The cast of The LEGO Ninjago Movie.
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Secret Ninja Force
Ninja-go!
- Age Lift: Zig-zagged. The ninja are teenagers in this movie. While it’s said that they are teens in the original TV series, they don't go to school unlike in the movie.
- Divergent Character Evolution: The uniforms of the ninja are much more personalized and distinct, rather than everyone's outfits subscribing to a similar theme and color-coding; Cole's outfit, for example, lacks sleeves, Zane's outfit has a more technological vibe, and Nya's outfit features a samurai skirt and has a more warrior-like aesthetic.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: When Wu tells his students that they need to practice hiding in the bamboo, none of them are particularly adept at hiding. For that matter, they're never seen practicing stealth when defending the city, either.
- Humongous Mecha: Used by the Ninja, specifically Kai and Cole.
- Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: The synopsis says they are ninjas by night, students by day.
- Weapon-Based Characterization: Each of the ninja has their own signature weapon that reflects their character:
- Hotheaded Kai dual wields katanas.
- Nervous yet skilled Jay wields a kusarigama.
- Robotic, methodical Zane gets a bow.
- The confident Nya uses a spear.
- Punk-rock Cole fights with a warhammer.
Kai/Ninja of Fire
- "F-F-Fuego!! "Voiced by: Michael Peña
- Adaptational Hairstyle Change: Kai's hair is changed from spiky to a flame shape.
- Anime Hair: Kai's slightly spiky hair has been upgraded to nearly twice the size of his head.
- Demoted to Extra: In the series, he is set up to be The Hero, only for Lloyd to take place midway through the first season, at which point he morphs into the Deuteragonist. Because the movie focuses entirely on Lloyd's relationship with his father, Kai's role in the story is drastically reduced.
- Innocently Insensitive: He offends the other ninjas by bluntly questioning Garmadon about his unusual features, but Garmadon himself isn't upset and seems grateful to share the knowledge.
- Mr. Fanservice: According to the Making of the Movie book, the concept art shows that they originally planned to lose most of Kai's clothing at one point, leaving him in his underwear.
- Nice Guy: His introduction is an enthusiastic birthday greeting to the most hated guy in school.
- Pointless Band-Aid: A new element to his design that has no significance.
Jay/Ninja of Lightning
- "I mean, my mom is weird, and collects seashells. Your dad levels cities and attacks innocent people. So, they've all got their quirks, ya know?"Voiced by: Kumail Nanjiani
- Adaptational Hairstyle Change: Jay's hair is changed from a clean cut to a messy style.
- Badass Adorable: Jay can be a Nervous Wreck who is afraid of perilous situations, but he can kick butt and Shock and Awe his enemies after unlocking his lightning abilities.
- Character Exaggeration: Jay's underlying insecurity from the television show is played up here to make him completely dorky.
- Messy Hair: His hairstyle is wavy and untamed.
- Nervous Wreck: Jay is portrayed as this compared to his TV counterpart.
- Orange/Blue Contrast: His casual outfit demonstrates his signature blue, offset by orange details and an orange scarf.
- Shrinking Violet: He is the most shy person of the Secret Ninja Force and secretly has a crush on Nya.
- Youthful Freckles: This incarnation of Jay has freckles and is a young teenager like his friends.
Nya/Ninja of Water
- "H2-Oh yeah!"Voiced by: Abbi Jacobson
- Action Girl: Just like the original counterpart who can control water and kick a villain's butt.
- Adaptational Hairstyle Change: Nya's hair is changed from a bob cut to a ponytail.
- Adapted Out: Due to Nya already being a ninja in this film, the Samurai X identity doesn't show up. Her new outfit, however, does feature samurai-like design elements.
- Composite Character: While she's already a ninja in the movie, her design incorporates elements more akin to a samurai, as a nod to her Samurai X identity.
- Decomposite Character: She's already a member of the team for the movie, with the "Action Girl with a Secret Identity" aspect going to Lady Iron Dragon, aka Misako.
- Ship Tease: With Jay, as Nya hugs him while the temple crumbles down to pieces.
- Shout-Out: Nya demonstrates her Badass Biker credentials by pulling off THE Kaneda bike slide.
- The Smurfette Principle: Is the only female member of the Secret Ninja Force.
Zane/Ninja of Ice
- "And I was like, lay off Mom. I'm just a teenager."Voiced by: Zach Woods
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Zane was blond in the original series, but here has white hair.
