Unikitty TV series sneak peek this Friday
Posted by TheBrickPal,
It’s finally happening: five months after announcement, Unikitty of The LEGO Movie fame will be making her debut on Cartoon Network in the US this week.
Friday, October 27th at 6:15 PM EST, Warner Bros. Animation’s Unikitty! will air a special preview episode titled “Spoooooky Game”, with an appropriate Halloween theme. Don’t miss it - and if you can’t watch, set your DVR. Check out the tweets from show staff here and here.
The episode synopsis is as follows: Unikitty finds a haunted, old board game, and the players will risk a curse to reach the finish line.
Thanks to CN Schedule Archive for the news. Unikitty! will officially premiere worldwide sometime in 2018.
As ruler of the kingdom, Unikitty has busy days full of royal responsibilities. Unikitty is most interested in making sure everyone is happy and ridding the kingdom of negativity, but don’t misunderstand her optimism – she is one kitty not to be crossed. While she may be full of boundless energy and creativity, Unikitty is a force to be reckoned with if anyone gets in the way of spreading her positive vibes, especially if anyone makes her little brother and best friend, Puppycorn, sad. Also living in the castle are Dr. Fox, the resident scientist, and Unikitty’s trusty bodyguard, Hawkodile. Through it all, Unikitty and her friends make sure that every day is the happiest and most creative ever.
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44 comments on this article
awesome
That's gonna flop.
Why do I feel like this show won't get very many positive reviews?
This is of course for kids, and the metrics are quite different than for other shows. So it's basically asinine to draw any conclusions about its potential success or failure at this time. Having said that, I feel like the moment for this show has passed...it's been 3.5 years since The Lego Movie arrived in theatres, and Unikitty hasn't really been a prominent presence in the time since (unless I'm mistaken).
Looks like MLP, will pass.
Perhaps this is why LEGO's profits are dropping... It seems they've been putting quite a bit of money into the combination of technology with their bricks, what with Dimensions, the LEGO movies and video games, and now this. I'm no business expert, but maybe all customers really want is the good old building sets. Didn't LEGO go through a similar phase back in 2003?
So ... it'll be cancelled in five minutes, then?
^ Now, don’t be so pessimistic. I hope to be pleasantly surprised!
You know, they said Mixels would flop too, and we got, what 8 waves out of them?
Here's hoping Unikitty the Show will lead to some inexpensive bizarro Unikitty Lego sets in 2018.
Can't be any crazier than the other trippy kids cartoons nowadays. Perhaps there will actually be a semblance of a plot in the Unikitty show. We can't pre-judge until we see it in full - in my case that might take a while in the UK.
As per Kheldar's comment above, I can't help but think this would've been an ideal show to go out 6-12 months after the Lego Movie release - or at least less than 2 years after the Lego Movie to capture a little more interest in the character.
Interesting to note that all the named characters thus far are combinations of different animals, except for one... Dr. Fox, the scientist. Perhaps all the characters are actually failed experiments of a malevolent scientist?
Foxes are known to for their mischievous nature...
@TheMikeAwakens: LEGO’s profits are still way higher than they were at any point pre-2015, and it’s not like a Unikitty show is somehow taking the place of successful building sets. The situation in 2003 was not remotely similar — and anyway, the only theme that actually succeeded and saved the company from bankruptcy that year was Bionicle, one of the least traditional and most heavily media-supported themes the LEGO Group has ever created at that point! How, then, do you look at that and say that media-supported themes are the problem!
Eh, I'll see what it is like.
@Aanchir: It was just an idea. As I said, I'm no expert and was not claiming that my statements were factual. I'm just saying a lot of money is being spent on things other than the traditional building sets, and that is what's reminiscent of the situation in 2003. Not that LEGO is anywhere near bankruptcy.
Unikitty is very lovely and very well created, with cute look and unique character in the movie. I'm glad that there will be a cartoon series coming!
They will fail if there will be no sets.
^Well, how long did mixels last?
No. Just please no.
