Influences on the Ninjago franchise

Film[]

• Star Wars serves as a major influence.
  • The Hageman Brothers were inspired by Star Wars in making Ninjago a "saga".^[1]
  • Lloyd and Garmadon's relationship is reminiscent of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader's relationship from the original trilogy.
  • The illuma swords from "Child's Play" are clearly based on lightsabers. Starfarer in general, introduced as a comic series in that episode but later shown to be a film or film franchise in "Codename: Arcturus" and several subsequent episodes, appears to be the Ninjago world's equivalent of Star Wars.
  • The "interrupted battles" structure of "Day of the Departed" was inspired by Return of the Jedi.^[2]
  • There are also more minor references in dialogue:
    • Nya says "Never tell me the odds" in "Day of the Great Devourer," referencing Han Solo's line from The Empire Strikes Back.
    • Wu says "I feel there is a great disturbance in the force" in "Darkness Shall Rise," referencing Obi-Wan Kenobi's line, "I felt a great disturbance in the Force," from A New Hope.
    • Zane says the Rift of Return can only be opened every 3,721 years in "Day of the Departed," referencing C3PO's line, "The odds of navigating an asteroid field are 3,720 to 1," from The Empire Strikes Back.
    • Lloyd says "I'm full of surprises" in "Vengeance is Mine!," quoting Luke's line, "You'll find I'm full of surprises" from The Empire Strikes Back.
• According to the Hageman Brothers, Wu was based the general mentor character archetype rather than any one specific character, though he may have been somewhat inspired by Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid films.^[3]
  • Paul Dobson based his voice for Wu current on the common mentor character archetype from martial arts movies he had seen in the past.^[4]
• Mystake's original voice was inspired by "Terry Gilliam’s portrayal of elderly women in Monty Python’s Flying Circus."^[5]
• The Terminator films are referenced several times throughout the original series.
  • Zane's face with half of its robotic side revealed (seen in "Day of the Great Devourer," "The Art of the Silent Fist," and "The Titanium Ninja") resembles that of the Terminator toward the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
  • Rebooted was partially inspired by the original film.^[6]
  • The scene in "True Potential" where Garmadon rams a garbage truck into the police station is likely a reference to The Terminator when the T-800 rams a car into a police station.
  • In "Superstar Rockin' Jay," Beta Jay 137 says, "Come with us if you want to keep playing," referencing Kyle Reese's line to Sarah Connor in the original film, "Come with me if you want to live."
• The title of "Ninjaball Run" is a reference to The Cannonball Run.^[7]
• A few episodes have references to the Back to the Future films.
  • "Wrong Place, Wrong Time" draws heavily from the films.
    • Lloyd fading away from the photograph is a clear reference to the original film in which the Marty and his siblings slowly fade away from the McFly family photograph as a result of Marty McFly's alterations to the timeline.
    • Master Wu says "Great Scott!" when he sees clouds of smoke rolling over Ninjago, referencing Doc Brown's iconic catchphrase.
    • The ninja revisit the events of a previous installment just as Doc and Marty revisit the events of their first film in Back to the Future Part II.
  • In "How to Build a Dragon," Iron Baron exclaims "Manure! I hate manure!" after being covered in dragon dung, referencing the iconic line from the film trilogy.
• The title of "The Day Ninjago Stood Still" is a reference to The Day the Earth Stood Still.
• Apocalypse Now is referenced a few times throughout the franchise.
  • The opening scene of "Island of Darkness" is inspired by the opening sequence of the film.^[8]
  • The film served as an unintentional inspiration for the Dark Island Trilogy, specifically for Wu journeying down the River of Darkness in the Destiny's Bounty.^[9]
  • In "A Line in the Sand," Raggmunk says, "Ah, I just love the smell of screams in the evening." This is a reference to the line, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."
    • The same line is parodied in "The Calm Before the Storm" when Jay says, "I love the smell of arcade in the morning."
  • The river scene in "The Quiet One" is inspired by the film.^[10]
• Rebooted was partially inspired by The Matrix.^[6]
• Cyrus Borg and P.I.X.A.L. were inspired by the Blade Runner characters Dr. Eldon Tyrell and Rachael respectively.^[11][12]
• Tournament of Elements was based on the film, Enter the Dragon.^[13]
  • Clouse was named after Robert Clouse, the director of the film.^[14]
  • When Chen's ferry arrives at the island in "Only One Can Remain," Garmadon says, "Chen lives like a king. Here, he's totally self-sufficient." This is a reference to an early scene in Enter the Dragon, in which Braithwaite tells Lee about the villainous Han and his island, saying, "He lives like a king on that island. Totally self-sufficient."
• Master Chen was based on Lo Pan from the film, Big Trouble in Little China.^[13]
• Indiana Jones is another significant influence throughout the original series.
  • In "Ninja Roll," Kai's line "Skates, why did it have to be skates?" references the line, "Snakes, why did it have to be snakes?"
  • In "Boobytraps and How to Survive Them," Clutch Powers' line about Hageman, "A competitor. He was good. Very good." is a reference to Indiana Jones' line about Forrestal in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  • Master of the Mountain was inspired by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.^[15]
• The Lord of the Rings film series can be seen as an influence at various points throughout the show.
  • In "Spellbound," Garmadon says, "The tournament may be over, but the next Serpentine War may have just begun." This is very similar to Gandalf's line in The Two Towers, "The battle of Helm's Deep is over. The battle for Middle-earth is about to begin."
  • Beta Jay 137's line in "Superstar Rockin' Jay" "There may come a day when the courage of Jays fails ... but this is not that day!" is similar to Aragorn's statement in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, when Aragorn intercedes to the army in front of the Black Gate.
  • In "The Darkest Hour," ninja almost say "You shall not pass!" one word at a time, but Zane misses the reference and says "be granted permission to traverse beyond this point" instead.
  • In a broader sense, Jay Vincent has stated "about 70% of everything I know about film music was from making a [list of musical themes] in high school and studying their every iteration throughout the Lord of the Rings trilogy."^[16]
• The 1978 Superman film is referenced in "Grave Danger," when Jay says, "Kai's got Lloyd, but who's got Kai?" echoing Lois Lane's line, "You've got me? Who's got you?"
• Nadakhan was inspired by Aladdin and Bram Stoker's Dracula.^[17][18]
• The Dark Island Trilogy was partly inspired by the Mad Max film series, specifically Mad Max: Fury Road, being described by Tommy Kalmar as "Ninjago meets Mad Max." This is especially prominent with Kai's story line in the desert in Part 3.^[19]
• "Day of the Departed" was inspired by Game of Death.^[6]
• Buffmillion in "Operation Heavy Metal: Buffmillion" and Fugi-Dove in "Level Thirteen" mimic Peter Parker's dance moves from Spider-Man 3.
• The visual aesthetic of Sons of Garmadon was inspired by Akira.^[20]
• Prime Empire was inspired by Blade Runner and Tron: Legacy.^[21]
• For a brief moment in "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back," Jay and Nya dance like Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction.
• In "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back," Cole says, "Nobody puts Cole in a corner," referencing the line from Dirty Dancing, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."
• The Island was inspired by the setting of the King Kong films.^[22]
• A scene from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was also likely an inspiration in The Island.^[23]
• The intro of Uncut Gems was used as a concept reference for the opening sequence of Crystalized.^[24]

