BIONICLE Webisodes

BIONICLE Webisodes
Title card
Animation
Director	Daniel Dion Christensen Steffen Lyhne
Producer	Jeppe Fonnesbæk
Writer	Merlin P. Mann
Narrator	Andrew Jeffers
Starring	Andrew Jeffers
Studio	Advance Dum!Dum! APS
Distributor	The LEGO Group
Release Date	October 9th, 2014 - October 5th, 2015
Runtime	Various
IMDb page

The BIONICLE Webisodes were a series of animations developed by the studios Advance, along with Dum!Dum! APS, detailing the events of 2015's BIONICLE reboot. The animations were done in a two-dimensional format, and were posted to LEGO's various video services periodically.

Episodes

See Also: List of BIONICLE Webisodes

Season		Episodes	Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired
	1	11	October 9, 2014	April 24, 2015
	2	10	July 13, 2015	October 5, 2015

Plot

Season 1

Two Mask Makers, Ekimu and Makuta, create Masks of Power for the Islanders of Okoto. Ekimu's masks are favored over Makuta's, and Makuta grows jealous. Disobeying a sacred law, Makuta forges the Mask of Ultimate Power. When Makuta dons the mask, he is corrupted, and the mask begins to destroy the island. Ekimu knocks the mask from Makuta's face, and a shockwave sends both brothers into an endless sleep and scatters the Masks of Power across Okoto. The Protectors of the time find Ekimu's body and hear the Prophecy of Heroes, then lay him to rest in a tomb. They record the Prophecy of Heroes to be passed down through the generations of Protectors.

Thousands of years later, Skull Spiders menace Okoto, seeking the Masks of Power. The current Protectors gather at the Temple of Time to fulfill the Prophecy of Heroes, summoning six Toa onto Okoto. Narmoto, Protector of Fire, greets Tahu upon his arrival in the Region of Fire, and informs him of the situation and his destiny. The other Protectors do so for the other Toa: Kopaka, Onua, Lewa, Pohatu, and Gali. The Protectors guide the Toa through their regions to find their Golden Masks of Power, although they are followed by Skull Spiders. At the shrines of the Golden Masks, the Skull Spiders attack. While the Protectors hold off the Skull Spiders, the Toa claim their Golden Masks, and use the masks' power to defeat the Skull Spiders.

Ekimu sends a vision to Tahu through his Golden Mask of Fire, imploring him to come to the ancient City of the Mask Makers. The six Toa meet outside the city, and Tahu and Kopaka argue over which of them should lead the team. Their argument is interrupted by the approach of the Lord of Skull Spiders. Several of the Toa attempt to defeat him on their own, but fail. Onua suggests they work together, and by coordinating their attacks, the Toa are easily able to defeat the Lord of Skull Spiders. In a vision, Ekimu congratulates the Toa, and urges them to find and awaken him. The Toa proceed into the ruined city, unaware of the Skull Army lurking within.

Season 2

The Toa enter into the City of the Mask Makers, but Tahu steps on a trap, blocking their way, and the Toa are ambushed by Skull Warriors. Onua uses his Earthquake Hammer to bury the Skull Warriors, but breaks down the bridge access to the City in the process, leaving them without a way out.

Lewa spots an Arena while scouting and suggests the Toa investigate it, but Kopaka rejects Lewa's idea. Lewa flies to the arena while the other Toa follow Kopaka's orders. Skull Slicer ambushes Lewa and steals his Golden Mask. The other Toa find Lewa's unconscious body and follow Skull Slicer into the Arena, where they witness him don Lewa's golden mask and begin to drain it of energy. Pohatu explains that there is a link between the Masters and their masks, which is the energy the Skull Creatures are after. Kopaka, Tahu, and Pohatu defend Onua as he smashes the lever needed to win the game, which dispatches Skull Slicer. However, the damage done by Onua collapses the arena.

Freeing themselves from the rubble, the Toa emerge from an underground tunnel into a graveyard, and head towards Ekimu's tomb. Their presence is noticed by the pair of Skull Scorpios, who steal Pohatu's mask and defeat Gali, Tahu, and Onua. Lewa defeats the Scorpios by crushing them with a giant headstone, and the Toa enter Ekimu's mausoleum.

Inside the tomb, Ekimu is awakened, but too late; Kulta, the Skull Grinder, under the command of Makuta, already made off with the Mask of Creation. The group heads to the Forge of the Mask Makers, where they encounter Skull Basher, who steals Onua's mask. Uniting, the Toa defeat Skull Basher and enter the forge. There, Kulta dons the Mask of Creation, and uses the increase in power to defeat the Toa. Ekimu recreates his Hammer of Power and knocks the mask off, defeating Kulta. In the aftermath, Ekimu reforges the Toa's masks and commends them for proving their worth.

Characters

• Okotans
  • The current and the former Protectors
• Mask Makers
• Skull Army
• Toa

Production

A still from a test animation featuring Kopaka

The animations were created by Dum!Dum!, a Copenhagen-based design and animation studio, in conjunction with ADVANCE, who previously worked with LEGO to create media for BIONICLE's first generation. The episodes were written by screenwriter Merlin Mann.

Danish production company Supersonic created sound and music for the series.

Character Animations

A series of twelve animations featuring the primary characters was also produced; each animation was 30 seconds in length, and featured the Toa, the Skull Army, and Ekimu, the Mask Maker.

