The History of Brickfilms: 1970s & 1980s - More LEGO animations than you might think!

[@emkaym8]

If I didn't watch this video, I would of legit thought that "The Magic Portal" WAS the first lego-stopmotion.

[@LonecloneProductions]

Phenomenal, for such a long time I've wanted someone to make a comprehensive yet concise history of brickfilming and the community that's sprung up around it. I cannot wait to see the delve into the 90's, and would love to see continuation into the 00's, and even the 10's if there isn't too much of an information overload at that point (even so, there are still general themes and through lines you could pick up on, as well as interviews with many of the influential brickfilmers). Excellent work man.

[@LonecloneProductions]

And if you do continue a series, you'd have a serious documentary on your hands. Keep it up dude!

[@sillypenta]

Thank you very much. I do plan to continue into the 2000s, and depending on time I might split the early years into two videos, one covering LEGO Studios plus its contest and the other covering the early years of the community. By the time KZbin gets into full swing, it all becomes a bit more sprawling, but I'm sure it could be segmented and figured out. For the 2000s and 2010s, I think it will be better to cover specific areas individually rather than try to go through everything chronologically. There is still plenty to do before I get there so I will have to see closer to the time. I know brickfilmers can be bad for announcing grand plans that never come to fruition and I'm no exception, but I think I will be able to continue this as a series, as I already have years of research documented on the Brickfilms Wiki, particularly for the earlier years.

[@Yroko]

Thx for the video. I swore it was a dream that i saw. Back in the mid 80s early 90s i was around maybe 4 to 6yrs old. Me and my dad watched a stop motion lego episode. It was the long nosed drag racing cars. Perhaps u have or seen this?

[@Sparky1701]

Thanks for including our humble movie in there! I didn't know this video series existed until this weekend. I remember in '84 when we made ours that we weren't the first to do a Lego stop-motion video, but we hadn't seen any others before the made ours. We just heard about them. Oh, and we also received a 'cease and desist' letter from the Lego company after we were done :) Very nicely done on the research and history!

[@sillypenta]

Thanks for the comment. That is very interesting; could you please elaborate on that? How did the LEGO company find your film? Did you try to get it on TV or something?

[@Sparky1701]

@@sillypenta heres a vid I just made detailing how TLC got a copy of our Movie. kzbin.info/www/bejne/l5LKdXijrZdrh5o

[@OrbitalLizardStudios]

2:52 its crazy to think about people making star wars brickfilms way back when the original trilogy was still being produced

[@starwarsstudio100]

Nicely done! A nice overview of animations way before the golden age.

[@brotherswaughstudios4156]

Nice to see Biff and Mario getting the attention they deserve. Great video as always, thanks for all the effort and hard work you put into this. It was really informative.

[@sillypenta]

ty

[@brotherswaughstudios4156]

You're welcome man.

[@theemeraldfalcon9184]

You genuinely deserve more subscribers for your quality content

[@MrVertigoStudios]

I can't believe I hadn't seen this until now, but this is some fantastic work. It must have taken a lot of time and effort to research and catalogue so many of the less well-known or forgotten pre-internet Brickfilms, and it shows. You really went the extra mile to showcase the ones that weren't Journey to The Moon or The Magic Portal, and I'm glad to see that we have a much wider selection from this era than we realised. I also really appreciate the extra effort and polish put into the video itself, especially delightful animation and voice-over. I'll be checking out some of these, and I can't wait to see what you've found on 90s.

[@SuitedNinjaNerdStudios]

Penta this is a magnificent showing and presentation of the history of Brickfilms. Well done!!

[@MagicalBlob]

Huh, never knew there were that many films prior to The Magic Portal. Great job at compiling and showing all this information! :)

[@timewarpdrive77]

Thats like saying "wow, I didn't know there were many films before Star Wars"... Obviously there were brickfilms before it... How would such a technically competent thing have been made without things coming before it.

[@imfsresidentotaku9699]

​​@@timewarpdrive77No, that's not at all what that's like, as having a camera in the home was a luxury in those days, so not "obviously." This was even brought up in the video. Also mentioned in the video was that many of these films were not made widely available until relatively recently, so people like one above might not be aware that they exist, whereas hundreds of films before Star Wars were released to the general public.

[@AiwhaBrunoLefevre]

This is awesome. I had made a few research about early brickfilms a few years ago, but you made me discover so many more! This video is really useful and should be shown in all brickfilm schools over the world.

[@LegoMovieFanatic]

Man, awesome, fascinating, and super informative. Thanks for this. I was always surprised hearing The Magic Portal was the first brickfilm and I feel foolish for thinking so now. Those LEGO Sport Champions shorts are amazing, and awesome to find out Aardman did a short for LEGO. The face dissolve animation was so suave.

