The Journey to One: First Episodes Discussion

[GSR]

Never thought I'd see the day, but here we are: the first long-form Bionicle animated series is here in the form of Netflix's The Journey to One.

 

The first two episodes, as well as a twelve-minute prologue, are available now - so let's have a topic to chat about them in general!

 

Remember to be considerate and tag your spoilers.

Edited March 4, 2016 by GSR

[dotcom]

So far I've only watched the prologue and episode 1.

 

 

I did enjoy the prologue. Other than that...

 

Not sure how to feel about the aesthetics. The models are fine, but there is a very noticeable contrast between the characters and the backgrounds and effect, and not really in a good way. They feel very disjointed.

 

As for the Toa...as a fan of consistency, not too thrilled about the differences between their characterization in last year's web shorts and this. Kopaka and Pohatu's personalities seem to have been altered at a somewhat fundamental level (rip clumsy kopak, apparently). Onua acts a bit different as well. They're all way more (and perhaps unnecessarily) talkative. The voice acting isn't bad, though.

 

Plot for the first episode is essentially just a rehash of last year's mask quest. Nothing too exciting. Surprised to see that Lewa seemed to get the most focus, though.

 

 

edit: Oh yeah also....Akida, the amazing flying shark, huh. Whatever floats your shark, Journey to One.

 

 

 

All in all...not bad, not that good. But it's just the first episode so hey.

 

Not sure if I'll be able to watch the second episode until tomorrow, though....or...later today I guess?

 

 

edit: nevermind watched episode 2.

 

I have even less to say about it than episode 1. It's not bad, but it's...still unimpressive. Even though it isn't a handful of 90 second videos, it still feels somewhat rushed, so it just...I dunno. It didn't leave me with much to think or feel about.

 

I will say I wish Onua looked as good as a set as he does in this though. Dang Onua looks solid.

Edited March 4, 2016 by dotcom

[Rooster Nui]

In Quest for Unity near the beginning,

the scene with the two Water Region Shadow Traps reminded me of the scene in Web of Shadows.

You know what I'm talking about; that scene with the Boggarak...

 

I wonder if that was intentional as a callback...

Edited March 4, 2016 by Rooster Nui

[Toa Imrukii]

I really want to see the episodes, but I can't cuz I don't got no Netflix account. It's a one month free trial if I'm correct, before you have to have a paid subscription? In anycase, could someone link me to an episode by possible chance? Or no?

[Rooster Nui]

I really want to see the episodes, but I can't cuz I don't got no Netflix account. It's a one month free trial if I'm correct, before you have to have a paid subscription? In anycase, could someone link me to an episode by possible chance? Or no?

Well, no one should be re-uploading because that's illegal and would hurt both Netflix and LEGO. Linking you to the actual episodes is pointless without a Netflix subscription, therefore I suggest you create an account with the free 30-day trial. It is indeed free, but you'll have to cancel whatever subscription service you chose afterwards as soon as possible before your trial ends, otherwise you'll get charged at that point.

 

That was exactly what I did a week ago, and I certainly do not regret it at all.

[Toa Imrukii]

 

I really want to see the episodes, but I can't cuz I don't got no Netflix account. It's a one month free trial if I'm correct, before you have to have a paid subscription? In anycase, could someone link me to an episode by possible chance? Or no?

 

Well, no one should be re-uploading because that's illegal and would hurt both Netflix and LEGO. Linking you to the actual episodes is pointless without a Netflix subscription, therefore I suggest you create an account with the free 30-day trial. It is indeed free, but you'll have to cancel whatever subscription service you chose afterwards as soon as possible before your trial ends, otherwise you'll get charged at that point.

 

That was exactly what I did a week ago, and I certainly do not regret it at all.

Huh, so... Anyway, I wonder if the epsiodes will ever make it to DVD or digital. Probably, but I don't know. Than again it is literally 5:30 in the AM just about here, on the day that they are being released on Netflix, so I should wait a little bit more than just 2 seconds for them to come out, huh... I have the Soul of Patience! I should live up to it.

[SPIRIT]

 

In this episode near the end,

the scene with the two Water Region Shadow Traps reminded me of the scene in Web of Shadows.

You know what I'm talking about; that scene with the Boggarak...

 

I wonder if that was intentional as a callback...

 

It's quite possible.  I noticed a few scenes that must have been made with Generation 1 in mind

Like Tahu lava surfing like he did in Mask of Light to that temple that looked an awful lot like Ta-Koro.