- Character Exaggeration: Zane's inability to behave naturally is also exaggerated to Cloudcuckoolander levels.
- Hugh Mann: Zane does his utmost to assert that he's a normal teenager, really...
- Implausible Deniability: ...but with his bionic-looking eyes, unnatural expressions, and quoting his "mother"'s machine noises, it's really hard to believe anyone would be fooled.
- Mythology Gag: Zane's sweater features the Alien Clingers/Pluuvian Brain Beasts from the Alien Conquest theme.
- Religious Robot: More like spiritual robot, but Zane follows the same mystic disciplines as his friends.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: More like "suspicious affirmations", but Zane feels some need to mention that he is totally a normal human teenager without even being prompted.
- Uncanny Valley: Played for Laughs. Zane's attempts to appear human are flawed, due to the fact he's almost always got an unnatural, smiling expression, a slight, robotic reverb in his voice, and at one point speaks in dial up noises. His eyes are also drawn differently in order to stick out.
Cole/Ninja of Earth
- "You hear my new single? It's a smash!"Voiced by: Fred Armisen
- Actor Allusion: Cole is a music enthusiast who generates earthquake attacks, which resembles his voice actor Fred Armisen, who is also a musician.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: While he isn't academically productive during class (given that he wears headphones with a louder volume), Cole is the strongest member of the Ninja due to his strength that aligns with his earth element.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Just like his TV counterpart, Cole is able to create earthquakes that can break a falling roof of the temple into pieces.
- Headphones Equal Isolation: Subverted. Cole has his headphones on with loud music during class, but that does not mean he isolates himself from his job as a Ninja, nor his friends.
- Mr. Fanservice: Downplayed. Unlike his friends, Cole wears a tank top as part of his Ninja gi to make way for his super strength.
- Mythology Gag: Cole is officially the Earth ninja but his mech is capable of sonic attacks, referencing the corresponding black hero of Hero Factory.
- The Power of Rock: Cole's mech requires vinyl records on his built-in record player to produce soundwaves to blast off Garmadon's Shark Army.
- Shout-Out: Minifigure-series Cole wears a concert tour shirt, which in Ninjargon, reveals that it's for AC/DC.
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: To fit his personality, he is the only Ninja who doesn't wear sleeves in his uniform (and his civilian outfit).
Lloyd Garmadon/Green Ninja
All right, guys! Let's get Garmadon!
- Voiced by: Dave Franco
- Adaptational Heroism: Lloyd, in the animated series, was proud of Garmadon being evil and wanted to be like him, although he never managed to be more than a Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain before realizing his destiny as Green Ninja. This version is clearly against Garmadon from the very beginning and doesn't approve of his actions at all.
- Age Lift: Lloyd was initially far younger than the other ninja and became older through magic in the animated series. In the movie, he's the same age as the other ninja by default.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Lloyd is a social outcast at school due to being the son of the infamous Lord Garmadon. This is exemplified in the scene where all of the students crowd to one side of the school bus as he takes a seat on the other, causing the entire bus to lean to one side.
- Ascended Extra: Lloyd is the main hero of this movie, having been an on/off cameo in The LEGO Movie who didn't really even speak.
- Color Motifs: Green, obviously, which is evident in his and casual wear, but also, in a rare deviation of style, his eyes. This is especially significant because Lloyd's color is seen as the odd one out, and so his is emphasized further. While his color already hints that he doesn't have an elemental power, he does have the leadership energy of life that brings his team together.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Unlike Emmet or Batman, who are both adults with jobs with varying degrees of respect, Lloyd is a high school teenager ostracized by his peers due to his father being a super villain (whom he doesn't have a good relationship with either), and seems pretty eager to start his career as a superhero. Also unlike Emmet, who struggled with being noticed due to how unremarkable he was, Lloyd is well-known, but only in the capacity of being the son of a supervillain.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: When Master Wu reveals each ninja's element, Lloyd gets stuck with "green", which Lloyd points out isn't a real element. When Lloyd asks for another element, he suggests "the element of surprise" as one, only to learn that the Fuschia Ninja already possesses it. Later in the movie, it turns out there's a reason Lloyd doesn't have a real element: green is the color of life, connecting everything; Lloyd's role in the team is to connect all his teammates together.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Protagonist Lloyd has a dao sword.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Played with. Lloyd is hated by the city for being related to Garmadon, but adored as the Green Ninja.
