LEGO NINJAGO Legends: Monstrosity will be expanded for all ages with a new campaign later this month, making the monsters more accessible.
The LEGO NINJAGO Legends: Monstrosity short series, released earlier this summer, saw NINJAGO explore its most mature setting yet, targeting the most experienced of its fans in a canon prequel story to Dragons Rising. Kai's quest in the Land of Monsters isn't quite over yet, though, as the LEGO NINJAGO team will be expanding on the realm in a new campaign that will contrastingly appeal to all ages.
A teaser for the three Kai's Monstrous Journey episodes was shared with LEGO fan media during a recent roundtable interview, hinting at the action to come. The key art provided also confirms the return of Daidan from Monstrosity and
The episodes will be named Forest of Teeth, releasing on July 31, The Ruins, releasing on August 7, and Queen of the Monsters, releasing on August 14. They will be animated by Liquid Animation, who tackled the Wyldfyre episodes from this time last year, and the animation style is inspired by Japanese woodblock prints.
With Kai's Monstrous Journey tying into the LEGO magazine and website, and with both of those platforms targeting a younger audience than the original Monstrosity episodes, it's clear that this new campaign is expanding the Land of Monsters to appeal to a younger audience. It's something that the team was eager to explore after the more mature episodes of Monstrosity.
"We created the land of monsters because of the aged-up content, where everything was in jeopardy and everything was going to eat you, and we love that," said writer and producer Doc Wyatt. "But the thing is, as a kid, I loved monsters, and as an adult, I love monsters still. I think there's something so appealing about monsters, and they have this attitude of raising the stakes and having so much jeopardy and danger and fear, and that's thrilling."
"We can't forget, though, that five-year-old Doc Wyatt loved monsters too. Let's let monsters be for everybody, and we have the opportunity in the LEGO format to tell that wide range of stories, because NINJAGO isn't an age group, it's a world."
Just because Kai's Monstrous Journey aims to appeal to that younger portion of NINJAGO's audience doesn't mean that it's going to be any less interesting for older fans, though. It will still be worthwhile for the longtime fans to tune in, especially for the promise of a long-awaited character's return and some significant lore drops.
"Ageing down doesn't mean dumbing down," expanded writer Kevin Burke." It doesn't mean that the story is any less thrilling. It's just that it's for a broader audience than the Monstrosity episodes are. It wasn't that we took Monstrosity and thought we should make it less exciting. We just wanted a slightly different tone. NINJAGO's fan base is getting older and younger as it expands, and we need to address all of that, and everyone should be able to share in these great stories."
While no further details were shared on this mysterious returning character in the roundtable, it was mentioned that it was someone the older fans of NINJAGO have been curious about for a long time. The presence of this character is an example of how the team have worked to ensure that Kai's Monstrous Journey will appeal to those older fans as well, as explained by writer Matt Danner.
"One thing we wanted to do was, even with this mysterious character that we're talking about, create more opportunities for stories in the Land of Monsters by exploring little snippets that can then branch out, story-wise, into more adventures overall," said Matt. "This is an attempt to give us the ability to tell more stories in this space for whatever age group we want to target."
"There's nothing young about the action in this; it's very sophisticated," continued Matt. "Rachael and her team did a great job choreographing some cool ninja fights and monster battles, and more cinematic, epic scenarios. I don't think it'll feel young to anybody. I think it'll, it'll feel just right, you know, but younger audiences can join in."
It will be interesting to see whether the contents
Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO using our affiliate links. Thanks!
Comments
Be the first to comment!