Western Animation / The LEGO Ninjago Movie

"Are you ready to risk your life... for Ninjago?"

Lloyd: You ruined my life!
Garmadon: Pfft, that's not true. I haven't even been a part of your life, how could I ruin it? I wasn't even there.

The LEGO Ninjago Movie is a 2017 spin-off of Ninjago and The LEGO Movie.

Its story follows Lloyd Garmadon, an Ordinary High-School Student and secret Highly-Visible Ninja who protects the land of Ninjago from the forces of darkness. Unfortunately for Lloyd, his father, Garmadon, is the Evil Overlord of said forces of darkness, and an all around clueless Jerkass, much to Lloyd's constant annoyance. Now Lloyd must attempt to pull his team of secret Ninja allies together to put a stop to Garmadon's constant invasions, and hopefully repair his relationship with his father along the way.

The movie stars Dave Franco as Lloyd / the Green Ninja, Justin Theroux as Garmadon, Michael Peña as Kai / the Red Ninja, Abbi Jacobson as Nya / Samurai X, Zach Woods as Zane / the White Ninja, Kumail Nanjiani as Jay / the Blue Ninja, Fred Armisen as Cole / the Black Ninja and Jackie Chan as Master Wu.

The film was released on September 22, 2017. Prior to the premiere, Master Wu starred in the short The Master, which preceded Storks (and re-appeared on home video releases of The LEGO Batman Movie).

Should be noted that while it shares the title with the TV series, the movie follows its own continuity. Likely so both newcomers and those unfamiliar with the series won't have to worry about continuity.

Previews: Trailer 1, Trailer 2.

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The LEGO Ninjago Movie provides examples of:

• Abandoned Warehouse: The Secret Ninja Force's base is located in a warehouse that, according to a sign outside, once belonged to a company called Brick Recycling before they closed down.
• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Garmadon calls Lloyd L-loyd at times.
• Action Girl: Nya looks to fall into this again, and Garmadon employs some females in his army as soldiers and even a general. Koko was also this in her youth.
• Actor Allusion: Cole is now a music enthusiast with sound attacks, most likely a reference to his VA Fred Armisen being a musician on the side (specifically a drummer).
• Adaptational Comic Relief: Garmadon is much more comical than in the series to the point of potentially being Affably Evil.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Misako (renamed Koko in this film) already takes care of Lloyd since after Garmadon abandoned them, whereas in the TV series, it took until the second season so Lloyd could find his mom.
• Adaptational Hairstyle Change: Kai's hair is changed from spiky to a flame shape, Jay's is changed from a clean cut to a messy style, and Nya's is changed from a bob cut to a ponytail. These hairstyles were later carried over to the main series when the ninjas had their designs changed into the movie versions starting with Season 8.
• Adaptational Jerkass: When the film begins, Lloyd is much meaner towards Garmadon for the fact that his father is a super villain who terrorizes Ninjago City, even telling him, after Meowthra defeats all of his friends thanks to the Mega Weapon, that he wishes he weren’t his father. In the series during the second season, while Lloyd would actively work with the Ninja team to defeat his father, he was much more skeptical on his destiny as the Green Ninja to fight him.
• Adaptational Romance Downgrade:
  • Jay and Nya’s relationship isn’t quite as brought up and only implied in certain scenes.
  • Wu and Koko, who were former lovers in the series before the latter married Garmadon, while still showing signs of affection in the second season, in this movie they hardly interact with each other.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Sort of. Lloyd’s power is left ambiguous throughout most of the movie, being referred to by Wu as “Green”. The power itself is more spiritual and metaphorical than anything, with Lloyd not being able to realize its true meaning until the ending. In the series, the power goes by many names (“Power”, “Energy”, and “Green”) and is actually physical, in fact being the strongest power in the series, while still being so metaphorically in the movie itself.
• Adaptational Upbringing Change:
  • The Great Devourer, the serpent that bit Garmadon and started his decency into evil in the series, is only briefly mentioned by Garmadon while talking with the Ninja with the name being dropped.
