You had me go through "all" episodes in skips of 10s until I found the one with the "classical" music. From what I saw you have Chopin (Romantic) and Vivaldi (Baroque). It is not even classical musical per se.... - F. Chopin: Waltz n.7 in C# Minor (Op. 64) - F Chopin: Nocturne n.2 in Eb Major (Op. 9) - A. Vivaldi: Concerto n.4 in F Minor - Winter, I. Allegro non molto (Op. 8) - A. Vivaldi: Concerto n.4 in F Minor - Summer, III. Presto (Op. 8)
@@RRSlugger Thank you for the reply! I have been following your chanel for a time now and it is great! I am quite curious with what you would come up using your style with something like the classic technic sets! The clever mechanisms and array of real world vehicles and machines is fascinating and so hard to replicate nowadays. They lack the character of a storyline of course..
@@Ilikerawfish Thank you! I'm really not much of a Technic builder, simply because I find that system physically painful to build with - may hands always hurt afterwards! 😅
They care more about checking boxes for a good ESG score than they do about entertainment. You can’t write good entertainment for sane people when you’re a lunatic whose entire existence revolves around the propagation of nonsense.
@@jamstarr The story structure is perfect. The writers needed to just write better (develop the characters , the world, transform filler into content that actually matters, fix plot holes). Chima as an IP is perfect, it's just that the show's writing was horrible and did not bring the theme justice
My biggest surprise was knowing that Slugger is an actual teacher. Like, I was surprise by his speech and way of talking on videos, but...I'd never expect THIS. I wouldn't have classes with a teacher like this, I'd be rambling about lego with him all the time!
It was on this day that Slugger made the heroic sacrifice of subjecting himself to yet another senseless Lego cartoon. May his mental sanity rest in peace and that we should never forget his brave contribution.
On of my favorite SpongeBob jokes is when Squlliam says “I hope the audience brings lots of… ibuprofen” which I didn’t understand at all when I was a kid
Or the one where Spongebob and Patrick are taking care of a scallop they found, and a couple passersby have a thought bubble that goes "sponge plus starfish equals... scallop...???"
Dang! This slug can surprisingly have some salt! But in all honestly I am worried that if this show fails (which seems likely) the lego group may become even more averse to original themes.
i think most children have more imagination then what show will show as kids imagination as show itself in terms of creative thoughts seems limited which goes against what being childhood is based on
Being a physician who does sleep hygiene in all my wellness visits, this show really feels like a miss. There's some great ways they could have applied both psychoanalysis and sleep medicine. This could have been an opportunity to teach both kids and parents basic concepts on how to sleep better, and what dreaming means. They basically just didn't do it.
I haven't watched the show myself, but you're right, the premise has so much potential. Just now I already got a bunch of ideas. Like... 1. What if the different stages of sleep affect the characters in the dream world? Maybe during rem sleep, the characters are more powerful or something. But if they don't get a lot of sleep in real life, because of staying up late for instance, they never get to that stage, which not only leaves them tired in the real world the next day, but also leaves them weak in the dream world. And maybe they have an argument about it and eventually the character realizes the importance of going to bed on time. Or maybe they just take naps during the day to make up for it, which also doesn't give them much rem sleep. 2. What if the show ends with the main characters realizing that nightmares aren't all bad? Like, they realize that nighmares are a way for the mind to process bad experiences, so they reach an agreement with the villain that he can make his nightmares or whatever he does, but that he shouldn't overdo it and let the kids have sweet dreams for most of the time. Maybe that's even a reason why the bad guy went bad in the first place. Someone tried to suppress his nightmares completely, because they thought nightmares shouldn't exist, so the nightmare guy had no outlet and nothing to do with his existence, so he lost it and went berserk. 3. What if sleep paralysis was a plot point? Like some kind of way for the nightmares to cross over into reality. That would be a great way for the show to teach kids what sleep paralysis is, which is terrifying if you ever experience it, but once you learn why it happens, it's not so scary anymore. But it would work great as a "mechanic" so to speak. Maybe if a certain enemy attacks one of the heros, they experience sleep paralysis in real life, which basically lets that enemy roam free in the real world, because to them, it feels like that demon is right there, in the real world, sitting on their body while they can't move. That would make for a striking scene. And maybe then they have to figure out whether or not it really happened, or if the protagonist just hallucinated it because their brain was still half stuck in sleep mode. Maybe that's the twist of the episode. It was all in their head! 4. There could be an episode about sleep schedules. Like, maybe it's the summer vacation and one of the characters keeps staying up later and later every day, because they don't have to wake up for school, which results in them being unable to train with their friends or something, and they are never around at the same time. Maybe their parents are really lenient with them, while their friends' parents aren't, so they don't let them sleep in every day. These are all just off the top of my head, but if you really sat down, you could probably write so many concepts that are both compelling in an adventure world, as well as being tied to real life sleep. Like you said, having a plot be about being unable to sleep basically writes itself.
