As we anticipate the release of LEGO Elves in March, LEGO continues to add new content to the LEGO Elves teaser website. So far we got an intro video about all of the main characters, so let’s take a look. 🙂
In case you haven’t been keeping up, LEGO Elves is centered around the story of Emily Jones, a human girl who enters the secret realm of the elves by chance. Here she meets Aira, Farran, Naida and Azari – four elves with different personalities. Together with them she experiences thrilling adventures on her search for four keys to open a portal and finally return back home. You can also read more about LEGO Elves and see the upcoming sets following the links at the end of this post.
Below I have put together a YouTube playlist, where you can watch all of the introduction videos to the characters. In the first video we meet Emily Jones, the girl who fell through the portal to Elvendale. According to LEGO’s description, she is “She is a smart, quirky and creative girl that dreams about one day returning home to her family”. Then there is Aira, the wind elf. “Wise but undisciplined, she can’t stay in one place for a minute! Plus she loves playing jokes” Then we meet Farran, the earth elf. “He is sensible, nurturing and caring, and dreams about the day the other elves will see him as the true leader he really is.” Next, is Naida, the water elf. “She is the sensitive daydreamer, but is not afraid to follow her dreams (especially if it involves adventures by sea).” And finally we meet Azari, the fire elf. “A passionate, energetic leader, but still inexperienced and quick tempered.”
While the videos are short, the do give a good idea not just of story and characters, but also the voice-over and animation style. I think the story is a great fit for LEGO; blending the real and magical worlds. And this also creates a bridge between the LEGO Friends and LEGO Disney Princess sets – which is quite clever. I’m not sure about the animation though. In general I do like the style, however it is so far away from the look of LEGO. When it comes to LEGO films I much prefer either stop-motion or at least the characters resembling real LEGO minifigures (like in the LEGO Ninjago, LEGO Star Wars, and LEGO Legends of Chima films). I even like the LEGO Friends videos as they use characters that look like the mini-dolls found in the sets, and the rest of the animation is also LEGO-like. Here neither the characters nor the environment resembles the actual LEGO sets.
I’m very much looking forward to the LEGO Elves sets, but I doubt I will watch the videos. They just don’t appeal to me as a LEGO fan. Of course I’m not part of the target audience of seven- to twelve-year-olds, so my opinion doesn’t really count. But in general I’m happy that LEGO is going to release another non-licensed line that I believe will become very popular like the LEGO Friends and LEGO Disney Princess sets. Looks like LEGO finally found the right angle to appeal to girls who would otherwise not be into LEGO and construction toys. You can check out the currently available LEGO Friends and LEGO Disney Princess at the Online LEGO Shop.
So what do you think? How do you like LEGO Elves so far? Are you looking forward to this theme? And what do you think of the character videos? And the story? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉
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I’m looking forward to all the unique parts in these sets. The new fences, leaves, shells, flower stems, colors. Doubt I will watch the videos though. Not my style.
Yeah, the pieces are what I’m looking forward to the most too. And the elves! 😛
cool accessories and pieces for the sets. But eh, not for me. Even though these are (in my opinion) WAY better than Friends. Even though the main targeted audience is girls I feel like some guys could get into this as well. (Not me though) It seems more like girls and guys can like it, as for friends it seems like a “Girl’s club,” am I making any sense? 😕
Yeah, I agree; these sets can appeal to both boys and girls.
I am looking forward to picking up three of the sails on bricklink – so far the only part I’m interested in!
Would you mind sharing what are you planning to do with the sales? They are beautiful pieces indeed! 🙂
I think these are way better than Friends. (One of my sisters think they’re awesome, the other think’s they’re weird.) I won’t be a buyer, but I think it would be cool to see more fantasy style buildings.
Whoops, got my, “thinks” mixed up, my bad.
The sets are up on LEGO Shop US, you can see the prices and pictures:
http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Elves-byTheme 🙂
I’ll probably get Farran and the Crystal Hollow, because it’s only $15 and comes with a load of cool parts. Although Azari’s Bakery is very cool, but $30 is over my current budget.
Ugh, I will not be watching any cartoons about it, though, both the animation and characters are not to my liking. 😕
There’s also a cool landing page (http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Elves) that links to the teaser site and lets you sign up for an e–mail alert when the sets become available, similar to the BIONICLE one that showed up towards the end of last year.