  • While Wu and Garmadon’s father is brought up and a picture is seen in the Garmadons’ Temple, he is never mentioned to be the First Spinjitzu Master and presumably isn’t even the creator of Ninjago either.
• Adaptational Weapon Swap: Several Ninja use different signature weapons than in the show with only Kai sticking with his original weapon (a Katana). Cole goes from a Scythe to a Hammer, Jay goes from Nunchucks to a Flail, Lloyd goes from a generic Katana (which he shared with Kai) to a Unique Sword, Zane goes from Shurikens to a Bow and Arrow, and Nya switches from not having a signature weapon to using a Spear. Interestingly, this only applies to the tie-in sets as they never use any weapons in the Movie. Additionally, some of these weapons would later carry over to the show, though Jay stuck with Nunchucks, Zane switched back to Shurikens after one season, and Cole would frequently switch between a scythe and hammer depending on the season.
• Adaptational Wimp: All of the Ninja (except maybe Lloyd) are much lazier than in the series due to their over-reliance on their mechs and vehicles. Its not until the end, thanks to Lloyd’s leadership, that they finally unlock their powers and grow as Ninja.
• Adaptation Distillation: The film is based upon the first three years of the toyline, but with numerous liberties taken to streamline it for a feature length:
  • Garmadon wasn't sealed away, meaning there's no need to necessitate him being released from a prison created for him.
  • Lloyd and Nya are already ninja in the movie, having taken the second and fifth seasons, respectively, to become part of the main team. Lloyd is also a teenager in this film, which removes the need for a plot point requiring him to be magically aged-up.
  • As the main arc is about Lloyd and Garmadon's strained relationship, Lloyd is the central protagonist of the movie, as opposed to Kai, the Supporting Protagonist of the team in the overall franchise.
• Adaptation Name Change: Misako, Lloyd’s mother, is renamed Koko.
• Age Lift: Koko is visibly much younger than in the series.
• All Asians Wear Conical Straw Hats: The wise master Wu retains his hat as part of his design. Several other civilians also wear them, including a new, more shaped variety introduced here, due to the Asian-inspired setting.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Lloyd is a social outcast at school due to being the son of the infamous 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.
  • Soon after, a group of cheerleaders stop by Lloyd to present a mocking cheer, "Boo Lloyd" that shows their distaste for him. He takes it in stride, sarcastically remarking that they have a number-one hit on their hands. But actually they do; in the next scene, "Boo Lloyd" has somehow become a chart-topping pop song heard on a beachgoer's radio. And later, a remix of it is playing on the guy's radio.
• Alternate Continuity: Despite featuring the same characters, the film has no relation to the Ninjago TV series, instead being set in the universe of The LEGO Movie. The movie vaguely implies through the shopkeeper's old Wu minifigure that Ninjago is a very old story in-universe, and that the storyteller is mostly making up the story for the boy who comes in.
• Alpha Strike: Lloyd's dragon mech can fire missiles from its claws, its eyes, its tail, launch its tail and both feet, and the spines on its back, and even its head, which can be rebuilt just to launch again. And there's butt torpedoes.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Japanese version features an exclusive theme song performed by the band Johnny's West, "Mou 1% (Another 1%)".
• Animal Motifs: Garmadon's army is sea life themed, with Garmadon himself piloting a large shark mech.
• Arc Words: To "see things in a new way/different point of view" is a concept first brought up in the film by Mr. Liu, then by Master Wu, and then Lloyd.
• Art Evolution: In The LEGO Movie, everything was LEGO. In The LEGO Batman Movie, things such as bodies of water and smoke began to be more natural. Here, there's real fire, real sand, and even real bamboo. And it is gorgeous.