Television[]

• Kevin and Dan Hageman cited The Wire and Breaking Bad as inspirations for the kind of serialized storytelling they wanted to do with Ninjago.^[1]
• Brent Miller drew his performance for Zane from Data from the Star Trek franchise.^[25]
• The Colossus from Sons of Garmadon and Hunted was inspired by Attack on Titan.^[26]
• Much of the episode, "Dungeon Party!," was inspired by the 1980s cartoon, He-Man, and the style of the Filmation company from the 80s.^[27]
• The Island was inspired by the structure of Scooby-Doo.^[22]
  • The structural similarities with Scooby-Doo are as follows: a character or group is shown in the first scene to be attacked by a mysterious villainous force; the next scene has the main cast getting the call to adventure; eventually, it's revealed the monster was a costume or machine set up by an ordinary human who was hinted at earlier in the story. In the finale, Ronin even says a version of the well-known line from Scooby-Doo, "And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids."
  • Zippy's movement is very similar to that of Scooby-Doo himself.

Video games[]

• The shots of the season's mascot ninja in their hoods that opened episodes before Season 11 was inspired by the cover art of The Last Ninja, a game released in 1987 on the Commodore 64.^[28]
• The Vermillion were inspired by the character Death Adder from the video game series, Golden Axe.^[29][30]
• Prime Empire was inspired by the video games Street Fighter II, Dance Dance Revolution, The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Contra, and WipeOut.^[31]

Literature[]

• The Island was inspired by the story idea of "The Monster of the Misty Lake" from the Dutch comic series, Douwe Dabbert).^[22]
• Mark Oliver compared the resurrected Garmadon in Sons of Garmadon to the monster from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, describing how Garmadon lacked full awareness and was in awe at the environment around him at first, which can be heard through his more primitive-sounding voice.^[32] The Hageman Brothers also said they and Oliver "talked literary references when discussing the new Garmadon."^[33]

Music and real-life individuals[]

• Mark Oliver said he "was probably thinking about Jerry Lewis" when he came up with Dr. Julien's voice.^[34]
• Michael Jackson's dance moves are the basis for several moments in scenes.
  • The ninja's Ninjago Talent performance in "The Royal Blacksmiths" is based on the video for The Jackson 5's song, "I Want You Back."^[35]
  • Cole does the moonwalk and says "Hee hee" in "Island of Darkness."
  • The scene where Cole sings "Glow-Worm" in "The Oni and the Dragon" is based on the cinematography from Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" music video.^[36][37]
• Cyrus Borg is based on Steve Jobs.^[11][38]
• Paul Dobson based Flintlocke's voice on that of Matthew McConaughey.^[39]
• Mambo V's name is a reference to the Lou Bega song, "Mambo No. 5."^[40]
• Music inspired by Prince's "1999" is played when Jay makes his entrance in "Superstar Rockin' Jay."^[41]
• Jacob Pevsner's appearance is implied by Tommy Andreasen to be modeled after Bootsy Collins.^[42]

Other[]

• The Oni Masks started with inspiration from BIONICLE, another LEGO theme.^[43]
• The 2D-animated episodes from Season 11 and Season 13 were "inspired by the wealth of Ninjago fan art we have seen over the years. A lot of it was used to in the initial pitch to DHX."^[44] One of these fan-artists was Joshua Deck.^[45]
• Prime Empire was inspired by the Polybius urban legend.^[46]

References[]