How to watch the Ninjago cartoons on your iDevice

 

  • How to watch the Ninjago cartoons on your iDevice

    Posted by Huw, 21 Oct 2012 14:15. Filed under Miscellaneous.

    As you can tell from the comments to the Ultra Sonic Raider review below, I'm starting to show myself up with a lack of Ninjago knowledge :-)

    Aanchir rightly suggests that I should watch the cartoons to remedy that. Unfortunately they were never shown on UK TV because the rules here state that kids' TV programmes can't be about pre-existing toys. (the cartoon must come first before the toys, not the other way round as is the case with these: they are, after all, just long adverts).

    They are available to view at ninjago.LEGO.com, but in Flash format which of course means they can't be viewed on an Apple device. There are some episodes on YouTube but the ones I found have been ripped from TV and have massive channel logos etc. on them which is unacceptable to me.

    It's not much fun sitting in front of a PC, even a laptop, watching videos, so I looked round for a technical solution. There is one, that works well, but it will cost you a few bucks. I figured others might be interested in how to do it, so I'm documenting it here for you. Here goes...

    • Fire up your FireFox browser and download and install FLV Movies downloader
    • Go to the UK Ninago site (the 2012 cartoons are not listed on the US one for some reason)
    • Start to play the first few seconds of each of the 13 episodes. This is enough for the downloader to detect their URL
    • On FireFox's menu: Tools | Download flv | Show detected movies. You should see a list of at least the 13 episodes with names like E0110_1080p_480x270.f4v (which is episode 10)
    • Click on each one in turn and click on the Download file button on the right
    • All 13 movies will be downloaded to your PC. They are about 120Mb each.

    Now, on your iDevice, download GoodPlayer video player, which'll cost you £1.99 or $2.99. There may well be free ones around that will work, but one great thing about this one is that you can transfer the video files to it over wifi without needing to faff about with iTunes.

    So, I renamed the downloaded videos to something consistent and copied them via wifi to my iPad and I'm now all set to enjoy them and become enlightened :-)

    I hope you found that useful. Our normal LEGO news service will be resumed as soon as possible...


    23 comments, latest one posted 7 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by Decontrol in United Kingdom, 21 Oct 2012 14:41

Great. Thanks!!! :) my son will love that.

Posted by The Green Brick Giant in United States, 21 Oct 2012 15:46

If they released the show the day before the sets that's legal?

The UK has so pretty stupid laws. lol

I have only seen two parts of the 4 part first season / movie. They aren't bad.

Posted by Aanchir in United States, 21 Oct 2012 15:49

The 2012 episodes not being on the US site might be because TLG wants to encourage people to watch them on TV or buy them on DVD. After all, TV viewership will play a key role in determining if the TV networks will broadcast LEGO-related programs in the future. This is also related to why I suspect TLG might be ending Ninjago in 2013: they would like to have an unquestionable success story to point to when pitching new shows, and that wouldn't work if they kept the theme going long enough for sales and viewership to slump.

Anyway, thanks for these directions. I might do this sometime, but in the meantime I've got the first two DVD sets (the pilot and episodes 1-13), and there aren't that many times when I'd get a chance to watch the episodes and wouldn't be at my computer. Plus, if I really want a Ninjago fix while I'm on the go, I've got 27 tracks of music from the soundtrack that I got from the site of one of the composers ( http://jayvincentmusic.com/ ).

Posted by MCLegoboy in United States, 21 Oct 2012 16:51

There's also another way to watch the episodes. Just head on over to http://www.watchcartoononline.com/ and you'll find them along with a ton of other stuff including the Lego Star Wars specials that have aired on television.

Posted by jonbuddy in United States, 21 Oct 2012 17:12

If you can isolate the video on the webpage, you can just use Any Video Converter, a freeware program that can pull any kinds of videos from tons of places, like Youtube and such. http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

Posted by chrismajor2124 in United States, 21 Oct 2012 19:36

Warning Huw: The episodes after Day pf the Great Devourer will leave you in misery. The ROTS are all right, but Stone Army is terrible. You've been warned. :D

Posted by followsclosely in United States, 21 Oct 2012 19:57

I don't get why people tolerate Mac products. It should not be that hard to watch "free" content. There is one reason why, and its around $600 a share.

Posted by eggsfooyoung in Canada, 21 Oct 2012 23:01

This is iOS, not Mac. So if you're looking at mobile OSes, Android does not support Flash anymore either. But both Windows and Mac can use Flash.