  • In terms of the characters, all of the ninja now have unique hairpieces—the main four's are all drawn from the generic ones they had used before, and Nya and Cole each have an entirely new hairstyle, with the former sporting a messy ponytail instead of a neat bob while the latter's hair is styled into a man bun with bandana for his ninja outfit. With their faces, Cole's eyebrows have a different bushy style, Kai's scar is moved to cross the opposite eye, Zane's face has a unique style now to reflect his robotic nature, Lloyd has green eyes, Nya has a beauty mark, and Jay has freckles. All of these changes carry over to the next series of the Ninjago TV show and sets.
  • Garmadon has a completely new helmet and upper torso, along with a slightly more detailed face. Also, his accent color has now changed from purple to dark blue. His face also has a larger mouth, and the details on his face and torso are done in grey instead of silver.
• 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 (expect in the "Enter the Ninjago" short).
• Ascended Meme: The Comic-Con trailer prompted some viewers to make fake announcements for a Meowthra LEGO set, showing either a live cat or a LEGO cat Photoshopped onto a box evoking those of actual TLNM sets. A Meowthra set is the first one shown in the movie's instructions-based end credits, listed with a piece count of 1.
• As Himself: Michael Strahan and Robin Roberts (as well as Ben Shephard and Kate Garraway in the UK version).
• Assuming the Audience's Age: Zigzagged. Garmadon says "OK, kids, there's one last thing I have to teach you ninjas." at the beginning of the credits, but it's not clear whether he's referring to the audience or the main characters.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The dreaded Meowthra is treated as this by the main characters... who are all LEGO minifigs. In actuality, Meowthra is a perfectly normal house-cat. Of course, even a house-cat can cause destruction and mayhem when she's set loose on a LEGO city...
• Attentive Shade Lowering: When Lloyd walks up to the entrance of the high school, one of the students in the background lowers his shades watching him in silent judgement.
• Audience? What Audience?: As Master Wu tells the audience what happened after Lloyd saved Garmadon from Meowthra, Garmadon gets confused about who he's talking to and why he's suddenly flying off.
• Awesome, but Impractical: When Lloyd temporarily loses his arm, Garmadon suggests replacing it with a sword. Lloyd shoots it down by saying that the idea of having a sword arm sounds cooler than it actually is.
• Badass and Baby: At one point, Lloyd is seen fighting off some mooks while holding a giggling baby in one arm.
• Big Stupid Doo Doo Head: The message Garmadon delivers to Wu via his army reads "You're a big, stupid dumb-dumb with a dumb face and a big butt and your butt stinks and you smell like a butt."
• Biting-the-Hand Humor: Over the years, the backbone of the LEGO Ninjago line slowly became the increasingly Humongous Mecha driven by the ninjas rather than the Spinjitzu (and later Airjitzu) gimmick representing their martial arts. The problems in the movie come from these machines not being enough, and the solution is ditching the mecha altogether in favor of the martial arts.
• Break the Cutie: Poor Lloyd suffers from this in many ways, from being despised by almost everyone just because he's Garmadon's son to being forced to watch as his evil father gleefully uses the "Ultimate Weapon" (a laser pointer) to lure a cat named Meowthra into decimating his Ninja friends' vehicles. Seriously, this guy needs a hug.
• Brick Joke: At the start of the movie, during the live action bits, the shopkeeper points out his cat whom he cites as "a real monster". In the movie proper, said cat, called Meowthra, is accidentally summoned by Lloyd in trying to stop Garmadon.
• Broad Strokes: Certain events from the TV Series appear to have happened prior to the movie, some of which are covered in flashback, but don't have very much effect on the film itself.
• Bubble Shield: When Lloyd fires a barrage of missiles at Garmadon's Shark Mech, Garmadon himself gets protected by a shield resembling a soap bubble, tying into the movie's blending of LEGO and real-life elements.
• Built with LEGO: Like the movie before it, water and smoke are no longer made of LEGO pieces.
• Bus Full of Innocents: One of the things Garmadon orders his generals to do is to make a school bus full of little children dangle precariously on a highway. Lloyd later deals with the general trying to push the vehicle into the water on the way to deal with Garmadon and he catches it with his mech when it falls.
