Ninjago

[GeneChing]

Ninjago = Lego ninjas. Wonder how they would do against Kung Zhu battle hamsters?

[GeneChing]

Finally! A reason to go to Legoland.

Hiyah! Legoland California ninja ride to use karate chop hand gestures
Ninjago: The Ride


Concept art of the Ninjago dark ride coming to Legoland California in 2016. (Legoland)
By Brady MacDonald

A first-of-its-kind dark ride coming to Legoland California in 2016 will let riders use karate-chop hand gestures to shoot fireballs at ninja warriors on giant video screens.

The high-tech Ninjago: The Ride will feature sensors on the front of each ride vehicle that register the hand movements of riders who zap color-coded fireballs at digital screens populated with animated Lego figures.

Based on a line of ninja-inspired Lego toys and a spin-off television show, the dark ride will be the centerpiece of a new Asian-inspired Ninjago themed land featuring test-of-skill games, a restaurant and a retail store. Visitors will undergo “ninja training” before boarding the new ride to reinforce the new hand-gesture controls.

Legoland is teaming up on the project with Montreal-based Triotech, which previously worked on the Wonder Mountain Guardian hybrid coaster-dark ride at Canada’s Wonderland outside Toronto and the Voyage to the Iron Reef shoot-em-up dark ride at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park.

Digital-based rides with video-game-like features are attractive to theme park operators because the computer-generated imagery can be updated with the latest advances in technology and the back story can be changed with the flip of a switch.

Theme park attractions are increasingly adding more video game elements. While most play-at-home game consoles require players to hold a controller, some video games like “Disney’s Fantasia: Music Evolved” on the XBox One system put emphasis on gesture controls.

An identical version of Ninjago: The Ride is also expected to debut in 2016 at Denmark’s Legoland Billund.

[GeneChing]

Jackie is raking it in as a voice actor. It's coming out of KFP for sure, but there's also Monkey King: Hero is Back coming this year too. Ironic given Jackie's accent as these are all in English.

Lego Ninjago Movie cast includes Fred Armisen, Jackie Chan, and Dave Franco
By Sam Barsanti@sambarsanti
Jun 26, 2016 1:50 PM


Lego Ninjago: Masters Of Spinjitzu

The Ninjago line is one of Lego’s most popular brands, a fact that’s especially surprising given that it actually appeals more to real kids than the kids-at-heart who are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on some of the more ridiculous Star Wars Lego sets. There have been Ninjago video games, comics, board games, spin-off toys that don’t technically use Lego bricks but still carry the Lego name, and a long-running TV show centered around characters who appear in the physical Lego sets. Now, there’s going to be a proper Ninjago movie that will adapt that same “storyline” (i.e. toys) as the cartoon, and Lego fansite Brickset has uncovered the film’s primary voice cast.

According to some kind of licensing-related flyer, Jackie Chan will be playing the Ninjago leader, Master Wu, with Dave Franco, Michael Peña, Abbi Jacobson, Kumail Nanjiani, Zach Woods, and Fred Armisen playing the six members of the Ninjago team. They’ll be replacing the voice actors who play these same characters on the show, but some voice actor isn’t going to sell tickets like Jared from Silicon Valley will. Kids love Jared from Silicon Valley.

The Lego Ninjago Movie will be in theaters in September of 2017.

[GeneChing]

You must follow the link and sit through an ad to see the short. It's embedded exclusively on USA Today's site.

Exclusive sneak peek: 'Master' introduces Jackie Chan from Lego's 'Ninjago'
Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY 6:17 p.m. EDT September 6, 2016

Jackie Chan voices Master Wu in this clip from 'The Master: A Lego Ninjago Short,' which will play in theaters before the animated 'Storks' (Sept. 23).


(Photo: Warner Bros. Entertainment)

Jackie Chan's Master Wu looks formidable in his first screen battle for the animated The Master: A Lego Ninjago Short.

But is Master Wu tough enough to take on a chicken? As Wu himself says in this exclusive clip: "It's so on."

Short film The Master, playing before the animated Storks (in theaters Sept. 23), serves as a fighting introduction to the martial-arts prowess of Lego hero Master Wu. The character will be showcased next year as the wise (and wisecracking) leader of an all-Lego ninja crew in The Lego Ninjago Movie (Sept. 22, 2017).