 

[Rider Of Spiders]

Oh man. I just watched the prologue and both episodes, and I already adore the series. All the Toa got their fair share of screentime, and nothing in the dialogue seemed too cheesy. Can't wait the upcoming episodes and finding these on disc!

 

I need Ketar.

[emily]

So when it came out Mask of Light was a big freaking deal. It was BIONICLE stepping up to one of the most revered mediums of our time and asserting its place there, just as important as any other thing to get a movie of its own. It was such a landmark event for me that I convinced my mother to take me to Walmart first thing in the morning to get it. Literally just get it - there wasn't enough time for me to watch it before school. But I absolutely had to be a part of that event as soon as I physically could. I woke up and went straight to my parent's room to get her up, but to my surprise she drowsily gestured to the nightstand where a copy of the hallowed DVD was resting. Apparently she had had a restless night for some forgotten reason and decided to get the trip out of the way in the first hours of the morning. So I looked at the DVD menu before school - just the menu. Because I needed to absorb as much of the experience as soon as possible.

 

LEGO and the people making Mask of Light took it seriously too. There were trailers and ad campaigns ramping up to the release. The story and production were handled, with direct input from the BIONICLE story team, to create as theatrical a movie as possible. Mask of Light, for all its warts, absolutely swings above its class; it was out there, after all, to prove to everyone that BIONICLE had a stake in the yet higher world of theatrical productions (a dream that, as we know, ultimately fell short anyway). It was a labor of care and love. I'm not saying Mask of Light is great. I'm not saying its good, even. But is something that is the product of people who have a clear idea of what they are doing and are committed to doing it successfully.

 

I cannot say that Journey to One is any of those things. Its a 'series,' but with four 22-minute episodes, it clocks in at a total run that is feature length - it's basically a movie hiding behind the 'series' moniker so as to hold itself to a lower bar for quality. It also conveniently allows the production team to release only half the 'film' today, saving the rest for July.

 

Times have changed since Mask of Light came out. LEGO film and TV is a plurality. Just this weekend we see

 

1. A new episode in the 20-part Nexo Knights series
2. A new Mixels special
3. A new two-part Elves special

 

All in addition to the launch of this series. And that's far from the extent of the programming LEGO has on offer now. Animated LEGO features are, by definition, not special now. Not remarkable. Only the theatrical films still hold the gravitas that Mask of Light was once privileged to. So even though the terms on which Journey to One saw release are in many ways the modern-day equivalent of Mask of Light, I was never excited for it. It had hardly any advertising. Because, lets be clear here, its not something that's really meant to be advertised. It is itself an advertisement.

 

Mask of Light is the story of Takua and Jaller, two Matoran with little to no marketing value at all. That's a problem from a marketing perspective. But you know what? It was important to them that the story was about those characters so the set designers went ahead and made 8595 and 8594. Story was given precedence over sets, because LEGO knew that a good story would inspire people to buy products.

 

Journey to One has no protagonist. There is no interpersonal conflict. When you look at the 2003 BIONICLE sets, there is a classic quest narrative - the heroes (Toa Nuva and Takua and Jaller) must search for their goal (Seventh Toa) with the aid of a McGuffin (Mask of Light) to complete their quest to restore peace (awaken Mata Nui) and are challenged by an enemy (the Rahkshi). That's fine. Quests like that are a cornerstone of BIONICLE. But they're just one piece, they aren't enough to make a good story. So in Mask of Light we have the drama of Takua's fear of responsibility, and how it leads him to put his friends in danger. He has to overcome his self-doubt and step up to be the hero the island needs. When the emotional conflict is resolved, the 'quest' narrative is too (turns out Takua is the Seventh Toa). Journey to One is just the quest. This happened to Kopaka. Then this happened to Onua. The character's lines are very close to interchangeable. Even the very basic building blocks of character development that were introduced in the webisodes last year are tossed disinterestedly aside to make room for uninteresting one-liners. Every set is featured equally to sell products and as a result there is no time do give a darn about any of them.

 

Actually, you know, hold the phone. There is an interpersonal conflict in Journey to One. Pohatu doesn't want to unite with his creature because he hates scorpions, but learns that he needs to when the bad guy takes advantage of his stubbornness to steal the creature and get the McGuffin. I had forgotten because it exists solely to forward the quest narrative. It's also a really badly written arc in general. It ends in a hamfisted team gang-up on Pohatu telling him how important UNITY is (hey guys UNITY just like the UNITERS sets wow maybe this is all about UNITY).

