Lego One Piece Animation Review

Lego One Piece has a lot of different audiences to try to please. The potential viewers here might be LEGO fans, One Piece anime/manga fans, One Piece live-action fans, and within all of those groups there might be a pretty wide gamut of ages. I don't think it would be a surprise to find a large percentage of folks who are fans of all of the above (that's where I find myself). Yet at the same time it's no stretch to imagine that a prospective audience member might only be a fan of one of these properties.

Lego One Piece seems purpose-built to attract newcomers to its constituent parts. The jokes are charming, the action is fun, and there is more than enough information to onboard those who haven't seen any One Piece of either variety. This is buoyed by the fact that the two episodes run a half hour each, making for roughly an hour of light-hearted programming that nearly anyone can watch and enjoy.

The reason for this is the framing device used for these episodes. Lego One Piece is essentially a clip show retelling the events of the two Netflix live-action seasons. As with all good clip shows, there is a helpful nesting doll of context: Usopp is recounting the crew's prior adventures to Chopper after the latter joins the crew. What's great about this is that it weaves together a number of in-universe and out-of-universe needs into one helpful package.

This conceit does more than provide context, though. This is a character-building opportunity as it shows Usopp's penchant for exaggerating stories and spinning tall tales. It also gives Chopper a chance to relate his version of events with childlike glee. So while these are helpful recaps for existing fans, the narrators' own peculiarities help deepen our understanding of their personalities while at the same time excusing any creative liberties taken with the retelling. It is, after all, their story.

It also fits nicely into the headspaces of existing fans as well. Even if you only watch the anime or read the manga and have never engaged with the Netflix live-action series, this brings something interesting to the table. Presumably the Straw Hat Pirates would have had to tell Chopper about all their adventures once he joined the crew. It squares nicely with the existing lore, and while you personally may not agree with every choice, it is a nice thought exercise to consider what the crew may have told their brand new team member upon his arrival.

There area few hiccups in this outing though. For one thing, it's not the best work Lego has ever done. It has a certain boilerplate level of charm, comedy, and action that you have likely come to expect from Lego adaptations at this point. That said, none of those individual elements are anything to write home about: it has a few sensible chuckles and neat-ish fight sequences, but you've seen as good or better from half a dozen other Lego multimedia works at this point. There's also a general sense that this is too many steps removed to retain that essential quality that makes One Piece a monumental work. At this stage we're approaching the upper limit of distance from the core source material: this is a Lego cartoon adaptation of a retelling of a live-action remake of an anime/manga. We're entering Mel Brooks' level of “I'm your cousin's sister's aunt's brother twice removed” yadda yadda. It doesn't make it a fruitless endeavour, but there is an inescapable feeling that some of the shine has been lost through constant regurgitation.

But overall those are minor complaints. Lego One Piece is a short, enjoyable watch that may not always be true to the source material but is honest with you about it. It's worth a watch for the sheer novelty, and I don't think anyone would be poorly served by it, whether a long-time fan or a newcomer looking for an onramp.