I’m extremely excited for this theme! I have always loved colorful, mythology-rich, character-driven LEGO themes like Ninjago and BIONICLE. And I spent a lot of my teenage years reading traditional fairy tales and folktales, and drawing fantasy characters with elemental powers inspired by what I read. This theme really seems to bring those interests together in a beautiful way! The character designs are elegant, the design language is magical and otherworldly, the story seems compelling, and the sets are packed with awesome features.
I had been saying for over a year that after the incredible success of LEGO Friends, the LEGO Group’s next step should be an in-house, girl-oriented, story-driven fantasy theme, possibly aimed at a slightly older target audience than LEGO Friends sets. These sets have managed to satisfy all of those expectations better than I could have ever dreamed!
The animation style really impresses me. I’m not 100% satisfied, since in some of the clips the lip movements don’t seem to match the voice track, as if the episodes were originally recorded in another language and then dubbed into English. Of course, that might be exactly what happened, which would help justify that dissonance.
I am curious how the full animation will be presented. Will it be a series of web animations? A TV special? A TV miniseries? We haven’t heard anything about this yet… but we HAVE heard a lot promoting the app, which I’m also curious about. I’m hoping for a point-and-click adventure game, since LEGO hasn’t had one of those in a while, and there might not be as much pressure to deliver a fast-paced action game with a girl-oriented theme as there is with a more boy-oriented theme like BIONICLE or Ninjago.
I’m not bothered by the characters and settings not appearing to be made out of LEGO. This is something I’ve seen criticized in other LEGO media as well, but there are several obvious advantages to a more stylized look like this. For one, it will feel less like a toy commercial to parents. Additionally, kids will be able to create the things they see on the show with complete creative freedom, unlike something like The LEGO Movie or the LEGO video games where they might feel discouraged by not being able to use the exact same parts and techniques they see on the screen. If everything, even the things that appear in the sets, is stylized, then there isn’t one obvious “right way” to build all the things that appear in the animations.
Aaanchir, that’s a good point about the animation not being LEGO-ish. I haven’t thought of it from your angle, but it makes a lot of sense. And yes, this is a great expansion of the mini-dolls sets expanding into the world of fantasy. Thanks for sharing your thoughtful insights. 🙂
I just want to say something-in the description for this series, it says, “for KIDS,” Not,”GIRLS.” Plus, I’m pretty sure a lot of Harry Potter Geeks/Sci-Fi Geeks will like these sets. I like these sets but that has nothing to do with gender. It’s just the mystical-ness of it and like you said, it blends Fantasy with Reality. Plus X2, it doesn’t seem that this is as much of a girly-series anyway. It seems more general. Besides, even though there are suggestions doesn’t mean you should always follow them. It just so happens that I am a HUGE Chima Nerd.
Good point about these sets appealing to both boys and girls. This is the first time though that a set with mini-dolls is targeting kids, so this is a pretty major step (in the right direction, I would say). 😉
Well, it’s still pretty plainly marketed at girls. If it wasn’t obvious from the color palette, just look how it’s categorized on shop.LEGO.com.
But the designers definitely seem to recognize that it will have some crossover appeal, considering that one of the five main characters is male, and it’s good to see that the people writing the copy for the website are also seeking to reflect that.
The description on the LEGO website mention “children” not girls: “In LEGO® Elves, teenager Emily Jones has been transported to a magical world. Children must help Emily find her way home, as four Elves (Azari Firedancer, Farran Leafshade, Naida Riverhearth, Aira Windwhistler) embark on an epic quest to find 4 missing keys to a portal. On the journey they will encounter a sailing ship, magical bakery, treetop hideaway and much more. The rich LEGO Elves fantasy world also means childen can easily create their own epic quest with the elvish companions. Discover secret functions in the sets, and watch the magic turn into reality.” I know that they also have them under the girls category, but they put all kinds of odd things there like the LEGO Architecture sets, LEGO Castle, and LEGO DUPLO. 🙄
Oh and besides that you know who my favorite characters are?
Cragger and Worriz!
Tormak 😉
Yesterday the LEGO Group accidentally posted the whole 22-minute mini-movie for this year’s story to the teaser site, but it was taken down within a few hours. But today they’ve replaced that with what they probably meant to upload, which is a new trailer: http://www.lego.com/en-us/videos/themes/elves/trailer-video-the-official-lego-elves-trailer-c0e0eb298efa42a191c19ca653c9c900
Oh, nice! Thanks for sharing that! I like the story and animation, but there is something seriously wrong with the sound. I have noticed this in the previous teasers too, but this trailer is even worse. The background music is too loud and makes the actual conversations mumbled, and the speech doesn’t sync with the movement of the characters. I hope they will fix it before the actual release. 😕