[@sillypenta]

Thanks. There's no need to feel foolish about thinking The Magic Portal was first because most people do or at least did at some point

[@LegoMovieFanatic]

It's just such a massive film in terms of scope and length, of course there would have been much more experimentation beforeheand. Looking forward to the 90's :)

[@Spongetron5000tt]

Thanks For putting one of my father’s legofilms in this Great work , Sillypenta

[@sillypenta]

Glad it's appreciated; I would love to see the full film, if you could upload it

[@Spongetron5000tt]

Sure! I’ll upload the whole lego film it’s probably in my basement , I’ll upload it to my channel , Thanks For responding!

[@RobotsWithKnivesCartoons]

I have never seen that Aardman commercial, that is insane!

[@sillypenta]

Thanks! Yeah, I was practically dumbfounded when I first came across that one. There are actually a small number of others in the same style from the beginning of the 90s.

[@sillypenta]

Links to watch the films included in this video can be found in the video description. Also see the other videos in this history series in this playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLiWw9dElHOz2scI5PVgn2PZ6H0WGkp7XU 2023 edit: Also see the interview that Chris Wynn and I recorded with the co-creator of Journey to the Moon, on the Bricks in Motion channel: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eamYqKireb6tapI

[@Pongowl]

Fantastic! There were quite a few innovative films in there that I hadn't heard of. This was a joy to watch.

[@superjumpbros64]

I come back every now and then to watch these, they are amazing

[@Arginnon]

Thank you! I really enjoy browsing earlier brickfilms on the brickfilms wiki, but this was a lot of fun to watch!

[@sillypenta]

Thank you; I'm glad you enjoy making use of the wiki

[@BackyardProductions]

This is a really cool, much more easily digested look into brickfilm history, a really cool supplement to the wiki. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

[@spacemation8786]

this is amazing, you just merged my two favorite topics into one video (that being history and brickfilms).

[@thebrickmustgoon6688]

Great Video! This was very informative of the history of Lego animations something I have a soft spot for. I'm definitely going to check out these forums and watch some of these animations

[@EPICtureGUY]

great video and really thanks for the listing of films in the description. There is a lot of interesting brickfilms I didn't even heard about. Thank you.

[@cromofilms]

I know I saw this already when it released, that was the only time i watched it. I came to revisit this finely crafted, wonderfull, amazing brickfilmumentry. The Review: The absolute smoothness of the animation is just the right amount of smoothness to not look like a smooth mess. The animation for what I presume Johnny Thunder and his wonderfull partner Timmy are quick, and amazing. The maps and pictures in their house adds a lovely homie design. The projection of an old brickfilm has been added carefully, not a slight mistake was there. The Fabuland chairs are a wonderfull edition to this house. Timmy and Johnny make a perfect duo, even Henri and Edmond are blushing seeing these guys. The nice redesign for Timmy and Johnny work just wonderfully. The voiceacting is nothing short but wonderfull. That was the intro to this amazing documentry, and now onto the actual documentry. The amount of diging to find the right year was just dedication. Finding these old brickfilms is even harder. How you have even reaserched about old cameras was stunning. The explanation for these brickfilms was nice too. Even finely crafted sites with the biggest explanations couldn't surpass you (and I do not count Brickfilms wiki, cause I think you made it) The little drama, and how you explained it in here was well thought out and simple. The search for who may have made the films is incredible. How you explained movies like Oh Well and The Magic Portal was just perfect, and well thought out aswell. The amount of time possibly taken to find this stuff is just dedication, and I respect that. The ending to this short Brickfilmumentry is a really nice one, with Timmy getting bored of it (Timmy must be very dumb if he doesn't think that this is interesting.) And Johnny teasing a 2nd part was another great addition. Thank you for making this amazing documentry, with that, I conclude this review.

[@sillypenta]

Well uhh I'm glad you liked it this much, especially because I think this one is rushed lol

[@cromofilms]

​@@sillypenta My favourite has to be the 3rd one, this is my least favorite one, but this one's still amazing, wait till you see my review of the 3rd one.

[@sillypenta]

@@cromofilms Yes; the Studios one will probably always remain as the best one

[@freezetile8588]

Great video! Before watching this, I only knew about Journey to the Moon and The Magic Portal. Now, I have a lot to catch up on.

[@MikeHunt-ml5wf]

The magic portal is actually fire 🔥 ngl

[@trevvz]

Wow! I thought there were only 3 brickfilms from the 1970s-1980s!

[@sillypenta]

I'd say most people do, which was a big part of my motivation to create this video

[@bigrickmachine]

WOW. I did NOT know there were so many animations this early

[@SmoeStopMotion]

Heeeey it's you :D

[@mamonsinelcurioso1743]

bigrickmachine hey bro, I miss your channel a lot, you inspired me :)

[@DiamondNoobie]

0:01 Wow! Your animation look smooth!

