Studio Update: "Ninjago: Master of Fear" Cancelled Amid Writing Issues, "Alms Pouch" Will still be Finished At Last, and More

 By: Andrew Bermudez

(Mustache Maniacs Film Co. Headquarters; September 1, 2021)

    We wondered when it would happen, but one of our projects announced from 2/1/21 has officially been cancelled. However, it's not for the reasons that you may think. All of this and more is covered in today's update!

Ninjago: Master of Fear Has Officially Been Cancelled!

    It's sad to say, but our own celebration of Ninjago's tenth anniversary has been prematurely stopped. While we've historically announced too many projects in the past, then cancelled the ones that we could not complete, this cancellation came about due to a completely different set of circumstances. "The writing staff said that they couldn't get the script to work," said LEGO Studios CEO Mark Matthew. "The script tried to cram a season's worth of Ninjago-like storytelling into 12 minutes, which was already a tall order. We gave the order to simplify, simplify, simplify, but then there was the question of which ninja to focus upon. They all could have made the story interesting in their own way, but how would we explain the absence of the other five? Everyone has their favorite ninja, so only focusing on one was already an unpopular option, but by having all six present, it crammed the story too much. Then there was the issue with the villain. The Future Lich was a very interesting character, but how do you communicate to your audience how this villain functions almost instantly? His powers and motives took too long to explain and dragged the film down. Overall, the film tried to be too much with too little and would honestly work better as an actual season of the Ninjago TV show than as a 12-minute special." As part of this cancellation, the RPG Ninjago: Journey to the Master of Fear has also been cancelled. Due to this schedule change, another upcoming project now has freed resources.

Alms Pouch: Finished At Last! Will Steam Ahead for December 10 Debut!

    Since Ninjago: Master of Fear now has freed up resources, those resources will be put to good use: by creating the remake of Alms Pouch that is set to debut right before Christmas! This remake will be using the same timing and musical score, but every sequence will be rebuilt from the ground-up! In fact, the character designs are even being tweaked to make them work better for animation! Animation will begin in September and is expected to wrap up around Thanksgiving Day. As always, no other release dates have been changed for 2022 and beyond.

New Designs Coming to the Online Store in September!

    We're working on creating new designs for our online store, and we're pleased to announce that they will be coming to our online store later this month! We're not quite ready to show them off, but we can confirm that the Drawn to Life Animation logo will be among the new designs that will be available, as well as designs for both Venomosa: The Bounty of Billy the Kid and DINO ATTACK: Saga of a Conflict, which will be perfect for fans of BZPower's DINO ATTACK RPG!

Lead Out

    While this does mean that we won't be able to put out as many films this year as we did last year, we are aiming to still have a fairly strong year! Stay tuned for an interesting fall season!