The Lego Ninjago Movie

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- DirkH

The Lego Ninjago Movie is a 2017 Australian-Danish-American computer-animated martial arts adventure-comedy film based on the Lego Ninjago toyline, including the television series "Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitsu" it was adapted from. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and produced by Warner Animation Group alongside RatPac Entertainment, Lego System A/S, Dan Lin's Lin Pictures, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's Lord Miller Productions, and Roy Lee's Vertigo Entertainment, the film was, in fact, also directed by three people: Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher, and Bob Logan. It is the third installment of The Lego Movie franchise as well as its second spin-off installment. The film is an international co-production of the United States, Denmark and Australia. The film premiered at the Regency Village Theater on September 16, 2017 and was released in the United States on September 22, 2017 in 2D, 3D, and Dolby Cinema formats by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Plot
"The battle for NINJAGO City calls to action young Master Builder Lloyd, aka the Green Ninja, along with his friends, also secret ninja warriors. Led by Master Wu, as wise-cracking as he is wise, they must defeat the evil warlord Garmadon, who also happens to be Lloyd's dad. Pitting father against son, the epic showdown tests these fierce but undisciplined modern-day ninjas as they learn to check their egos and pull together to unleash the inner power of Spinjitzu."

- Official description

A young boy ventures into an old relic shop, where he meets the mysterious owner, Mr. Liu, who begins to tell the boy the legend of Ninjago.

Ninjago is a city within the Lego Universe that is frequently attacked by the evil Lord Garmadon, who is the father of Lloyd Garmadon and ex-husband of Koko. Ninjago despises Lloyd for being Lord Garmadon's son, which puts Lloyd under emotional stress. They do not know that Lloyd is part of the secret ninja force, consisting of Nya, Zane, Jay, Cole, Kai, and their master named Wu, who always stop Garmadon from taking over the city by fighting with mechs. On Lloyd's birthday, Garmadon attacks the city once again only to be defeated. He escapes and fires nine generals of his Shark Army for failing to help him. He then begins to plan a big attack to conquer Ninjago, and his GIT`s show him plans to build a gigantic mech that is immune to weapons.

Meanwhile, Lloyd and his friends see the return of Master Wu, back from a long trip he took. Master Wu tells them they aren't real ninjas if they use only mechs to fight, and discusses with Lloyd that his element is green, confusing Lloyd. Master Wu tells Lloyd he must not be angry at Garmadon; he must use his mind to fight. Wu mentions an Ultimate Weapon, giving Lloyd the hope of defeating Garmadon once and for all, despite being forbidden to use the weapon.

The next day Garmadon attacks the city with his giant mech and defeats Lloyd. As Garmadon declares his rule over Ninjago, Lloyd returns with the Ultimate Weapon. He fires it, revealing it to be a laser that attracts a real-life cat named Meowthra. Meowthra starts destroying the city while trying to get the laser. Garmadon points the laser to make the cat destroy the other mechs before Lloyd breaks it. As Garmadon celebrates his victory, Lloyd reveals that he is the Green Ninja, and tells Garmadon that he wishes he wasn't his father, leaving Garmadon confused.

Lloyd meets up with his friends and Master Wu, who are all upset with him for using the weapon. Wu tells them they must use an Ultimate, Ultimate Weapon to stop Meowthra from destroying the city, which they would reach by crossing the Forest of Dangers, the Canyon of Death, and the Temple of Fragile Foundations. Garmadon overhears Wu talking about the weapon and follows close behind. He meets up with Wu and fights him, only to end up in a cage, defeated. However, Wu loses his balance and falls off a bridge into a river, telling Lloyd he must use inner peace before getting swept away.

The ninjas decide to continue on, with Garmadon leading them much to Lloyd's disappointment. They are caught by the Shark Army, who want revenge for being fired by Garmadon and shot out of his volcano lair. The ninjas try to fight but are easily defeated. They retreat leaving Lloyd and Garmadon behind to be caught by the Shark Army. The Shark Army begins to fire Lloyd and Garmadon into a volcano, but the rest of the ninjas save the day using stealth fighting. They all work together with Garmadon to escape the angry Shark Army by building a makeshift helicopter, and Lloyd and Garmadon bond together in the process.

