Robot Chicken: Star Wars – Episode III

ROBOT CHIKCEN STAR WARS EPISODE III (DVD)
Revolver Entertainment 

Release date: July 4th 2011
Certificate (UK): 15
Runtime: 45 minutes

Director: Chris McKay
Writers: Seth Green, Matthew Senreich
Producers: Seth Green, Matthew Senreich
Composer: Shawn Patterson

Based on: Characters created by George Lucas

Voice cast: Seth Green, Dan Milano, Carrie Fisher, Breckin Meyer, Seth MacFarlane, Zac Efron

Perhaps it’s only right to admit from the start that Star Wars fandom isn’t a culture that I’m a part of. I saw Star Wars Episodes 4, 5 and 6 when I was a child, and in my childhood they firmly stayed. It didn’t capture me in the same way it did with a lot of other people. I didn’t watch them over and over, I don’t have t-shirts with the characters on, and I have no interest in fan drawings of Calvin and Hobbes, as much as I love them, as Han and Chewie.

So it was with some trepidation that I watched Robot Chicken Star Wars III, fully expecting a lot of it to go over my head. And it did.

At worst, it could be described as a string of youtube clips loosely strung together to retell the events from before Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, to after Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, but somehow, it’s much more than that.

It gets ‘behind-the-scenes’, showing what really happens in Mos Eisley cantina, the day-to-day tasks of a Star Trooper named Gary, and we finally get to know who buys the pizza when the Council gets hungry. But it also answers a question that had been needling me for a while; what ever did happen to Breckin Meyer? He’s the voice of Boba Fett, you guys! But I’d forgotten who that was. So I didn’t get the jokes about him. Shame.

For the uninitiated, there are no access points. It doesn’t ask for a lot, a cursory knowledge of the plot lines, or knowing the names of characters, for example. This point is kind of moot though. If you didn’t like Star Wars, or didn’t know what Star Wars was, you wouldn’t watch a Robot Chicken take on it. This is made as a gift for existing Star Wars fans, not to create new ones. It’s unoriginal and not really inspired, but that’s the point.

It’s parodied with a lot of love from Seth Green et al, and isn’t at all supposed to be taken seriously. The affection is palpable throughout the film, and it’s a testament to the original films that so much love is still being generated so many years later. Green knows his audience, and has given them exactly what they want.

The humour is very Robot Chicken, which I generally do like, it’s goofy and easy going, and very watchable. For those in the Star Wars know, I’m sure it’d be amazing.

Star Wars has been parodied on screen so much, from Spaceballs (1987) to the Family Guy Blue Harvest (2007), that the lateral thinking is a good idea, and one that keeps this kind of pastiche as fresh as it could be. There’s not really anywhere else to go other than sideways, and to have Boba Fett drunk and falling into the Sarlacc pit, or Gary the Storm Trooper just having the worst day ever.

The stories are re-imagined and expand into previously unexplored crevices in the universe rather than retreading the same plot. Green is giving his fans something new in that respect, but at the same time, very much in the same vein as what Robot Chicken fans would come to expect. Amid my confusion, even I chuckled a bit. It was a fun, silly romp, just one that I couldn’t fully understand, therefore appreciate.

It’s more chronologically cohesive than the two preceding Robot Chicken Star Wars episodes, and will warm fans like a nostalgic blanket, full of in-jokes, self-referencing and intertextuality.

If you like Star Wars and Robot Chicken, you’ll love this.

Frances Taylor

Frances likes words and pictures, regardless of media. She finds great comfort and escape in film, and is attracted to anything character-driven with a strong story. Through these stories, she will find meaning in the world. Three movies that Frances thinks are really good for this are You and Me and Everyone We Know (Miranda July), I’m A Cyborg, But That’s OK (Chan-Wook Park), and How I Ended This Summer (Alexei Popogrebsky).

When Frances grows up, she would like to write words and make pictures and have cool people recognise her on the street and tell her that they really enjoy her work.

She can be found overreacting and over-caffeinated on Twitter @penny_face, a childhood moniker from her grandmother owing to her gloriously round face.

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