Finally, A New Star Wars Sequel That Doesn’t Suck

robotchicken-bgJar-Jar Binks doing a Geico Commercial.

In the immortal words of Stan Lee, “Nuff Said.”

Completely capturing the inner-geek in all of us, Robot Chicken’s second “Star Wars” special is a treasure to behold. It’s not often that one can play off of pop culture and stereotypical comedic devices and intertwine them so well with science fiction, but Seth Green and company do it with near perfect precision.

Examples of this are frequent throughout and help the DVD be much more than a cash-milking sequel. The more you watch the DVD, the more you understand this notion, as the references, camera angles and language are totally authentic to the series, yet irresistibly charming and witty in a way that is the complete opposite.

Only a group of hardcore “Star Wars” geeks could come up with half the stuff Green and his pals do.

However, the DVD is about more than that, as even the smallest scenes in the series are fleshed out and played with, such as the one that has Lando Calrissian disagreeing with Darth Vader about their agreement in Cloud City. The end result is one that real fans of the series will appreciate and those who have even a nominal influence in the films will find hilarious.

Other scenes that portray Anakin as “Little Orphan Ani” and show us who’s behind the wheel of that little car that Chewie growls at are also pretty damn funny and lend even more to the idea that this DVD is for everyone and not just for the geek with “Star Wars” figures still in their original packaging.

This notion is brought out even more after multiple viewings. Only an hour and a half long, but bouncing around a lot, it’s easy to miss certain scenes and the only way to truly enjoy this DVD is to watch it a few times. While watching, you can either shut your brain off and enjoy the absurdity and debauchery or try to break down the puns and references. Being able to do this and effectively cater to both types of audiences, the younger “this Star Wars stuff is boring” crowd, and the hardcore fan, simultaneously, Robot Chicken’s second “Star Wars” offering has a high midichlorian count and is equally as hip.

The only gripe is it’s all over just when you start to get comfortable, but considering how long it takes to make a quality stop-motion animation production like this, it’s a wonder they were able to put as much content on the disc as they did. A hearty helping of extra features commentaries, trailers, animation meetings and outtakes add to the overall experience however and make this disc a must own for any fan of the show and the series.

However, in the end, it’s more than enough content in one sitting to swing a light saber, making the DVD a sequel that definitely doesn’t miss its intended mark.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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