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.
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
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.
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
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*
@@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.
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...???"
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 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
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'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)
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.
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
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.
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.
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)
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.
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!
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!
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.
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)
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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 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 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...
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.
"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
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’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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
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.
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 TH-cam. 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. :)
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
the guy in the background at 18:33 looks exactly like goldlewis dickinson from guilty gear. go look that name up if you arent familiar with him. if it werent for the glasses i wouldnt say that, but having hipster glasses with one eye blacked out with a design on it is such a specific detail on top of the hair, beard and jacket being similar. how did goldlewis dickinson end up in this show
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.
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.
I wasn't interested in watching the show when I first heard of it, I enjoy Lego for the imaginative play and I don't see the Lego group ever being interested in a show designed for anyone above the ages of 6.^^' It's a shame because the writing of the Lego Movie had so many great moments and I was hoping they would carry on that quality to their other media. Oo
These tie-in shows can be a bit risky. While they can be an introdution to the theme and make kids want the toys, I also wonder if the poor quality of the show might actually turn some people away from the sets? I'm a big Monkie Kid fan, and while I think the Monkie Kid show looks fantastic, I've actually been deliberately avoiding watching it because I don't want it to affect my opinion of the theme. One Lego show that I can definitely commend is the new Lego Friends episodes being released on TH-cam. While hard to recommend, they're genuinely well-written slice-of-life stories that flesh out the characters. Definitely one of the better cartoons aimed at young girls out there. Also, big fan of this more long-form style of video, even with less editing compared to your main Lego reviews. Hope to see more videos like this occasionally.
@@donatello5167 Oh, not at all! It was just me being defensive, haha. 😅 These videos do offer a nice change of pace from time to time; I don’t want them to become the norm, of course though. 😊
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!
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)
Fantastic!! Thank you for your service and lending your ear, haha! ❤
I *knew* it had to be Vivaldi, I just couldn't place it!
@@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! 😅
Called it. 6 years of focus groups isn't what you do when you have an idea worth believing in.
There is a ton of wisdom in this one short comment. ☝️☝️
I think you said more here than I did in a half hour video, hahaha. 😅
They could've invested more on Chima's writing, instead of wasting 6 years of money into this lol
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.
@@SheHulk-jg2jc Do u mean chimas writers story structure or just chima as an ip?
@@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
This show is so incredible! The fact that it actually put me to sleep so I can experience my own dreams is actually so amazing.
😂😂
Harsh but fair
So immersive!
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!
The only thing I love to ramble about more than LEGO is music! So I’d say I have the perfect job for that! 😊
Oh, a music teacher; I had a high school teacher in mind lmfao
But hey, that's great! Congrats, pal.
@@precascer8221 Are there no Music teachers at high schools in the U.S.? It's a regular school subject here over the ocean.
I'm from Brazil lmao and we don't have this culture of music class.
Like, no art stuff at all on high school, not even PE.
@@precascer8221 Oh, that's rough. :/ In Germany, we've got mandatory Arts, Music and PE as well.
Negative aspects: the show
Positive aspects: the sets
Negative: price of the sets
@@timewarpdrive77they are almost all 40% off now! Walmart online
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.
It wasn’t fun, I’ll admit. Towards the middle of the season, I had serious thoughts about giving up. 😩
@@RRSlugger was it worse than watching Ewoks?
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.
Really appreciate your insight here Nick - thank you! ❤️
@@RRSlugger Np.
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
HI!! Omg what a crossover: Nick commenting on a Slugger video!!! Love you both! Can’t wait for the new Lego Classic Space rewind!
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.
Thank you for your insight! Glad to hear from someone more knowledgeable than me in the field of sleep hygiene. 😊
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.
Yep, and yep! 😬
They should just stop pushing silly shows and broken apps with every original theme, like can't they push plain standalone original themes anymore?
@@DOMINNIMOD198Exactly! Not everything has to be "the new ninjago".
They making S2, so maybe it was made profit?
My 5 year old didn't seem very interested. He watched about 1.5 episodes.
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
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*
☝️☝️
Honestly i find it really funny
Agreed, but it’s one of Izzie’s only traits other than “she’s impulsive, I guess.”
That sounds like that one singular punchline that you laugh at inside an otherwise boring movie
Note that naruto running and all that weeb stuff was really big five years ago…
Now this being said, we should remember chima and nexo knights had very similar shows aimed at young audiences which didn’t hinder the set quality.
