The Star Wars franchise has been more
or less plucked clean by George Lucas and his legion of fans, but somehow,
improbably, the people behind Cartoon Network's popular Adult Swim series Robot
Chicken
were able to come up with about 15 minutes of good gags for their Robot
Chicken: Star Wars
special. (And given that the episode is only 22 minutes long, that's a pretty
good ratio.) Recently nominated for an Emmy, Robot Chicken: Star Wars follows the show's usual
formula of pop-culture parody and absurdist blackout gags, enacted by
stop-motion-animated toys and puppets. This particular episode is pitched to
anyone who grew up playing with the lesser-known Star Wars toys: the Ugnaughts,
Bossks, and Dengars of the Kenner line.
Robot Chicken: Star
Wars
brings in some of Lucas' major players, like Emperor Palpatine (who pledges to
put down the rebellion "by shooting it with lightning… that's how I solve all
my problems") and major locations like the Cloud City (weather forecast: "cloudy
this evening, followed by clouds"), but the special is at its best when it
gives center stage to the likes of Admiral Akbar and Ponda Baba. Things that
will always be funny: Chewbacca's growl, Admiral Akbar pitching a line of
cereal with the slogan "Your tongues can't repel flavor of that magnitude," and
poor Ponda Baba inadvertently freaking out Luke Skywalker at the cantina, then
getting his arm severed by Obi-Wan Kenobi, thereby killing his career as an
architect.
Key features: Deleted scenes, making-of featurettes, and
a video commentary that all try to overexplain the jokes.