• Canon Foreigner:
  • The Shark Army, Garmadon's fish-themed henchmen, were created exclusively for the film.
  • Wu and Garmadon actually have a mother, someone which is never mentioned to exist in the series.
• Character Exaggeration: Jay's underlying insecurity from the television show is played up here to make him completely dorky. Zane's inability to behave naturally is also exaggerated to Cloudcuckoolander levels.
• 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.
• Chew Bubblegum: Wu references this, with boba replacing the gum in the quote.
• Claiming Via Flag: Lord Garmadon declares his conquest of Ninjago (with his indestructible Garma Mecha Man) successful by planting a giant Garmadon flag on the top of Ninjago Tower, claiming it as his own.
• Co-Dragons: Exaggerated. Due to the fact that instead of just 1, 2, or even 3 Generals, Garmadon has a plethora of them as he has for his army. Kinda subverted that, despite the plentiture, he has a spot for a General #1 spot to serve as his right-hand man. But even then, whenever he finds his General #1s as "failures" he ends up firing them out, showing that for Garmadon, they're equally expendable like his mooks in general.
• Continuity Nod: Naturally, the movie and the toy line has references to the other movies in the LEGO Film Universe.
  • The N-Pop Girl wears a Unikitty shirt in her costume.
  • One of the characters in the minifigure series wears a Batman T-shirt, likely referencing the preceding movie.
  • A "Back to School" promo has Nya show off photos of the leading ladies from the previous theatrical LEGO Movies, plus Wonder Woman, taped inside her locker.
  • The ninjas' hideout has a double decker couch in it.
• Company Cross References:
  • One of Garmadon’s henchmen wears a Batman shirt under her robe.
  • Two of Lloyd's classmates have shirts referencing popular LEGO Space themes — one wears a series 2 Blacktron logo shirt (previously seen in The LEGO Movie), and another wears an M-Tron logo shirt.
  • Cole is officially the Earth ninja but his mech is capable of sonic attacks, referencing the corresponding black hero of Hero Factory.
• Company Cross References:
  • One of Garmadon’s henchmen wears a Batman shirt under her robe.
  • Two of Lloyd's classmates have shirts referencing popular LEGO Space themes — one wears a series 2 Blacktron logo shirt (previously seen in The LEGO Movie), and another wears an M-Tron logo shirt.
  • Cole is officially the Earth ninja but his mech is capable of sonic attacks, referencing the corresponding black hero of Hero Factory.
• 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 supervillain (who 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.
• Copycat Mockery: At one point, the ninjas have to make their way through a forest with Garmadon, who's trapped in a cage, to reach a temple. Both sides start talking and when Lloyd tries to keep everyone on the task, Garmadon mockingly imitates Lloyd, making everyone else laugh.
• Creative Closing Credits: The credits are animated like a flipbook of typical LEGO building instructions, lack of shading, yellow page borders and all!
• Cuteness Proximity: The citizens of Ninjago City have this reaction when Meowthra first shows up, cooing at how adorable she is. It's not until she starts knocking over buildings that mass panic ensues.
• Dead Hat Shot: Subverted with Master Wu, twice, but he still gets taken out of the movie for a while the second time.
• Demoted to Extra: The Skullkin and Serpentine appear briefly in a flashback of Garmadon's past minions, but they have since been replaced by the Shark Army.
  • ALL the ninja besides Lloyd get this treatment, due to the story being streamlined to focus on his relationship with his father, but Kai gets it worst of all. Whereas in the series, he serves as the Deuteragonist to Lloyd, in the movie he gets the least amount of focus and characterization out of the entire main cast. In fact, there are times where it can be easy to forget he's even there at all.
• Disappeared Dad: Lloyd and Lord Garmadon have major issues because, as shown in the scene providing the page quote, Lord G was a lousy father.
• The Dog Bites Back: Turns out firing your subordinates out of a volcano will not be taken kindly by them. As Garmadon finds out the hard way when the ninjas and he end up coming across them in the forest.
