The Brick Connection – A novice Lego fan explores the great brick world of LEGO

LEGO Animation Takes Over

Happy Summer (officially), LEGO fans!

There’s a lot of LEGO to discuss and it’s all about LEGO animation.

First off, the highly anticipated sequel to 2014’s The LEGO Movie. 

Unfortunately the film’s release date is being pushed back AGAIN. The LEGO Movie Sequel is now scheduled to be released on February 8, 2019.

Originally it was to come out in May 2017 until they decided to release the batman spinoff, The LEGO Batman Movie that year instead. It was then scheduled to be released May 18, 2018, but no! It was just announced this week that the movie is being pushed back another 9 months to February 8, 2019.

So the sequel is being released a full 5 years after the original. Just in time for all the kids who loved the original movie to go through puberty and realize that LEGO is “so yesterday!”

Well even if that is the case, I don’t think The LEGO Movie Sequel will have trouble finding an audience, but it still sucks that it’s so far away. We will have a couple other LEGO films to tide us over though. Like I said, The LEGO Batman Movie comes out early next year, and The LEGO Ninjago Movie will be released in September 2017.

Even though it looks like we won’t have any major motion LEGO pictures in 2018, there is still so much LEGO animation happening now and in the foreseeable future that I think we’ll be able to survive the wait.

LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures just premiered this week on Disney XD. As of this posting, 3 episodes have aired, with another to air tonight (June 23^rd). There will be 4 more episodes that will be aired on June 27^th, July 11^th, July 18^th, and July 25^th. (Basically every Monday night for the next month except July 4^th.) That’s a total of 8 episodes, and I have no idea how many more they plan to do if at all, but there will at least be 8.

This story takes place in the Star Wars Universe between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi. So Luke recently got his hand chopped off by his father, Darth Vader, Han is frozen in carbonite, and Leia is holding everything together as usual.

But that’s not the trio we follow in this series. Instead, it’s the Freemaker siblings. Kordi (the tough big sister), Zander (the somewhat bubble-brained older brother), and Rowan (the young troublemaker brother).

They are also joined by Roger, an old droid from the Clone Wars that has been reprogrammed to be a butler/servant to the family. You can check out a little intro of all the characters and the voice actors behind them in this video:

I have watched the first episode and it is a really cute show, with some great twists, and lots of nice nods to the real Star Wars films.

And no, this is not “canon.” Why anyone would think a LEGO animated series that airs on Disney XD would be considered canon in the Star Wars universe is just crazy.

There are some familiar faces though. Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine are featured in the series and are very funny. They have sent someone on a mission to find the kyber crystal lightsaber, which apparently was the first light saber ever built. The lightsaber greatly increases the Force powers of whoever uses it. So you can understand why the bad guys would love to get their hands on it.

The Freemaker siblings own a ship building/repair shop and unexpectedly cross paths with the kyber crystal lightsaber in the first episode. They certainly have no idea what they have just gotten themselves into. And by the end of the first episode the audience knows a lot more about their dire situation than they do.

Here is a trailer for the series.

Like I said, the series airs on Disney XD if you are interested in watching. I was able to watch episode 1 on YouTube. It was not from an official Star Wars, Disney, or LEGO YouTube account though, so you didn’t hear it from me. Here is the top secret link to episode 1: Totally Legit Link

I’ve only watched the first episode so far, but I will definitely keep an eye out for this series going forward. I’m very curious about the story and how they will include the characters we know and love in the series. As you can see from the trailer, Princess Leia and Chewbaca are both in the series. And apparently some characters and settings from Episode VII will also be included.

Let me know what you guys think about The Freemaker Adventures. LEGO does a great job of mixing the darker stories of the real Star Wars with some silliness, so I think it will be good.

In other LEGO Star Wars animated news, the highly anticipated video game for The Force Awakens is being released next week! June 28^th! And as we near the release, we have another fantastic trailer that takes scenes from the real movie (The Force Awakens) and gives them that classic LEGO humor twist:

This game looks awesome. If you guys get it, you’ll have to tell me how great it is, because I will never know. Sigh…

Finally, the other LEGO animation news has to do with Frozen.

Yes, Frozen, the highest grossing animated film ever. The film that kids can’t let go. But will they LEGO this?

My apologies. I’m a bit of a Fixer Upper, especially In Summer. But For the First Time in Forever I’ve realized that Reindeer(s) are Better than People.

Wow, that last pun didn't even make sense. Back to the news about Frozen and LEGO…

TLG is teaming up with Frozen (again), this time for animated shorts centered on all your favorite characters from the film.

It’s a new original story that follows Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Kristoff and Sven on an “epic” adventure to restore the glimmer of the Northern Lights. I’m not sure who is describing the adventure as epic. I got the description from a Hollywood Reporter article.

The title for this adventure is Frozen Northern Lights. The story will first launch as a book on July 5^th titled Journey to the Lights. Nine(!) more books are planned through the end of 2017. (They’re really milking this!)

Instead of doing shorts with the original Frozen animation, the characters will be LEGO-ized for the four shorts to be aired in November on the Disney Channel. The characters will still be voiced by the original actors from the film.

When asked why they are teaming with TLG to LEGO-ize the characters for these shorts, the executive vice president of Disney Publishing Worldwide, Andrew Sugerman said “their wit and humor fit. We thought it was a unique take on the storyline through their eyes.”

Seems random to me, but I guess it’s some nice synergy with the LEGO Frozen sets that have been extremely popular for LEGO.

Oh, and I wonder if this will be canon in the Frozen universe. Nah, I’m just kidding. I think it’s safe to say that the average Frozen fan is not concerned with strict, cohesive story-telling. Unless of course they try to break up Anna and Kristoff. Then we will riot!

Anyway, hopefully it’ll just be another fun Frozen story to tide us over until Frozen 2 is released. (The sequel has been confirmed, but no release date has been announced.)

Here are some pictures of the LEGO animated versions of the Frozen characters who are modeled after the LEGO Friends-type minifigures they are in the LEGO Frozen sets instead of the basic LEGO minifigure:

It’s important to have consistency, I guess.

And that’s your LEGO animation news! I probably don’t have to talk about LEGO animation again for another year. But actually, I’ll probably come back to The Freemaker Adventures. I’m curious as to what those crazy kids will get up to. Maybe they’ll be able to defeat Vader and Palpatine and render the events of The Return of the Jedi obsolete. Then there would be a crazy new timeline. 

Will Han and Leia's son not be evil now? Will Luke not have to run away from his problems like a little crybaby? 

Sorry, I just started watching The Flash recently, and all these alternate timelines and different earths got me all confuzzled.

Until next time…do you want to build a snowman?? It’s only 78 degrees right now where I live. 

*Compliments, general feedback, and constructive criticism are welcome. Any haters that are gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate can go step on some Lego with their bare feet.*