- Informed Ability: The LEGO Movie introduces its universe's Green Ninja as one of several Master Builders, yet his own movie doesn't show him perform any building. In the short film Enter the Ninjago, the only building he does consists simply of making over the Double Decker Couch.
- In the video game, his Spinjutzu ability is to build things.
- Momma's Boy: He lives with his mother, and shares her green theming, has a similar hairstyle, and even favors the same weapon.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He shows sadness after he unknowingly summons Meowthra to Ninjago and sees all the damage it has caused.
- Mythology Gag:
- Lloyd asks if he can swap his element from green to gold, which his TV show counterpart did have in the form of Golden Power during the second and third seasons. He also asks if he can claim the element of wind (a nod to when his TV show counterpart became possessed by Morro, Master of Wind, in season five) or even "The Element of Surprise" (a joke taken from the end of Season 4, although it was Kai who said the line and not Lloyd).
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His attempt to use the Ultimate Weapon against Garmadon unintentionally summons Meowthra to Ninjago City and causes more chaos.
- Parental Abandonment: Lloyd is pretty deeply impacted by Garmadon's departure, feeling heartbroken and bitter by his father's obliviousness, and during the confrontation at the beginning, his emotional issues clearly get in the way of his act as the Green Ninja.
- The Scapegoat: Most of Ninjago City actively goes out of their way to pit the blame of what Lord Garmadon did on Lloyd.
- Sins of Our Fathers: For most of his life within Ninjago, Lloyd has been ostracized and blamed for a large number of things that he didn't even do; just because his father happens to be Lord Garmadon.Cheerleaders: L-L-O-Y-D! His dad is bad, and so is he. Boo Lloyd! Boo Lloyd!
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Looks to be Lloyd's motivation, complicated slightly by his father being a supervillain and him a heroic ninja.
Lord Garmadon
- Voiced by: Justin Theroux
- Adaptational Jerkass: In the Ninjago TV series, Garmadon wanted to be part of Lloyd's life and for his son to lead a productive, good life, but due to his corruption, commits evil acts by impulse until he's later cleansed of it. In this film, Lord Garmadon is called the "Worst Guy Ever" in promotional materials and seems to have always been willingly evil, plotting world domination when he and Koko were dating. That being said, the movie reveals he always loved Lloyd but couldn't stop being evil, which is why Koko left him.
- Affably Evil: He's perfectly capable of being chummy and charming when he wants to be, and his genuine love for Koko and Lloyd shows it's not a front either.
- Amazon Chaser: He fell in love with Koko after seeing her annihilate his evil army on a battlefield.
- Animal Motifs: Sharks. Some of his employees have shark costumes, he uses the species as weapons, and his mech has a shark design.
- Badass Boast: His Villain Song, "It's Garmadon", is absolutely loaded with these.
- Bad Boss: Garmadon sarcastically compliments his underlings on another failed invasion of Ninjago City, and constantly contradicts himself in telling them they need to stop following the herd while telling them to be obedient. And when he asks one of the henchmen if they want to be a follower or a leader, he launches that henchman out of his headquarters for saying the latter. It backfires on him once he and the heroes encounter a settlement composed of henchmen Garmadon mistreated and fired, all of whom are eager to get even with him.
- Being Evil Sucks: He truly loves Lloyd and Misako, but his desire to be evil means he's fighting his son on a regular basis and is ostracized from Koko.
- Big Bad Ensemble: With Meowthra in the Ninjago movie.
- Carpet of Virility: As seen with his jungle gear, Garmadon's long torso has hair all the way down.
- Chekhov's Gun: Garmadon's tears are combustible. This comes into play in the climax. Lloyd's words to his father reach Garmadon, who cries over them. Garmadon was in Meowthra's mouth at the time, but the tears upset her tongue, so she spits him back out.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Unlike Lord Business, who wanted order and control over his city, and the Joker, who was chaotic and insane in his attacks on Gotham, Garmadon is obsessed with conquering Ninjago. Lord Business wanted to be seen as special, Joker wanted Batman to finally see him as his Arch-Enemy, Lord Garmadon wants to have a good relationship with his son but has a hard time letting go of being evil.
- Cool Helmet: Wears a pitch black samurai helmet, which is definitely cool.
- Dark Is Evil: Coal black skin and black armour. Coupled quite nicely with Red Eyes, Take Warning.
- Deuteragonist: The film gives him a lot of screentime, primarily focusing on his strained relationship with his son Lloyd, and his conflict with being evil vs. his desire to be a good parent to Lloyd.
