This was to be a trip of indulgence for an already very spoilt family member. My son had visited LEGOLAND MALAYSIA twice this year, and there was no doubt in his parents’ mind that this was plenty. However, I changed my mind when I saw the invitation titled “LEGOLAND: Ninjago – The Realm of Shadows”.
Sorry, but this had my son’s name on it.
My son Philip is five years old and one dedicated LEGO Ninjago fan. He has watched all the TV shows, has a room full of LEGO Ninjago and his birthday last year was spent with his four other Ninjagao-dressed friends, eating Ninjago cupcakes while running around LEGOLAND.
His passion for LEGO is hardly surprising. Born in Denmark – the country where LEGO was invented – my husband and I were brought up with the small plastic bricks from early on in our lives. Back then, the style was more simple, but the joy was the same. I remember my first and only visit as a child to LEGOLAND BiLLUND in detail – I was also five.
Now, on our two previous trips to LEGOLAND MALAYSIA, the Ninjago universe was nowhere to be seen and none of the six LEGOLANDS has ever hosted a show with the actual characters. This performance was the world premiere, a premiere that incidentally happened to take place on Philip’s last day of holidays.
So ok, a three-time-spoilt-rotten-child it was then, and off we went. The event would take up some time, which meant that Philip and I only had about two to three hours to enjoy the rest of the park. (Not a lot, I might add.)
With our limited time, the knowledge of the park from previous visits came in handy. And the beauty of being in LEGOLAND on a weekday is that you don’t have to queue. The Ninjago event would take place in LEGO CITY, so we began our visit at the other end, starting off with the “Technic Twister” ride.
After some dizziness, we quickly passed through the rest of TECHNIC and moved on to STARWARS. This feature is still one of Philip’s favorites, despite the fact that it is a mere short cartoon followed by LEGO STARWARS displays. But hey, there’s more fun to it — think of all the green buttons you can press to get all the displays to move. And then, to top it off, LEGO Darth Vader in full body armour outside, high-fiving Philip. This was going well.
“Are we going to Ninjago now?” Philip soon asked.
Nooo … not just yet.
Swiftly, we were off to KINGDOM to ride another favourite of Philip, the “Dragons’s Apprentice”. It’s a light version of “The Dragon” rollercoaster, but one that gave us both enough butterflies to let this “apprentice” take us for another ride.
“Are we going to Ninjago now”? The impatient fan asked yet again.
At this stage we only had half an hour left and zoomed through IMAGINATION (mainly a playground for toddlers) and off to LAND OF ADVENTURE, where there were two favorites of Philip. Although “Pharaoh’s Revenge” is really just an indoor playground with balls flying everywhere, Philip adores it, because he’s part of the game and loves firing the ball-guns. “Lost Kingdom Adventure” is impressive in its layout and fun to ‘drive’ through, while attempting to use your laser gun to shoot everything that comes your way.
“Muuum, are we going to Ninjago now?”
YES. And in perfect time. We’d reached LEGO CITY and the “City Stage”, where the big premiere was going to take place. A ton of photographers had lined up to hear the speeches before the big event. Not super exciting for Philip, but he quickly changed his form, when he spotted real life ninjas in action, playing out all the moves he knew so well from the “LEGO Ninjago” films.
And then, the real superstar appeared – human-sized LEGO Ninjago-Kai, as red as the red carpet he stood on, and there was one excited Philip, almost bursting to go and high-five his idol’s funky LEGO hands.
But first, the official opening, camera-posing and then, finally time for Philip to zoom over to pose with his idol and capture the memorabilia, one that will stay with him for a long time.
And it hadn’t even started. In front of us was an amazing stage with props, projections, lights and sound systems, which had us all waiting in suspense. How would these LEGO figures come to life on stage? How would you be able to convey the magic and colorful world of Ninjago into a small theatre like this?
Then the show began, and Philip and I were initially surprised. The Ninjago characters were not adult-sized like Kai on the red carpet, and there were no children inside the 1.2 metre-high figures either. No costumes and no masks. The stars of Ninjago: Kai, Nya, Zane, Cole,Jay, Lloyd and Sensei Wu were all puppets!
To begin with, Philip wasn’t sure what to make of the two ninja-dressed puppeteers running around controlling his idols – it was distracting, but only until you got used to it. The set, the video mapping and illustrations brought the set to life, as were you watching a 3-D film.
The puppets were managed by one point that controlled the head and another that controlled the body. With time, it became natural that the mouth, eyebrows, arms and legs were controlled by these two people. By using puppets rather than people with masks, it was possible to change the characters’ facial expressions, so that they looked and ‘acted’ like the characters from the TV series.
The 20 minutes went fast. Dragons, Shadow Minions, Evil Clouse and the Ninja-team were all part of a story where the sound engineers and the visual effect team took us on a journey that showed a new perspective to how we can experience the LEGO universe. From the room to the TV screen, iPad, LEGOLAND and now on stage.
The subsequent hour in “LEGO City” couldn’t quite match the new addition to the park, but I guess taking the LEGO Driving pass for the third time isn’t as novel as seeing your biggest idols in action.
A spoilt ninja was prepared for school and his mother happy to have made a very big wish come true. Ninjaaago!