The first six, featuring the six Masters, was released in the winter; each clip spliced together scenes from Season 1's episodes with new animations depicting the Toa battling the the Lord of Skull Spiders. Each of these animations begins with the Master looking at his or her Golden Mask of Power sitting at its shrine in its region in Okoto. The Master saying his or her name during that. He or she goes to get the mask while saying a statement about what he or she usually does. After the Master says "I'm here to battle evil", several Skull Spiders appear and charge at the Master. The Master notices the Spiders, but persists in going to claim the mask. While the Master is claiming the mask and then engages his or her weapons' battle mode, the Master says "It is my destiny to claim the Golden Mask of Power and become the Master of (his or her element)". Just when the Master approaches the Lord to fight him, the animation ends with the promotional information for the BIONICLE website.

The second six were released in the summer, spotlighting all sets of the second 2015 wave. Each of these animations is about the following six characters from the sets, Skull Warrior, Skull Slicer, Skull Scorpio, Skull Basher, Skull Grinder, and Ekimu. Each of the animations ultilizes scenes from Season 2's episodes, but some of the scenes were changed. The animations also have scenes not shown in the episodes. Each of the animations has a scene with the character and his name. It also shows a scene or two showing the character's equipment. Each of the animations ends with the promotional information for the BIONICLE website. The animations that are about the Skull Army use the scenes from Season 2 while the one about Ekimu is completely made of new scenes. Ekimu's animation starts with him seeing the Mask of Creation on top of a lever in the City of the Mask Makers' arena. Members of the Skull Army from the other animations appear to fight Ekimu to stop him from getting the mask. Ekimu uses the Hammer of Power to shoot projectiles at Skull Grinder's minions to defeat them. He then shoots projectiles at Skull Grinder while Skull Grinder uses his hands to block them. Ekimu charges at Skull Grinder and uses his hammer to bash him in the face. Ekimu jumps to the lever, removes his mask, and replaces it with the Mask of Creation. The animation ends with the promotional information for the website.

Vahi

Every episode released in the first half of the year contains a hidden cameo of the Kanohi Vahi from BIONICLE's first generation:

• In The Legend at 0:52, a cloud can be seen in the shape of the Mask of Time.
• In Prophecy of Heroes, a carving can be seen in the shape of the legendary mask at 0:28.
• In The Arrival, a carving can be seen at 0:14.
  • The scene in Episode 2: The Arrival where the Vahi is hidden also appears at 0:12 in the Masks of Power trailer, but the mask is not present.
• In Quest for the Golden Masks, an outline of the Vahi is formed by flowing lava at 0:55.
• In The Protectors Fight Back, an outline of the Vahi is formed in the lava at 0:55.
  • This scene is also present in Tahu's Character animation at 0:05, with the Vahi in the same place.
• In The Power of the Golden Masks, a carving of the Vahi can be seen behind Tahu at 0:50.
• In Quest of the Mask Maker, a soilform of the Vahi can be seen in front of Onua at 1:20.
• In Team of Heroes, the Vahi can be seen on the mountains behind the Ancient City of the Mask Makers at 0:05.
• In Lord of Skull Spiders, the Vahi can be seen at 1:11, after Tahu knocks the Lord of Skull Spiders down to the floor.
• In The City of Mask Makers, the Vahi can be seen at 0:52, created from cracks on a small structure.

Foreshadowing the 2016 story arc

Each of six of the episodes released in the second half of the year contains a piece of a foreshadowing element to BIONICLE's 2016 story arc. Each of the pieces is located on a spot in the City of the Mask Makers:

• In When Evil Rises at 1:00, the Okotan letter "Y" can be seen on a wall of a building on the right, above a Skull Warrior's head
• In The Game at 0:04, the Okotan letter "I" can be seen on a wall of the Arena, on the Toa's left.
• In Beware their Tail! at 0:23, the Okotan letter "U" can be seen on an obelisk in the graveyard.
• In Unity. Duty. Destiny at 0:25, the Okotan letter "T" can be seen on a side of Ekimu's coffin.
• In Forge of the Mask Maker at 0:46, the Okotan letter "N" can be seen on a wall of the staircase leading to Ekimu's forge.
• In The Mask of Creation at 0:39, there is a picture on a wall, above Tahu's mask-less head. The picture has a Toa combined with a winged Elemental Creature. On the left are the Toa's Uniter symbols, and on the right are the symbols for the six Elemental Creatures. On the bottom is a line of squares, where one would put the Okotan letters to fill the squares. It would spell out "UNITY", which is the theme of the 2016 story arc.

In addition to the foreshadowing pieces, in The Mask of Creation, at 1:17, there is a crate on the Toa's right, which has crystal pieces of the Toa's Uniter armor, which Ekimu forges for them for the 2016 story arc.

Cast

The English language episodes employ a single voice actor, Andrew Jeffers, for all roles, including narration.

Trivia

• When Episode 6 first debuted, Pohatu mistakenly appeared when the narrator first mentioned Earth, while Onua appeared when Stone was mentioned. This was later corrected.
• The prologue of BIONICLE: The Journey to One used some of the scenes from the webisodes.

See also

• Gallery:BIONICLE Webisodes
• Saga Guides/Okoto
• BIONICLE: Island of Lost Masks
• BIONICLE: Revenge of the Skull Spiders
• BIONICLE 1: Gathering of the Toa
• BIONICLE 2: Battle of the Mask Makers
• BIONICLE: The Journey to One
• Quest for the Masks of Power
• Gallery:The Art of BIONICLE § BIONICLE Webisodes
• Gallery:Concept Art § BIONICLE Webisodes

External links

• BIONICLE Webisodes on the Internet Movie Database