I’m almost convinced you just put more thought into the premise of the show than the writers did, if the end product is any indication. Any or all of your ideas here could have benefited this show greatly. 👌
Yeah, unfortunately this has almost always been a thing in CG Lego shows. They probably think it would look lame and unimpressive if the builds resembled the actual sets, so they sand off the edges and add "realistic" details. In the case of Bionicle I think it's the right choice, as those are described in the story as having organs and exposed muscle fibers holding their crab-like mechanical frames together, so actually SEEING that is pretty awesome. And I can understand the temptation to make a giant plush rabbit actually look soft or technology more sleek and futuristic or Ninjago's dragons more organic and alive than lego bricks. But it DOES create a disconnect with the minifigs, however used to it people might be after so many years. Hard agree on the kids instantly falling asleep, and the big missed opportunity there. Tak 2- The Staff of Dreams of all things handled its dream world concept better, with Tak usually being knocked unconscious by something or other. Not suggesting the siblings be victims of cartoon slapstick to advance the story, just using that as an example that's it's pretty common sense that characters don't instantly fall asleep unless they're drop-dead exhausted already. Imagine if the Nightmare King had a motivation beyond power, like.... maybe dream entities vanish after a while as they're forgotten, and inflicting terror on kids keeps him and the other nightmare creatures alive, and he wants to cross over to the real world to become a truly living being. That only took me like, 4 seconds to think up. I do still plan on getting some of the sets because... they're cool designs? But >sigh< enjoying Lego's products purely as pieces of plastic, ignoring lame official media and building my own headcanon around them is something I'm too accustomed to doing.
I suspect the reason the series relies on non-LEGO assets is much more of a practical calculus than an aesthetic one. The LEGO Movie(s) depicted supped-up versions of its sets to look better on screen while still being authentic to the toy, and I see no reason why the same couldn't apply here. LEGO has very, VERY restrictive rules about how LEGO bricks and Minifigures can be depicted, from the color to the connections to the movement of the bricks themselves. To pull that off for a TV series with dozens detailed and exotic locales and set pieces, you would need a team of builders firing on all cylinders just to put out the initial concept pieces, not to mention having the LEGO Group looking over your shoulder to ensure everything fits into the LEGO system along every step of the design process. This is easier for a LEGO Movie and to a lesser extent video games which can take years to develop and iterate, but TV shows especially tend to have rushed production cycles. Using non-LEGO assets means that the artists have more flexibility to design and animate the characters and environment in any way they see fit, so long as the Minifigure designs are up to spec and the models have a vague resemblance to the sets they are based on. It really is a shame, because the magic of these worlds is the creative interpretation of the LEGO medium. Hopefully we can look forward to a LEGO rewind on this theme in a few years. The series is passable, but the sets themselves are wacky and delightful in a Time Cruisers kind of way.
@@RRSlugger Oh yeah! One more thing. I actually DO remember being a baby. It's not that common as most peoples' brains completely rewire themselves around 6 or 7, but I remember not being able to walk. That said, my dreams are usually about other things like parts of my body rotting off, or being in a car crash or falling to my death. >shrugs
@@RRSlugger I’ve seen every other lego show aside from monkie kid (which I hear more positive things about than I do the actual sets) and I can say they all were about the same with some tonal variations. I’d give ninjago a 6/10, chima a 4/10, nexo knights a 3/10 and hidden side an 8/10 although that’s mostly because it cut a lot of the fat that other shows have. Hidden side is one of my all time favourite themes and I think chima and nexo knights both had good runs of sets with unique aesthetics so I don’t think it will affect much on theme quality.
LEGO: Dreamzzz was in development for 5 years Dreamzzz: *decides to make a character’s entire personality that she likes anime and therefore she moves via Naruto running*
I think some of these LEGO themes would just be better off without a show. Make a theme, some characters and rough story and then let people use their imagination. Just like how it used to be. When you have a subpar show attached to the theme it just makes the whole thing a lot less interesting in my opinion.
LEGO just can't seem to learn that not every theme needs to follow the Ninjago formula. All that money being invested away from the sets and into media projects only hurt the theme in the long run if those projects aren't successful.
"i grew up watching Star Trek" procedes to show Andromeda 🥲😂 Andromeda was great-ish show for its time. I loved it as a kid! Otherwise, great video as always Slugger. Iam really glad there is someone like you doing these kind of videos. Thank you!
Hahaha, I laughed way too much editing that in. I figured “I’ve already showed a bunch of Star Trek clips, why not throw in Andromeda while explicitly talking about Star Trek”, lol. 😅 I use to watch a ton of Andromeda on TV too - fun show!
This is such a great channel. I just smile through every video and occasionally pointlessly interject with "Yes Slugger" and "Go off king," even though I know deep down Slugger does not need the praise of any smaller creature to continue his good works
Dreamzzz seems to be smack right in the middle when it comes to lego shows. Never reaching the highs of ninjago and monkie kid but never reaching the lows of chima and nexo Knights. Sometimes i wonder if its even work the effort of making a show when the show tends to bring down amazing sets.
@@RRSlugger I didn't finish the video when i wrote this comment, but to speak about it being a bad toy commercial. I find Tommy Andreasen isn't that good at writing toy commercials. Sets in his shows tend to feel like Easter eggs. Once in a while you might get a plot relevant set. As someone who grew up with ninjago, the only reason we bought most of the big sets as a kid were for specific minifigures. Its a problem that has only gotten worse with time. As someone whos watched ninjago for a decade, half of the time i cant tell what is a set from that season. While still being in the same animation style they have used for a decade, lego ninjago dragons rising really focused on the sets. 5 of the 8 had focus and this was only the first half of the season. That's not even counting the core sets that got a bit of focus in this latest season. Tommy also no longer works on after ninjago crystalized. Which genuinely id rather watch dreamzzz a 1000 times over before re-watching crystalized again. What I'm trying to say is that when Tommy writes a show the toys the show needs to sell are background elements in the show and that leads to diminishing returns with examples like Nexo Knights.
