Bionicle: The Legend Reborn (2009) (V)

Director:

Mark Baldo

Writer:

Sean Catherine Derek (written by)

Release Date:

15 September 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Once the ruler of an entire universe, the Great Spirit Mata Nui finds himself cast out of his own body...

Plot Keywords:

Traitor | Desert Planet | Wilhelm Scream | Lego | Gladiator

US TV Schedule:

Sun. Dec. 13

1:00 PM

NIK

Cast

Dee Bradley Baker	...	Skrall / Bone Hunters / Vorox (voice)
Jeff Bennett	...	Strakk (voice)
Jim Cummings	...	Ackar (voice)
Michael Dorn	...	Mata Nui (voice)
Mark Famiglietti	...	Gresh (voice)
David Leisure	...	Metus (voice)
Armin Shimerman	...	Raanu (voice)
Marla Sokoloff	...	Kiina (voice)
Fred Tatasciore	...	Tuma (voice)
James Arnold Taylor	...	Berix (voice)

Runtime:

USA:80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

Spanish | French | English

Color:

Color

Certification:

South Korea:All | Hong Kong:I | Australia:PG | Singapore:G

Company:

LEGO

Trivia:

The walls of the secret laboratory of the Great Beings are covered with Bionicle writing. Some interesting words can be read, these include: "LEGO", "Mata Nui", "Bara Magna", "secret lab", "Threshold" (the studio that produced the movie), "Universal", "Bionicle the legend", "2009", "CGCG". "Mata Nui robot" is written over the blueprints of said robot, and the words "heart chamber" point to its chest, while "Bara Magna test site" is written next to it.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Before Kiina jumps into Ackar's house, you can see her dark silhouette standing in the doorway. As she jumps in, now perfectly visible and fully colored thanks to the lighting, she actually appears from behind the silhouette, which gradually disappears as she comes into view.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Mata Nui: [we see a tropical island paradise, in the middle of a beautiful, endless ocean] It is said that all endings are merely beginnings, waiting to be born.
[two brightly glowing eyes suddenly light up below the island]
Mata Nui: My beginning was much the same.
[the ocean waters start to go crazy, the earth rumbles and shatters, mountains crumble, and the tropical island falls apart as a gigantic metal titan awakens and rises up from under it, the broken pieces of the island falling off its enormous body]
Mata Nui: Once I was a towering giant, ruler of my own universe. Fearless. Beholden to none. Protector of my people.
[we see a flourishing civilization of colorful beings, called Matoran, inside the robot's body, each of them happy and cheerful]
Mata Nui: Until I was betrayed.
[the yellow eyes of the robot giant flicker out, darkness falls over the universe inside it, then an evil red glow bursts from the robot's eyes]
Mata Nui: All that I had been, all that I had known was stolen from my by an ever-present evil. My power stripped away. My people enslaved.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Follows Bionicle 2: Legends of Metru Nui (2004) (V)

Reborn or stillborn?

Mata Nui, the great god of the Matorans has been betrayed and stripped of his power. Cast out into the universe, the once powerful deity must now fend for himself as a mere mortal in the barren lands of Bara Magna. there he would face untold dangers, make new comrades, and launch his quest to return to his homeworld and rescue his lost people.

I loved the premise. It is a classic "fall of a king" story coupled with an almost Greek epic styled hero's journey. The story is easy enough to follow, straightforward and with little twists. (there is actually only one twist, but it didn't really catch me by surprise). The creative team manages to throw in an ideal mix of seriousness and fun, with some really good comedy moments involving Mata Nui's inexperience in dealing with Bara Magna inhabitants and adjusting to his new life. A real treat for the whole family to enjoy.

Despite their rather inhuman appearance, I found the characters in this show very appealing and easy to relate to. Granted, some of them may come across as cardboard cutout stock characters from a Saturday morning cartoon, but the very professional level of the acting and a well written script makes up for the perceived lack of character development. Special mention goes to Star Trek: The Next Generation's Michael Dorn(Worf) who nails the role of Mata Nui head on, maintaining a regal air of importance while infusing realistic believability into every spoken line.

No complains as well about the overall look of the show. The character designs are intricately detailed and the movements are fluid. I could not help but be reminded of the robot designs in the live action Transformers movies(of course, Bionicle came before the Transformers movie.) Of course the quality of the CGI in this show is not up to Pixar's standards but it is easily one of the best i've seen in direct to DVD CGI animated movies. Even the gears and turning parts on each character are fully animated and everything is given a dirty gritty look.

Now Bionicle The Legend Reborn may attract viewers by its entertaining story, script, fabulous acting and great graphics, but it would be REALLY HARD for viewers to actually "jump in". For one thing, the movie seems to require some familiarity of the bionicle universe. For casual animation movie fans like me, there just wasn't enough backstory. Is this supposed to be a sequel? or a prequel? Or maybe even a reboot? A small booklet or featurette in the DVD to explain the Bionicle backstory would have benefited the majority of viewers who might not be familiar with the Bionicle brand.

Secondly, I have to sadly admit that the fine looking CGI graphics feel kinda wasted on some terrible scene directing; this is the part where this movie suffers the most. Mark Baldo(whose only other directing credit is a couple of episodes of a TV series called "Father of the Pride") is the director here and his camera work can only be described as "LAZY". Most of the fight scenes are unusually static, as if i'm watching a documentary and not a fight scene in a movie. There is hardly any dramatic effect or intensity conveyed with his lackluster "matter of fact" directing style which leads to some very boring action sequences.

Music was relatively mediocre; sounded like standard dramatic animation movie fare but there were a couple of themes that stood out. The opening theme in particular had just the right epic feel to go with the story. Sound effects could have also been better. Right now, the sound effects come across as too "light", giving a sense of weightlessness to the characters. Tech Specs on the Bionicle wikipedia says that the Bara Magna characters are around 7 feet tall. But those light sounding sound effects and lack of a heavier bass make them seem like only 7 inches tall. Swords clashing sound like toys hitting each other, rocks crumbling down a slope sound like pebbles; that sort of thing.

All in all, Bionicle The Legend Reborn is a valiant attempt at bringing Bionicle once again into the animation DVD market. However, i don't think that this movie would be able to impress anyone but the kids and the hardcore Bionicle fans. Whats more is that there was hardly any publicity about this show prior to its release. Maybe it might attract some Star Trek fans thanks to Michael Dorn's awesome performance. It would not impress and might not even win many new fans, but it sure as hell will be able to entertain. At least until the "hinted-at" sequel comes around.