It was only 42 years ago that CBS blessed (cursed?) us with The Star Wars Holiday Special. The 1978 independent “sequel,” which fell between the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, featured all your favorite characters celebrating Life Day (the galaxy-far-far-away equivalent to Christmas) and introduced Chewbacca’s family to fans. The special was originally so poorly received that it was never released on video; only fans who searched high and low for cheap bootlegs were lucky enough to watch it again. Though many believe it to be a blight on the entire franchise, the holiday special now holds a special place in many a Star Wars fan’s heart, so much that the mere mention of “Life Day” in the first season of The Mandalorian thrilled die-hard viewers. The Mandalorian made Life Day canon, and in turn, validated the existence of the elusive Holiday Special. It is the perfect puzzle piece in the Star Wars universe that fans love to hate.
Star Wars TV spin-offs were validated once more when The Mandalorian earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama earlier this year. Now Disney has revived the holiday special, and given it a Lego facelift. The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special, which will be out on Disney+ on November 17 (the anniversary of the original), includes all things festive while still keeping the integrity of the franchise intact. Instead of a remake where our characters speak Wookiee 85% of the time and Chewbacca’s elderly father watches questionable VR material, the new special focuses on the new generation of heroes: Rey, Finn, Rose, and Poe. And of course, no Lego Star Wars story would be complete without droids and Porgs.
We are introduced to this new story by our omniscient narrator, Master Yoda, who explains that Rey has begun training Finn to be a Jedi. This proves to be a real challenge for Finn, and Rey has trouble finding the power she needs to train him. True to her character, Rey puts her search for answers ahead of Life Day festivities while the rest of the crew tries to prepare a proper celebration before Chewbacca’s family arrives. Things pick up with a Back To The Future-like twist, as Rey opens a pathway to the spirits of Life Day past. We are then thrown into a time-traveling adventure revisiting every key point in the Star Wars saga—all retold and rebuilt in the goofy Lego style; some quick-but-great cameos lead to fantastical scenarios and whimsical fight scenes.
The story progresses through all the parts of the Star Wars universe absolutely bursting with references and Easter eggs; even The Child makes an appearance. The special also offers breaks and changes in major storylines and character arcs, as longtime Lego writer David Shayne and director Ken Cunningham let their imaginations run wild. But, in true Lego fashion, all the pieces can be neatly put back together. The Star Wars Lego Holiday Special, in all its warm and fuzzy glory, is a nice addition to the holiday season, but it cannot entirely redeem the dumpster fire that is the original. If anything, it only solidifies the original’s low-ranking place within the saga, acting as a cleaner, more put-together “sequel.” But the ridiculousness of the original holiday special lives on in the silliness of Lego mechanics, which makes the new Life Day re-telling all the more fun. The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special amps up that cheesiness in the best way possible, taking all the bad with the good, in a charming ode to the 1978 television special.
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We are introduced to this new story by our omniscient narrator, Master Yoda, who explains that Rey has begun training Finn to be a Jedi.It’s amazing how this holiday special is better at revealing Finn is Force Sensitive than Rise of Skywalker was.
Given that Rise of Skywalker was bad at, well, pretty much everything, is it really THAT amazing?
I’m still not convinced that RotS really intended to portray Finn as force sensitive, and that wasn’t just a ret-con they came up with later to paper over some of the many plot holes.
That scene absolutely read as Finn about to confess his love to Rey.
No, he said something about being able to feel the force, didn’t he? To that women Lando was hitting on at the end of the film.
They remade the sequence where Leia senses Luke’s life force on Bespin with Finn sensing Rey’s life force. It’s not ambiguous at all.
I feel like everything about Finn was mishandled. He’s been raised since childhood to be a killing drone, yet the first time he shoots down a tie fighter he’s yelling “DID YOU SEE THAT? DID YOU SEE THAT?” like a 12 year-old? Where would he have even heard that phrase? Soldier with Kurt Russell did a better job following the deprogramming of a person with his background.
I’d recommend re-watching TROS. I’ve watched it a bunch of times since it came out last year and I’ve realized I missed so much, and that the pacing wasn’t nearly as rushed as I initially though. The visuals are great, the acting is never in question, and frankly, I really like it now even more so than TFA.As a general comment about the Sequels, I believe one of the biggest reason as to why they are divisive is because I think deep down/subconsciously, a lot of fans were not prepared to see their heroes (Luke, Leia and Han) get old and die. It fucks with your psyche to see the people you grew up with as old people, especially when it becomes clear that no matter their heroics earlier in life, they still get old, cranky, potentially become annoying and are fallible.More than anything, I think the Sequel trilogy is genuinely about accepting fate, and embracing fate, specifically, watching the older generation in our lives age and eventually die.