I've struggled to watch almost any Lego show, even the ones people consider to be good, such as Ninjago. The furthest I've gotten in any series is Monkie Kid, which honestly might be good enough to continue watching. Still need to watch Galador though
Monkie Kid is for sure the best one, since at its worse the jokes are a little annoying but still land better than the ones from most other LEGO shows, and at its best it has actual character development and the insanely well animated fight scenes.
i couldnt get into monkie kid much if honest, then again i watched ninjago from start on release though monkie kid didnt appeal to me some reason when it came to show.
@@TheFuzzyOcelot Well, I don't think Monkie Kid's annoying. I think the Ninjago fandom's annoying for nagging me to death about how Ninjago became superior than all the rest of the Lego themes I liked all because of this talk about bankruptcy which I don't care lol.
The Lego Movie was a perfect example of media for kids and adults done right. And it was amazing. Its my second most beloved animated movie of all time! I can see that the style is maybe to expensive for a show tho. I think they shouldve tried to go more into that direction nontheless. DreamZzz seems like just another attempt to build a theme as successful as Ninjago. (Just like Chima, Nexo Knights or Hidden side)
I was really hoping for something akin to Inception. Touching on the subconscious, different dream levels, manifesting anything within a dream, not being able to tell if you are in a dream or not, etc. Unfortunately none of that is really played out. As you said a lot of missed opportunities.
I really appreciate you breaking this down. Good kids shows that work for adults are very possible!! Avatar the Last Airbender, Phineas and Ferb, SW: Clone Wars, even Star Trek from a certain perspective. As a Bionicle fan, even of G2, a low quality show is a bit of a worry. To be fair though, I remember the first season of the Ninjago show felt pretty iffy... but it had enough trope fun to be catchy
The second any one has a concept like "dreams" or "imaginations" or something like that I immediately know it's going to be bad. It's just a lazy way to have any nonsense happen and screams (ironically) no imagination or sense of creativity. As you said, rules are super important. Having limits to a concept or a world are super important for actually having things grounded and engaging. Creating an entire world with defined lore and rules takes far more genuine creativity and intelligence. Even the name dreamzzz sounds lame and as if its coming from someone who recognises the "shape" of creativity, without actually having any themselves
There are stories that use those themes very well, The Sandman, Inception the Persona games and even the matrix jump to mind, even My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic had some good episodes exploring dreams, and especially nightmares. I think the issue with stories that go the "everything is possible in your imagination" is that they forget that Imagination and dreams are shaped by and in tern shape the minds of those who imagine. This relationship, can be a great vehicle for the conflict of the story, either as a tool to externalize internal conflicts, or as a stage on wich to examine the nature of thr human mind.
Those eyes in the thumbnail should be a running gag, I saw them and immediately knew Slugger’s opinion of the show probably wasn’t good (very understandably)
I remember really loving Ninjago as a kid. Even then, I remember thinking the plot was super messy. It wasn’t as fleshed out as Bionicle. The continuity felt cheap and inconsistent. However something about Ninjago still resonates with me now, as a 20 y/o. While Ninjago as a show was targeted towards kids- I now recognize some of the humor/themes that they threw in for adults. I’m not sure if my love for Ninjago is blinded by nostalgia. Still, it definitely seems like Lego gave more thought and love to Ninjago than Dreamzzz imo. The sets for Dreamzzz are cool, I just don’t feel there’s as much care put into Lego themes as there were back in the 1990-2010s. I might just be nitpicking though.
The earliest seasons of NInjago weren't Shakespeare and you are totally right about the plot being messing and the continuity being inconsistent, that show has retcons galore! But at the same time, there always was something deeper there. Right from the beginning, Ninjago had a world and mythology that just sucked you in. And the themes and characters were great, much better than a typical action show for kids. In only the second episode, they explored the idea of not knowing where you come from or why you are who are you are. Zane straight up says he's an orphan and that entire episode is how he doesn't fit in with the rest of his "family" to the point where can can't even understand them nor they him. It ends with this really emotional scene where the Ninja blowup at Zane, insulting and blaming him for a defeat. And they have to learn to apprentice who he is even when he's different and even when still they don't understand him. He's their bother, and that's all that matters. They even contrast Zane finding his family amongst the Ninja with Lloyd who, while biologically related to Wu, feels alone and excluded. Zane ends the episode happy surrounded by his family. Lloyd ends it alone, walking into desert. That is such a heavy concept and lesson for Ninjago's second episode and later seasons only took things further with even better themes, concepts, and characterization. Ninjago was pulling off stuff that deep in EPISODE 2 so it's easy to see why kids resonated with the show. They came for the colorful Ninja fighting bad guys but they stayed for the characters and emotional depth. Kids are not stupid, if you make something of quality they will respond and that's just what they did with Ninjago.
@@Obi-Wan_Kenobi Absolutely, I think the character driven arcs like that- really carried the show. Most of the characters were really well portrayed. Each character, while often being in the same scenario all act in such a diverse and distinct manner. Keeping the main cast of characters consistent was imperative for the success of the show. And with that, they definitely succeeded. Oh not to mention the incredible soundtrack. Like, they did not need to go that hard!
I also watched the first few episodes and I find it really interesting how different your experience was. For example, I was eye-rolling at the allusions that kids obviously would not be able to understand, like Izzy referencing the Matrix (when Matteo tries to wake up Cooper by "mak[ing] a call like it's 1999") and Prof. Oz having set 60080 (Space Port) sitting on his desk. The one thing that I would agree to is that the pacing is not well thought out and that especially the beginning of the show moves too fast.