 

The animation is okay. I could complain about it (weird Mask of Light style aside, its much more competently animated, and its over 10 years old) but I know this was probably done really quickly and there probably wasn't much time to do better. There's nothing that is interesting or fun to look at. Its just there. The colors felt dulled and washed-out.

 

I wish I could say I'm disappointed, but I don't think I can really. This is just par for the course now, isn't it? There are certain things that could be done better (I know that is true because the Elves specials are directly comparable and they are miles better), but LEGO today just doesn't have time for narrative integrity. It's all about getting something out in a matter of months concept-to-end-product that pushes a line of products. And I guess that's what they're supposed to do? But MNOG sure as heck did a poopy job of product placement and in 2002 it was getting 600,000 visits per month. Can you guess what year BIONICLE's sales peaked in? I don't have stats for Journey to One obviously, but the first webisode from last year has less than 350,000 views altogether on YouTube. It's almost as if MNOG did something really freaking good that LEGO should be trying to emulate instead of moving further away from.

 

I'm sure the VOLTA team worked hard on this show. Really, I am. And I know its not my place to tell them how they could have done better. But I can with certainty say that better has been done.

Edited March 4, 2016 by Pereki

[Jobber]

Loved the first two episodes so far. Can't wait until July!

[Toa TAK]

Finished watching it. I gotta say, I wasn't expecting very much from the series at all, but I'm charmed. It's clearly a cheap production, but the characters themselves are animated really well. Each Toa has a pretty big personality aside from Onua, who keeps it cool enough. They really cemented the Toa's personalities here a lot better than the small books, and the change from lighthearted Pohatu we had in Gen 1 to the "brooding and serious" Pohatu here works as well as everyone else's changes (like Kopaka and Tahu). The series isn't anywhere near as dark as we were in the 2001-2003 era, but with this show, Gen 2 is finally doing something really worthwhile, I think.

 

The cheesy dialogue kills me at times, but that's expected for a show aimed where it is. Looking forward to more. I take it more are coming out soon?

 

TAK

[Toatapio Nuva]

*snip*

 

Well said, Pereki. It's quite clear that Lego isn't investing in Bionicle as much as it did back in the day, though that is probably because they don't need to anymore... they don't need anything new and radical in order to avoid bankruptcy, so they're sticking to safer and cheaper production and marketing methods.

 

I think it's worth mentioning that back when Bionicle was conceived, Lego applied a very different marketing strategy with regards to the story-set relationship. They actually stated somewhere that the story was more important than the sets themselves, because it was the story that inspired the kids to buy the toys. So obviously they had a very different outlook on Bionicle then, which resulted in a rich and complex story. But I guess now that Lego is doing great financially, they have realized that creating a good quality story isn't necessary, even if it would increase sales... so they're focusing on just the toys now, with a little bit of backstory to support them.

[SPIRIT]

 

Journey to One has no protagonist. There is no interpersonal conflict.

 

 

While the series overall might not have a protagonist, it does seem like they're trying to have each episode focus on one of the Toa (episode 1 for Lewa and episode 2 for Pohatu), while still giving the others a significant presence.

 

[Toa Lahka]

I'm really enjoying it so far! I feel like I've been waiting for a Bionicle series since the very beginning.

[Bfahome]

I enjoyed what's there so far quite a bit.  I like the Avatar-style "bending" of the elements, and while the characterization of the Toa isn't consistent with last year (boo) it does lend itself to some fun moments.

 

e: oh, also, super ok with Umarak's voice.  Still don't think it needs to be any deeper or anything.

Edited March 5, 2016 by Bfahome

[Xboxtravis]

Akida... Jumping a shark in Episode 1...

 

So the animation is okay, so was the acting. But the dialogue and pacing were awful. An hour build up for a 5-minute fight with cheesy one liners all the way. Characters had no interesting qualities either... It was like they were just present to be present.

 

I'll still watch the June episodes; but unless G2 gets a major story upgrade in 2017... I think I'll just focus on the sets. Not much here for me in Journey to One, time to go back to MNOG.

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

The Journey to One was pretty great. I liked the way they did the recap with Narmoto narrating to Okotan kids. 