But the destruction of a temple in The Master reveals that the kung fu champion has met his match in a pesky plastic chicken clucked by Abbi Jacobson, who also will voice ninja Nya in Ninjago. (Justin Theroux, who voices Ninjago's villain, Garmadon, narrates the short.)

To be fair, Chicken is one tough bird.

“My writing partner and I went really off the wall showing Master Wu desperately wanting to star in his own short film, but this chicken keeps coming in and not allowing him to have his moment,” says director Jon Saunders, who wrote The Master with Ross Evans.

The Legos fly. Master Wu takes the worst of the poultry punishment.

Saunders says the film required Jacobson, star of Comedy Central's Broad City, to cluck emphatically through emotional chicken scenes.

“Abbi put up with absurd directions such as 'Bock like a chicken running through a field about to embrace a lover' Or 'Bock like a chicken as if your heart has been broken.' Stuff like that,” says Saunders.

The airborne Chicken (voice of Abbi Jacobson, right) and Master Wu (Jackie Chan, left) battle as a sparring dummy flies in 'The Master: A Lego Ninjago Short.' (Photo: Warner Bros. Entertainment)

Even Chan, who will be awarded an honorary Oscar in November for his martial arts film career, had to do his share of conversational clucking. Chan and his Wu also deal with the humiliation of fowl beatings by a Lego chicken. Fortunately, "he's a great sport," says Saunders.

The Master slightly tweaks the traditional all-Lego-brick computer-graphic animation. Saunders brought animated greenery into background hills and floating clouds "to introduce the idea you're now in the backyard playing with Legos."

Master Wu's beautiful all-Lego temple gets fully debricked in the name of fighting comedy.

“It’s control vs. chaos. Wu is this character very much in control of his entire world, almost obsessive-compulsive (about) maintaining perfect order,” says Saunders. "Chicken is free-flow and chaos. When Master Wu accepts that it’s OK his temple got ruined, that nothing is perfect, that’s when they come into harmony.”


Jackie Chan hangs on as Master Wu in 'The Master: A Lego Ninjago Short' as Chicken (clucked by Abbi Jacobson) looks on. (Photo: Warner Bros. Entertainment)

[GeneChing]

[GeneChing]

There's a cute featurette with Jackie embedded on the People.com site - follow the link.

Watch Jackie Chan Create Real-Life Stunts for The LEGO Ninjago Movie
BY ALE RUSSIAN•@RUSSIAN_ALE
POSTED ON AUGUST 9, 2017 AT 12:00PM EDT

The LEGO NINJAGO Movie Jackie Chan Featurette
Jackie Chan creates the stunts featured in the movie

Jackie Chan is bringing his iconic martial arts skills to the world of animation.

The actor and kung fu expert stars in The LEGO Ninjago Movie as Sensei Wu, the young ninja squad’s wise leader and trainer.

A new featurette for the movie, which revolves around six teens who are recruited and trained to be ninja heroes, reveals how the action star created the ninja stunts practically, before they were made into animated sequences.

“When they asked me to do stunts for The LEGO Ninjago Movie, I thought I had to use LEGOs,” Chan says in the exclusive video above. “And then I realized, ‘Oh, I can do a stunt as a live action martial arts move.’ ”

The actor points to a sequence between him and Justin Theroux‘s character Garmadon as his favorite fight in the movie — and how much he enjoyed getting to choreograph it.

“It was interesting to make real live action into animation,” Chan says. “Everything the stunt team does, the ninjas do also.”

Chan enlisted the help of several other martial artists who carried out his stunts perfectly and added a unique level of authenticity to the film.

“I have been doing stunts more than 50 years, I’ve never done something like this before,” Chan concludes in the video. “Trust me, these ninjas can really fight. I think you will be very impressed.”

The LEGO Ninjago Movie — also starring Dave Franco, Kumail Nanjiani, Abbi Jacobson, Olivia Munn, and Fred Armisen — karate chops into theaters Sept. 22.