The demon/creatures with glowing yellow eyes and always in shadows remind me of what people who suffer from sleep paralysis claim to see. That's where the myths of succubus/incubus creatures coming in the middle of the night and paralyzing you in bed originates from.
I watched it all the way thru and found it to be ok. But I really kept thinking about that line where they said this thing took like 5 years of testing with the public. That old saying creeps to mind, try to appeal to everyone and you'll appeal to no one...or something like that. It felt like a show where they had a buttload of 'things' to stuff into, but nothing to actually say. Empty is the word I guess? kinda like eating tofu. It legit got me to question if it was just me who got older and ninjago was also this dull, but no. The very first episode of ninjago knew exactly where it wanted to go and went there right away. It was fairly tight from the get go. Monkie Kid is also there as a reference to what a lego show looks like when the creators actually know what they want. And its animation style is MILES more compelling than dreamzz (and dare I say, ninjago...sometimes) Perharps needing to make 10-20(apparently theres a second half of this?) episodes of it led to them stretching the premise far wider than it needed to, which is an issue of its own. The plot they presented, for something all about crazy dreams and nightmares and stuff, somehow made the world feel SMALL rather than wild and expansive, and didn't help how samey all locations looked. This initial conflict could have easily been solved within 3 episodes and then they could plan out a grander adventure, exploring differently themed corners of the dream realm. what if dreams associated with different emotions had their own dedicated areas, and each area would have it's own twist on the color palette. I'm not saying to turn a kids show into dante's inferno, but at least don't make every single episode look the same. If anything, dreamzz's super watered down show just made the sets stand out in their own merit in my eyes, rather than being tied to media. A testament of their fairly strong design. sooo.....task failed succesfully? (sorry if none of this sounds coherent it's 2 am and I just saw new slugger video 🥴)
Nah, You're right on the money, man. It would be so cool to see a 2D animated Adventurers Orient Expedition or Time Cruisers tv show with actual competent writers. In fact, as an aspiring writer, i've been thinking of a story with a Fusion between Time Cruisers and Adventurers.... 🤔
@@pitaalfereti58 haha, that would be cool. Could be something like: The time cruisers go on a wild ride trying to find specific artifacts that went missing from history for some reason. On their way they cross paths with the adventurers at multiple stages of their life/career, maybe even johnny's son or grandpa being involved.
@@spiderdian2 Well shit, I was doing completely different from what you pitched but I was thinking of it being more of a spiritual successor than anything else. Basically, I was thinking that there's like a duo of time travellers (not the the Doctor and the kid from Timecruisers) But instead a vaqueros (Indian cowboy) from the 1700s, and an Edo-period Samurai have built a time machine car (a timecruiser if you will) to hunt down an omniprescent robot force who has been clashing and twisting all world history in order to cause an "Apokolipz" to eradicate all humans on earth, all exploring various cultures, and history, like Orient Expedition. But that idea of yours sounded really cool for a timecruisers revival. (Note: if this sounds crazy as fuck 🥴 i just woke up lol)
"how to sleep better" hahaha, good joke, Lego. You literally tell them that you might encounter the Nightmare King who might capture you and you will never wake up, if no one rescues you. XD
The complete lack of lego is for legal reasons; understandably, in many countries you can't directly put toys in childrens' programming. That's why all lego shows have this odd art style. That being said it's not hard to get around that limitation with your story, ninjago did this early on with the macguffins being the weapons of creation. I think the lack of a setup like that here is emblematic of the lack of depth and care in this show as a whole. Get kids to think their problems through creatively, that's lego's greatest strength as a tool for childhood development!
That kind of does paint _The LEGO Movie_ in a completely different light for me. Since it's a theatrical movie rather than a broadcasted TV Show, it can get away with its stop-motion style of animation, since it technically isn't randomly advertising a toy brand if the viewer paid for tickets/the movie's DVD. Plus, the movie still holds up for me through its own merits and substance.
Good video. I've only watched 2 Lego shows (Nexo Knights and Freemaker Adventures) and they both had the same problems that you mentioned here, specifically extreme lack of character depth and "real life" renders of the world with minimal Lego pieces. Both of those shows had Monty Python references, so at least they threw a couple small bones to the adults in the audience. Freemakers' faults weren't as bad as Nexo (or Dreamzzz, by the sound of it) but I REALLY wanted to like Nexo Knights, and just.. didn't. Ok I'm starting to ramble so it's time to end the comment. Thank you for watching this show so we don't have to.
There is something to be said about simple well told stories. Every world now days must be new and exciting and different. Maybe just a good story about pirates, knights, space exploration or city life. Kids don't know that those are cliches and if the story is well told they will enjoy it. Also, don't ask kids what they want. Most kids don't really know.
Very frustrating, Lego should have learned that Ninjago's success was a fluke just from the failure of Chima alone, but they are dead set on the "Galidor Approach" of releasing every in-house theme as a tie in multimedia project. But hitching their products to the output of a deeply mediocre animation studio just functions as anti-marketing, where the poor performance of the tv show is doomed to take the theme down with it. I genuinely LOVE the current slate of Dreamzzz sets, and to me the theme as a concept had more potential than even Ninjago. This could have been Lego's inception, Lego's adventure time, even Lego's the Matrix, but they are only concerned with making "The Next Ninjago". Also, and I hope this isn't too invasive, but is your partner a green slug as well?
