LEGO Studios: The major impact of a minor LEGO theme - The History of Brickfilms (LEGO animations)

The 2000 release of the LEGO Studios Steven Spielberg MovieMaker Set is the clearest turning point in brickfilming history, greatly influencing LEGO animation to become a widely practiced hobby. This video documentary chronicles the history and impact of the LEGO Studios theme, both in regards to brickfilming and in regards to how the theme fits in the overall LEGO canon. It also aims to cover some of the general brickfilming practices and struggles of the era, and features interviews with David Pagano of Paganomation and Kevin Ulrich of BrotherhoodWorkshop, explaining how LEGO Studios helped to influence their hobbies and eventual careers.

This video is the culmination of coming on half a decade of on-and-off researching, collecting, and contacting. I cracked some of the longest-running mysteries in brickfilming for this video, as prior to my hunting, it was unknown to the community who created Dino Cop, and who created the brickfilms included on the LEGO Studios software CD. Trying to find the answers to those felt like banging my head against two separate brick walls, but we had a bit of a mantra that we could not make this video without that information, and so I persevered and eventually found the right chains of people to contact to get the answer to each. Additionally, before I got on the case, there were only two Studios contest finalists known to be available, but now all nine are located. Similarly, there were only two of the user-submitted films from the LEGO Studios website known to be around, but now all but one are located. Also, Scary Thriller: Director's Cut was only around in horrendous quality, and Dino Cop wasn't around in the best quality either, but I managed to acquire higher quality copies of those films for this video (in addition to the Dino Cop theatrical trailer, which I never even expected to be able to acquire).

For more information:

To buy the documentary 'Bricks in Motion', which the Kevin Ulrich interview footage was originally shot for (the footage used in this video was not used in the documentary):

Note: The picture of Spielberg at the 3-minute mark is uncredited, but I have since discovered that the photographer was Kevin Jones.

Chapters:
0:00 Before the release of LEGO Studios
4:33 Dino Cop w/ director interview
6:54 Poor image quality of LEGO Studios
8:23 Contents of the LEGO Studios MovieMaker Set
11:31 First wave of additional Studios sets
12:16 Early LEGO Studios films
14:52 LEGO Studios Movie Making contests w/ David Pagano interview
28:44 Subsequent LEGO Studios sets
33:37 Discontinuation of LEGO Studios
35:19 Major lasting influence of LEGO Studios
42:25 Interview sections with David Pagano and Brotherhood Workshop
47:26 Standout LEGO Studios brickfilms showcase
51:37 Ending

[TheLeggedOne]

1:51 The marketer behind this ad should be on a watchlist by now

[OrbitalLizardStudios]

36:51 look at that video title lol “Jar Jar Binks and the French Revolution” i hope that video is still up on the internet somewhere

[cavespidergamingyt]

41:26 I recognize that torso anywhere, the guy handing the gifts has Peter Parker’s torso from 2002!

[OmegaEnvych]

From what I remember about Lego Movie Maker - is that filming ANYTHING on that software was already an achievement. My cousin had this set and when we would try to make our own movie, software would either lock up, crash or have some other issues all the time. Importing images, importing videos, editing video, saving and exporting video - all of that was a huge gamble - likely app would just crash. Or won't save last 2 hours of work. Or would save earlier save. Or it would save video but you wouldn't be able to watch it. But the main set itself was a lot of fun to build and work... so... basically it was just a good lego set. As always.

[TheBrickBro]

Lego really should make a new version of the studios set. It would be amazing

[JustDontCall]

The reason why this took 2 years Because this is a masterpiece

[dalek]

That end quote by David Pagano makes me feel warm inside somehow.

[NathanWells]

I don't know why people claim Beast is my best brickfilm when clearly I peaked with Super-Brilliant Sheriff.

[SuitedNinjaNerdStudios]

Really great retrospective of an era before my time. Love how I never even grew up with Studios and yet it feels so nostalgic to me.

[TheJumiFilm]

Now I have something to watch while making my own brickfilms!

[Styrophoamicus]

Lego Studios was a huge part of my childhood, and even though most of my films involved lego people being eaten by various things, it gave me a solid foundation for filmmaking, video editing, and animating. Thanks for the great documentary.

[eclipsefx]

37:08 - Hahaha, spotted :D
Awesome video through & through, and so great to get a full picture surrounding the LEGO kits / theme that got many of us started back in the day...
// Andreas, a.k.a. "AMS Productions"

[eamonhewitt]

I loved Batman: Revenge growing up. Must’ve rewatched that film billions of times

[SergioRStudios]

It is 2022 and my mom recently bought me this set off ebay for my birthday and now I use it in my brickfilms all day

[thegame]

I don't usually like really long videos because they are boring, but this video was awesome, entertaining and very interesting i loved it!

[thedetective]

Came here from the J2G video. I didn't grow up with this theme, heck it was discontinued before I was born, however I was a HUGE fan of this theme as a kid. Unlike a lot of my friend in elementary school, I was OBSESSED with older themes, namely johnny thunder and adventurers/orient expedition. I fell in love with the whole monster theme of the monster studios sets and the rest of the theme had these crazy gimmicks I loved. Thank you for making such an amazing documentary, I knew some of this info already however I enjoyed every second of it!

[mr.strawberry]

Pagano was one of my biggest inspirations when i first downloaded stop motion studio when i was 7 - 8, and he's still one on of my favourite stop motion animators, even now that I'm 13, I've started over, and i put way more effort into my animations!

[starwarsstudio]

This was pretty interesting. Well done, man. keep up the good work!

[XerxesAnimations]

47:08 woah that's nostalgic I love lego castle war,

[LonecloneProductions]

Immaculate. I imagine you're gonna have a hell of a time getting into internet communities, tons of content to cover. Best of luck man!