 

The first episode felt rather rushed. I liked a lot of the stuff that was shown, but the pacing felt all over the place. Loved the characterization of many of the beasts though. They did such a good job with the Spider traps, and I loved Ketar, Uxar and especially Terak. Kind of cute really. And a nice focus on other characters other than Tahu - Lewa, in particular, really shone in this episode.

 

Second episode was considerably more tighter-paced. The focus being on Pohatu and his relationship with Ketar was surprising and satisfying. It added a great dynamic to the pair that none of the other Toa had. I especially really liked the fact that

it ended with a failure of some sort, with Umarak stealing the Mask of Control and being a smart villain by targeting Pohatu.

It was actually pretty smartly written and I was actually pretty invested in the confrontation. Also, the maze and the whole premise of the crater island just had me thinking back to G1 underground endgames and it made me happy.

 

Animation was great. I loved the cel-shaded character models paired with the cartoon backgrounds. The running animations were a bit sloppy but everything else looked fantastic. The voice acting wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but certainly could have been better. It might also have been thanks to some straight-up bad dialogue/delivery at some points that made it seem as bad as it did. But overall, I was pretty pleased with the characters. The music was also fantastic. No outright memorable themes, but they did a good job accenting big moments and adding to the atmosphere of Okoto.

 

Most of all, I'm just happy to see more creatures and some flora of Okoto. It's really helping with worldbuilding. The second island is another big component that made Okoto seem more interesting than before.

Many people have pointed out possible references to past movies - the scene with the blue Okotan child speaking and the red shushing him really reminded me of the scene with Jaller shushing Takua in front of Turaga Nokama in MoL. Man, it's just great to see BIONICLE on the television again.

 

-NotS

Edited March 5, 2016 by Nidhiki of the Shadows

[MrSciFiGuy]

Loving the animation and visuals so far. Not sure how I felt about the "robotic" tone they gave for voices but its growing on me. Can't wait for the extra eps in the summer!

[Daler99]

I am really, really happy with BIONICLE: The Journey To One.   I was blown away by pretty much everything.   I can't wait for the summer episodes.   It was cool to see the stone heads from last year's Easter painting by Matt Betteker.

 

I'm glad to be on BZP and experiencing BIONICLE G2 as it occurs.

Edited March 5, 2016 by Daler99

[KDNX]

I totally called the Labyrinth of Control last year. If anyone still has access to the Google-Maps-esque image of Okoto, just off the south shore of the Region of Jungle is an island with a gold border that glows green. It's small, but it's there. That shows that Lego is focusing on the story a bit more than you might think, because that map of Okoto has been there since Winter 2015.

[Zidonaro]

I loved it! Altho the visuals look cheap and uninspired, I'm sure I will get used to them in a little time. The voice acting could be better too, but other than that I really liked it.

 

*too big*

 

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. It's also worth noticing that LEGO these days are actually making storylines for tons of other lines. Back in those days, Bionicle was basically the only line with a plot. So I guess they now kinda need to distribute the budget between all the lines. I don't see a problem tho. I'm fine the way things are now C:

[StillRaindrop]

I loved Onua! He was everything I had hoped he would be.

[Daler99]

I totally called the Labyrinth of Control last year. If anyone still has access to the Google-Maps-esque image of Okoto, just off the south shore of the Region of Jungle is an island with a gold border that glows green. It's small, but it's there. That shows that Lego is focusing on the story a bit more than you might think, because that map of Okoto has been there since Winter 2015.

Whoa!  You're right!   Also, if you look at the Easter painting by Matt Betteker, you see the island there as well!

[Rooster Nui]

It could be that, but when we see the Toa

looking out across the ocean to Okoto at the end of Trials of the Toa, it appears fairly far away.

However, that could just be a visual error.

[Aanchir]

It could be that, but when we see the Toa

looking out across the ocean to Okoto at the end of Trials of the Toa, it appears fairly far away.

However, that could just be a visual error.

 

I sort of interpreted that discrepancy to mean that there might just be a lot of those sorts of statues around different parts of Okoto's coast. In which case the Easter postcard from the LEGO Bionicle Facebook page probably doesn't depict the exact same statues or the exact same coast, just statues of the same type.

[StillRaindrop]

What were everyone's thoughts on Lewa's speech patterns? For me, it took a bit of getting used to, but I liked it. It hearkened back to treespeak without carrying some of the oddities of that jargon (at its best, treespeak/chutespeak was great--but I always thought that, when it used terms that took longer to say, like "Toa-hero" or "hate-sorry", that kind of defeated the purpose of the jargon). I've heard of people who disliked his speaking pattern in JtO, though.

