LEGO Friends: Friends Are Forever (DVD) – Series Review
LEGO has been a very successful brand of both toys and movies, they just had one little problem: only boys were buying their items, because they are the target demographic and because most LEGO toys involve some kind of warrior. In order to expand their audience, LEGO has created something new: LEGO Friends, a toy line targeting young girls, with new puppets and a lot of bright happy colors. In order to celebrate this new toy line, they’ve also created a series about it.
In LEGO Friends: Friends Are Forever we are introduced to the five main characters of the new show. We have Olivia, Andrea, Emma, Mia and Stephanie, who all live in the quiet Heartlake City. LEGO Friends: Friends Are Forever has three episodes, each involving adventures the five friends share. In “New Girl in Town”, Olivia arrives in Heartlake City, where the animal show “The World Petacular” is happening. When Scarlet, a puppy, goes on a little rampage and ruins a lot of preparation work, the five girls must do their utmost best to salvage the event.
In “Stephanie’s Surprise Party”, the girls want to arrange a surprise party for Stephanie. However, when everyone cancels on Stephanie to prepare for the party, Stephanie starts to get curious and is out for the truth. In the last episode, “Dolphin Cruise”, the five girls content in a science fair and win first price. They get to go on a journey on a yacht and have an incredible adventure on the Dolphin Cruise.
LEGO Friends is the successor of earlier attempts to convince girl to buy LEGO products. While these earlier attempts (for example: Lego Belville) weren’t quite successful, LEGO Friends has been a success for the Danish brand. Since LEGO Friends is targeted at young girls, there are quite a lot of difference to other LEGO shows such as Chima or Ninjago. Firstly, the animation isn’t fully made out of LEGO parts, but has a more real feel to it. One of the biggest differences is the absence of the standard LEGO puppet, this has been replaced by a more doll like figurine in both the toy line and the show. Still, there is some LEGO in the series, mostly in the building and vehicles, so the kids will still know what sets they’ll want to buy.
Story wise there are also some differences, while LEGO’s other shows have an ongoing plot of some kind, LEGO Friends is made up from stand-alone episodes, without a real progression to them. This creates a lack in the show, while the individual stories might be entertaining on their own, you still miss a story arch that spans multiple episodes. There is also a heavy focus on animals, Olivia has a pet dog and cat who get quite a lot of screen time and Mia has a horse named Bella, so if you like animals that’s an added bonus.
The show is a pretty uplifting one, with the main characters refraining from infighting too much. It’s a very positive vibe that runs throughout the series, which is also supported by the color palette the series has. Everything is bright and shiny, with a lot of pastels and of course, pink. Again, the series follows the sets and they have the same bright happy colours.
Music also plays an important factor in LEGO Friends: Friends are Forever. One of the characters, Andrea, is an aspiring artist who creates her own songs and melodies. Of course, this is used as a way to bring in songs to capture the essence of the episode. The songs are pretty average, but may be successful with younger audiences and has spawned some music videos outside the show as well.
Conclusion
LEGO Friends: Friends Are Forever is a new LEGO show with a very different aim, namely girls. As such, it’s quite different from all the other LEGO shows, with a large focus on friends, family and animals, instead of having to defeat a baddie. The animation and music are all entertaining, however, the lack of a story line may prove it hard to hold a long-time interest.
LEGO Friends: Friends Are Forever (DVD) - Series Review,
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