In Holland we have a saying: "Schoenmaker blijf bij je leest" That translates roughly to: "Stick to what you know" Dear people at Lego. People want building sets. Preferably affordable ones. Stop trowing money in there bottomless pits. Learn from previous mistakes.
If this lasts for a second season, I'll be genuinely surprised. Listen up, LEGO, this is a risky move!
@Aanchir, don't forget the role that the Star Wars license played in keeping the LEGO Group afloat in the early 00's played! As for this Unikitty cartoon, again LEGO is trying to hop onto a bandwagon that has long passed. Less than 1 year after The LEGO Movie was released would have been optimal for a cartoon like this. As for the cartoon itself, I'm looking forward to it almost as much as I'm looking forward to passing my next kidney stone.
What if you don't have a tv, can you watch it on your computer?
@Beast76: LEGO has been releasing more building sets than ever, and many of them are about as affordable as ever. Where do people keep getting this insane idea that LEGO has stopped focusing on building sets?
@LegoSolo77: Star Wars helped the LEGO Group's bottom line… in years that new movies came out. But in doing so it also gave them a false sense of security that kept them from realizing many of the ineffective ways they were operating as a business. In 2003, when there were no new Star Wars or Spider-Man or Harry Potter movies, the sales and profits of all three of those lines plummeted, and Bionicle was the only non-licensed theme that generated ANY net profits that year, let alone enough to pick up the slack.
@catwheeler: Probably not. Cartoon Network does let you watch their shows on their website and app, but only if you have a cable subscription that includes Cartoon Network. It might be available online in some form eventually, but probably not right when it first airs.
I'm personally excited for the series, it seems like fun!
Also, this is just a preview episode that popped up in a surprise, there's always the chance for sets to show up, this is just a sneak peek, is all.
Has anyone heard if they are making sets to go along with the show? Curious to see if it is directed more towards girls or not ??
@Newln, ah, but it could be a Fox/Ox hybrid!
Not my style, but I never understood the appeal of Ninjago or Bionicle either, so I'm not necessarily the guy to ask. I can't imagine there won't be crazy new sets from this, so bring on Dr Moreau Junior.
I am still hoping for something with Benny in it...
He HAS to be my favorite character from The Lego Movie
I'm actually kinda hoping this'll be "bad"
From the LEGO Movie I always got the impression that Unikitty was from some cheesy/annoying kids show but was such a fun character people liked her anyway, like Thomas the Tank Engine or half the characters on MLP. Maybe this'll be a satire on kids shows, similar to how Adult Swim handles shows (purposefully bad, because it's funny!)
Will give the first episode a try - I'm expecting it to have decent animation combined with awful "how do you do fellow kids dab me outside lol xd"-tier writing, but I'm all for being proven wrong and for the show to actually be decent. Here's hoping!
https://youtu.be/-z2G_oxoE9U First clip is out. Thoughts?
^Looks like Teen Titans Go, Lego edition to me. They didn't even get the same voice actress. If it actually gets a progressive story, then maybe, but if not, I'll pass.
^^ good quality animation and popping colour. Also the Unikitty voice actress is a fairly good match. It's still very hard to tell whether the short stories will work well based on the small clip but it's a good teaser for the episode itself. What's in the Spooooky Game?!
My greatest fear is that this won't be good. Still though, it ought to spawn a few sets with Unikitty, and I'd love to get a physical version of some of the other characters (namely Dr. Fox and the dog: I can't remember its name.) Here's hoping it will be good!
I always thought that Star Wars was the main thing that kept Lego afloat in the early 00s and things like Jack Stone, galidor and over juniorization were killing them off.
Although the situation and slight drop in profits Lego is experiencing now is nowhere near as bad as it was back then and hopefully never will be, they have been starting to make the same mistakes again by trying to have their fingers in too many pies.
Cartoon is sooo far away from bricks. Sad.
To all those people comparing TLG's financial situation today with the early 2000's: keep in mind that back then TLG was doing everything in-house, including having a game publishing division. Today anything non-brick related is through licensing agreements, eliminating/reducing the financial risk involved.