• Don't Eat and Swim: When the ninjas infiltrate the base of Garmadon's former generals, Nya blends in with her element and pulls several guards into the water. One guard thinks they're swimming and says "Guys, no swimming. We just ate!" before being knocked out by Cole, who's also blending in with his element by being covered in mud.
• Easter Egg: The Ninjago language of characters corresponds to English letters, revealing certain tidbits in the signs- one in the Ninjago City set, for example, says "Visit Bricksburg", the setting of the first LEGO Movie.
• Evil Is Petty: The Shark Army's conquest of Ninjago includes very minor acts of aggression ordered by Garmadon (like popping a random kid's balloon) as well as major destruction.
• Fanning the Knives: During Master Wu and Lord Garmadon's battle, Garmadon uses the Seven Deadly Butterflies of Shaolin against Wu, fanning them out in his hand before throwing them.
• Flashback-Montage Realization: Lloyd realizes their elemental powers were inside them all along, flashing back to Master Wu saying "Find your inner peace" and "The power is inside you," with the former really meaning "inner piece," and Lloyd sees each ninja as representing the LEGO piece related to their element.
• Fluffy Tamer: Lloyd calms Meowthra down by petting her nose. Afterward, the citizens of Ninjago make her a mascot.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Garmadon finally does take over Ninjago City, Koko manages to march right into his base and nobody, least of all Garmadon, seems to be able to do anything about it. Maybe that's because Garmadon and his whole army already know that she was once the Lady Iron Dragon.
  • Listen to all of the location names that Master Wu mentions when discussing the location of the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon. They reek so heavily of foreshadowing that it's practically Lampshade Hanging.
• Framing Device: The bulk of the plot comes from a story told from antique store owner Mr. Liu (also played by Jackie Chan) to a bullied boy wandering in.
• From Bad to Worse: Our heroes are chased by a rock sliding down a hill. Kai blasts it with fire...and our heroes end up chased by a now-burning rock sliding down a hill.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: While serving as their prisoner, Garmadon spends a lot of his time joking around with the ninjas. They all end up taking a liking to him, much to Lloyd's chagrin.
• 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 Fuchsia Ninja already possesses it, and to such a degree that he is never heard from before or after his appearance. 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.
• "The Hero Sucks" Song: Played with. A "Boo Lloyd" chant is performed by some cheerleaders at Lloyd's school to mock him, and it becomes a popular song.
• 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, even disregarding their colored outfits. For that matter, they're never seen practicing stealth when defending the city, either.
• High Turnover Rate: Exaggerated with the position of the Shark Army's General #1. Garmadon fires so many that this comes back to bite him in the ass, as the ex-General #1s have banded together with the goal of destroying him as revenge.
• Hilarious Outtakes: The movie starts off with a live-action sequence with Jackie Chan's character impressively catching an entire set of teacups. The credits feature several of the takes where Jackie wasn't quite as successful. Other material available includes bloopers from the voice cast, animated as if the film is an in-universe LEGO production, like before.
• Humongous Mecha: Used by the ninja, with Kai and Cole having traditional humanoid machines.
• Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: The ninjas spend most of the movie without their elemental powers and rely on their mechs to do the fighting for them. They eventually learn how to use them when they need to escape from the collapsing Temple of Fragile Foundations.
• Insult Backfire: Deconstructed; Garmadon thinks emphasis of his deplorable nature is a compliment, but in a very literal case of Evil Cannot Comprehend Good, he's so resigned to his villainy that he's become incredibly out of touch with his and other's emotions. When Lloyd says "I wish you were never my father," Garmadon struggles with how to take it and finds himself wondering what he meant by it.
• It Was with You All Along: The heroes suddenly gain their powers when they face their greatest danger.
• Juxtaposed Reflection Poster: The teaser poster depicts Lloyd Garmadon in his civilian clothes with Ninjago City in the background standing over a body of water with him in his Green Ninja costume in a bamboo forest reflected in it.
