#I should watch the Lego Batman movie at some point oops—

[theplatypusblue]

The Lego ninjago movie is so weird because I feel like it would have been sooo much better had they made it like. 15 years after ninjago had already established itself as a franchise or whatever.

Like think about the Lego Batman movie for a second: Batman has been an established IP since like the 40s/50s or whatever. Almost everyone already knows what the deal with batman is, so the movie is able to freely do what it wants much more easily than if it had to introduce the audience to these characters for the first time. At its core, it’s a parody of the main batman franchise — it’s assumed that the audience has some familiarity with the thing it’s parodying (even if it’s just super basic knowledge).

But tlnm was supposed to be like, an introduction for new fans as well as a movie for old fans who’d been around since the start. And it was also trying to be a parody of the main ninjago franchise, which was still ongoing and in the middle of releasing a new season. And despite its popularity, it was/is super niche!!! Like the very concept of making a Lego Ninjago Movie at this specific time in this specific way is just?? It’s a weird choice???? Like at a very fundamental level??

So like?? It tried to juggle all of those things but it never really managed to be the best at any of it. Characters outside Lloyd and garm don’t feel fleshed out enough to ppl unfamiliar with franchise, so there’s no real reason to care about what happens to them or feel invested in the story. But it was too much of a departure from the status quo for old fans who were expecting something more serious (at the time at least, I think opinions have changed somewhat) so they also lost out on that front too. It truly feels like a movie that was made for nobody but that’s kind of what I love so much about it lol <3