I mean it makes sense they are trying to find the next Ninjago as Ninjago was the next Bionicle, both being the biggest original themes of their respective eras, and both were created with multimedia in mind. So I'd say it's more on the execution being the issue than the base concept.
Because as someone that enjoyed Chima and Nexo Knights, I don't need to learn anything those pathetic Ninjago elitists never taught me because I can take care of myself lmao.
@@monster-mecha_enthusiast_2002 I don't actually like Ninjago all that much, I was just acknowledging that it was a runaway success where other themes weren't. I thought nexo knights was cool
Calling Ninjago a fluke is a bit harsh. Lego managed to create the perfect combination of action, mythology, and colorful characters with Ninjago. Albeit they may have accidentally stumbled upon that perfect combination but Ninajgo still been going strong for 13 since it's inception. A fluke can't last that long, Ninjago survives because Lego keeps coming up with creative stories and sets to build on it's initial premise.
Oh no, that's actually surprising to hear! I personally follow the Monkey Kid series, and it's quite OK (though I find the inconsistencies between the show and the sets a ATD annoying), so I was hoping DreamZzz would be good to watch, especially given the interesting concept. That reminds me of Legends of Chima: I was a big fan of the sets, and the lore around it really appealed to me. Then last year finally decided to watch the series and got really disappointed with the quality of the show. I think perhaps what shocks me the most in your review is how unLEGO like the DreamZz show sounds like. Not just the fact it doesn't feature brick built things, but also the light hearted tone that we all like from the LEGO movie, video games etc
Sadly a lot of the Lego shows can be pretty lame, from Ninjago, to Chima, to Nexo Knights and now again with Dreamzzz. They're very low effort, and like you brought up a little with that yetti 'gag', old fashioned. (There was even a crossdressing joke in the original season of Ninjago with one of the male ninja wearing a pink apron and everybody laughing at him for it. So I guess the writing style hasn't evolved over the past decade.) Even without featuring actual Lego bricks, all these shows just feel like cheap commercials for the sets. BUT, I do highly reccomend the Monkie Kid tv show if you haven't seen it yet. It has more of the Lego Movie style of humor with tons of visual gags, and fantastic animation all around. And the Lego Friends shows are alright too, being inoffensively fun slice of life stories.
@@RRSlugger Well it depends on what you like really. I can see reasons why people would not like Monkie Kid, but as someone who is also a fan of quality animation, I cant sleep over Monkie Kid. It also helps for you to have some intro knowledge of the Journey to the West story as it does help understand who these characters are because the show is a semi-sequel to it.
Really? I've encountered people who don't like the Monkie Kid show before online, and from what I can recall the reasons why they dislike it differ rather greatly from how Slugger here describes his reasons for disliking DreamZzz. Either your misremembering what went on in that show or there's a creepy & obscure subreddit that share your reasonings I haven't encountered yet.
Gotta inject a little bit of Elm Street in there. Mayyybe not quite to the extent of "if you die in the dream you die in real life," being a kids' show and all that, but some sort of stakes where actions in the dream world have real world consequences, like if the bad guy catches someone in the dream world then they stay asleep irl, or someone wakes up with scratches from a fight they had with a cactus monster, stuff like that. I'd also include stuff like people training to prematurely wake themselves up as a sort of emergency escape/respawn in dangerous situations(you could also use those flash balls for that too), as well as lucid dreamers with godlike powers in the dream world.
I think the worst thing about this is that if this theme flops, the LEGO group is going to take it in the same way that a lot of Hollywood studios do, and assume that people aren’t interested in original properties anymore. They ARE - just when they’re good!
No wonder lego hasnt come out with any new original themes they seem to think that its impossible for something to be compelling without it being a masive production television show. Some of the old lego themes had more personality in just minifigs than they can create in a whole tv season!
21:44 if this show had good writing, you could assume that someone is dreaming that they're a baby as a representation of their concerns that they need to be constantly cared for, or are defenseless, or something like that. Its definitely possible that someone would dream of being a baby in the real world, though I doubt that Lego had such ideas in mind.
Slugger make a video about 2k drive it’s PHENOMENAL and the humor is actually good, the writing is really good IMO and it’s a very fun world to immerse yourself in
I watched through the “keep the piece” episode by episode commentary/watch through and honestly seriously enjoyed this series. The last time I was into an original Lego IP this much it was Power Miners, so even tho I feel like I’m a tad too old, I’m here for it! I’m excited to see where it goes, and also have found it interesting to see everyone’s varying opinions down here
@@SR-388 oh, thanks pal... just got too excited too soon ^^ My fav was Atlantis, so enjoying couple of sets from last years like the Ninjago Seabound wave or the new Monkeykid underwater dragon palace. Hope Powerminers gets some kind of spiritual successor too...
I thought it all sounded a bit... overly grand in the press release, and oof, guess that panned out. For all the talk of the research and preparation and background that went into developing the theme, it seems there's just nothing really there. Like trying to remember a dream after waking up, it falls apart as you poke at it. I don't know how many times I've now watched Lego announce the Hot New Thing, only for it to fizzle or fall flat not long after, but it's getting to be a lot.
Even Adventure Time had some cleverly-written jokes in it for both kids and adults, with a lot of the stuff the at Jake the Dog, Simon Petrikov/Ice King, Lumpy Space Princess, Phoebe the Flame Princess, Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum and Marceline Abadeer the Vampire Queen says/does throughout the show...I love how that show dealt with darker stories in later seasons as well, where we find out the main human character Finn Mertens was adopted by a family of yellow bulldogs and that the land of Ooo is just one of the landmasses on a war-ravaged post-apocalyptic Earth, which felt like a mix of Dungeons & Dragons, Mad Max and Candyland, where many of the remaining humans survived a nuclear war known as the Mushroom War, with a little help from four elementals: Ice, Fire, Candy and Slime...