• KPop: Parodied. Judging by one of the minifigures, Ninjago is its own Asian culture with N-Pop music.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: While the outside universe isn't at all hidden in this film, there are still subtler touches in the LEGO world that remind us, like usual, with imperfections in the plastic and printing on the minifigures, and real-world human items coming into play.
• Literal Metaphor: When Garmadon is displeased with the generals in his army, they are fired...out of a volcano.
• Lying Finger Cross: While threatening to use the Ultimate Weapon on Garmadon, Lloyd makes him promise to leave Ninjago. Garmadon says he promises to do so, but he suspiciously puts his hand behind his back while he does so, making Lloyd think he's crossing his fingers. However, Garmadon tells Lloyd that his claw hands make it impossible for him to do that.
• Macross Missile Massacre: The Green Ninja Dragon Mech has a lot of missiles and parts to fire off as missiles, including a backup head.
• 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.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Look, when you specifically have to cross The Bridge of Fallen Mentors, you have to know what's coming. It's subverted, however. Master Wu fakes his death to attempt to invoke the trope in the hopes that it will lead his students to important realizations about ninjutsu.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Garamdon makes a very bad habit of launching his subordinates out of the "Fire" room in his volcano lair, either from failure or just receiving answers he doesn't like. This comes back to bite him later when he comes across his previous employees in the Canyon of General Unhappiness, lead by his most recent #1, who are itching to "fire" him as revenge...but they want to fire him into a volcano.
• Mondegreen Gag: When Garmadon spies on Wu discussing the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon, he misreads Wu's lips as saying "Omelette Omelette Weapon".
• 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.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Garmadon enjoyed a run with four arms for a time in the original series- now, they're a constant feature.
  • Though she's not Samurai X this time around, Nya still retains a samurai influence in her gear, like an armored skirt. This is also derived from her idol, Lady Iron Dragon... who, like Samurai X, is a significant female's heroic persona, as she was pre-parent Misako.
  • 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.
  • 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 season 4, although it was Kai who said the line and not Lloyd). Except in the specific scene, it turns out there is actually a Master of Surprise.
    • Speaking of the Master of Surprise, he wears a pink suit, resembling how Zane was forced to wear a pink when fighting the Serpentine in the season 1 episode “Can of Worms”.
  • Garmadon mentions his backstory involving being bitten by a snake, an explicit reference to the Great Devourer from the toyline and cartoon.
  • Similar to how Garmadon attempted to gain the golden weapons in the first season of the show and use all four at the same time in his four arms, he tries wielding the Ultimate Ultimate Weapons of Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane against Meowthra. But because this time they're just LEGO elements that are merely representative of the ninjas' elemental powers, they do nothing and Meowthra swallows Garmadon whole.
  • "The Weekend Whip", the theme song to the TV show (namely the first three seasons) is heard as Lloyd's ringtone.
  • Garmadon's original four-armed design can be seen in a picture of him being defeated by Master Wu in battle.
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • Trailers suggested that Garmadon used to be a normal guy, albeit one with black skin, red eyes, sharp teeth, and an extra pair of arms, who later turned to world domination, and Misako was simply the wife he left behind. These scenes are an Imagine Spot by Garmadon. He was a warlord in the midst of conquering a village when he met Misako, who was an Action Girl fighting against him. She gave up the fighting life to raise Lloyd, but Garmadon remained a warlord.
  • Trailers also indicated that Garmadon intended to summon Meowthra as part of his plan. As it turns out, Lloyd is the one who (accidentally) summons the cat by firing the Ultimate Weapon without either him or Garmadon knowing what it would do. Once Garmadon finds out, though, he's more than happy to take advantage of Meowthra in order to decimate the ninjas.
• Newscaster Cameo: Michael Strahan and Robin Roberts of Good Morning America play LEGO versions of themselves as hosts of Good Morning Ninjago in the American release of the film^note In the UK version, Ben Shephard and Kate Garraway of Good Morning Britain take their places, and provide exposition about their world and the fight between Garmadon and the ninjas.