Indeed! I’m still looking forward to the sets, albeit with perhaps less enthusiasm.
Nexo knights writing was waaaay better. Especialy after first season
@@Lordodragonss chima season 2 and 3 were great but season 1 destroyed all credibility
@@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.
@@DavidDumbedDown (you don’t need to do this)
Man you really persevered way further than I managed to, I barely finished the first episode.
It became quite a chore, I have to say. 😫
But the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few… or the one..!
I only watched it through Keep the Piece (TTV) reactions of the show, and even then it didnt impress me at all.
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
“Too bad that didn’t kill me.” 😂
Spongebob was full of lines for the adult crowd - I love it. ❤️
@@RRSlugger it’s so good! It’s the best show
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...???"
I assume Pearl is adopted…
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.
There are worse LEGO shows than this??? 😳
Holy cow…
@@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.
@@Yoshiedude But at the very least, it does let the show speak for itself. In my book, it's better to write a good story than a toy commercial. ;-)
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.
If a *good* show wasn’t in the cards for LEGO DreamZzz, then yes - no show at all would have been better. 👍
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.
We need a rock raider show that would actually be interesting
Starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Emma Stone, Christian Slater and soundrack by Nick Cave
@@googleuser3163 dont forget cave johnson of course, the ceo of the mining company that owns the LMS Explorer.
Featuring Patrick Stewart (sorry no stone pun) as Chief!
Featuring soundtrack by R. R. Slugger
Needs to be fan made or it will be written by woke talentless hacks.
"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!
@@RRSlugger Missed opportunity to use Stargate and Star Wars clips, to finish off the Comic Book Guy reference.
Monkey kid was pretty good. I like the animation style better too.
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
Hahaha, it’s appreciated! ❤️
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.
The 3d assets in Ninjago aren't usually lego parts, but, at least in the first two seasons, they looked close enough in shape, detai, and color.
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)
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.
never expected such awesome star trek opinions here
You came to the right place! Haha. ❤️
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
Slugger being an old fashioned trekkie and a teach makes a lot of sense
I love you mr slug
We all do
Slug daddy
Seeing the sets be so cool and the show & story being so bland gives me Bionicle Gen 2 flashbacks
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.
I'm getting increasingly convinved that writers these days are full of people who do not understand the genre and audience they are writing for.
If this show's endgoal was to put audiences to sleep, then I would call it an astounding success
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?
“Anti-marketing” - too true! 😅
She likes to garden, so maybe a green thumb! 😉
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.
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)
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.
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!
You simple have such a wide vocabulary that you just tore this show to pieces!! A wonderful critique mr slugger!!!
Thank you! ❤️️
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!
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.
Dang, I like the way the sets look. I hope the show doesn't bring the sets down.
It did, for me at least. ☹️
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 did like the design of those creatures, you're right!
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)
I love the improv, it’s a really chill vibe!
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!
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.
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.
I love all your points here!
Oh, and that is “Andromeda” - from the early 2000’s. 😊
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.
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.
All of your critiques of this show are exactly how I felt about the Monkie Kid show. Like, almost verbatim.
Guess I won’t be watching Monkie Kid! 😂😅
Really? Monkie kid couldn't feel more different than this to me.
@@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.
@@RRSlugger Nah, you should check it out. Monkie Kid is many things, and boring like how you describe DreamZzz ain't one of them.
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.
Thanks for your perspective too! I didn’t catch a whiff of any humour directed at adults in this one… rather unexpected. ☹️
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.
cool to learn you're a teacher. Also agree that best kid's shows are also written for adults. in my case, Exo-Squad comes to mind.
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
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
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
Unfortunately, I’m not really a video game player these days, sorry! I’m the wrong slug for the job, I’m afraid. 😕
Looks like I’ll be sticking with concept of a head-canon to enjoy Dreamzzz. While disappointing… I can’t say it’s anything surprising to me anymore.
What is the background music you are using? Its satisfying.
“Soft Funk” by Cammy - it’s really tough to find online, sadly. I’m trying to get Cammy to release it more officially…. 😕
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.
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 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 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.
I was expecting so much more… it’s such a shame. ☹️
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...
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.
"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
Hahaha, true!! 😂
The trailers definitely didnt seem promising. But this is awful to hear that the most researched original lego theme turned out this way.
you should review monkie kid next, its a lego show thats not just good, its one the best animated shows ive ever seen!!
