Legends of Chima

Legends of Chima is an animated science fantasy television series created by Tommy Andreasen and produced by The Lego Group. It was created to coincide with the Lego Legends of Chima line of construction toys. It centers on the fictional world of Chima, a place inhabited by warring tribes of anthropomorphic animals. The series was broadcast on Cartoon Network in the United States. It began with two episodes that aired on January 16, 2013, with the Season 1 finale airing on December 5, 2013. On March 15, 2014, Season 2 premiered on Cartoon Network and ended on April 19 of the same year. Season 3 aired on August 9 and ended on November 22, 2014.
Chima is a pristine realm filled with tribes consisting of various anthropomorphic animals. It is later revealed to be one of the 16 Realms near the realm of Ninjago. As told in the great stories by Fluminox and Lagravis, Chima used to be inhabited by incipient, ordinary animals until the mysterious elemental Chi evolved them. Only a handful of species evolved initially, but evolution increased after the war between the Phoenix and Hunter tribes, led by the warlord Fangar. To defeat them, the Phoenix performs a "Great Illumination" to imprison the Hunters in a dreamless sleep, causing the mountain, Cavora, to suspend above the continent and distribute Chi water to every species in the form of drinkable water. They existed for thousands of years, and inevitably, the civilizations suffered from regular warfare even before the present.
When young Prince Cragger loses his parents in the Gorge of Eternal Depth and becomes the King of the Crocodile Tribe, his sister Crooler uses Persuader Plants to force him to do whatever she wants (mostly to destroy the Lions). His former best friend, Prince Laval of the Lion Tribe, becomes his worst enemy. Thus, a terrible war breaks out between the eight animal tribes over the powerful Chi, a substance that can both sustain and destroy life. Before the final battle, a black cloud stops the Chi Falls. At the final battle, since Crooler has run out of Persuader Plants, and Laval fakes his death, Cragger is redeemed and apologizes for everything he has done. It is revealed that Laval faked his death to find the Crocodile Legend Beast, along with Cragger's mother.
When the Crawlers use the advantages of the tribal war for the Chi to steal the Chi from Mount Cavora by blocking the falls, representatives from the eight main tribes of Chima must travel to the Outlands to rescue the eight Legend Beasts, which are the keys to restoring the falls of Mount Cavora. After the defeat of the Crawlers, the Legend Beasts enter Mount Cavora and unclog the Chi Waterfalls. Chima becomes a peaceful land again. Meanwhile, in the Gorge of Eternal Depth, Scorm, King of the Scorpion tribe, and the Crawler Tribes are angry at Laval for giving him his Chi. He blames the substance for their newfound sentience and feeling of defeat and hopelessness, responding by throwing the Chi to the bottom of the gorge, and unintentionally awakening the Hunter tribes.
As the threat of the ancient Hunter Tribes emerges the heroes of Chima must find the legendary Fire Tribes and unlock the new Fire Chi power to stop the Hunter Tribes from freezing all of Chima. Toward the end of the battles with the Hunter Tribes, the heroes begin their quest for the Fire Wings to stop the Hunter Tribes. The heroes eventually find all 9 and spark another Great Illumination. Because of this, the lands are no longer covered in ice, the Hunter Tribes are redeemed, and Chima becomes a peaceful land. The epilogue reveals that Chima is a realm of a giant floating island hovering above an even larger unknown world.
A series of mini-movies of extra adventures in the land of Chima were uploaded on the Lego website and YouTube channel. A selection of them appeared on special Season 1 Part 1 DVD releases.
Legends of Chima was produced by M2Film, an animation studio in Denmark. The supervising producer was Ole Holm Christensen. Each episode is 22 minutes. The production involved a team of 300 that were based in various locations including Denmark, Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Bangkok. Christensen commented, "Our designers, art directors, animators, everyone couldn't wait to sink their teeth into the project. Our art team, which is spread out all over the world, created lots of concept art for the series. The goal was to create something special that, at least in our view, was unique and hadn't been seen before on television." The artists took their inspiration from a wide variety of sources, including "many different elements of pop culture". The demands of the animation required a Maya-based CG pipeline and heavy render farms, with each episode taking about 12 weeks to produce. The Chima characters were animated to resemble the shiny plastic surfaces of Lego minifigures, rather than recreating animal fur.
In 2021, the co-creator of Lego Ninjago Tommy Andreasen revealed unseen concept art for Legends of Chima on Twitter. Andreasen explained, "This is a concept film that was made to explain Legends of Chima's ending internally. The search for the Fire Wings was intended to be a 6-episode arc which would also have introduced Florax, Flinx's mother, chief botanist of Chima, but plans were revised."
The storyline was written by Los Angeles-based writer John Derevlany. He commented, "Usually things get dramatically scaled back for production reasons. In the case of Legends of Chima, everything got even more epic. I think the show is quite special because it tells simple children’s stories set against incredible action scenes and a very deep, immersive mythology."
On 9 July 2013, Brian Lowry for Variety commented that Legends of Chima is, "an elaborate hodge-podge culled from a half-dozen familiar properties — including the Force-like powers Laval's dad possesses and the hovering vehicles upon which characters zoom around — and appears to exist for no other reason than to sell brightly hued little action figures." Emily Ashby for Common Sense Media gave the series a four out of five-star rating and commented, "Legends of Chima is a thoughtful, beautifully designed animated series that exceeds expectations for a story designed to sell accompanying toys. From the characters' complicated relationships to the mysticism behind the evolution of the talking animal species, this is far more than a one-dimensional tale meant to merely fill kids' time. Instead ,it explores friendship, trust, loyalty, and honesty against a backdrop of conflict that's mild enough to appeal to grade schoolers (and their parents)."
The series premiere was watched by 1.5 million viewers, making it the 10th highest-rated show overall on cable that night.
The music for Legends of Chima was written by Danish composer Anthony Lledo who had worked together with Peder Pedersen on the director's Indiana Jones and Star WarWars-themedgo shorts. The music was awarded the 2013 Cue Award for Best Television Score and has been released on two soundtrack albums by MovieScore Media.
Legends of Chima (Released 2013)
Legends of Chima Vol. 2 (Released 2015)
In 2015, it's revealed in the season finale of Ninjago season 5, 'Curseworld Part II', that Chima is one of the 16 realms that runs parallel to Ninjago. It featured an altered scene from episode 15 of Chima. In Ninjago: Dragons Rising, after all 16 realms merged with Ninjago, it was revealed that Chima is in fact part of a larger realm, called the Wyldness. It's speculated that the villain Lord Ras is from Chima.
In Nexo Knights in 2016, two scenes show Chima and Eris in cameos.