New LEGO short 'The Master' to debut before 'Storks'
Posted by Huw,
From the Hollywood Reporter:
Warner Animation Group has created a comedic animated short, based on its LEGO franchise, that will play in theaters ahead of its animated feature Storks, which opens Sept. 23.
The Master: A LEGO Ninjago Short is based on the LEGO Ninjago series and features Master Wu, voiced by Jackie Chan, who gets into a conflict with Chicken, voiced by Abbi Jacobson. Justin Theroux narrates the story.
From Warner Bros. Pictures and WAG, in association with LEGO System A/S, the five-minute short was directed by Jon Saunders, from a screenplay by Saunders and Ross Evans and story by Saunders, Evans, Carey Yost and Remington D. Donovan. Ryan Halprin produced.
The short announcement follows news that Chan, Jacobson and Theroux have all joined the voice cast forThe LEGO Ninjago Movie, which will also feature Chan voicing Wu and Jacobson voicing a ninja. Theroux will play Garmadon in The LEGO Ninjago Movie, which has a Sept. 22, 2017, release date.
Following the success of 2014’s The LEGO Movie, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (who are executive producers of Storks, The Master and The LEGO Ninjago Movie), WAG also intends to release spin-off feature The LEGO Batman Movie, also planned for a 2017 release, as well as a LEGO Movie sequel, slated for 2019.
The LEGO Movie was the first feature produced through WAG and Storks is the first to also be conceived, as well as produced, under the banner.
In Storks, the storks are out of the baby-delivery business and have found a more lucrative use of their skills in delivering mobile phones and other packages for Cornerstore.com. But when Junior (Andy Samberg) is poised for a big promotion, the business accidently produces a baby and he must deliver it before anyone finds out or risk losing his new job. The film comes from writer-director Nicholas Stoller; director Doug Sweetland, a Pixar alum who directed its animated short Presto; and producer Brad Lewis, a Pixar alum, who produced Ratatouille and co-directed Cars 2 with John Lasseter.
Thanks to aanchir for the news.
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9 comments on this article
Thing is these so-called 'storks' look like seagulls. That is what will influence my whole look at the film.
I have no desire to go see Storks, the film looks like a mess. I guess I will just have to wait until the short shows up on Youtube.
I will wait for YouTube to see the short as I have no interest in seeing the Stork movie yet.
This news was a surprise to me, but a good one! It doesn't really motivate me to see "Storks", which I have no real interest in seeing, but it is great that it will get LEGO Ninjago some further exposure with people who do go see that movie, not to mention give us a preview of what to expect from The LEGO Ninjago Movie in terms of acting and visual style.
Incidentally, the "Storks" release date of September 23, 2016 is when The LEGO Ninjago Movie was originally scheduled to air, before the Spring 2015 announcement that it had been pushed back a year. So it's nice that LEGO will be appearing in theaters on that day after all, just not in the form people expected.
Sounds funny, but I won't be watching that movie haha.
Hmmm ... it appears Lego's blessing of the main movie with a Ninjago short isn't enough to convince the Lego community to watch. :P
Yay news!
How many of each brick headz were made?
I have a hard time picturing Sensei Wu arguing with a chicken. Hopefully the short will end up being one of those funny moments where he is trying to train all of the ninjas and a random chicken keeps showing up and ruining everything he is trying to accomplish. Really the only way I can think of it making any sense at the moment. Either way though, glad to see LEGO will still be making some sort of big screen appearance in 2016!