I never really cared for lego tv shows, I have only ever seen some of the early seasons of ninjago and a handful of nexo knights and monkie kid. I feel that lego has the opinion of this comment I vaguely remember from eurobricks saying "I hope it suceeds just to prove the naysayers wrong". They are persistent in these big multi-media themes that run out of steam in one year. I don't see what they are trying to get at, these sorts of themes cost far more than normal. The only benefit is the possibly is that it could become explosively popular, however, they are pretty dense given how out of touch they have proven to be. I just want a normal original theme, not these flashy overblown messes. If the concept of this theme is so convoluted, they really have to go big or go home and it is clear that they just don't have the ability to pull it off. With all these resources, they could focus on their traditional bread and butter of space, castle, and pirates instead of leaving them out to dry.
i think the lego DreamZzz show is just alright. it reminds me a bit of ninjago (at least the few eps i've seen), but it doesn't compare to the pretty high quality of monkie kid, probably because that show is made by a different studio than the one that handled DreamZzz' animation and ninjago/hidden side/all other 3D lego animated shows and short films
I feel like the 3D animations that appear in Lego shows like this, can work, it creates a more diverse world that would be very hard to recreate in a Lego movie style. For example, I feel like the world that the Lego Chima show is set in is amazingly created, a great environment for adventures. But the problem with having a good world that does not look like Lego is that, as other people seem to be commenting about, the minifig characters feel out of place at times. I enjoy the minifig animation of Monkey Kid, it really creates a Lego TV show while not using Lego 3D animation. I feel like Lego can make a good show for everyone, but I feel like they maybe need to move away from the 3D animation style. They could try a Lego movie style of show, we have seen that people can make Lego movie style animations here on RU-vid. They also have tried creating a show without minifigs, in a 2D animation style, the Lego Elves show, and it was not Lego at all, it did not feel like Lego. But also I feel like the shows Lego is making could work in a different style. Chima being my favourite world from Lego, really could use some more, realistic animal characters. The Chima show worked because it had an idea no other Lego show had. You have different factions of animals in a diverse world all fighting over a fuel/power source. And it feels alive, like the real world. The Chima show was plagued by the fact that it had bad humor and also, most people I feel like, confused the power source, of Chi, with a representation of drugs. It really hurts that a world like that was sidelined because it did not appeal to people the right way. Chima felt like the real world, where anyone is right in their own way. Thanks for reading my comment. :)
Jack De Sena (Sokka) is the voice of Monkie Kid the only not garbage-fire lego show out there. (sorry ninjago stans your show is trite through and through) but I do actually think highly of the MK theme despite it's generally non-western demographic market (the Wukong warrior Monkey King tale is a long standing Journey to the West legend in East Asia and as a result the theme is seemingly tailor made for that demographic) the sets are fun and the show sure isn't a "groan", as you put it
Right, because a story about a princess seducing the main character to resurrect his father in a demonic ritual is and achieves that goal via manipulation, murder, and deception is "trite through and through". If it's so trite, please tell me what other shows have this premise?
@@Obi-Wan_Kenobi Yeah, unlike the brilliant writing of Ninjago: A woman falls in love with a man and has a child with him just because of a single letter (of which we don't even get to see the content of).
@@Obi-Wan_Kenobi damn too many long long nights on Tatooine have addled your old brain Master Kenobi - its freaking elemental power-rangers - its legos not super-sentai ninja show. I don't like the format enough to be invested in the plot but please recognize that aspects of a media content item can lack freshness and be called trite for aspects outside of their story... like you do realize you can say the same thing about how no one has tackled this type of plot arc with dreams.... but it can still fall into negative aspects and if portions of its development seem close enough to other tropes or archetypes of shows that sell toys - this one could have been called trite too (though I wouldn't. because I didn't see that in what I watched, which was only one episode) TL;DR sorry if you're personally attached to ninjago's story - I'm not and I hope you'll find I’m entitled to that - super not master jedi outlook if not XD
I think ninjago has meat, but a lot of the issues you listed here apply there too, really probably the best Lego show is monkie kid, with a really slick art style and genuinely stunning animation, with fun characters and a pretty good story I think it’s just genuinely a good show, doesn’t do a great job of showing Lego sets, but when everything is just good, especially the art an animation (which I’m a sucker for as an artist myself), it’s easy to just not care about it showing Lego sets. Even when jokes don’t land it still has this air of quality missing from most Lego shows, and even has Sean schemmel voice the monkey king, who is a big anime voice actor (I think this shows some real thought as not only does he fit the role, but the role he is most known for is Goku from dragon ball, who is very blatantly inspired by monkey king from journey to the west, so just kind of a cool roundabout sort of deal there)
I was very intrigued by this theme and how much Lego was hyping it up so this is kind of a bummer to hear. On your note of kids shows maintaining the attention of adults, there was a recent Netflix cartoon I really liked called "12 forever" which had an extremely similar concept, with different kids gaining access to a limitless fantasy world. However, in 12 Forever the lack of boundaries in the dream world accentuate personal conflicts between the characters and the antagonists exist to mirror the character flaws of the protagonists. The world itself physically reacts to whoever is inside it resulting in some interesting conflicts and character development. I was hoping to see similar concepts used in DreamZzz since it's really just such an obvious way to handle a dreamworld, but it seems entirely sterile and meaningless. It gives me major "corporate boardroom" vibes which is definitely confirmed by Lego saying this is their "most researched" theme yet. Let's hope they "research" their themes a lot less in the future. Also the weird props and environments reminds me heavily of "Lego Universe" from 2010, does anyone still remember that?
