The LEGO Ninjago Movie Trailer analysis

Warner Bros. Pictures released the first full trailer for “The LEGO Ninjago Movie Trailer” today and I went through frame by frame to analyze some of the cool animation techniques.

When Lloyd flips across a roof, check out how they added stretch and squash using brick-built motion smears.

Sensei Wu uses white windshield pieces for a motion smear on his kick.

And his staff uses a variety of pieces for motion smears in this attack (the lipstick piece doesn’t actually exist in black, but every other piece used here does).

Even though this film is CGI, the fact that they treat it like a stop-motion LEGO movie means that brickfilmers can steal lots of ideas and techniques for their own movies.

Also, I can’t wait to buy this Legshark Mech

What did you notice in the trailer?

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Dave Pickett is a lifelong LEGO fan and pop culture enthusiast. He runs the YouTube channel BRICK 101 where he shares his LEGO animations, custom LEGO creations, LEGO set reviews and other fun videos. Dave is co-author of The LEGO Animation Book. Dave is a self-taught animator with no formal training, but that hasn’t stopped him from making award-winning brickfilms like Nightly News at Nine, Metamorphosis, and Choose Your Own Storyline: The Fight for Paradise Hills. When he's not building with LEGO bricks, Dave enjoys playing video games, reading comic books, watching nerdy TV shows, playing board games, and exploring Chicago with his husband Bert and their dog Sophie.

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