[@JAStudiosDankestManLiv]

You're a legend man.

[@andres4267]

I Love videos like this

[@CassetteMaster]

I loved this! Thank you for this video! I did not know there were so many early brickfilms, I need to watch these!

[@DudeBrick]

This was awesome Penta! Well done!

[@magicwindow6682]

great video and I like the use of Neu at the beginning

[@ilya.kudesnik]

This is wonderful! I hope one day we'll see part three!

[@sillypenta]

I have released four parts, but I am currently working on the fifth, and have about 50 minutes edited

[@ilya.kudesnik]

@@sillypenta for some reason I don't see parts three and four on your channel.

[@sillypenta]

@@ilya.kudesnik They might be blocked in Russia; nowadays videos with copyrighted music have a tendency to be blocked only in Russia, and sometimes one or two other countries

[@ilya.kudesnik]

@@sillypenta Oh, I didn't know that. Now I see them. Thanks a lot!

[@jcsmovies8589]

I'm glad this exists

[@BlackSmithFilms]

Cool vid Penta! I really like your animation has a certain charm to it!

[@cowerdnerddespacito9518]

On KZbin there is a lego stop motion called space adventure, it was made from 1983 to 89 it uses practical effects and has awesome audio I recommend you give it a look up because it really encapsulates that 80s feel you get from old movies

[@MrChapStick91]

Nice transitions

[@swordfury-tutorialsmore9296]

Great video 👏👏👏

[@BricksandPiecesAnimation]

Terrific work! How long did it take to research and discover the mentioned films?

[@sillypenta]

I've kept a list since 2014, and added to it whenever I found anything new. The bulk of it would have been found in the first few days of making the list by going through many KZbin and Google searches such as "lego movie [year]", "lego animation [year]", all sorts of combinations. Others have been found by chance, and some found by researching something else, like Projekt RH which I found while collecting the films from the first Brickfilms film directory active from 2000 - 2003.

[@nikosfilms6796]

Nice video bro! The information you provide and how you explain it is amazing. Greetings!

[@pokeypsu07]

This is such an underrated vid, wish it had more views 10/10

[@sillypenta]

When I made this, I never thought a video about brickfilm history could get anywhere close to 100k views

[@goblindotbest]

really interested in more of this keep it up

[@deadmeme4737]

I don’t know if you know about this but theres this really great brick film called Space Adventure made by Christian Sage

[@sillypenta]

Thanks so much for the heads-up! I did not know about that one, and I see it is quite a substantial one indeed. I will add it to my collection.

[@sebastianbrickfilms8579]

You got me hooked, when is part 2 coming out :o?

[@jacobgrabenstein3213]

The magic portal is an awesome video to see

[@riga_balsam]

Very interesting video! Thank You for it! Good luck You in everything!

[@DuncanCalvert]

Everything is awesome!!!

[@AngelHair]

Nice work!

[@harrisongerdes7078]

Cool! I've seen the Magic Portal

[@kenobistudios]

Stop Motion Lore: oh look dancing insect puppet. Lego Stop Motion Lore: Ok.. Sooooo... There where 2 cousins and...

[@ENDfilms44]

Love learning more about brickfilm history. :) Are all these films in the archive for safe keeping?

[@sillypenta]

Well, I download everything pre-2000 I find

[@ENDfilms44]

Just checking because my external hdd is still an archive backup ready to help.

[@rioforce]

I learned so much!

[@malikcan]

Awesome video

[@f.p.pextra3851]

Really creative and great!

[@zaneiken07]

Eat Carpet on SBS was where I first saw The Magic Portal.

[@Omahamaho]

awesome work

[@LOTWStudios]

This is great!

[@thebombanimations914]

Very nice man

[@uselessslippers8866]

thank you.

[@uselessslippers8866]

this video deserves unending love and attention. to me it seems that a lot of lego history has been obscured to time and this video does an amazing job of documenting a slice of that history

[@sillypenta]

Thank you for this great reply. I agree that LEGO history is quite poorly documented. I hope to make a video covering LEGO Studios and the LEGO Studios Moviemaking Contest, which is incredibly obscure, but I have managed to talk to a winner who provided me with lots of rare information and images.

[@maotse-tung4438]

Great video! I was just wondering what music you used in this video, as i recognized some NEU! at the beginning

[@MrHarrySkywalker]

Very impressive!!

[@tp4rkr]

Amazing!