Sad to hear how underwhelming this element of Dreamzzz is. That being said, I appreciate every honest second and opinion. I'm still working through it myself on Amazon Prime Video. I do enjoy some world building, guess I'll have to do that physically as headcanon over watching it digitally.
I haven't really watched the LEGO shows, only some Ninjago back in the day, so I can't really comment on their quality. But in general I'm not a big fan of a set canon for an original theme. I think it completely defeats the purpose. Themes like Jurassic Park or Avatar gotta stay close to the source material. But an original theme shoud give a template and some basic setup. A starting point for you to do your own worldbuilding. That's why I love Dino, Atlantis and Adventurers. Sure, there's some "soft" canon movies, comics, etc. But it feels more ignorable than an entire show. Johnny and the gang want to find the Golden Dragon of Marco Polo. But do they or Sinister? What exactly is this dragon and what secrets could it hold? Sure, they travel through India, Himalayas and China. But what happens to them on the way? Johnny's an Australian ex-military, but what's his whole backstory? Are him and Pippin just friends? How did Sinister loose his hand? YOU decide all of that. A great excercise for kids' imagination, and even a fun idea for adults to come up with a propper story. Also, as a fellow Trekkie. What on Earth is the show at 2:45 ? Haven't ever seen it, but you got me interested.
A lot of good points here. As someone who is pretty invested in the LEGO lore, the quality of their long form content outside of games is can be hit or miss, and the genuinely good movies/TV shows are the exception rather than the rule. The best case scenario for the others is that they build out the world even if they aren't top tier entertainment in and of themselves. (I think the Time Cruisers audio dramas and the Hidden Side TV show are pretty good examples.) But Dreamzzz is so surface level and lacking in atmosphere that it doesn't really accomplish this. There are some flashes of cool stuff, like the secretive real-life dream organization and the way the kids learn about the inner lives of others through their dreams, but it's not explored much in this first set of episodes. One creative decision that I found incredibly distracting was the use of texture on the minifigure characters to represent different kinds of cloth, etc. I don't think trying to give the characters an extra dimension this way really works. Better to either leave them smooth and shiny or try to capture the scratched, printed texture of real life minifigures.
It was sad seeing this show not live up to the hype, but then again i only watched like 30 seconds of it before clicking off to watch more pokemon TCG meta history videos, so i have no say other than the fact i watched your review, the missing hand thing also reminded me of a dream I had where my finger's bones where literally exposed, and looked more like DNA twirly yellow structures, and that freaked me out First you're friends with a prominent Lego designer, and now you're a teacher?! What can't you do
As someone who doesn't really like the Ninjago show (don't hate it, it's just not for me) and loves Monkie Kid, I was hoping it would skew more in the direction of Monkie Kid than Ninjago. Instead, it took an unforeseen and unprecedented third route: Just not having many redeeming qualities, really. At least the sets are still cool. Probably going to pick up that $20 robot and see if I can give it actual bending knees and elbows.
The waking up concept was used throughout the entire show tho, not just the end. E.g. Mateo waking up and bringing a night terror into the real world which infects him as he saves his friends or Logan being too scared to face his fears in the dream forge where Cooper's fear was letting his family down because he's never good enough.
Those two examples were only in the first 4 episodes - after that, they seemed to just forget about that aspect until the finale. It struck me as rather bizarre.
If the designers are anything like some ninjago designers not gonna go into names but they have very publicly gone out and said they don't watch the show they produce toys for and it wouldn't surprise me if something similar is going to happen here. Watching it myself when it released I wasn't super disappointed but I've also watch more than a decades worth of ninjago so I'm used to the sets and accessories deviating from the sets alot. It certainly have bothered me before but I also understand why. Looking at current ninjago, especially Sora's mech bike, like do they really expect that to sell well?(the lego set not the animation model) Not making things exactly like the sets gives the writters more freedom to do more with them but it also allows animators to move away from the limitations of the brick. As for your points it certainly made me rethink my stance on it from liking it to thinking its okay. I did catch some inaccuracies in the retelling of events but seeing as you were rather bored half way through the show I don't hold it against you.
Its also a mistake to not have the toys on shelves at the same time as the show. I dont think anything was stopping lego from waiting a couple more months before uploading the episodes.
I’m really not sure I could handle it, to be honest. I downplayed my disenjoyment of LEGO DreamZzz in this video, but I really did anguish over having to watch *another* episode every night for a week. 😫
@@RRSlugger that’s fair. I can say that I really enjoyed dragons rising and couldn’t get through the second episode of dreamzzz. The switch to UE5 really breathes some life in to the animation
@@RRSlugger I'd say to give Ninjago Dragon Rising a shot. There is a lot more to it than Dreamzzz, you will always be interested in what's happening to say the very least.
My favorite Lego show I've seen so far is the Freemaker Adventures, which is all about the characters building, repairing, and scavenging for parts. It didn't actually get that many tie-in sets, and at times it does get dominated more by Star Wars themes than Lego building, but it had a great vibe.
