5 LEGO Animated Specials We Need After 'LEGO One Piece'

Picture Credit: Netflix

There’s nothing quite like a LEGO take on a popular franchise. Take the brand-new LEGO One Piece animated special, which — at its best — manages to present a fun and unique recap on the first two seasons of the live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s manga of the same name.

But even beyond One Piece, LEGO can take even the most complex and dense franchise and boil down its lore and plot to an accessible, fun, and all-ages story with fun physical comedy that nevertheless respects and captures the source material. Just ask anyone who has played a LEGO video game based on a movie franchise, or seen one of the LEGO specials for franchises like Star Wars or Jurassic World. Of course, LEGO specials (much like the actual product) aren’t just for kids, but offer a humorous and visually inventive reinterpretation of established and successful franchises.

Now that One Piece got the LEGO treatment, it’s only a matter of time before we get another LEGO animated special on Netflix. With that in mind, here are our picks for the Netflix originals that would make for the best LEGO animated specials.

Stranger Things

Picture: LEGO

Stranger Things is one of the biggest shows Netflix has ever produced, and its biggest original franchise. We already got a Stranger Things stage play in the West End and Broadway, an animated spin-off, and even a mobile video game. What this franchise is missing, of course, is an official LEGO animated special.

There are Stranger Things LEGO sets, so the assets already exist! Now, an animated LEGO special would be the perfect way to introduce new audiences to the franchise, especially kids who weren’t around for the initial release of the show, toning down some of the darker and more violent moments, adding more humor, and summarizing the at times complicated plot.

Indeed, just picture all the hilariously weird ways LEGO could get around to teasing (but not actually showing) the messed-up deaths in the show — like Bob getting eaten alive! — or the inevitable LEGO-specific gags like Vecna dismembering his victims suddenly turning into minifigures just disassembling without any damage done to them. This is not just a way of introducing the show to new viewers, but even for hardcore fans, it’d be a way to revisit the popular series without having to get through the slower or more awkwardly paced stories. Quite the opposite, as a recap special, a LEGO Stranger Things animated special would definitely find a way to poke fun at the Season 2 episode where Eleven goes on her own solo adventure that was very weirdly placed and received at the time, but in a way that’s actually satisfying to watch. Who knows, maybe LEGO could even make the underwhelming defeat of Vecna actually thrilling and satisfying!

The Witcher

Though there aren’t official sets for The Witcher, this is a vast fantasy universe that’s just begging to be LEGO-fied. If we go by the assumption that another animated special from the famous Danish building block company is to follow the same format of recapping the events of a big Netflix original series with humor and animation, then The Witcher is a great candidate. For starters, the live-action adaptation of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s book series is already quite convoluted and complicated, especially the first season with its multiple timelines and interconnected storylines.

Imagine the possibilities of a LEGO Jaskier trying and failing to explain the intricacies of the Nilfgaardian invasion or the Conjunction of the Spheres, or the sight of a minifigure Geralt in a tub. The comedic potential of this franchise, as serious and dark as it gets in the live-action adaptation, being remade with bright colors and hyper-expressive LEGO bricks is immense. And let’s not forget about all the fantastical creatures that inhabit the world of The Witcher. Though we don’t have official sets to get an idea how The Witcher would look in brick form, that just means the animators would have free rein to imagine all the wild creatures of The Witcher, a massive LEGO Myriapodan, or a flying Chernobog battling scores of minifigures.

Wednesday

Here is a franchise that already has a LEGO partnership, meaning we know what the world of Tim Burton’s Wednesday would look like in brick form. More importantly, this is a show with such a strong visual language and design that would remain recognizable and unique no matter the medium. Seeing Lurch and Thing move around the manor, the potential of seeing Cousin Itt, and the simple aura of Morticia and Gomez are perfectly cartoonish to be translated into LEGO.

What’s more, Wednesday, and the larger Addams Family universe, is just the kind of tonally distinct franchise that LEGO excels at lampooning. This is a franchise aimed at all ages, that nevertheless features one of the hottest and most sexually charged couples in TV history, which is bound to be portrayed in hilarious ways when translated to kid-friendly LEGO form. Then there’s the actual plot of Wednesday, with convoluted storylines and shocking twists and turns that would make a recap like this the ideal way of explaining just what the hell happens on Wednesday to newcomers.

BoJack Horseman

Picture Credit: Netflix

There are few Netflix originals half as imaginative, visually inventive, narratively experimental, or outright excellent as BoJack Horseman. The story of a horse who was in a very famous TV show back in the ’90s features one of the greatest character arcs in modern television, some of the darkest moments in a TV show regardless of medium, and some of the sharpest, funniest, and most depressingly timely commentary about the entertainment industry. The show is also very much not for kids. But given how BoJack Horseman would often experiment with narrative, like having an entire episode underwater and without any dialogue, why is a LEGO special hard to imagine?

The world of BoJack, with its combination of anthropomorphic animals and humans, would make for a stunning collection of LEGO minifigures. And then there’s the story. Some of the best moments in LEGO narrative — be it video games or animated specials — are when the writers and animators have to recreate adult scenes in brick form. The death of Gennaro in Jurassic Park and the dismembering of Anakin Skywalker become truly delightful moments in their respective LEGO games, while the Rebuild the Galaxy Star Wars miniseries does a great job of lampooning the sequel trilogy without actively mocking it. The same could happen with a LEGO version of BoJack and his many horrible crimes.

Mindhunter

Yes, David Fincher’s Mindhunter. Hear us out.

There is absolutely nothing fantastical or whimsical about this show. It is absolutely not for kids. And it isn’t even that humorous. And yet, that is exactly why LEGO needs to make an animated special about Mindhunter. The moody tone, somber writing, and dark subject matter is perfect for parody, and the juxtaposition of LEGO characters talking about disturbing serial killers is just weird enough that it might work as an animated special. Who knows, a LEGO special might be the closest we could theoretically get to a proper ending to the story.