• New Technology Is Evil: Wu teaches his ninja that the less they fight with mechs, the more they can learn to master their elemental powers. This is a bit of a poke at the source theme/show's increasing focus on vehicles and technology rather than the ninjas' powers and skills.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Lloyd tries to fire the Ultimate Weapon at Garmadon, but accidentally ends up wrecking Ninjago City instead since said "weapon" is actually a laser pointer and ends up summoning a real-life cat into Ninjago City.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In the climax, Garmadon takes the elemental pieces for himself so he can chase off Meowthra and reclaim Ninjago city. However, like Lloyd before, he doesn't really know how to use them when the time comes to do so. Nor could he really, as they were symbols rather than weapons.
• Oddball in the Series: Unlike LEGO's two previous theatrical movies, this one doesn't present a crossover between various themes.
• One-Wheeled Wonder: Cole's mech has one giant motorcycle wheel for a lower body, instead of normal legs, and its long humanoid arms help propel and steer it.
• Overly Long Gag: The multitude of missiles and parts that Lloyd fires from his dragon mech, with every one of them recited out loud. Twice.
• Poke the Poodle: While Garmadon's Shark Army is asked to do things like attack the police and crash the stock market, some of it is asked to do things like knock over tables and pop children's balloons.
• Pronouncing My Name for You: A Running Gag is that Lord Garmadon insists that the proper pronunciation for Lloyd is "Luh-loyd" and gets annoyed when anyone tries to correct him.
• Record Needle Scratch: Parodied. After Lloyd reveals to Garmadon he's the Green Ninja, a needle on a turntable drags slowly across a record and bumps into another needle that drags across the other record.
• Relationship Compression: Garmadon bonds with his son and turns good by the end of the film and reunited with his family, whereas in the series it took him until the end of the second season to become good again.
• Retcanon: The new mask molds, hairstyles, unique design elements (such as Lloyd and Zane's distinctive eyes) of the core five ninja, as well as Garmadon's armor and helmet, are all carried over into Season 8 of the series and toyline.
• Retirony: Subverted with Shark Army General #1, who announces he has just one day until retirement before getting blasted by one of Lloyd's Dragon Mech's missiles, but he appears in later scenes otherwise unharmed.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: Inverted by Meowthra, a real-life cat superimposed into a world populated by LEGO toys.
• Romantic Ride Sharing: When Garmadon imagines the life he could've shared with his wife Koko had he given up his evil ways, Koko is shown embracing Garmadon as they ride off on a motorbike into the sunset.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Zane says "prolonged scream" as Garmadon makes Meowthra destroy his Ice Tank.
• Secret Identity: Unlike the TV show, no one in Ninjago City knows the ninjas' real names. Until the end.
• Schmuck Bait: The path to the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon splits into a fork; one road is "The Right Path", which is "long, arduous, and enlightening", and the other is a "Short Cut", which leads through a "possible evil skeleton graveyard". Guess which one the ninjas take. Go on. Guess.
• Short Cuts Make Long Delays: When the ninjas have to choose between paths literally marked "The Right Path" and "Short Cut" (see Schmuck Bait, Above), they naturally choose the short cut, which leads to Garmadon and Lloyd getting captured by an angry mob of Garmadon's ex-Number-Ones.
• Shout-Out:
  • Minifigure-series Cole wears a shirt, which in Ninjagoese, reveals that it's for AC/DC.
    • Similarly, a background character at the high school wears a Pixies shirt with the P in the logo written in Ninjagoese.
  • Nya demonstrates her Badass Biker credentials by pulling off THE Kaneda bike slide.
  • Lloyd's ringtone is the theme song of the original Ninjago TV series.
  • Minifigures resembling John Bender and Ferris Bueller can be seen as Lloyd goes to school.
  • In the end credits, Lloyd and Lord Garmadon can be seen throwing a bomb back and forth in a similar fashion to the video game Pong.
