excited because this is coming home soon, but the movie bombed at the box office, right? So no sequel?

funkyryno

Took in $122 million, which is a bomb compared with how the original Lego Movie did, but it really just depends on how much this film boosted toy sales.

mattysemo247

It took in $122 million WORLDWIDE. Less than $60 million of that came from the US. Compared to the LEGO Movie ($257 US, $469 WW) and LEGO Batman ($175 US, $311 WW) it was a pretty big flop, especially here in the US. I wouldn't count on a sequel. But I'm still looking forward to watching it once it comes out on disc.

milo bloom

Going in, I feared that the specific IP of Ninjago being attached could make it hard to get into, but there's a good (in-universe) recap of what's going on in the early scenes, and the rest of the movie uses broad enough storytelling tropes that it's easy to understand what's happening.

I'm guessing that's what scared off audiences, which is a shame since it was still fun. Hopefully it will be popular at home.


"I had to move *into* a volcano just to feel safe!"

fujishig

I think part of it is that Ninjago is a brand mainly for kids. The Lego movie most likely brought out general Lego enthusiasts, and Batman is Batman plus had a connection to the Lego movie, this is basically a kids' IP... and if parents want to placate kids the series was on tv for free.

The tie-in lego sets are cool, though.

nando820

wait for Lego "Friends" the movie