Really? I thought it was perfectly clear when Finn said that he was going to the Eric Oolander Center For Kids Who Can’t Force Good and Other Things Too.
What is this? A School for Coruscants?
This deserves way more stars.
I’m so stupidly excited for this. Star Wars is officially a television property first and foremost from here on out. Clone Wars, Rebels, The Mandalorian and this have completely eclipsed the new trilogy in an entire generation of fans’ minds.
This might be true, but it’s also kind of depressing. Star Wars at its best is such a visual and auditory experience that it would be a real shame if mediocre films relegated it to the small screen.
“Things pick up with a Back To The Future-like twist, as Rey opens a pathway to the spirits of Life Day past. We are then thrown into a time-traveling adventure revisiting every key point in the Star Wars saga—all retold and rebuilt in the goofy Lego style”Old Holiday Special: Wookiee masturbates to pornNew Holiday Special: Franchise masturbates to itself
Have your goddamn star.
I just noticed that Kelly Marie Tran is listed in the credits as Rose. Good for her for not being chased off by the fanboy CHUDs, she rules.
They got some major players of the original trilogy back and it’s a little weird that she was one of the only ones willing to play game from the new series. (And I guess they did get some returning voice actors from the prequel era.)I kind of wonder how much of this is her willingness to go along as a less established name, Disney trying to make up for how they sidelined the only major Asian actor to ever live through a Star War film, or she happened to already be doing voiceover for Raya so it wasn’t that much harder to convince her to either return for this or work from home.I hope since she’s back that they give her character some sort of storyline!
She gets no lines and also all of her scenes were cut. As an Easter Egg, in the background of one scene you can see her stepping in a Wookiee cookie.
I did hear rumours though that it was Rose who actually foiled Claus von Stauffenberg’s plot to kill Hitler just so she could give old Adolf a smooch.
That may have been a contractual issue. A limited degree of ancillary bullshit like this might have been baked into her contract.
“But, in true Lego fashion, all the pieces can be neatly put back together.”
Ew.
“Things pick up with a Back To The Future-like twist, as Rey opens a pathway to the spirits of Life Day past. We are then thrown into a time-traveling adventure revisiting every key point in the Star Wars saga—all retold and rebuilt in the goofy Lego style”Yes, when one thinks of precedents for a character journeying through time via spirits to the past – to learn where things went wrong – and to the future – to see the consequences of today’s errors – in a “learning experience” keyed to the Christmas holiday……. “Back To The Future” is definitely the first seasonal perennial tale that springs to mind.
I see what you did there…
God bless Marty! Every Marty! of us!
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No one cares about Rey, Finn, Rose, and Poe. Not because they are sexist, racist monsters, just because they are super lame.
Does it introduce us to cabaret singing droid BR-THUR?
Just release the damn original Holiday Special on Disney+ already!
They are worried The AVClub will relegate them to Disney- .
As long as I have the Rifftrax version I’m happy…
I thought it would make an interesting companion piece if they got the audio track from the original, cleaned it up a bit, and then used that as the audio for a Lego-style animated recreation (rather than try to remaster someone’s bootleg VHS tape). Don’t change anything (for better or worse), just do something like the Lego Star Wars equivalent of the animated recreations of old Doctor Who episodes.
That’s amazing. I’m 10 minutes in and I’m coming to the conclusion that I have zero desire to see this. I’m finding that I just don’t give two shits about the new characters.
What a weird place for a life long Star Wars fan to be.
Yeah. I’ve been feeling all the weirder as I’ve spent years complaining that star trek had a trillion spin-of and by-products while the much cooler star wars had just its three movies. And, hm. That’s an embarrassing complaint in retrospect.
There’s also the fact that it’s not remotely funny. But, yeah, in the first 5 minutes when all the ST characters are gathering for a party, I thought, “Yeah, I have no desire to ever spend time with these characters again. What a dull bunch.”
Yeah, there is that whole “Okay, there are jokes in this comedy, right?” aspect too.
So, no cartoon?
Does the time pathway give viewers a Lego version of Jefferson Starship or Bea Arthur?
Every character related to another character gets at least one gag line where the familial relationship gets called out, except for Rey and her pop-pop Sheev. Missed opportunity, or a sign that the people behind this special want to wash their hands of tRoS’s big revelation?Was fun seeing Finn get a little closer to being a Jedi. I’d like more of that.
That was pretty terrible. Not a single funny moment in the entire runtime, though the bit with Hux being flummoxed at shirtless Kylo came close.However, I have give it an “A” for utterly ignoring the horrid Rey-Palpatine connection from “Rise of Skywalker” as well as the awful Palpatine/immortality/clone bullshit.So…happy life day, I guess….?
I loved the line “there’s no coming back from being thrown into a reactor”.
Go fig, I liked it. But mostly I was hoping the Porgs would finally drop their mixtape.