The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special Review!

 Alright! Today I am reviewing what has been, for some reason, an extremely hyped up Disney+ special: The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special. 

The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special is meant to be a cheeky spiritual sequel to The Star Wars Holiday Special, which I have seen. It is... really bad. The original, that is. It is infamously bad in quality, to the point where it's never been released on home video. Like, it's soooo bad. 

So, to get a "Sequel," no less an unserious LEGO "Sequel," is a brilliant idea. We were due for new LEGO Star Wars content, and this was a surprisingly good movie. I use the term movie loosely here, since the special is only 47 minutes long. 

The Sequel Trilogy needed more scenes of the characters just chilling like this.

And, do I dare say that the movie is... good? It's definitely better than it has any right to be. It has a ton of references, some surprisingly good jokes, and a lot of low-ball humor that doesn't particularly land but adds to the lighthearted tone of the movie. 

Some things I really liked about the special was how they treated Life Day like a big deal - The Star Wars Christmas, instead of the Wookie... thing... Another thing I really liked about the special was how it made the Sequel characters actually feel... real... This 47-minute special basically has better characterization and plots for the sequel characters than the actual sequels did. Here we see Rey fail at teaching Finn the ways of the Force, here we see Finn actually expand on his force powers, and we see Poe actually be excited about things. It humanized them.

And then there are the references. There are so many references here, guys. We got Mando and Baby Yoda, references to the Prequels, to the OT, the "Ben Swolo" meme, Max Rebo, redundant Death Stars, blue milk, and Ewoks. 

This was possibly the most powerful scene in any Star Wars movie.

In terms of tone, the movie feels like a little kid taking all of their LEGO Star Wars toys and mashing them together. I really dug that. This movie wasn't trying to do something serious. 

In the special, we see Rey find the Key, which is the key to the galaxy's past, so she goes on a time-traveling adventure to learn how to teach Finn the Force. It's actually not a terrible setup. Does the special have corny moments? Several. Lame jokes you won't laugh at? Yeah, for sure. But, it's not like I was expecting Pixar or The LEGO Movie level of quality from this. I've seen the other LEGO Star Wars stuff. This is very much in-line with it. 

This may actually be my favorite or my second favorite Sequel. It's either this or The Force Awakens. I'll probably give it to The Force Awakens since I do really like that movie, and a majority of this one's runtime is spent on the lame little jokes. 

It's once we actually start to get a plot that the movie sags a bit. Palpatine sends Lord Vader after Rey to get the key, and then Ben Swolo becomes Palpatine's new apprentice, and then we get to repeat the climax of Return of the Jedi. Once it starts taking itself the slightest bit more seriously, it gets a bit worse for wear and tear.

And one more thing I really liked about the movie: Rey's yellow lightsaber. It was nice to see it actually be used in combat, even if it was a silly LEGO animation.

A major criticism I've seen online is about how the voice actors aren't the actual actors. Honestly, I'm just happy we got as many as we did - Billy Dee Williams returns as Lando, Kelly Marie Train returns as Rose (Who is likable here), Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Dee Bradey Baker as clone troopers, and Matt Lanter and James Arnold Taylor as Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, respectively (They voiced the characters in The Clone Wars). And the rest of the voice cast doesn't sound terrible. The Rey voice actor wasn't terrible, Darth Vader was fine, and while Emperor Palpatine reminded me a bit too much of Master Chen, I still thought it fit. 

We got four Hello Theres in this movie! That is what I'm talking about! 

I mean, I grew up on The Padawan Apprentice and The Empire Strikes Out. I'm not used to the actual voice actors in the LEGO spoofs. The only voice actor who doesn't remotely sound like their character was whoever played Ben Swolo. 

Hey, speaking of Ben Swolo, why don't we have a minifigure of that already? Like, a polybag? Or a version of Rey with her yellow lightsaber? 

The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special actually has a good message as well - the relationship between Masters and Students can't be formal. It can, and should be, Master and Friend. It packs heart and humor in one 47 minute package, and that's a pretty good deal. It's practically canon. 

My one, my one criticism about the movie is that it doesn't have Ahsoka Tano in it. Ahsoka Tano is such a popular character that it kind of hurt to not have her cameo. 

Overall, I give The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special an 8/10. "Relentless gags, surprising quality, and neverending levity make The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special a surprisingly good use of 47 minutes." 

Say what you will about Rey, but that is one really cool lightsaber.