They eventually crash down onto the Temple of Fragile Foundations. Garmadon reveals that it is his home, as well as Koko formerly being a ninja warrior herself. He tells Lloyd that he wishes he had stayed with him and his mom after deciding to conquer Ninjago, but he couldn't change so he had to stay behind. The ninjas find the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon, consisting of a set of trinkets, only to have it stolen by Garmadon who still wants to take over the city. He offers for Lloyd to be his general, but Lloyd rejects his offer. Out of fury, Garmadon locks all of them in the temple as it begins to collapse. Lloyd realizes that inner peace means for them to unleash their power within, and they successfully do this, using their elemental powers and escaping from the collapsing temple. As they fall off a cliff, Wu saves them with his ship, the Destiny`s Bounty and they head towards Ninjago.

Garmadon arrives and tries to control Meowthra with the weapons but Meowthra eats Garmadon instead. Lloyd and the crew arrive and begin fighting Garmadon's army. As Lloyd approaches Meowthra, he reveals to everyone that he is the Green Ninja, and realizes that green means life, which brings everything together. He comforts Meowthra and tells Garmadon he forgives him and that he's sorry. Garmadon cries tears of fire, which causes Meowthra to spit him out. After reconciling, Garmadon moves in with Lloyd and Koko, Meowthra becomes the mascot of Ninjago, and Lloyd is hailed as a hero.

As the story concludes, Mr. Liu tells the boy that he will start to train him as a ninja.

A mid-credits scene also shows a gag reel of a cup stunt performed by Chan as Liu at the film's opening

Why It Finds Their Inner Peace

 * 1) Still amazing animation, which is a step-up from The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie. Just like with The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie, it still uses CGI instead of stop motion, which is unique, not a rehash, once again, provided by Animal Logic.
 * 2) Very good voice acting, with good performances from actors like Dave Franco and Jackie Chan. Dave Franco managed to sound like a teenager with his voice acting despite being 32 on filming.
 * 3) Very likable main characters with great character development, following two of the best examples:
 * 4) Lloyd is a very likable and relatable protagonist. He also gets a lot of development. He starts out as a teen who wishes that Garmadon wasn't his father, but as the plot progresses, he likes Garmadon more and eventually became close to him.
 * 5) Zane is a funny comic relief character, who has many great moments of comedy, like him increasing the pressure on Kai, him and Lloyd's birthday hug dramatically.
 * 6) Garmadon, while a weak villain, is actually very funny, and wants to spend some father-son bonding with Lloyd.
 * 7) Very good action scenes which are well-made and intense (just like the other Lego movies), like the fight scene between Wu and Garmadon.
 * 8) The movie (like the other Lego movies) has unforgettable humor, like the scenes involving Lloyd's mech's missiles.
 * 9) A creative twist on the Warner Bros. Pictures/Warner Animation Group and RatPac Entertainment logo where it is done in a Japanese style.
 * 10) Suprisingly convincing CGI on Meowthra (the cat).
 * 11) Amazing soundtrack by Mark Mothersbaugh, with songs such as "Heroes" by Blaze n Vill, "Found My Place" by Oh, Hush! featuring Jeff Lewis and "Dance of Doom" by Louis Cole featuring Genevieve Artadi.
 * 12) You can actually hear the Ninjago theme song as Lloyd's ringtone in his phone, which is nice mod of the source material.
 * 13) "Your power is... green."
 * 14) There are heart warming moments, where Lloyd apologizes to Garmadon.
 * 15) At the mid-credits, there is a gag reel with Jackie Chan catching flying bowls during the filming with live-action parts.
 * 16) They at least bought in the Hageman Brothers, the creators of the show, as story writers.
 * 17) Charlie Bean (the creator of Robotboy and Tron: Uprising), Paul Fisher, and Bob Logan did a alright job for directing this movie.
 * 18) There is funny running gag of Lord Garmadon keeps mispronouncing Lloyd's first name as as "Luh-Loyd" (which captions interpret "La-Loyd") and new character called the "Fuchsia Ninja," and his element is "Surprise."
 * 19) There is the nice Easter Egg cameo of Unikitty from The Lego Movie as well as original design of Jay's parents from the show.
 * 20) Much like the other Lego movies, it gives the message for audiences about have faith in others.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) It may be harder to get into for fans of the show due to quite a few changes, though this is forgivable due to it being set in a different continuity and is moreso connected to the Lego Movie universe and not the Ninjago TV show.
 * 2) Poor grasp of the original source material:
 * 3) * Misako's name has been changed to Koko.
 * 4) * The ninja don't use spinjitzu, unlike in the show, despite being mentioned.
 * 5) * The relationships between the ninja are left out. In the show, Nya and Kai are brother and sister, and Cole and Jay both have a crush on Nya, but this is only mentioned in one scene.
 * 6) The plot is rather cliched. Its just your typical "kid gets bullied, but in secret is a hero" plot. Surprisingly, the city is also really mean-spirited towards Lloyd all because of Garmadon's son, which gives part of the movie a Chicken Little feel; even his own friends turn on him when he accidentally used the ultimate weapon to unleashes Meowthra, although it was justified since he breaks the laser pointer and the ninjas aren't jerks to Lloyd.
 * 7) *The plot can also get predictable. For example, Wu's potential death, but the plot twist that he's alive was predictable.
 * 8) Garmadon in the first act is a weak villain who is just your typical "take over the world because I'm evil" villain, while compared to the show's version, who is actually a good villain.
 * 9) * Garmadon explaining on what he can do with his four arms (like have two people making out) felt very inappropriate for a kids' movie.
 * 10) False advertising for two reasons:
 * 11) Despite the marketing making it seem like they do, none of the ninjas use the main weapons (except Lloyd which only used at the beginning).
 * 12) *There was a scene in the trailer that shows the Ninjago using there weapons but got cut for unknown reasons.
 * 13) There are some unused scenes in the trailers that weren't used in the film.
 * 14) While the animation is still amazing, it's use of realistic trees, rocks, fire, and water are off-putting compared to the other LEGO Movies where they made almost everything out of LEGO bricks, although The Lego Batman Movie does have some effects, like water and smoke that are not made of LEGO bricks.

