(Adult Swim/Madman)

Better than whichever prequel you liked the least

Robot Chicken is the TV show where Oz from Buffy and his friends create comedy sketches using their toy collections; Star Wars is the cultural phenomenon that needs no explanation. Bringing them together for a half-hour special makes a kind of sense – Star Wars is exactly the kind of geeky subject Robot Chicken and its fans simultaneously love and hate, perfect for both recreating and parodying. The recreations are madly meticulous and even though done with action figures the details still look surprisingly like the originals. These are the funniest sketches, showing what happened to a character who gets his arm cut off by a lightsaber before he stumbled into the plot or the guy who has to clean up the bodies after Jedis fight. Although skits like these and the parody of Jar-Jar Binks are funny a lot of the rest is self-indulgent – the musical finale presenting The Empire Strikes Back On Ice in particular – and just as much will be impenetrable to those who’ve seen the movies but aren’t intimately familiar with every detail of all things Star Wars. The multiple sets of commentaries with everyone involved, right down to George Lucas’s kids, are likewise only there for the hardcore nerds. Watching a toy George W. Bush discover he’s a Jedi and engage Abraham Lincoln in a lightsaber battle is pretty damn hilarious all the same.

***     

JODY MACGREGOR

Be first to comment on this article

Write Comment
Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged.
Name:
Comment:
Code:*