[GeneChing]

Jackie Chan, Justin Theroux and More Get Animated for 'Lego Ninjago Movie' Premiere
2:59 PM PDT 9/17/2017 by Fatema Etemadi


Getty Images
Jackie Chan at 'The Lego Ninjago Movie ' premiere

The Regency Village Theatre was decked out with life-sized caricatures Saturday afternoon.
Bright yellow, Lego-shaped foam fingers cheered on animated ninja warriors at the L.A. premiere of The Lego Ninjago Movie this week.

Fans joined the voice cast — including Jackie Chan, Dave Franco, Justin Theroux, Olivia Munn, Abbi Jacobson and Fred Armisen — to celebrate the upcoming Lego film. Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara and president worldwide marketing and distribution Sue Kroll were in attendance, plus stars such as Tori Spelling, Tamera Mowry-Housley and Joel McHale also showed their support by bringing their children to the premiere.

Prior to the premiere, director Charlie Bean told The Hollywood Reporter about how he added his own creativity to a beloved toy he grew up with. “It’s not just a toy that you play with. You can build and add your own creativity to it," Bean said. "It challenges us and pushes our own creativity and how we build, and I think that never goes away. When I first came back into this film, I went back and got a bunch of Legos and was like, ‘This is still really fun.’”

Producer Chris McKay assured THR that the film goes beyond a traditional “kid’s movie.” “[We] tried to make something that’s fun for kids and fun for adults, and it’s kind of as thrilling as what I grew up on. Our philosophy is a bit of a punk rock philosophy where we want to make it feel like the filmmakers are getting away with something.”

Chan (who voices Master Wu), made a rare red-carpet appearance and had a chance to share why, as a skilled mixed-martial artist, he decided to join this film. “I think I can introduce my martial arts to the young kids. Martial arts is about [protection], it’s not attacking. Martial arts is about respecting everything — your family, the nature, the people, a country. If everybody understands everybody, then [there is] no more war, and always peace."

He continued: “That’s what I want. And I want every year to do something for adult[s], [and to] do something for the young kids. I know kids like this kind of movie [and] through the movie I can speak my message. That’s most important."

Franco (Lloyd), who worked with Chan for the first time on the film, praised Chan’s appeal both on- and off-camera at the film's premiere. “[Jackie’s] a sweetheart, he immediately makes you feel at ease and doesn’t have a very foreboding presence as you might imagine because of his legendary status. He’s very welcoming, he’s very sweet and as charming as you would expect," Franco said.

Theroux, who voices Lord Garmadon, talked about the importance of family dynamics (one of the themes explored in the film), and explained how Ninjago creates a tasteful representation of serious topics — intertwined with Legos.

“The themes in it are very family oriented — just to speak to some of the larger themes that families go through — families that have single parents and things like that. It’s about understanding that dynamic. I love the storyline, and the themes of family," he said.

Although Ninjago does have serious tones, the actor added, "The Lego movies are just so ridiculously funny, I just love that they have these jokes that will skip over the heads of kids and make the parents crack up, and skip over the parents' heads and makes the kids crack up.”

After the film screening, a Ninjago-themed party fitting for both grown-ups and children featured ninja-themed food stations including poke, free-range fried chicken, burgers, fries, Dylan's Candy Shop sweets, shaved ice and ice cream sandwiches. Guests also had the opportunity to take pictures with the cast and life-size Legos from the movie.

The Lego Ninjago Movie hits theaters Sept. 22.

I had an unconfirmed report that Jackie was in the SF Bay Area recently. Any confirmation?

[@PLUGO]

'The LEGO Ninjago Movie' stars Jackie Chan and Olivia Munn use the power of Twitter to answer some common martial arts questions. Jackie also teaches Olivia how to karate chop some pieces of wood and defend herself from knife attacks and tie a TKD Belt.



some of those product look vaguely familiar.

[GeneChing]

Jackie has a major role. In fact, it's mostly about him. And he's really good as a voice actor - perfect for this - who'd a thunk? Somewhat of a recall of his Forbidden Kingdom earthly role, so much so it would make a good double feature.

There's some funny Kung Fu film nods, like the opening title card spoofing Shaw Brothers and the Kung Fu video download. Some humor reminded me of Zucker brothers flicks. Silly, very Lego although it doesn't rely on spoofing franchised properties like the previous two Lego flicks. The main villain reminded me of the cat that lives in my home. A decent film to take your young'ens.

[GeneChing]