Reception
The Lego Ninjago Movie received mixed reviews from critics and audiences, but was well-received from most fans of Ninjago, despite not being considered to be as good as the show, who prised animation, voice acting, soundtrack, visual style, and humor, but criticized its lack of originally. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 56% based on 133 reviews and an average rating of 5.83/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Despite ample charm and a few solid gags, The Lego Ninjago Movie suggests this franchise's formula isn't clicking like it used to.". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100 based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. On Letterboxd, the movie has 2.8/5 score.

At first, this film used to be weakest film produced by Warner Animation Group, but when SCOOB! was released, it was stated that many people are now re-evaluated the movie more positively, although this is still considered to be one of the weaker in The Lego Movie series.

Chris Stuckmann gives the film a B-, stated why this film is considered underrated and later included top 8 for underrated from YouTube video of Overlooked & Underrated Movies of 2017.

Videos
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Trivia

 * A scene dedicated to Lloyd asking if his power was wind, it is a reference to when he got possessed by Morro in Season 5: Possession.
 * Dave Franco, the actor who voiced Lloyd, is currently married to Alison Brie, the actress who voiced Unikitty in The Lego Movie and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, since 2017.
 * Coincidentally, Dave Franco voice the construction worker Wally in The Lego Movie.
 * This movie was first hinted at in a bonus feature on The Lego Movie Blu-ray, called "Enter the Ninjago". In the short, an executive changes several scenes in The Lego Movie to feature Lloyd, because "kids love ninjas". Emmet suggests that instead of changing the movie to add a ninja, they just make a movie about ninjas, which the executive claims is a great idea. The rest of the short becomes a trailer for this untitled movie, which they claim would go on to be a major bomb at the box-office.
 * The Lego Ninjago Movie was originally planned for an IMAX release, as evident in trailers, posters (attached to mh:awfulmovies:Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and mh:awfulmovies:Transformers: The Last Knight), and Facebook, but was cancelled and only received non-IMAX presentations and then eventually, Kingsman: The Golden Circle took over the IMAX screenings.
 * As with The Lego Movie, the third of the closing credits is presented in the background of changing LEGO colors. The cast is divided into groups.
 * In the U.K. version, national ITV television presenters Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard replaced the voices of Robin Roberts and Michael Strahan, respectively.
 * During the scene where the kids move to the other side of the bus when Lloyd sits down, Ferris Bueller from Ferris Bueller's Day Off can be seen on the far right corner (his jacket and hair are a dead giveaway), and John Bender from The Breakfast Club can be seen at the back of the bus (the one with the mullet and the jean jacket).
 * This is the first Lego movie to release more than one in single year.
 * Additionally, this was also the first time to release two movies from Warner Animation Group, more than one in single year.
 * There are no opening credits, not even the title. There is only the company introduction logo, of WAG (Warner Animation Group), that done in a retro (c. seventies) Asian (e.g. Hong Kong) style.
 * The redesigns of the Ninja were brought over to the TV Series.
 * The trailers uses a lot of deleted scenes
 * This Movie has more deleted scenes than The Lego Movie, The Lego Batman Movie, and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.
 * Some scenes were changed in the final film while others were used.
 * This was the second-to-last spin-off film of The Lego Movie franchise to be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures before selling the rights to Universal Pictures in 2020 for a five-year deal following the box office disappointment of The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.