- Disappeared Dad: Lloyd and Lord Garmadon have major issues, including the fact that, as shown in the scene providing the movie's page quote, Lord G was a lousy father. Over the course of the movie, spending time with Lloyd causes him to have an epiphany of how he shouldn't have left and is moved to tears when Lloyd admits that he wants the time they lost back.
- Evil Is Bigger: Garmadon has two torsos, making him the tallest minifig.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It's eventually revealed that he always loved Lloyd, and he also still seems to care for his ex-girlfriend, Koko. In the end, despite not being cleansed, he happily returns to his son's life.
- Laughably Evil: Violent, warmongering, wants to Take Over the World? True. Wise-cracking, jocular, hammy, and all-around wacky? Also true.
- Love at First Punch: Between Garmadon and Koko. "It was love at first fight."
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Garmadon, who has four arms, is the villain. The arms themselves are achieved by a mini-torso piece that goes over the minifigure neck. This is a bit of a tradition for Ninjago villains by nownote , and Garmadon's boasted this for a time in the original series.
- Mythology Gag:
- Garmadon enjoyed a run with four arms for a time in the original series — now, they're a constant feature.
- Garmadon's new helmet, rather than featuring the bone as it does in the series, looks much more like an evil kabuto. The result looks similar the Helmet of Shadows from the TV series. The Helmet of Shadows itself appears in flashback.
- At some point in the movie, Garmadon claims his appearance was disfigured because of a spider-bitten snake. In the TV series, Garmadon's corruption was indeed caused by a snake, but unless The Overlord, who otherwise would fit the role of the spider due to him being The Corruptor towards the snake in question, corrupted her by possessing a spider (Demonic Possession is one of his abilities) and then biting her, then the "spider-bitten" bit was made up.
- Noodle Incident: Whatever caused him to become so monstrous is never explained, but it's clear from baby pictures that he was once normal. Garmadon claims it was a spider-bitten snake, but that's not exactly confirmed.note
- Older Than They Look: Garmadon is actually the elder brother, with wizened old Wu being the younger. Maybe it's moisturizing, as discussed by Jay, but the real reasons for his comparative youthfulness aren't made clear.
- Parents as People: Although he grows to love his son throughout the movie, it was shown that he cares a little more about conquering Ninjago and to live his lifestyle than to be a parent. This led to Lloyd’s mom taking him away to save him from the lifestyle.
- Pretentious Pronunciation: As far as he's concerned, Lloyd's name is pronounced "Luh-Loyd" and refuses to pronounce it any other way no matter how much anyone tries to correct him.
- Really 700 Years Old: He claims that Lloyd was born when he was 158 years old, which would make him 174 years old taking into consideration that Lloyd is 16 years old when the events of the movie begin.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: He has red eyes and is warmongering antagonist bent on taking over Ninjago City.
- Villain Song: "It's Garmadon
"
Master Wu
Are you ready to risk your life for Ninjago?
- Voiced by: Jackie Chan
- All Asians Wear Conical Straw Hats: The wise master Wu retains his hat as part of his design.
- Bearded Baby: According to an old family picture, he had a goatee as an infant.
- A Day in the Limelight: Prior to the movie's premiere, Master Wu starred in the short The Master, which preceded Storks.
- Faking the Dead: He does this knowing his presumed death will make his students more mindful of his lessons.
- Martial Arts Staff: Wise mentor Master Wu has a bo staff.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Invokes this on his students to teach them a lesson.
- Really 700 Years Old: He's 167 years old according to Cole and considered the younger brother of Garmadon.
Misako "Koko"note
He said he wanted to conquer the world. I thought it was a figure of speech.
- Voiced by: Olivia Munn
Lloyd's mother, having separated with Lord Garmadon after his inability to quit his evil lifestyle.
- Adaptational Badass: Koko is much more combat capable than in the TV show, having an identity known as Lady Iron Dragon in this continuity.
- Adaptation Name Change: Downplayed. Lloyd's mother is still named Misako, but is only referred to by the nickname Koko.
- Age Lift: Misako in the television series appeared to be nearing her sixties at the least, despite the fact that her son was artificially aged-up, making her seem a bit too old to be his mother. Here, she's more clearly middle-aged.
- Composite Character: She's Misako, Lloyd's mother in the show, but has a combat-capable Secret Identity, Lady Iron Dragon, which is more similar to Samurai X, an alias Nya used in the show for a while before becoming a Ninja, which was Adapted Out of the movie.
