LEGO has brought back Ninjago for a third season to the Cartoon Network. It begins with the Ninjas as teachers in a school outside of New Ninjago City. Since they believe they have defeated the Overlord, their powers are not needed, and Lloyd, the Golden Ninja, is off receiving awards and accolades all around the world. So while the rest of the Ninjas (Zane, Kai, Jay, and Cole) are helping shape the minds of the youth, they are also bored out of their minds because they aren’t getting to be Ninjas. Nya is teaching with them and still falling for Jay. New Ninjago City is more high tech than ever and the old ways of the Ninja just don’t have a place.
The school gets invited to take a field trip to tour Borg Industries, which has been built on the site where the Overlord was defeated. The Ninjas and their students jump at the chance and take the trip to New Ninjago City.
When they arrive at Borg Industries, they are greeted by a droid named P.I.X.A.L. who scans Zane and the two begin to have a connection, Although Zane is a droid, he begins to feel some things outside of his programming for P.I.X.A.L. And while waiting for the tour to begin, Nya steps onto a love-match computer that is supposed to tell her who her perfect match is, which she assumes will be Jay, but to her surprise, the machine tells her it is Cole. Thus, begins a new struggle for Nya amongst the two Ninjas.
While Sensei Wu and Nya take the students on a tour led by P.I.X.A.L, the Ninjas are invited up to meet Cyrus Borg in his office. Once in the office, Borg presents the Ninjas with a golden statue and also with a warning. Borg abruptly ends their meeting and sends them off. While inside the elevator to rejoin the rest of the group, the Ninjas drop the statue and find new Ninja outfits and new weapons (Techno-blades) hidden inside the statue. They wonder why Borg has given them these outfits and weapons but soon realize that the Overlord hasn’t been defeated completely when they begin to be attacked during their visit.
This is how Ninjago Season Three begins and on this DVD, the audience gets the first four episodes of the season, “The Surge,” “The Art of the Silent Fist,” “Black Out,” and “The Curse of the Golden Monster.” These four episodes hold a lot of surprises about good and evil that I wont ruin for you. And although LEGO packs a lot of action into these four episodes, there are clearly quite a few more to before we get any real resolutions.
For those who have watched the other seasons of Ninjago, the Ninjas have not only a new look this season, but new weapons as well. Some of the other characters, like the Nindroids, are getting made over as well. And of course if there are new looks for the LEGO characters on television, there are also new LEGO Ninjago toys hitting the shelves.
The Ninjago series is definitely geared towards a younger audience than The LEGO Movie, but I still found myself laughing at the clever writing that come from Dan and Kevin Hageman, the brothers who write the Ninjago series. It also teaches a lot of good life lessons through the discipline that the Ninjas must embrace in their practice. The lessons seem very accessible to kids and although this could be thought of as a series for boys, it is just as accessible to girls as well.
Ninjago viewers will have to tune in to see if the Overlord will be defeated and also to see who Nya will ultimately end up with. Will it be Jay or Cole? Will we find out if Zane and P.I.X.A.L. have a future together? Tune into Cartoon Network and watch Ninjago to find out.
