Star Wars: Rebels Review

Sometimes, the original Star Wars movies strike me as some of the most underrated features in Hollywood. Now, that may sound ridiculous considering the massive pop culture impact those three movies had, but that kind of influence can make people forget that, beyond all the cool toys, video games, clothes, TV shows, three excellent films started  this whole mammoth franchise. Rewatching the original trilogy over the course of the past two weeks not only reminded me of how incredible those movies are, but it also put me in the perfect mindset to take in the first Star Wars project released from Disney, Star Wars: Rebels.

This TV movie (which runs about an hour) that starts off the show is entitled Spark of Rebellion, and gives a pretty clear view of where the show is gonna be going in terms of things like tone, action and animation. Now, this TV movie screened at Comic-Con in late July, and one recurring theme I heard from people who had seen it is how well it fit into the spirit of the Original Trilogy. A more lighthearted approach mixed in with cool action, to me it perfectly called back to A New Hope. Plus, an explanation of the force that forgoes any mention of Midichlorians is another nice nod to the better Star Wars trilogy. 

The plot of the episode is pretty simple, but it at least does a decent job at setting up the dynamics of the group in a quick fashion. A kid named Ezra (voiced by Taylor Gray) winds up getting himself stuck with a group of misfits who "rebel" against the malicious Empire. Amongst this gang is former Jedi Kanan (Freddie Prinze Jr.)  Hera (Vanessa Marshall), droid Chopper, Mandalorian Sabine Wren (Tiya Sircar) and Zeb (Steve Blum). The group is pretty well developed in this episode, with some nice dynamics being evident from the get-go and the banter between the members being surprisingly entertaining. The best of the bunch is Zeb, who gets some funny lines (his impression of a Wookie is priceless), as well as a cool character design inspired Ralph McQuarrie. 

Actually, the weakest link of the main characters is the newest member of this band of rebels, Ezra. He's a middling protagonist who doesn't get much personality or any entertaining characteristics to speak of. Now, there's certainly room for improvement in a show like this, and there will certainly be more depth in Ezra as the show progresses, but right now, he's just boring, especially compared to the likes of Zeb or Sabine. 

The animation on the show takes on it's own distinct design, separating it from previous Star Wars cartoon The Clone Wars. By the end of it's run, The Clone Wars had some astoundingly beautiful CGI, so it is a pity to see that particular design gone, but that isn't to say this new style doesn't have it's own charms. The environments look nicely lived-in, and the movements of the characters feel very natural. Weirdly, the animation crew on this show seem adept at making hair and fire look effective, but skin is a major problem on the show right now. Any time an extreme close-up is done on characters like Kanan or Hera, I was too distracted by their plastic looking skin to notice dialogue. 

I mentioned earlier how everyone has said this show harkens back to the original trilogy, and I gotta agree, mainly on one main thing; I had so much fun in some parts of this episode, specifically the opening of this episode. It's so well-paced and exciting to watch, it reminded me how much fun the world of Star Wars can be. The rest of the episode isn't quite up to the standard of that opening, but it still remains an entertaining piece of television that has me chomping at the bit to see where this thing goes from here. 

Brief Story: My love for Disney knows no bounds, but this was the first time I had watched the Disney Channel in years. None of their programming has really stuck out to me (though I have heard excellent things about Gravity Falls), but it was fascinating to see it again after all these years. Ads for other shows on the channel like Jesse or Dog with A Blog reminded me why I avoided the channel like the plague, but it is neat to see Movie Surfers is still going strong. Though really guys, did you have to do a Movie Surfers segment (amusingly noting that the movie it's promoting may be too intense for younger viewers) over The Avengers: Age of Ultron and then proceed to not show any footage???