Posted by simonskluk in United Kingdom, 22 Oct 2012 03:05

your dedication knows no bounds ;-)

Posted by jscutt in United Kingdom, 22 Oct 2012 03:34

NinjaGoHD2 on youtube has most episodes in HD...

http://www.youtube.com/user/NinjaGoHD2

Obviously this works on any platform and you can download with...

Chrome youtube downloader: http://mandel-design.xf.cz/Chrome-Youtube-Downloader/
and then use Avidemux (Free) to merge the two parts: http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/
instructions here: http://superuser.com/questions/43588/how-can-i-merge-two-mp4-files-without-losing-quality

Just another option.

I think the whole series is very well done, my son absolutely loves it and will miss it when it gone. I myself enjoy the film references and the humor which isn't all slap stick.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 22 Oct 2012 04:13

^ I can't be doing with the horrible TV channel logos flashing all over them...

Posted by robbiew in Hong Kong, 22 Oct 2012 08:02

Thanks Huw!

Posted by kaboomlegoman in United States, 22 Oct 2012 20:01

I personally dislike the show. It just.. doesn't go with me. I have expressed extreme hate towards it, but really I just dislike it. However, some of the humor is funny. I just think the whole thing is a bit too... childish... for me.

Posted by Nightshroud99 in Canada, 22 Oct 2012 21:23

^ Well it is a children's show and aimed at young viewers. I've only seen one episode, but yeah I feel the same way.

Posted by Dlakii in Australia, 22 Oct 2012 21:46

^^ A show based on children's construction toys being aimed squarely at children? IMAGINE THAT =O =O =O =O =O =O

(for what it's worth, I've seen one episode and I was pleasantly surprised that it was pretty decent. certainly much better than the Hero Factory TV series, which is just a complete mess [see: Evo casually suggesting genocide as a good thing])

Posted by kaboomlegoman in United States, 23 Oct 2012 18:31

^ I agree about the Hero Factory show. I still don't really like Ninjago...

Posted by bandana-joe in Singapore, 23 Oct 2012 23:21

I thought the episode show on NinjaGO.com on the lego site O_O

Posted by Clan Stonebraker in United States, 26 Oct 2012 00:24

You must be kidding me... My kids love the show and no Ninjago sets at all yet, too young still, but old enough to appreciate the show and dad too. Fortunately for them I've been secretly stockpiling the sets and spinners for when they are older.

Posted by broomhandle in United States, 26 Oct 2012 13:24

leave it to Lego to stop something that is so popular. when you go to any store, ninjago legos are all out of stock. there are plenty of star wars, city etc....

gooooo LEGO!

Posted by mabhatter in United States, 26 Oct 2012 17:17

They seem to be available on iTunes in the US.

You can purchase them and help support Lego Animations!!! It's also easier to watch without the eyepatch.. Ar!

Posted by Aanchir in United States, 26 Oct 2012 17:54

@broomhandle: I think TLG is making a smart move by ending the Ninjago theme and TV series. This way, they will have an unquestionable success story to point to when pitching new series to book publishers and TV stations. Contrast that with BIONICLE, a theme that had immense sales for both its sets and its media in the early years, but which saw both gradually dwindle as time went on until the theme had to be given an extremely low-budget finale in 2010 (immediately following a feature film in 2009 that had disappointing sales).

Also compare Galidor, which was relatively obscure even when it was airing and which ended on a cliffhanger due to poor sales and viewership. Even LEGO Exo-Force had an unresolved cliffhanger as its conclusion. Ninjago, on the other hand, seems to have had an end in sight since early on. The TV networks that aired Ninjago originally signed a contract for 26 episodes of material, and I think WilFilm and the brothers Hageman were smart to use that time to bring it to a heavily-foreshadowed conclusion, rather than having no definite goal and leaving the future of the series up to the mercy of the TV networks and the sales strength of the theme.

Posted by desultor in N/A, 30 Oct 2012 17:55

Thanks for the tips!

I've nabbed the 2012 episodes and the six shorter "mini-movies." Is there a similar source for the 2011 season?

Posted by Aanchir in United States, 31 Oct 2012 09:52

^The 2011 episodes used to be on the same site in four eleven-minute segments, but unfortunately they are no longer there. Not totally sure why. However, you can find the episode broken up the same way here, on the Toys 'R' Us Hong Kong YouTube channel:

Way of the Ninja: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cvl3-OxVQM
The Golden Weapon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QOmgcOWuO4
King of Shadows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suq72Nv2u54
Weapons of Destiny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgSdtgzqrEk

The quality might not be as good as it was on the LEGO site, but it should still be watchable. Wish I could find the original LEGO.com video files for those episodes, but if you need them in higher quality they aren't too expensive on iTunes.

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