The Brick Connection – A novice Lego fan explores the great brick world of LEGO

What time is it?! Summertime!

Well at least unofficially. Hello my LEGO pals. (Did you like my High School Musical 2 reference?)

The unofficial start of summer here in the good ole U.S. of A. is Memorial Day weekend, which was two weeks ago. The official start of summer for the rest of the northern hemisphere is less than two weeks away.

And what’s the best summer activity…binge-watching TV! Wooooooo!

Oh, you think you should be outside enjoying beautiful weather? Well fine then! Save the binge-watching for a rainy day or for 1 am when your insomnia kicks in.

And when you are ready to binge (preferably just TV), may I suggest Minilife TV.

Not sure you have that channel? Well if you have internet connection you do. Minilife TV is a stop-motion LEGO animation YouTube series created by Chris Salaises. It first premiered in March 2012.

It stars two minifigures named Chris and Ian and it’s about their crazy, weird adventures, including running their own TV show called Minilife TV. They say it’s a show about everything.

Some of you may know that I have already reviewed the first three seasons: Season 1, Season 2, Season 3

I will now give an overview of season 4. Season 3 didn’t end on much of a cliffhanger, but here’s where we left off: Chris’ friend Abel is coming to town to participate in the World Martial Arts Tournament. Also, there is an evil organization called the X-Team that is planning something evil, which will probably affect Chris and Ian in some way.

This season they really stepped up the animation. The mouths of the characters are now animated and move when they talk. Their arms are also much more “flexible.” Doing all of that obviously takes a lot of extra work, but these episodes average over 10 minutes per episode; much longer than in previous seasons. So major props to them for not letting the stepped up quality affect the quantity. (At least for this season. More on that later.)

The entire season is a lot less random too. There is a relatively clear story arc over the entire 15 episodes of the season. I wasn’t sure what to think of the storyline in the beginning, but I think it all comes together in a really fun, exciting and somewhat intense kind of way by the end.

There is also a new title sequence and credit sequence that are both really fun and creative.

Watch all of season 4 with the playlist below

Here is a quick episode by episode tease along with some funny dialogue highlights:

Episode 46: Abel Arrives – “Gosh” (their version of God) is ready to check in on Chris and Ian again, but this time wants to watch in narration mode. So that’s their clever way of introducing a narrator. Chris is reunited with his friend Abel. Ian tries to resign from being mayor, but the city council won’t let him.

We are also teased that Baby Crotchrash is coming back.

Funny dialogue:

Abel: I’ll sit in the back Master. You take the front.

Master Kroger (not sure how his name is spelled, so this is what I'm going with): You say that like I was going to give you a choice.

Episode 47: Abel’s Story – We learn how Chris met Abel. Abel begins to explain the backstory of how he came to train under Master Kroger.

Episode 48: Flashback to Fortune Teller Fankii – We learn how Abel finds Master Kroger using a Fortune Teller.

Funny dialogue:

Fortune Teller: It’s been awhile since I’ve had to do a search like this. Most people just ask me to find their socks.

Episode 49: Check-In at the Tournament – Abel checks in at the World Martial Arts Tournament. And some bad news for Chris and Ian leads them to sign up to try to win the big prize money, completely ignoring the fact that they don’t know how to fight. We also check in at the Minilife TV studio with Snowball and Jack.

Also, we learn that the X-Team, which was introduced in the season 3 finale, is at the tournament and about to do something evil

Funny dialogue:

• Jack: Uh guys…Can you help me get this dead alien off of me.
• (In reference to the dead alien) Snowball: I think I need to start asking Chris and Ian more questions.

Episode 50: The Preliminary Rounds – Pretty self-explanatory. There are 150 fighters, but only 8 make it to the finals.

Todd Mcfabulous (Chris and Ian’s “gay friend”) shows up with his sister Genevieve wanting to film and report on the tournament. We see Abel’s first match-up. Snowball and Jack and Archie (the robot) arrive at the tournament.

Funny dialogue:

Todd Mcfabulous: Remember when I came out to mom and dad?

Genevieve Mcfabulous: Yeah, they were relieved that someone with our last name turned out to be gay

Episode 51: Chris and Ian’s Fight for Minilife – Snowball tries to interview fans at the tournament but experiences prejudice instead. Reoccurring guest star, “annoying guy” is working at the tournament because of course. Chris and Ian have their first and un-shockingly last fight in the tournament.

Back to the Baby Crotchrash story: He has been unfrozen. Now what will happen?

Funny dialogue:

Abel (to Chris and Ian before their fights): Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. You guys might get hurt.

Chris: What are you talking about Abel? There’s no way we can lose.