- Expy: Her Lady Iron Dragon past makes her one of Samurai X in the TV series, being a prominent female character who has an armored battle identity nobody knows about at first. Fittingly, Lady Iron Dragon is Nya's idol.
- Fiery Redhead: Koko is very passionate in her love and support for Lloyd, and was once a fearsome warrior fighting for good.
- Good Parents: Misako provides nothing but love, support, and encouragement to Lloyd, and she is pissed when she learns of Garmadon's negative effects on his well-being.
- Informed Attribute: She's seen with a nametag/employee badge, so we know she's employed, but in what position or field, we are never told.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: We only hear Garmadon's nickname for her in the film, with her full name being listed in promotional material.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Garmadon after crashing his party."You know, I've always tried to get Lloyd to see that he shouldn't be ashamed of who his father is. But now... I'm starting to think he could be right."
- Retired Badass: Misako gave up her warrior life in order to be a mom and raise her son to have a normal life. Of course, she doesn't know that he's not following her plan.
Garmadon's Shark Army
Lord Garmadon's aquatic-themed minions that help him conquer Ninjago City.
- Animal-Motif Team: Most of them have costumes modeled after sea creatures.
- Ear Ache: Former General Bob loses his eardrums after Garmadon shoots him out of a volcano, forcing him to say over and over "I Can't Hear You!".
- Eyepatch of Power: Several goons have eyepatches to make them look more menacing.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: After being shot out of a volcano, getting covered in magma, and going insane from being in the jungle, it's no surprise that the fired generals want revenge on Garmadon for putting them through all that.
- Mooks: They serve as basic enemies for the ninjas to deal with.
- Poke the Poodle: Among the evil things Garmadon orders them to do, some of them are asked to do things like knock over tables and pop children's balloons.
- Retirony: Subverted with the original General #1. He gets blasted by Lloyd's Green Ninja Dragon Mech's missiles after announcing he has one day until retirement, but he's later shown to have survived. It doesn't save him from getting fired shortly after, though.
- Sanity Slippage: Being fired out of a volcano into a jungle in the middle of nowhere really didn’t do any favors for the ex-generals' mental states.
- Toyless Toyline Character:
- The Narwhal General who pops a child's balloon was never made into a physical minifigure.
- Only the original General #1 received a physical minifigure of his fired variant.
Outside Ninjago
Meowthra
- Played by: Ruby and Pearl
An otherworldly creature that is summoned and controlled by the Ultimate Weapon.
- Animalistic Abomination: Parodied. She's something utterly otherworldly to the Lego world, because she's an organic cat.
- Badass Adorable: A cute and playful cat, that singlehandedly puts the entire Ninjago team out of commission for a while by totaling their mechs.
- Big Bad Ensemble: With Lord Garmadon in the Ninjago movie.
- Cats Are Mean: Zig-Zagged, because Mr. Liu claims that she's a real monster and he's got the cat scratches on his hand to prove it. But for some reason she was calm enough to let Lloyd pet her and she was named mascot of Ninjago as the citizens were all over her giving her belly rubs.
- Cats Love Laser Pointers: The reason she gets summoned to Ninjago is because she likes to follow the Ultimate Weapon's laser.
- Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Meowthra never meant to cause any destruction in Ninjago. It's just a playful cat trying to follow the laser.
- Mega Neko: The most dangerous creature in Ninjago is Meowthra, a giant cat which manages to wreak a lot of havoc. However, this trope is played with in the fact that Meowthra is a normal-sized cat that only appears Kaiju-sized to the Lego-built city and its citizens.
- Non-Malicious Monster: She causes a lot of damage to Ninjago, and destroys most of the heroes' mechs, but only because she's playing around and trying to catch that laser.
- Non-Standard Character Design: It's a photo realistic cat whose movements are smoother and less janky.
- Red Right Hand: As noted by the Newscaster Cameo, Meowthra is polydactyl, with six toes on each front paw.
- Shout-Out: Her name is a big fuzzy nod to Mothra.
Mr. Liu
- Played by: Jackie Chan
- Cool Old Guy: After realizing the kid's "other friends", he tells the kid a story to cheer him up and plans to teach him martial arts the next day.
- Deadpan Snarker: A bit self aware.Kid: Does this mean I'm a ninja master?
Mr. Liu: Of course not. All you did was listen to a story.
Kid
- Played by: Kaan Guldur
- No Name Given: His name has never been spoken in the film.
- All of the Other Reindeer: The only reason he walks into the shop was to avoid some bullies.
