Crime
MobLand
The characters of Paramount+’s MobLand love their families. But the series itself isn’t anything resembling family friendliness.
I’m not sure why so many people seem to want to be pirates. Sure, there’s the promise of captaining a ship, exploring the open seas, hunting for buried treasure and then training someone to take your place before retiring to a tropical island (à la the Dread Pirate Roberts).
Historical records, however, paint a very different picture: Most pirates were caught and subsequently hung—their bodies thrown into gibbet cages to serve as warnings to other would-be buccaneers. And that’s to say nothing for those who died in battle or whose crews mutinied against them, marooning them on remote islands. Even in fiction, there’s the danger of picking up cursed Aztec gold or being attacked by Davy Jones and his monstrous crew.
And yet, all Monkey D. Luffy wants to do in life is become a pirate. Actually, he doesn’t just want to be a pirate, he wants to be king of the pirates.
But Luffy isn’t planning on pillaging and plundering his way to the crown. Instead, he plans to find the one piece of treasure that can solidify his position as the greatest pirate of all time. Appropriately, it’s called the One Piece.
Along the way, Luffy wants to help people. Particularly, he wants to help the members of his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, achieve their dreams. And that’s where Usopp comes in.
Usopp has been traveling with Luffy for a while now, and his dream is to become a brave warrior. He’s recounting the Straw Hat Pirates’ adventures for newcomer Tony Tony Chopper, a bipedal, talking reindeer, as the crew makes its way to its next challenge.
And we see it all reenacted through animated Legos.
By converting the Netflix live-action series One Piece to blocky Lego animation, the streaming platform manages to remove a lot of the pesky content concerns that make the TV-14 show less accessible to families. Namely, there’s a lot less peril, and blood and language are reduced to nil.
That’s probably great news for families who want to share the series with their kids. However, there are some caveats that come with that.
While Lego One Piece is certainly more accessible to younger kiddos (the show is rated TV-Y7), it could also spark an interest in the less kid-appropriate live-action version (also featured on Netflix) or even the original anime and manga series.
Also, this mini-series doesn’t remove any of the franchise’s magical elements. Luffy and several other characters eat something called “Devil Fruit.” Depending on which version is eaten, that character then gains superpowers. Luffy, for instance, becomes elastic and super strong, able to stretch his limbs to deliver ultra-powered punches from fathoms away. Another character redefines the term “snot rocket” by sneezing out “booger bombs.” Even Tony Tony’s abilities to talk and walk like a human are borne of this Devil Fruit. However, we’re also told that eating the Devil Fruit carries a curse: Luffy lost his natural buoyancy and will drown if he falls into water.
It’s a bit of a mixed bag for parents, sort of like pirates themselves: Will sailing with these brick characters spark an interest in other silly pirates, such as the Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything? Or will the Straw Hat Pirates lead your child out of the relatively safe harbor of Lego fun and into more treacherous waters?
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Usopp recounts the adventures of Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates to his friend, a bipedal, talking reindeer named Tony Tony Chopper.
Luffy eats some Devil Fruit that makes him super strong and elastic. We see him stretch his limbs to impossible lengths to deliver punches, as well as other feats. However, he’s told the fruit is cursed, so he’ll drown if he falls into the sea. That nearly happens in a later scene, but someone swiftly saves him from a watery doom.
Brief scenes show interactions between the Straw Hat Pirates and other pirate gangs. At one point, Luffy gets kidnapped by one such crew. Elsewhere, Luffy and his friends fight against a crew of fish people—who all apparently ate Devil Fruit and gained the abilities and appearances of different sea creatures. A sea serpent attacks and sinks a ship.
Lego characters get knocked around in several fights, but there’s no blood or death in this episode. (Future episodes suggest, but don’t show, deaths.) One character gets his arm bitten off by a sea serpent, but we don’t really see this happen—one minute, he has his arm, the next, it’s gone. In another scene, two swordsmen duel to the death. One sword master gets the upper hand on his opponent, but instead of killing the guy, he merely injures him: He’s impressed by the man’s prowess with a blade, and he says they’ll duel again once the injured man improves his skills.
A scary clown character attacks Luffy’s crew. He has the power to separate his limbs from his body, allowing him to wield several weapons against the crew. Dozens of other characters also wield weapons.
One scene appears to take place in a sort of tavern, and we see characters drinking from mugs. A member of Luffy’s crew used to be thief. Someone lies to her friends, but she later apologizes and makes amends.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
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