Ian: Yeah because we’re fighting for Minilife TV. Which means there’s nothing we can’t do.

Abel: Okay, scratch that. You guys WILL get hurt.

Episode 52: Clair’s Surprise – Chris and Ian are awake after their knockouts, but they’re all drugged up and silly. Unfortunately they may have made a bad decision while they were high. (Who hasn’t?)

We also check in with Clair and her professor wizard friend that we met last season. Her professor recommended her to the Rowling University of Magic (nice name!) and she was offered a full scholarship to go. Clair has to make a quick decision on whether she will accept or not.

Episode 53: Snowball’s Encounter – Snowball encounters the evil guy from a previous episode and is asked to join him again to be evil. The previous bad decision Chris and Ian made is getting to be more problematic and they still don’t know about it.

Funny dialogue:

Todd: And I’m helping [Genevieve] because if she gets hired then she can get me a new job so I can quit the one I have right now writing boring articles for Mega Blok magazine.

Jack: I subscribed to that magazine once, but when I got my first issue, the pages fell apart.

Episode 54: The Quarter Finals Begin – Guess which part of the tournament this covers? This time the fights are done in front of an audience. Archie (the robot) has some lady troubles.

Great fight sequence for Abel's quarter-final match-up. Chris dresses like James Bond. There's a fart bomb. 'Nuff said.

Funny dialogue:

Archie: I have been trying to contact you for months.

Zoey (the other Robot): I am not very good at getting back to people.

Archie: You are a walking computer....

Episode 55: The Semi-Finals – Clair tells Michael (a veterinarian, the tournament doctor, and Clair's boyfriend) about transferring to a new school. Abel faces a tough challenge in the semi-finals. No Arms guy is back.

Episode 56: Snowball’s Late Night Adventure – Things are getting intense. Zoey (the other robot) attempts to secretly contact Archie about the evil people that kidnapped her. Also, Snowball decides to seek out information about why he is treated like a second class citizen. But he must do it behind Chris and Ian’s back.

There is an awesome musical sequence! The stop-motion animation on this show is getting crazy good.

Episode 57: The Final Match – It’s finally time for the final match of the tournament. It’s Abel vs. “Smiley.” Snowball confronts Chris and Ian about what he learned about vampires. The X-Team reveals their evil plans to the world.

The score for this episode is fantastic.

Funny dialogue:

Master Kroger (to Chris and Ian): If I looked up “weird” in the dictionary, would I find a picture of you two?

Ian: No, for us you’d want to look up the word, “awesome.”

Episode 58: The X-Team Attacks – Chris, Ian, and friends try to stop the X-Team’s evil plans at the World Martial Arts Tournament. Abel looks to complete his mission to win the tournament.

Funny dialogue:

Chris: Ian, I swear, if you blow up, I’ll never forgive you.

Ian: Love you too, buddy.

Episode 59: A New Terror Arrives – It seems the worst is over, but with two episodes left in the season, we know that can’t be true. Minilife TV’s issue (or at least the one Chris and Ian know about) is solved and everything seems to be falling into place for all our characters. We even learn janitor Jack’s secret.

Baby Crotchrash is back in Minilife City, but our heroes don’t know that yet. We are all set for the season 4 finale…

Episode 60: Baby Crotchrash Returns – Again, the title is pretty self-explanatory. Baby Crotchrash has taken over Minilife TV studios with Chris, Ian, and friends inside. Archie is able to secretly contact Abel and Master Kroger who had already left town.

Master Kroger reveals his interesting back story. He then helps Abel come up with a plan to defeat Baby Crotchrash. Will it work? Will Master Kroger be able to fight the evil inside him? Will Baby Crotchrash be reunited with his parents?

What the heck is happening with Minilife TV??

I won’t give any details away, but this 25 minute episode (the longest episode to date) is jam-packed.

Funny dialogue:

Ian: Stop by anytime!

Master Kroger (sarcastically): Yeah, like I’m going to visit you two weirdos all the time.

Geeze, I always forget how long these review posts tend to get. 

So that was my look at Minilife TV Season 4. The first episode of Season 5 was posted back in September of 2015, but there haven’t been any new episodes since then. It looks like the creator is going back to not having mouth animation so the episodes can get done faster. Supposedly new episodes will be back at the end of this summer. So someday soon maybe I will be reviewing season 5.

Let me know your thoughts on Minilife TV. Are there any other LEGO animation series I should know about?

Until next time….keep binge-watching!! You can always go outside next summer. 

*Compliments, general feedback, and constructive criticism are welcome. Any haters that are gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate can go step on some Lego with their bare feet.*