Just catching up with DreamZzz content. It's a shame it doesn't explore what a dream concept is at all... Such a missed opportunity. Also, why did LEGO not do this show in the style in the movies? Is it too hard to do? Or maybe they want to difrantiate from the movies, Idk. I just I love the Idea I can get a shot from the movie and build it with my own LEGO, it would work so nice with a dream concept, like "I can rebuild it, but I can dream a little and make it my way".
A good kids show doesn't underestimate it's audience and it has writing that doesn't age instantly(i.e. writing for older kids as well). Lego has trouble finding that balance, it seems they want to make things audience neutral like Legocon and Lego Masters but end up making them too childish and kinda cringe. Older kids know what's cool and what isn't, thats who they need to not alienate.
Hopefully even if this theme flops (having been brought down by the show), they don't scrap the concept of a base set with parts included to facilitate further changing and modifying the set.
having the world not be lego is such a shame. no building montages or showing the characters being creative and using the toys theyre advertising. Its such a shame.
I know this is a pretty old video, but man I love this show so much. While yes, the earlier episodes do feel a bit bland, the later ones are really good, albeit I am probably biased. The characters are relatively simple yet I find them incredibly relatable. I find it really hard to put into words why I love this show so much, so I won't try. Some of the jokes got a genuine laugh out of me, and I actually found the Nightmare King's backstory somewhat interesting because of how real it is. That's another thing about the show, the small life lessons that it throws in every now and then. They are sometimes a bit forced I guess, but as someone who is struggling in some of the same ways as the characters I take these lessons to heart. I'm sorry if this is a bit ranty but I love this show so much :)
I just recently am returning to the Lego hobby and watched the show while working on MOCs and I thought the show was decent. I can accept that I as a 25-year-old am not the target demographic. After researching some of the sets and picking up a few, I feel they capture the message of the series a bit more than the show, especially the aspect of creativity with including alternate builds and inspiring outside the box thinking. A lot of the sets are being put on clearance out by my local Walmarts so I'm guessing even kids and young teens aren't picking them up as much. I respect it as a unique Lego property, but it probably isn't able to keep up with licensed themes sales wise. Sorrhy to ramble, great video! Your content is quality!
I was gonna say, it sounds like they "wrote a show the way that a six year old would write it"... but then I realized, *_that's literally the in-universe explanation for the events of The Lego Movie,_* and they knocked that one out of the park. This is... it sounds similar to what went wrong with _ReBoot: The Guardian Code,_ they wrote a show they _thought_ kids - and only kids - would like, without leaving anything for older viewers (let alone fans of the original series, in fact they went out of their way to piss off OG fans in a certain episode), and then screwed up even THAT. Except Dreamzzz doesn't even get _that_ excuse, since it's a completely original IP with no prior canon to comply-or-ignore and no preexisting fans to piss off (besides fans of Lego in general, of course). Also I've never heard you _this_ depressed in a video before, it must've been more than merely a flop to get you this way. My condolences for the hours of your life you're never getting back, we appreciate you taking one for the team for us 👍
Thank you, hahaha, I really didn’t hide it well, did I? 😅 I tried my best to downplay how bad I felt this show was, but I really did not enjoy watching it at all. It didn’t ruin my life or anything, but it was the worst part of my week back when I was watching it. 😫
Really unfortunate that this series did not have much depth. It could have been much more. I enjoyed the analysis you did. Sad to see it is relatively shallow storytelling and not even having any lego pieces in the series really surprises me.
LEGO is like Mateo; no confidence in their own ideas! I'm FAR from being a fan of Star Wars, but the TV stuff they did for that was a lot stronger (funnier at least), and the first series of LEGO City Adventures I found had some really clever, out-of-left-field jokes that pleasantly surprised me. I think the reason why is that Star Wars is obviously a concept that works/sells and that City is, well, not all that complicated, so the people behind these LEGO shows don't have the thought of having to prove their concept hanging over them. Instead they just go with it, and the results, whilst not about to win an Oscar, are stronger for it. Here, it's like they've always got this voice in the back of their head saying 'This'll never be as big as Star Wars/Batman/Ninjago'. Therefore, the show is a bit like a nervous child handing in their homework that they have already decided won't get good marks.
As someone who watched Chima, nexo knights and Ninjago until that movie came out... I see what's the problem here. In Ninjago the directors had really good source of inspiration from all that Samurai movies books and china history... And this show feels like it was writen by people which probably never had dream. Becose dreams are basicly our memories mixed with our imagination. And in this feels more like something from any generic fantasy, book or movie with just dream elements included... Also the animation is one of the reasons why i stopped watching these lego tv shows. It just don't feel like its lego. Becose lego is and always will be about the building. And in neither of this shows have that lego feel. Which is sad and missed oportunity. Becose when i first time watched lego i was like oh i build that and that, and that... So yeah i feel like lego really failed here. Anyway *WHERE IS THE WALRUS?*
“This show feels like it was written by people which probably never had a dream” - I wish I would’ve thought of that while recording this video because it sums up my feelings perfectly! Thank you!
"In Ninjago the directors had really good source of inspiration from all that Samurai movies books and china history..." I would rather say they stole a lot from Star Wars, Avatar Last Air Bender, Kung Fu Panda and other shows and movies that were popular at the time.
If the show gets a 2nd season or more, I really hope that they delve more into the dreaming aspect. It would’ve been so easy for them to incorporate more dream psychology into the show. You could have a scene where a bad guy would manipulate a dream to learn about a hero’s weakness, that logic of “oh if your teeth fall out in a dream it means you’re anxious about something in the real world” the bad guy could study a dream somebody is having and find a way to exploit that in a battle