[Irrie]

Anybody else notice a resemblance between JTO and the 2005 Hordika Animations? 

[Tahu3.0]

Anybody else notice a resemblance between JTO and the 2005 Hordika Animations?

 

True and the Piraka animations a bit also but still i think this animation is good but i still have a problem with the Protector of Fire in the prologue i mean wheres his mouth where IS IT!?

[Rooster Nui]

 

It could be that, but when we see the Toa

looking out across the ocean to Okoto at the end of Trials of the Toa, it appears fairly far away.

However, that could just be a visual error.

 

I sort of interpreted that discrepancy to mean that there might just be a lot of those sorts of statues around different parts of Okoto's coast. In which case the Easter postcard from the LEGO Bionicle Facebook page probably doesn't depict the exact same statues or the exact same coast, just statues of the same type.

 

Are you saying that they could be everywhere? *Gasp*

 

Seriously, though. That could be a possibility.

[StillRaindrop]

 

Anybody else notice a resemblance between JTO and the 2005 Hordika Animations?

 

True and the Piraka animations a bit also but still i think this animation is good but i still have a problem with the Protector of Fire in the prologue i mean wheres his mouth where IS IT!?

That was one of the few things that bothered me. Knowing the mechanics of the heads underneath, the added throat piece didn't quite seem to work. This is particularly noticeable with the protectors, since their masks usually leave part of their heads uncovered--but not here!

[Tahu3.0]

True and if im sure the throat holds the head but the socket in the head is connected to nothing.

[unknown456]

I miss Australian Pohatu
 
Aside from that, I mean, it's about what I expected. I totally dig the cel-animation coupled with the cartoon background. The voices are different from the online animations from last year, which I did expect, but, having had a year or so to get used to the online animations' voices, the transition between the two is a bit jarring, and I find myself preferring the old voices to the new (not the new ones are bad necessarily, just different from the previous ones). Also, the Toa's personalities do seem have changed a significant amount from last year, although at the moment I couldn't name any significant moments or examples.
 
There also seem to be a few cases of marketing influencing the fiction though, like the Toa defeating the Skull Warriors, which seems to exist solely to show off the Toa's powers. But, it's really kept to a minimum, so it's not particularly noticeable (to me at least).
 
Also, the Shadow Traps and Elemental Creatures are really cute and funny and endearing to me, which pretty is cool
 
So, all in all, while I'll miss the online animations like last year's, I'm pretty okay with this new approach, even if it is a little jarring in transition to start with.

 

(Also, if you're still unsure as to whether Lewa controls air or plants, Episode 2 makes it preeeetttty unambiguous as to which it is.)

 

(I don't think I put any real spoilers in this post, but if I did, tell me, and I'll fix it)

Edited March 7, 2016 by unknown456

[Toa Jaton]

Overall,I thought these were quite good.I warmed up to the voices and actually thought the voice modulation was kinda cool.The animation looks great,and the action was good,including jumps reminding me of Mask of Light.The music wasn't memorable,though.If only Nathan Furst was part of this... 

[Tuuli]

They have potential to be good but it's just cringe worthy with the ninjago style humor and Kopaka IS NOT KOPAKA.

[Petewa]

 

Is it bad of me to wish it was more like Ninjago?

Ninjago had character development, and logical reasoning as to why Cole was in charge. I'm kind of confused about Pohatu, saving the life of a guy he didn't care about five minutes prior, rather than snag the mask of control, knowing that with those pincers, Ketar could, at the least, grab onto the cliff wall long enough for Pohatu to grab him and the mask. I also am really starting to hate how Pohatu acts, I like his G1 Personality better.

 

I'm also not fond of the idea that their new armour was simply built by Ekimu. No importance to it whatsoever, he just felt like redesigning the heroes.

 

[Lyichir]

 

Is it bad of me to wish it was more like Ninjago?

Ninjago had character development, and logical reasoning as to why Cole was in charge. I'm kind of confused about Pohatu, saving the life of a guy he didn't care about five minutes prior, rather than snag the mask of control, knowing that with those pincers, Ketar could, at the least, grab onto the cliff wall long enough for Pohatu to grab him and the mask. I also am really starting to hate how Pohatu acts, I like his G1 Personality better.

 

I'm also not fond of the idea that their new armour was simply built by Ekimu. No importance to it whatsoever, he just felt like redesigning the heroes.

