Hey, anyone feeling low, perhaps slightly bleh, bleh, bleh? If yes, please take the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special challenge and see if you can suppress a giggle at Darth Vader in a holiday-themed jumper!
Between Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980) is the Star Wars Holiday Special where Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) go to Kashyyyk to celebrate Life Day with Chewie’s father, Itchy, his wife, Malla and son, Lumpy.
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The cast from A New Hope, including Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) and James Earl Jones (Darth Vader) appear in the 98-minute film which is legendary for the extreme negative reactions and the first appearance of bounty hunter, Boba Fett. Incidentally, the animated sequence where he appears is quite fun.
Released on November 17, on the anniversary of the 1978 Holiday Special in 1978, the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special picks up where The Rise of Skywalker ended. Yoda gives the voiceover, with the mandatory odd syntax (“destroyed the first order was”). Preparations are on for Life Day on the Millennium Falcon, with Chewbacca’s family visiting. Life Day celebrates friendship with all the holiday trimmings minus the religious overtones.
- Director: Ken Cunningham
- Voice Cast: Kelly Marie Tran, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Matt Lanter, Tom Kane, James Arnold Taylor, Dee Bradley Baker
- Run time: 45 minutes
- Storyline: It is Life Day and Rey crosses space and time to learn crucial lessons
Rey is teaching Finn to be a Jedi. She hits a road block and when she studies the ancient Jedi texts she realises the key to the Jedi’s future lies in the Galaxy’s past. Off she goes with BB-8 to find the key, which she realises takes her to Jedi masters and apprentices from the past, including Qui-Gon and Obi Wan, Luke and Yoda, Obi- wan and Anakin, and Darth Vader and the Emperor.
As Rey moves through time, she visits iconic scenes of the Star Wars saga, including Luke blowing up the Death Star and Yoda telling Luke on Dagobah, “Do or do not, there is no try.” There are other scenes not in the Skywalker saga like Vader hitting “every gift shop in Batoo” to get the Galaxy’s Best Emperor mug for Palpatine on Life Day or Kylo Ren doing a shirtless dance as Supreme Leader much to the distraction of his second-in-command.
The Emperor showing off his swivel chair (“it spins both ways”) to Kylo, or insisting Emperor is higher in the pecking order than Supreme Leader makes one grin as does Vader’s backpedaling from “My Son!” to Luke on Tatooine to say, “My, these binary suns.”
After Rey watches all the masters with their Padawans and realises the eternal truth, she makes it back to the Millennium Falcon in time for the celebrations, including a rendition of a Huttese song to the tune of ‘Jingle Bells.’
Unlike the 1978 Holiday Special, this one zips by lightly on irreverent laughs. Incidentally, the Child from The Mandalorian makes a brief appearance. Aww…. The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special is definitely not “the greatest intergalactic disaster since Jar Jar Binks’ Senate speech”.
LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar