I love Star Wars. You love Star Wars. Even that crazy old guy down the street who says his teeth are talking to him loves Star Wars. It’s a cultural icon and mythology that few other sci-fi or movie series can compete with.
Although people might have their misgivings about the prequel trilogy that finished up just shy of a decade ago, Star Wars has continued to be popular and this popularity has translated into spin off works: novels, games, etc. If you look beyond the movies there’s an incredible wealth of material for those who don’t want to leave that galaxy far, far away. However quantity doesn’t equal quality.
A few short years ago Disney surprised most everybody by purchasing Lucasfilm and with it the incredibly lucrative Star Wars franchise. Their first actions were to announce a new trilogy of films and the cancellation of the popular Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series in order to start their own. Like a lot of fans, both announcements filled me with concern, especially the latter. I may not be the raving super fan of my teenage years but I came to really enjoy Clone Wars. It started out bumpy but quickly became a brilliant example of the series, even smoothing over some questionable choices of the prequel era films themselves. The new show, to be set in the years following the fall of the Jedi and formation of the Empire, was going to have to be pretty special.
Disney eventually revealed that Rebels was to play a part in their complete continuity reboot. With the new movies set to take place in the post Return of the Jedi era (where much of the extra story material has been set), the response to this roadblock and the often varying levels of qualities of the Expanded Universe was to throw out everything except the six existing films and Clone Wars itself. All that older stuff will continue to officially circulate out of respect, but none of it is canon any longer. As someone who often found the EU works to be bad fan fiction with a Lucasfilm backing, that’s a choice that already earns Disney a tick in my book.
Rebels opens a few shot years into the Empire’s reign, a time when the consistent threat of the Rebel Alliance doesn’t yet exist on the galactic stage. On the Imperial occupied Outer Rim planet of Lothal, young orphan Ezra survives on the streets by pickpocketing and thievery. By chance he encounters a seemingly more advanced band of thieves attempting to steal a bulk of Imperial supplies. It soon becomes apparent that these are no mere thieves and Ezra’s world view is challenged by the harsh truths they show him. The time soon comes for the boy to make a choice, not only to understand and aid the wider galaxy, but to understand the mysterious power inside of him.
Given the time period it was set in, Clone Wars was unsurprisingly connected to the more recent prequel films in most motifs. Rebels sticks closer to the original films of the 70’s and 80’s, a fact made clear in seconds when Ezra looks up to see a colossal Star Destroyer enter frame and slowly cover the area in shadow. There’s a lot of this visual and audio language spread across the pilot, most noticeably with the main cast’s ship, the Ghost, which is clearly a Millennium Falcon stand in and gets to mirror the famous TIE Fighter gunner escape from the original film. A detail that some might miss however is that the production crew have intentionally drawn very heavily on several abandoned Ralph McQuarrie concepts for the original films, giving various elements a familiar look but a slightly more pulp sci-fi edge. McQuarrie was one of my earliest inspirations in my own design work so to see this direction taken by the show makes me very happy. The abandoned concepts actually fit well into this time period, allowing them to fit in as technology that evolved into the final designs by A New Hope. For the decades of history that Star Wars now has behind it, it’s welcomed to see the crew communicate such a clear love and inspiration for those original elements of magic.
Story and characters are workable but I feel sadly lacking. Part of what made Clone Wars so good is that it worked for both children and adults, offering real threats and darkness without pulling punches. Indeed the comedic battle droids that I criticised way back when I reviewed that show’s premiere went on to become a needed layer of comic relief. Rebels rather quickly shifts the Empire into cartoonish villainy; the first we see of them is some officers picking on and eventually arresting a street vendor, with a rather hefty officer eating the vendor’s wares. It’s such a blunt way to say ‘These are bad men!’ As Clone Wars went on, we actually did get to see officers in the Republic army who weren’t 100% morally black or white. With this series set in the time period after that conflict, with troopers being willingly enlisted people as opposed to elite bred clones, I was kind of hoping that the show would give us something better. There does seem to be some hope though with the character of Agent Kallus, an Imperial security officer who leads from the front and is dispatched to track down the protagonists over concerns that they are an emerging threat. He in turn leads us to a similar character so hopefully this is just an initial misstep.
The rebels themselves are the fairly standard ragtag band of personalities. Ezra is the window for the core young audience: cocky yet good hearted. Kanan is a survivor of the Jedi purge, leading his team while downplaying his true heritage. Hera is the mother figure of the group, the firm but fair pilot of the ship. Sabine is an apparent Mandalorian who works explosives into art. Zeb is the Chewbacca stand-in (even drawing on McQuarrie’s original design for the walking carpet), strong and surly. The group is rounded up by Chopper, a cranky patchwork astromech.
Odd unions of course go back to the original film (a retired knight, a farm boy, a pirate and a princess) but the pilot doesn’t really give these characters the best showing because it’s trying to do too much with them and the story. In little over 40 minutes, it has to introduce these characters and their traits, have Ezra be conflicted over what path to take, explore his obvious talent with the Force and also tell a story. In doing all this I think it unfortunately defangs the threat it wants to establish. This is supposed to be a time when the Alliance doesn’t exist yet and the Empire is unchallenged. Despite this, we see the crew of the Ghost make a mockery of the Empire a good 3 or 4 times. Given this is only the first episode of an ongoing series, I think it would have made more sense to hold back. The central plot involves the crew attempting to locate and rescue some Wookiee slaves, being misled along the way. I think it would have made much more sense to focus the episode on bringing Ezra into this world and introducing the characters and left the Wookiee plot to play out over the next episode or two. Surely that would be better than trying to cram so much into the limited run time.
I do hope better is to come, as much like it’s older sibling, Rebels assembles a fine voice cast for these characters. There’s plenty of bantering to be had among the crew, matching the similar moments Han, Luke and Leia so often shared. Freddie Prinze, Jr and Vanessa Marshall help sell the loose chain of command, with Kanan and Hera’s shots at one another. Steve Blum does well as Zeb, getting to hint the character has hidden depths. Taylor Gray and Tiya Sircar also give the two youngest characters presence of youths drawn into a war they didn’t start. David Oyelowo is also perfectly cast as Kallus, giving a performance with subtle but palpable menace.
The CGI animation seems ok, though I’m not sure it’s 100% on par with Clone Wars. That could just be bias showing though as a certain surprise cameo displays a character model that looks much improved from its appearance in that show. Again, there are lots of clever visual nods that bridge the gap (like the face on of a TIE pilot adjusting cockpit controls, straight out of A New Hope).
I don’t think this is the ideal start for Rebels but it’s not as bad as I might have feared. There’s enough of the Clone Wars staff involved with this show that I want to give it a chance to develop. Longevity really allowed Clone Wars to flourish, and with this being the first confirmed step in a plan to clean up the messy Star Wars canon, it deserves that chance in my opinion. Hopefully in due time this show will stand up just as tall as its predecessor did charting the twilight of the Jedi.
Because you know, hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.
Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion premieres Friday, October 3, 2014, at 9:00 PM (ET/PT) on Disney Channel, and will re-air on Monday, October 6, 2014, at 8:00 PM (ET/PT) on Disney XD.
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