The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part

Throwback thought. Can you believe it is already five years since ‘Everything is Awesome’ first got stuck in your head?

The LEGO Movie: The Second Part arrives on May 7. It’s on everything from the 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, the Blu-Ray Combo Pack, DVD Special Edition. The Digital format appeared early on March 19.

SURPRISE

The success of The LEGO Movie surprised many. It landed in the Top 5 of the most popular movies of 2014.

This led to two spin-offs - The LEGO Batman Movie and The LEGO Ninjago Movie.

Now, The LEGO Movie: The Second Part. It has pretty much of the cast and crew of the original returning with some newbies.

Chris Pratt as Emmet; Elizabeth Banks as Lucy/Wyldstyle; Will Arnett as LEGO Batman; Alison Brie as Unikitty; Nick Offerman as MetalBeard; and Charlie Day as Benny. They are joined by Stephanie Beatriz and Tiffany Haddish as new characters Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi and General Mayhem. And Maya Rudolph as Mom.      

The Second Part ended up with an impressive 87% on the Rotten Tomatoes with a $190 million worldwide gross. The sequel or the spin-offs have never been able to reach the box office mark set by the original movie. ($469 million worldwide.)

The director was Mike Mitchell, taking over from, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Lord and Miller are still producers and they wrote the screenplay. Trisha Gum was the animation director.

TAKE

Would I buy this film? No.

But if you’ve enjoyed - or watched - any of the LEGO movies, it is worthwhile for the look. At 107 minutes (if you count some lengthy credits.) It’s not a long investment.

Certainly, there will be kids or even young-at-heart, who won’t mind watching.

Was I entertained with The Second Part? Yes.

Yet, I’ve watched it once now. It feels like that’s enough.

It’s been interesting at some of the changes behind-the-scenes since 2014. Lord and Miller are now Oscar-winners. They were producers of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. And not one viewer saw Chris Pratt in Guardians of the Galaxy or Jurassic World when The LEGO Movie came out.

(Pratt even voices a new character, Rex Dangervest, who kind of pokes fun at some of these changes for him.)

 If you are reading this, you should know The LEGO Movie twist. I won't go into much detail of it.

The animated world of LEGO is not as it appears. They don’t try to hide it in The Second Part. either. We see flashes of this throughout the movie, but we don’t get a fuller look until closer to the end.        

The world of Bricksburg has changed to Apocalypseburg. Everything isn’t as awesome anymore. There are invaders from outer space. Wreaking everything faster then it can be rebuilt. It takes the gang on a more cosmic adventure.

The animation remains wild and fun to look at. The silliness and craziness dynamics of LEGO remains. (Don’t think too hard about the story logic.) There is humour. The voice work is still spot on. There are new songs too, but nothing that felt as catchy as ‘Everything is Awesome.’   

By the end, there is still some good dose heart to with this LEGO gang.    

My LEGO Ranking

The LEGO Movie

The LEGO Batman Movie

The LEGO Movie: The Second Part

The LEGO Ninjago Movie

SPECIAL FEATURES OVERVIEW

There is an 'Everything is Awesome Sing-along' version of the film.

- Commentary

It depends on your interest. It’s not for every viewer.

- They Come in Pieces: Assembling The LEGO Movie 2 (8 minutes, 49 seconds.)

- I kind of appreciate that the filmmakers had no intention of rushing the sequel - if it was to happen at all. While most of the cast tell their thoughts of the movie.

My interesting pick for the special features.

- Emmet’s Holiday Party: A LEGO Movie Short (2 minutes, 17 seconds.)

- If you are feeling festive for Christmas time. Emmet tries to brighten some spirits. I believe this was online, too.

LEGO Sets in Action - (2 minutes, 17 seconds)

- There is no talking. Just Lego animation of scenes from the movie.

LEGO Designers (3 minutes, 30 seconds)

- Designers take a closer look at some of the sets available to play with from the movie.

- Promotional Materials

The usual - Turn Off Cellphone items. For home viewing, even though they are not very long, are kind of meh. I've seen the movie, why watch how it was promoted?

- Outtakes and Deleted Scenes (12 minutes, 21 seconds.)

I didn’t see this as outtakes. I also saw outtakes as bloopers. But the deleted scenes included some that did not have completed animation. 

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

The Lego Ninjago Movie

What happens when your father is Garmadon, an evil warlord?

Well, high school student Lloyd asks that very question, in The LEGO Ninjago Movie. It saw a Digital release on Dec. 12 and the Blu-ray, DVD and 4K Ultra HD packs will arrive on Dec. 19.

The original LEGO Movie hit screens in 2014. It landed in the Top 5 for biggest movies of the year – a $257 million domestic gross. How can anyone forget the particular earworm of a song, ‘Everything is Awesome.’  