[@snapninja3454]

Thanks

[@appleforceanimations390]

You are the BEST 👍👍👍👍

[@RealCoriMurda]

I love this info my information about the journey to the moon

[@togglebott7748]

Underrated vid

[@SmellyTreeProductions]

2:49 I actually own that Lego ambulance piece from 1976

[@JR-PRODUKSJON]

This was intresting

[@elijahsoutstandingbricksan6974]

Very good

[@dannyovca5510]

classic space is my favorite lego theme

[@ForlornCreature]

Oh hey Gary Numan music

[@sillypenta]

Well spotted. I love the early Gary Numan albums

[@zacharypayne9619]

Do you think Magic Portal was inspired by TRON?

[@Popgamer-ss5fy]

I know there were some old newgrounds lego animations made in the early 2000s but some were lost to time.

[@BrickfilmsWiki]

I actually managed to dig them up and compiled them into a video that is available on this channel that I am commenting from now - sillypenta

[@Popgamer-ss5fy]

@@BrickfilmsWiki Thanks

[@stevekirkpatrick1612]

Well how about that. Was just chatting with a coworker about this, never knew it went back this far. First one I ever heard of was back in the days just before you tube, when you still had to visit the website to see the video. I think it was a star wars scene redone in lego.

[@erikanimations1367]

Cool vid

[@Andy85uk]

11:13 Bernard Cribbins doing the narration

[@psishiek]

10:55 fun fact: that was the first minifigure in have more than the smiley face

[@DVDRAR]

i miss captain redbeard,i hope he comes back

[@adrianegsantos4846]

oh my god this oldest lego city SO IS COOL

[@dagls1da]

The old brickfilms are actually very good.

[@Beatupbricksproductions]

cool!

[@scooterankle5862]

Impressive

[@Arthonium]

My dad, with his brother and sister made a lego animation in the 80s or 90s

[@sillypenta]

You should put it on KZbin if you can get it

[@Arthonium]

Yeah I will, I think it was filmed in 1995 but I'm going to check

[@sladkinable]

You forgot the Robot Chicken parodies!

[@dagls1da]

Junior’s faceprint should have been vaulted forever, because, he has a nose. No regular sized Minifigures used a nose on a face.

[@enderdragon-xp5kl]

Cool!

[@sliat1981]

Didn’t realise Australia was such an important innovator in brickflms

[@VioletNKisHere]

Looking at these old films makes me want to remaster them. Don’t ask.

[@themechbuilder6171]

the magic portal has doctor who references!

[@cwdanley6684]

2:25 we need build a wall and we will make the monster they mention in the commercial pay for it

[@ghostbusterdal1]

I was always curious, did keshen8 himself actually make the magic portal? It was uploaded on his channel, so I assume so

[@sillypenta]

No; he just asked the original creator (Lindsay Fleay) if he could upload on his channel. I assume he felt a kinship with it since it is also Australian

[@ghostbusterdal1]

@@sillypenta thank you, I've been wondering about that for so long. Also I left another comment, I was hoping you could do a video on the history of the most nostalgic and popular stop motions and channels from the early days of KZbin. Like forrestfire101, keshen8, michaelhickox, etc

[@sillypenta]

@@ghostbusterdal1 It's possible. I am going chronologically, and it is taking me a long time, so I really can't say if I ever will actually get to the early years of KZbin, but I would prefer to cover everything that happened before KZbin, because it is more at risk of being forgotten

[@otgontuuldonid]

I like 90s

[@privateagent]

Best decade of them all

[@brewbricks3830]

Cool.

[@BloodClanResurrection]

We're golden

[@coughee2175]

“The House That Jack Built” Oh no…

[@cheesemanthe2nd]

*kids make a quick lego short* Lego: "omg amazing" *film student makes a professional lego short film with government funding* Lego: "erm kinda cringe, we might have to sue"

[@astraton2001]

Too bad, the one I saw in the late 70s ist not in the list :( Looking for it since 40 years. It was really great made. Some kind of Space Monster attack. Blue Space Basis with regular Astronauts Spaceships and Maschines and Moon-surface. Desert Sand and so on. Then these monster made of dough attacked the basis with kind of flash-effekts which came out of they eyes. The flashes were made of Mikado-Sticks which came from their eyes. Very nice effect. I think I remember there was also sound and talking in the movie and it was in german language. So either it was a german made movie or it was translated by the tv-station. As far as I remember it was shown in the WDR. West Deutscher Rundfunk at the Students make movies show. (Studenten machen Filme): It must be sometime between 1975 and 1984. Anybody ever heard of this movie ?

[@sillypenta]

Closest thing I can think of kzbin.info/www/bejne/ina3h4GPn51kZ7s

[@ijlking6392]

I have seen the magic portal before

[@theunkillablecat8458]

The Magic Porta potty

[@colwarsstudiobrickfilmandm8580]

10:55 have that set lol