Elves episode 1 on YouTube

You might want to edit the link you posted. The link starts somewhere halfway through the video. Use this one instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Otnwyl3Cw-4

Haven't got time to watch but only able to leave comment here.... I wonder what does the number "1" mean? Beside whether 24-minutes pilot episode is too short, comparing to Chima and Ninjago, the previous adventure cartoon series, I think this episode already covers all currrent sets and the upcoming summer sets. I don't see that LEGO would immediately give us episode 2 which reviews all the sets again in this year. Could it be a hint that "Episode 2" ensures a second story era / product wave for this theme?

I read elsewhere that this episode aired on the Disney Channel mid-March. I forgot to search to record it and can't confirm that it aired, but I know that I read it was supposed to. It would make sense since Disney Channel airs the Friends episodes.

Yes it aired in the US already. My kids weren't interested in this due to the fact there is zero Lego in it.

It reminds me of cartoons from the 80's

It did air exactly a month ago on Disney Channel. :)

Huw, LEGO has been publishing the full-length Ninjago episodes in English on their YouTube Channel. At least from this season. ;)

I think I'd rather have a tarantula lay eggs in my ear. I won't be putting my squids in front of this. We all much prefer Lego....

We liked it....though it seemed to cover the entire line within the one episode. It as neat to see that every character and set was featured (though much like Friends I wish it looked more Lego than realistic). Heee hee...My girls are pretending to be elves right now as I type this. There was an "Episode 2 Coming Soon" blurb at the end. Not sure what the next episode will be about as they wrapped up the storyline for all the first year sets (including the castle set coming out this summer.

I'll have to give this a shot when my daughter and I get some free time. I keep hoping they'll reveal that Emily is from Heartlake City--that seems like a logical cross-marketing connection somebody should jump on. (I did buy an Emily figure from eBay so my kid can have an extra "Friend", as I really didn't want to go pay $60+ for the giant set she's in.)

Yes, it was already on TV. I do not recall the channel it was on, but we recorded and watched . Everyone here enjoyed it. Okay... Looking I have it recorded from Sunday 3/8 on Disney.

@CortezTheKiller: This is LEGO. Same as how these old Pirates comics were LEGO: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=B&catID=688 Just because it re-imagines the characters as human or human-like characters instead of plastic figurines doesn't mean that it somehow no longer represents the LEGO theme. After all, the whole point of LEGO is imagination, so it's weird to place an arbitrary limit on that by saying "bricks can only represent bricks and minifigures can only represent minifigures".

I'm not sure just what to expect of future episodes, but I can definitely see the potential for "slice-of-life" stories that show us Elvendale in more detail and help bridge the gap between this and whatever next year's big adventure might be. There are a lot of places on the map of Elvendale that haven't been visited, and even some things from the sets that didn't feature in this special (like Farran's pet panther cub Enki, or Aira's creative workshop at Venti High Hill).

Overall, I think this special has a great visual style and a great story. The pacing was a bit rushed towards the very beginning but I think it quickly found its groove. The voice acting and music were top-notch, and the story had some surprisingly heavy themes.

There are some minor things that bother me, though. Namely, the bakery and the crystal hollow are not as interesting to me in the TV special as they are in the sets. In the set, the Bakery is directly adjacent to the lava floe, and the bakery's oven is underneath the lava floe. In the TV special, the lava floe is separated from the bakery, and the bakery has a more conventional oven. Likewise, in the set, the crystals of the Crystal Hollow are growing right out of the tree (or perhaps the other way around). In the TV special, the crystal hollow is just underneath a hill and the tree is simply growing on top of the hill. These changes make the settings more realistic, but as a result they also make them feel a little bit less magical.

What I found most surprising about it was that it only had three voice actors.

It's ok (as in /not terrible/). I didn't expect anything better.

@ResIpsaLoquitur I think it doesn't matter if Emily comes from other LEGO cities like Bricksburg or Ninjago, although I assume that your kid loves Heartlake the most ; ). Of course, only if the storyline would extend to Emily's world so it could be more interesting, like Elves and enemies invade human world or anything else.

As for human representing, a more recent case should be Exo-force,l which share some traits from Japanese battle robot sci-fis. On the other hand, the girls-oriented themes with minidolls were made to be more realistic to appeal non-traditional KFOLs, so it wouldn't be surprising to know that the cartoon advertising prefer to use real human characters, too. I'd be interested to know if other minifigure themes would get some human artworks one day.

I agree that the bakery didn't make good correlation with the lava. It doesn't look magical at all.

I just watched the episode, and I very much liked it. There were a few poorly written lines of dialogue, and I think the story could have benefited from being a five part mini-series with each key being found in one episode and then the fifth episode taking place at the castle. The animation grew on me as the episode progressed, with only Azari's mouth bothering me as it often appeared too large and positioned too low on her face. Her character's personality was off-putting yo me, but that could be seen as a success for the development: each character really does a his or her own personality. Farren, of course, was this father's favorite character.

I'm looking forward to seeing new episodes.