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
Just waiting for that Logan fig😤
Waiiit, power miners had a show?!
@@lukascermak4011 nah he just means the last Lego theme that he was interested in, and I'd agree
@@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...
This is one of the most unfortunate missed opportunities to make a good show, which is very sad to see
Would be interesting to see your take on Ninjago Dragons Rising since it's supposed to be an entry point to the series
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.
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.
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.
The new 10 episodes are sick!
That’s awesome! Glad you’re enjoying it! ❤️
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.
I got a ad for dreamZzz when I clicked on this video lol
sad to hear that the writing quality is poor, still think the toy line is pretty exciting on its own though.
but maybe a bit overpriced?
I’ve got another video talking about this slated for later this weekend. 😊
@@RRSlugger exciting stuff, didnt expect a follow up that soon.
You are the most underrated creator on this website keep up the good work
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".
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.
They could vastly improve it by adding in copious amounts of Spyrius.
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.
I was rather disappointed with this one. ☹️
@@RRSlugger rightly so. They did not even recreate the lego sets. This is definitely a bruh moment 🥲
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.
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
Ninjago apparently gets pretty good.
Monkie Kid has really good animation.
This has neither the writing or art keep people engaged.
@@frenchfriedbagel7035 my goodness it's only the first season. there's no telling if the writing will improve or grow, give the show at least a year
@@tfwhatsdatgirl I’m allowed to judge a show on what is currently available to watch.
@@frenchfriedbagel7035 girl bye
The music was probably Edward Grieg or Tchaikovsky
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 TH-cam. 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. :)
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
the guy in the background at 18:33 looks exactly like goldlewis dickinson from guilty gear. go look that name up if you arent familiar with him. if it werent for the glasses i wouldnt say that, but having hipster glasses with one eye blacked out with a design on it is such a specific detail on top of the hair, beard and jacket being similar. how did goldlewis dickinson end up in this show
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!
@@RRSlugger Thank you for the compliment, i really appreciate it. (:
"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.
@@aquamanbeforehewascool5347 more like they were using the same source material...
So... It's 'Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland' but with lego figures and just not very good? God it.
I feel like the show may have been an afterthought.
I will be *fascinated* to learn what really went on with LEGO DreamZzz 10 years from now…
DreamZzz makes me wanna go to sleep
Cooper has -100000000 aura
I absolutely loved Dreamzzz! The sets and the show! I love Izzie. She's very funny. I always love the Nightmare King, he's so menacing.
I’m hoping the 2nd part of season 2 will have Zoey x Mateo
@@gabematthews4532 I hope Season 2 Part 2 will have either Izzie x Logan or Izzie x Cooper
@@Yellow_Ninja-YT well obviously not Izzie x Logan because Logan already found somebody so guess that leaves Cooper
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.
I wasn't interested in watching the show when I first heard of it, I enjoy Lego for the imaginative play and I don't see the Lego group ever being interested in a show designed for anyone above the ages of 6.^^'
It's a shame because the writing of the Lego Movie had so many great moments and I was hoping they would carry on that quality to their other media. Oo
These tie-in shows can be a bit risky. While they can be an introdution to the theme and make kids want the toys, I also wonder if the poor quality of the show might actually turn some people away from the sets?
I'm a big Monkie Kid fan, and while I think the Monkie Kid show looks fantastic, I've actually been deliberately avoiding watching it because I don't want it to affect my opinion of the theme.
One Lego show that I can definitely commend is the new Lego Friends episodes being released on TH-cam. While hard to recommend, they're genuinely well-written slice-of-life stories that flesh out the characters. Definitely one of the better cartoons aimed at young girls out there.
Also, big fan of this more long-form style of video, even with less editing compared to your main Lego reviews. Hope to see more videos like this occasionally.
Thank you! Videos like this still take a long time to edit, but there was no way I was going to be able to write a script for this one, haha. 😅
@@RRSlugger Yeah of course! Sorry if my comment came off as minimising the work that went into the video, that wasn't my intention.
@@donatello5167 Oh, not at all! It was just me being defensive, haha. 😅
These videos do offer a nice change of pace from time to time; I don’t want them to become the norm, of course though. 😊
I feel like im the only one who enjoys this show, i find it really interesting and the sets are also really solid
The show is amazing and so much more realistic than Ninjago especially with the relationships between the characters
Love love it !!!! So good this series
I hope it gets many seasons
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!