IR TV Review: LEGO STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL [Lucasfilm/Disney+]
The aspect of a Holiday Special, especially when it bears the name "Star Wars", has mostly left a bad taste in SW aficionados for many years. But the reality is most of the new fans of the new “Star Wars” films or even the prequels has never seen that infamous special from 1978 anyway. What Disney+ and Lucasfilm has done with the "LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special" on Disney+ is counted in a way to have a little fun with its characters without affecting canon. This was always a tricky thing. Even Seth Green's unreleased "Detours" is one of those lost titles that will maybe show up in a couple years that at the sale point might have caused some canon misfire. The interesting thing here is that the Holiday Special takes up after the end of "Rise Of Skywalker" taking into account all that has happened but uses a very earthbound metaphor in certain ways. It is not quite ‘Christmas Carol” nor does it need or should it be. I is about Rey's search for meaning on Life Day. Without giving too much of the story away, it allows Reyto jump into different personifications of the saga. If it was taken at face value the whole thing would be an absolute mess. But if taken with a grain of salt and a little heart...and a bit of suspension of disbelief, it is nice little break. But if one is expecting some sort of heart tugging gravitas, that is not it. While it plays with different ideas of identity within the slapstick structure of LEGO, it revisits many well known spots without dwelling too much on meaning. There are some of the original voices (including Billy Dee Williams and Kelly Marie Tran) as well as some of the voice actors from "The Clone Wars". “The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special” shows that animation really is the best medicine during the pandemic just depending how it is presented. The Holiday Special is a nice play, like a piece of candy in the “Star Wars” Universe: a little sweetness, a little bit of substance but not to be taken much too seriously beyond its simple entertainment value. B
Bu Tim Wassberg