The four movies to beat the world of LEGO were: American Sniper, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: Winter Soldier.

Now, we have reached the third installment of this unlikely franchise, with the inclusion of The LEGO Batman Movie, which was released in early 2017.  Despite the surprising run of the movies, not even Batman ($175 million domestic) or Ninjago ($59 million) were able to pass the first film at the box office.

NINJAGO

The movie’s concept is from the animated television series of Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu. It first premiered in 2011 and wrapped the latest season in July, 2017.

(I have never seen the show, so I can’t compare between the two.)

Ninjago City lives in constant fear of Garmadon (Justin Theroux), as his frequent takeover attacks lead to destructive battles with six young ninjas, led by Master Wu (Jackie Chan.) Among the group is the mysterious Green Ninja, who may just be Garmadon’s son Lloyd (Dave Franco.)

While Ninjago maintains the animation and emotional beats of what is expected of these LEGO movies, it also feels like the weakest story to date. Or perhaps, the style and formula are starting to become too familiar.

Either way, it’s not the best of the three films. I pick The LEGO Movie for the frontrunner, just because the story went in a direction, which surprised me.

Ninjago features a cool voice cast with the likes of Franco, Theroux, Fred Armisen and Abbi Jacobson and Olivia Munn, Kumail Nanjiani, Michael Peña, Zach Woods, and Chan. Yet really, beyond Franco, Chan, and Theroux, not many of the characters make a big memorable impact. I can’t even think of some of their names.

It could be because of Theroux, as Garmadon practically steals the movie. His origin story banter and discussing a particular injury were two of the standouts for this writer. The bridge battle between Garmadon and Master Wu was also a cool action sequence.     

The LEGO Ninjago Movie is directed by Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan.

MY VERDICT

Would I buy the film?  No.

It will certainly be worth the watch to anyone who liked The LEGO Movie and/or The LEGO Batman Movie.

If you are someone who has not seen anything LEGO, Ninjago wouldn’t be the place to start.

The film has a rainy/snowy day quality to it though – almost a rental level selection. The movie is passable entertainment, but there are definitely better options to pick.

SPECIAL FEATURES OVERVIEW

Featurettes

-          Team Supreme: Building Ninjago (8 minutes, 19 seconds)

-          Rumble in the Bricks (5 minutes, 19 seconds)

-          Rebrick Contest Winners (4 minutes, 39 seconds)

Team Supreme is the usual behind-the-scenes glimpse with conversations on the visual effects to the voice actors.

Rumble in the Bricks is the one to grab my attention the most, because the Martial arts featured in the film, is choreographed and designed by Jackie Chan and his team.

Rebrick was the LEGO contest for stop motion films. It had the subject of ‘Ninja for a Day.’

Mini–Movies

-          Shark E Shark in Which Way to the Ocean – (2 minutes, 25 seconds)

-          Zane’s Stand Up Promo (2 minutes, 2 seconds)     

-          The Master: A LEGO Ninjago short (5 minutes, 18 seconds)

Shark E Shark gets the cuteness factor. Garmadon uses sharks as weapons, how would one of those sharks react?

LEGO Ninjago TV Series Sneak Peek (11 minutes, 14 seconds)

Music Videos

-          Oh, Hush! & Jeff Lewis Found My Place (3 minutes, 21 seconds)

-          Everybody Have a Ninja Day (1 minute, six seconds)

-          Warlord Ballad (1 minute, 10 seconds)

-          Rocktagon (1 minute, 19 seconds)

Deleted Scenes

-          Animated Bridge Test (1 minute, 33 seconds)

-          Baby Fight (2 minutes, 50 seconds)

-          The Dock (3 minutes, 16 seconds)

These so-called ‘deleted scenes’ were not actually cut from the movie. None of the scenes have any connection to the final product.

The bridge was to test the animation. The baby fight was an attempt at the action and done in the style of Jackie Chan. In fact, the sequence is also what inspired Chan to get involved in the movie.

The dock started as an initial concept for Ninjago, when time-travel featured into the story. There is no time-travel in the final product.

Gimme Some Outtakes! (4 minutes, 42 seconds)

Silly and fun, the outtakes really aren’t directly from the movie like the deleted scenes.

Promotional Materials (Roughly 18 minutes)

-          Behind the Bricks

-          Please Silence Your Cellphones

-          Please Put On Your 3D Glasses

-          LEGO Sets In Action

-          Ninjago Movie: Ninja Formation

-          Ninja Jokes with Jackie Chan

-          Kicks and Bricks: Making the LEGO Ninjago Movie

-          Back to School

-          Me and My Minifig

Commentary by director Charlie Bean and crew (1 hour, 41 minutes)

The standard DVD only includes the TV series sneak peek and deleted scenes.

Warner Brothers Home Entertainment