Star Wars Rebels Season 1
Directed by: Steward Lee (Mostly)
Starring: Taylor Gray, Freddie Prinze Jr, Vanessa Marshall
Released: 2014
I just can't escape it. As a kid I grew up with Star Wars, luckily the unedited stuff, like many others Episode I put a real damper on my Star Wars high though. In recent years, as the series has begun to truly flourish again (granted I have issues with both VII and Rogue One, but that's another topic) so too has my interest reignited. From watching the movies again multiple times, to experiencing board and card games, the new comics and finally to Rebels. It was only a matter of time before I finally gave it a shot.
Rebels is set in what would be a really interesting era for the saga, but pretty much everything being made right now is trapped in that same era. Set in between the prequels and the original trilogies, the show focuses on, shockingly, rebels trying to take down the Empire, or at least poke and prod at them a lot. Basically, pretty typical Star Wars affair. Down to the Jedi teaching his cocky padawan who might fall to the dark side, having a rag tag group of misfits fighting the good fight, and the sassy droid.
I don't mean this in that much of a negative light, but the show feels, overall, very safe. Plots are typical, we see familiar faces like Lando and Tarkin, and there are a lot of beats here that anyone familiar with even just some of the old expanded universe stuff will recognize immediately. The show does actually kill off a few characters, and they don't just imply it, though nothing is shown either. For being a Disney produced kids cartoon, that's pretty cool.
The show is set up in a mission of the week kind of format, there are some minor plot lines that flow throughout the season, but mostly each episode is a new problem the characters need to deal with, aside from a couple of multi-part stories. While mostly familiar, or at least mostly expected, the episodes are still enjoyable to watch. Only one episode managed to really make me laugh. Kanan, the Jedi, really dislikes Lando and his distaste for him actually got a couple chuckles out of me. Aside from that attempts at humor are pretty bad. Worse, character development is very cliched and lacking in subtly. For example, Ezra, the main character, doesn't know what happened to his parents, but he doesn't want to know because the truth would hurt too much. He'd have to actually deal with his feelings. Ezra at least gets development, most other characters are fairly static, with most of their best moments merely reinforcing who we already understand them to be.
For the most part the action sequences are enjoyable, with lots of the prequel era jumping about and light saber twirling. I'm not of the camp that believes you should not have spectacular fights at all, but I do think you need to be careful with relying too heavily on epic Jedi battles. Luckily Rebels doesn't see nonstop Jedi acrobatic battles, and when they do show up they feel more impactful. Unlike the characters, literally I mean. Footsteps are almost never heard, falls seem weightless, even punches and such just feel far too airy. I think partially the art style is to blame, but the sound effects are seriously lacking in this regard.
I have to admit, graphically I tend to dislike 3D animated cartoons. Something about it always feels off and I have difficulty getting involved or caring about anyone in the show. Rebels is one of the better looking 3D animated shows I've watched, but even still that lingers in the back of my mind, and might be why I struggle to really connect with anyone's development. I know this is a personal quirk of mine though, and aside from the weightless of characters at times, the presentation is spot on. Especially the faces, they do an excellent job of emoting, even if they overdo it sometimes.
Star Wars Rebels largely succeeds at what it sets out to do. Expand on the Star Wars mythos for a new generation of kids. The season was a little underwhelming overall, but seeing as it's meant for kids I have to give it a bit more leeway. Honestly, I'm glad I held off on watching this though. Had I watched it as it came out I probably would have written it off. From what I understand there are a lot of really cool episodes coming up in the next couple of seasons, and that promise alone made getting through even the blandest episode a bit more bearable. At this point Rebels is worth watching for pretty much any Star Wars fan, it gives you more of what you want, and if you have kids, or are one, it would probably be even better. I might come back and talk about future seasons as well, but we will figure that out after I see them.
No comments:
Post a Comment