Brickset already has 816 sets in the database for 2017, and will likely surpass the previous record of 820 sets in 2016. Yes, maybe they do not all appeal to you, but TLG is absolutely focused on bringing out building sets.
I don't know what the fuss is about.
If TLG thinks that they will in some way profit from these TV shows, then by all means, make as many as you like.
I am not the target audience, but my kids would be. Otoh, none of these shows were ever shown here to my knowledge, apart from Ninjago and Friends. My kids have about four dedicated kids' TV channels to choose from, and none of them had ever shown anything like Mixels, Bionicle, or whatever.
If it weren't for Brickset, I would never have known that for example Mixels had their own TV show, let alone Bionicle, Nexo Knights, Unikitty or any others. Not that I would have been interested anyway, seeing how awful even Ninjago is to watch. My kids are avid Lego fans, but even they switch channels when Ninjago is on, because they don't like it. Same with Friends. They have loads of sets, yet find the TV show totally lame.
That's the beauty of stuff on TV. If you don't like it, don't watch it. Simple.
That Youtube clip was ... awful. I could barely last through the opening intro clip. Yeah, this isn't going to last.
^Plus, some will be gaming or having dinner at that time as well (The Brick Show twice was mentioning Mario Odyssey).
Just watched the preview clip, and it definitely has me excited! While I wish Tara Strong could have pitched her voice up a bit higher to sound more like Alison Brie's portrayal of Unikitty in The LEGO Movie, the frenetic pace and silly sense of humor definitely gets across that Cloud Cuckoo Land vibe. Contrary to a lot of the comments here, I don't think that it would particularly benefit from an overarching narrative/continuity between episodes. Silly, independent stories feel very true to who Unikitty is as a character, and while her emotional growth in The LEGO Movie was quite heartwarming, I think even an eleven-minute episode leaves plenty of room to introduce and resolve a personal obstacle. Plenty of early SpongeBob SquarePants episodes as well as classic cartoons like Looney Tunes or Tom & Jerry are a testament to this.
@AustinPowers: Sorry to hear your kids don't like the Ninjago TV series. It's one of my favorite cartoons even counting non-LEGO ones. I imagine the reason you only learned of the Bionicle cartoon through Brickset is that it was a Netflix exclusive, so didn't air on regular TV networks.
^ I kind of agree and disagree at the same time. I've seen a selection of Ninjago episodes from certain series (seasons). I'm not surprised it's one of your favourite cartoons because pretty much all the characters are good and develop throughout, with an overarching narrative for each episode that continues for the next.
There's something I'm not a massive fan of with the randomness of short stories that don't really have anything to do with each other as my tastes in tv in general have developed - but then that's usually a sign of focus on comedy rather than dramatic character development. Given the subject matter comedy should definitely be the focus for Unikitty! I wish we had just seen that little bit more in the clip to locate some more material though.
^^ Aanchir, remember that my kids are girls. Perhaps Ninjago is more for boys. Then again, even I didn't enjoy it. But that doesn't mean much, I don't like most modern kids TV shows, especially computer generated ones, which seem to make up almost the entirety nowadays. Just seems so "cheap" and lame. I prefer traditional animation. Like with the Simpsons for example. I much prefer the old stuff like seasons one to ten roughly. The newer seasons that look so artifical just don't do it for me - and those even try to look like traditional hand-drawn animation.
I would have been interested to see some Mixels episodes, just out of curiosity, because I loved that Lego theme very much. But Mixels was never shown here and to my knowledge is not available on any free-TV channel within my reach.
Well, I don't think I am the target demographic for that show...
I do have two specific critiques:
1) they amplified Unikitty's annoying aspects from the film while downplaying the depth of her character. It's too bad to see her re-interpreted in a more shallow way.
2) the show doesn't look "LEGO" at all, just standard low cost cell animation. I would have liked to seen a more deliberate nod, with bricks and studs in the world.