• Slurpasaur: Kinda. Very much in the manner of this trope, the giant monster Meowthra that attacks the city is played by a common housecat superimposed into the action to make it look huge. The twist is that this is because Meowthra actually is a housecat, who looks huge because, compared to the LEGO cast, she is.
• Sniff Sniff Nom: Garmadon follows the ninjas through the jungle by licking the dirt with their tracks.
• Stealth Pun: The list of dangerous locations Wu visits all have ominous titles, like the Bridge of Fallen Mentors. One place, the Canyon of General Unhappiness, is foreshadowed to be a place where the dead come alive to attack, but when the ninja reach it, they find that the skeleton graveyard is only a guess as to its contents. But it truly is a canyon of General unhappiness...because it's where all of Garmadon's fired and furious ex-General #1s have convened to take revenge.
• Summoning Artifact: Whoever wields the Ultimate Weapon can control Meowthra. It's actually a laser pointer.
• Tagline: "Find the ninja within ya."
• There Was a Door: Instead of using a door to get into the warehouse the Ninjas use for training, Wu just kicks straight through a wall.
• Threatening Shark: Lord Garmadon's army is called the Shark Army and encompasses many deep-sea creatures, with Garmadon himself piloting a massive bipedal megalodon Animal Mecha.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The second trailer, and some TV spots that aired after its unveiling, reveal that Garmadon will, in some capacity, work with the heroes. Other TV spots and merchandise also showed off Lady Iron Dragon, and uses her real name, Misako.
• Uniqueness Value: The Shark Army General #1 with the longest tenure (who the credits refer to as General Olivia) has a unique design separating her from the standard soldiers, and she receives the most characterization.
• Villain Has a Point: Garmadon typically fires his general for frivolous reasons, but post-conquest, he does have a point that his current general hasn't found any of the people he ordered captured, but is slacking off at the celebration.
• Villain Song: "It's Garmadon"
• Volcano Lair: Garmadon has one, and he even uses it to fire out generals that fail to live up to his expectations. It's apparently a fondness of his; his pajamas have a volcano print on them. When he takes over Ninjago City, he even makes a point to transport said base to the city.
• Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: The synopsis says the heroes are ninjas by night, students by day.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Each of the ninja has their own signature weapon that reflects their character:
  • Protagonist Lloyd has a broadsword.
  • 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.
  • Wise mentor Master Wu has a bo staff.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Looks to be Lloyd's motivation, complicated slightly by his father being a supervillain and him a heroic ninja.
• Wind Is Green: Lloyd initially thinks the "power of green" means he has control over air.
• Wingdinglish: The land of Ninjago has its own written language, which is composed of a cipher of Asian-style characters that correspond to English letters.
• Younger and Hipper: Misako (renamed Koko in this case).

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Tropes for The Master include:

• Artistic Title: Several Ninjago elements, such as leaves, sand, and LEGO bricks, form the opening credits.
• Creative Closing Credits: The end credits appear over pseudo-Chinese paintings of the chicken, depicted more realistically than a LEGO animal.
• Logo Joke: As in The LEGO Movie, the Warner shield appears made out of LEGO bricks. This time, the shield also has a LEGO "Presents" sign underneath, and vertical slit in the center, through which the viewer can see Wu's temple. At one point, the chicken flings Wu through the shield!
• Negated Moment of Awesome: Whatever Wu had originally planned to do after the opening credits, the end credits appear before he can actually do it.
• No Fourth Wall: Wu and the chicken interact with the main titles, and Wu talks to the narrator (Justin Theroux) at the end.
• Slow "NO!": Wu does this when the chicken tries to replace him as the short's star.
• Title Drop: Subverted whenever the narrator tries to read the title card, only to find it either incomplete, or not bearing the short's actual name.
• Trash the Set: The fight between Wu and the chicken does heavy damage to the temple, and the Warner shield.
• Worthy Opponent: Wu eventually has to declare the chicken such, but he only does so as part of a trick to literally kick her out of the short.

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