Ninja heroes get reboot THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE

U Kick back with the ninja heroes of this entertaining animated action comedy, based on the popular Ninjago TV series. The third in the Lego Movie franchise is aimed at primary school kids, and, once in its rhythm, is another brightly coloured and fast-paced romp.

Lloyd is at high school but his life is complicated by his secret identity as the leader of a team of colour-coded ninjas. With the exception of a girl and a robot, they’re all anonymous blokes.

They protect Ninjago city from the frequent attacks by the warlord Lord Garmadon, who happens to be Lloyd’s estranged father.

When the forbidden Ultimate Weapon is unleashed – a brilliantly funny moment – the ninjas set off to find the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon to defeat Garmadon.

2014’s superior The Lego Movie devised a superb shift into the real world to allow for a father-and-son reconciliation.

In this movie, there’s a brief opening scene in the real world when a young boy encounters Jackie Chan’s wise old shopkeeper. He tells the boy to ignore everything he knows of Ninjago, for he’s about to learn the legend behind the legend. This allows the film to plunge into the animated realm and reboot the characters minus their TV history. For example, there’s no mention of their special powers of Spinjitzu. And everyone having entirely new voices is initially distractingly. Chan also voices the ninja’s teacher, Master Wu. With each ninja having their own mechanised transport such as a dragon, giant spider or huge, shark-firing mechanoid, no child will leave bereft of ideas for Christmas. This hasn’t been such a hit in the US as previous Lego movies, possibly because there are seven series on TV. But mostly, I suspect, because it doesn’t have Batman in it.