Guys, the next three words may make you click away (or go screaming into some PTSD fetal state): Star Wars, Prequel! O those three words conjure such doubt and mistrust in one of pop culture’s great properties, Star Wars. And why shouldn’t it, half of the properties feature slate is built on that concept and derided for it. I guess calling Star Wars: Rebels a prequel to Episode IV may inspire some more hope. But really the hope should be found in the team behind Star Wars: Rebels which includes executive producers Dave Filoni (Star Wars: Clone Wars), Greg Weisman (Young Justice) and Simon Kinberg (X-Men franchise) with Lucasfilm Animation and Disney Television Animation serving as production houses.
As with Star Wars: Clone Wars, Rebels is set to explore a less developed epoch in the timeline, the period between Episode III and IV; when the Empire was asserting itself. Canonically this is supposedly how the Rebellion started but like the phrases “Star Wars Prequels” and “Dark and Gritty”, it sounds more like a high concept justification and language to sell an executive. Rebels in its first two episodes, Spark of Rebellion” Parts 1 & 2 , dose what good prequels do: explore the universe with characters who are already cool not already established characters before they were cool. Other than a holocron cameo by Master Obi Wan Kenobi and name dropping Grand Moff Tarkin, Governor of the Outer Rim, there is nothing really connecting Rebels to the prior products beyond the fact that they exist in the same universe. I do not care if Kanan Jarrus(Freddie Prince Jr.) Hera(Vanessa Marshall), Zeb(Steve Blum), and Sabine(Tiya Sircar) are the ones who started the Rebellion. “Spark of Rebellion” Parts 1 & 2 has me emotionally interested them as characters and familial unit. The back drop of fictional history yet to come is just window dressing.
From the first announcement, EP Dave Filoni talked about being able to use the visual language of the original trilogy and going back and looking at the original Ralph McQuarrie concept art as inspiration for this cartoon animated series. On one hand simply getting to see TIE fighters, Star Destroyers and other classic Star Wars icons again is easily enjoyable. On another it is interesting to see the new stuff, the titular Rebels ship Ghost for example, and seeing how the artists extrapolated the McQuarrie designs into Rebels and made it all fit together in a cohesive visual language. The old icons still look recognizable but the new stuff fits as well. I think it comes down to using McQuarrie’s color pallet effectively by making most objects a single or two toned, it gives everything an simplistic but recognizable form.
The Rebels character design is also derived from this visual language but with each character having a tri color format and little dongles and do dads to make them stand out from the drab and dirty sets. Kanan has some light armor on his arm. Sabine, the female Mandalorian seemingly fueled by girl power and love for explosion (which she considers art) creates the most striking visual on screen. Her Mandalorian armor is covered in purple and magenta graffiti art conflicting with the more typical earth tones found in the series. Sabine’s armor is a surprisingly effective use of old Star Wars iconography.
The overall quality of Star Wars: Clone Wars increased as the series went on and I do not doubt that Rebels will as well. As it stands the texturing is still a bit flat – but don’t worry most of it is dirty – and hair on everyone, not just Wookies, seems a tad plasticy but those are hardly deal breakers. The animation fluctuates between cinematic epic and kind of cheap in comparison with how certain ships move and the speed of things but it isn’t anything too jarring.
Tonally Rebels feels tied to the original trilogy with Ezra, our blue haired protagonist who gets wrapped in all this rebellion business, displaying a surprising amount of outward cynicism. After being captured by Imperial Security Bureau Agent Kallus(David Oyelowo), he laments that people don’t just do that (come and rescue people) after being informed he’s the bate. His cynicism is just a wall though built up to protect himself from the dark world he finds himself on and breaking down that wall provides a nice emotional arc for “Spark of Rebellion” Parts 1 & 2.
When dealing with a property like Star Wars, a series derived from many other properties due to George Lucas being a film nerd, one cannot hear echoes of prior imagery and situations. A dusty planet in the Outer Rim. Home to a boy slowly discovering ancient power. Dragged into a conflict much greater than himself, discovering who he is and a group of friends in the process. And o yeah, fighting the Empire in the process. The first half of “Spark of Rebellion” trades in the well worn plot of the rescue mission – in this cases its Wookies and not political Princesses – but with a twist so things aren’t too predictable. By appropriating these tropes, “Spark of Rebellion” writer Simon Kinberg taps into the seeming greater Star Wars story, an ever repeating cycle of good-evil, and the extra textual knowledge of the audiences creating for an entertaining hour of television. This is a show aimed at teenage males, as such there is some not to subtle speak your feelings/theme moments but its earnest and I am if anything a sucker for earnest.
Star Wars: Rebels is off to a strong start with a cast of interesting characters who are already cool. This whole thing could easily still go to pot with getting hooked into Episode IV mythology and antics too soon, C3P0 and R2D2 appear in the marketing with rumors of Leia also coming in eventually. But for now we have a Star Wars product that is good enough so lets enjoy that.
Star Wars: Rebels will premier on DisneyXD October 3rd but is currently viewable on WATCHDisneyXD.com (and its various app forms) if you have the requisite Cable/Satellite carriage.
I am Michael Mazzacane and you can find on Twitter @MaZZMand at weekntv.com and comicweek.com
Here's a nice retrospective on Clone Wars final stories and the ones they didn't get to tell.
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