 

 

Where was it stated that there was no importance to the armor? It's possible that the new armor (like the new set designs it's based on) was necessary for the Toa to even be capable of uniting with the creatures. Or maybe it was just an redesign—but an redesign by one of the finest craftsmen around is still pretty special. To be honest, a deliberate armor redesign feels like a better explanation for new character designs than "inexlicably plunged into mutagenic mercury" or "struck by lightning", because it doesn't require the author to justify a suspiciously convenient random plot twist as "destiny".

 

Edited March 7, 2016 by Lyichir

[Kopekemaster]

Wait, why are people using spoiler tags? There's virtually no new story or background given in the story, except for at the very, very end. And even that wasn't really surprising to me at all.

Anyway, watching it was a bit of a cringe-fest for me. Alternating between that and just laughing out loud at how stupid the writing and characters are.

An example being when the Toa were...

Wait, I have a feeling if I don't put this in a spoiler box someone's gonna get mad at me. Even though it has nothing to do with the story (as if there's any story to speak of anyway).

 

Anyway, when the Toa are standing somewhere and "looking" for Umarak, who is literally standing in plain view directly in front of them. I'm saying like twenty feet away. After a few seconds one of the Toa (virtually impossible to tell which given the shoddy voice acting/stupid filter they put on voices) points him out and the others react. It's like Dora the Explorer-level stuff. Another example being literally any time someone tries humor.

 

Ugh. Anyway, my thoughts are basically that any potential this show could've had was wiped off the planet by the horrid writing and acting. Come on, this was a huge chance to finally give us atmosphere, worldbuilding, story, anything.

Yeah, I'm a bit salty about it, but I can still keep it in perspective. I know this is really targeted towards young'uns, and that's why there are such low quality standards... I guess? But the original Bionicle was targeted towards roughly the same audience. I know that some of the old Bionicle stuff wasn't great either, and that's fine. But just think of how much MNOG built the world of the story Bionicle was telling. Think of the writing in the comics and books. It wasn't Charles Dickens, sure, but it was good, told a story, and expanded the world.

 

All of that isn't to say that I didn't find a few things to like about it. I thought the animation style was usually well done and interesting, a cool blend of 3D and 2D vector-ish graphics. I thought there were a few things (

the labyrinth the Makuta's mask was in, a possible connection between that and the Toa's origin, Umarak's shadow abilities, and the majikz the elder Protectors used to summon the Toa

) that interested me and that I thought might open up some possibilities for interesting stories and stuff. I also really enjoyed the (brief) shot that showed some Easter Island-y heads. And I do realize that I'm being a bit petty about some of these things, and that I shouldn't really always compare the new Bionicle to the old Bionicle. I need to give it a chance to prove itself before I tear it limb from limb.

 

But hey, (the original) Avatar was targeted to about the same audience as this and well, it has a really awesome story, characters, and atmosphere.

Edited March 7, 2016 by Kopekemaster

[Tuuli]

I have to agree it was really cringe-worthy. While I understand it's targeted at kids, did they HAVE to go with the bland ninjago style humor? The sad part is that ninjago is actually BETTER than TJTO. In the end, it's a series I won't be watching and won't be missing out on. Even the Legend Reborn was better than this garbage they are calling Bionicle

[Lyichir]

I have to agree it was really cringe-worthy. While I understand it's targeted at kids, did they HAVE to go with the bland ninjago style humor? The sad part is that ninjago is actually BETTER than TJTO. In the end, it's a series I won't be watching and won't be missing out on. Even the Legend Reborn was better than this garbage they are calling Bionicle

 

You keep mentioning "Ninjago-style humor" and to be honest I really don't have a clue what you mean by that. The Journey to One episodes had some light physical comedy but that's neither unique to Ninjago nor the only kind of humor Ninjago engages in. And apart from a few instances of that, there weren't really that many jokes in these episodes at all.

 

I would agree with you that Ninjago is better, but that has very little to do with humor and a lot more to do with writing, pacing, editing, and characterization—all of which are things that are equally important in both comedy and drama.

 

As a side-note, I also enjoyed the Elves special more than Journey to One. Journey to One was passable but "Dragons in Danger to Save" was a solid hour of television.

Edited March 8, 2016 by Lyichir

[Tuuli]

I mean that the Toa have to be all "poopy cowabunga dudes!" They show no signs at all of being even remotely serious about their mission. Even the 2015 2D animations were better in terms of balancing out the seriousness and humor.