Review: Star Wars: The New Yoda Chronicles – Escape from the Jedi Temple

For those wondering how well the show transferred to Disney, we have your answer here!

Spoilers Below

For me, I am a huge Star Wars fan. When I learned that Lucasfilm was bought out by Disney, I thought it was a terrible Halloween prank. But, alas, it was true. The first show to come from that is The New Yoda Chronicles, which is a transferred show from Cartoon Network. Here is, Escape from the Jedi Temple.

This episode starts with the Star Wars scrolling text, with the Millennium Falcon flying past it. CP3O is bugging out, because he can read the text. Han turns the ship around, right into a fleet of Star Destroyers. Luke takes over, losing the fleet, but turning on the disco lights. On Dagobah, Yoda is talking to the freshly dead Obi-Wan Kenobi about the Jedi Holocrons, which are crystals that store the entire Jedi history.

We go back in time, to right after Revenge of the Sith, where Anakin’s children are separated. There was a discrepancy between who was supposed to grab them when they were at the temple. It turns out that poor Obi-Wan was supposed to.  Meanwhile, on Coruscant, the Emperor is showing off his new theme music, with everyone applauding, except for one. but he tries to explain booing is cheering on his planet. Palpatine will have none of that, of course. He introduces Vader to the group, who has problems trying to walk. He falls back down the hole he came from, and when the onlookers start laughing at him, he Force Chokes all of them.

On Kashyyyk, Bail Organa, Yoda, and Obi-Wan meet up, along with Yoda’s Padawans, and Jek-14. C3PO actually had his memory wiped, but that turned him into a fearless fighter, to the chagrin of Bail. To everyone’s surprise, and lack of memory, Nogata shows up. After that awkward moment, everyone makes it to the staging area. Jek uses his Force powers to cloak the ships before they descend onto Coruscant.

Everyone got stalled, because the Emperor is stuck in the screening room, watching a previous episode of this series. C3PO decides to start a fight, knocking out the 501st, which draws out Vader, and the Emperor. He ends up taking out the Emperor, but not Vader, who politely tells him that he’s just a protocol droid. That somehows jars the coward in him. In the holocron chamber, the group led by Jek is almost done gathering the holocrons, until Vader shows up. The Padawans take on Vader, and Obi-Wan tries to get Yoda to go down. Yoda is going to let them fight, since they aren’t children  anymore. One of the kids falls onto Jek’s phantom arm, so Rusty throws it to him. Vaash Ti has a better plan than to fight, so they run off.

Vader is about to collect some heads, when he hears Obi-Wan’s voice. He runs off, and sees “him” in a hallway. Obi-Wan’s speech sounds a little familiar to anyone who’s seen Revenge of the Sith. Vaash Ti lures him into a corner with the holocron, and Jek builds a wall to keep Vader at bay. Everyone starts to load up the holocrons when Vader notices and busts the wall down. All of the troopers start to convene on the Jedi Temple landing pad., but luckily, the entire team makes it out in one piece. The holocrons start to scatter across the galaxy, but Rusty (Nogata) acts as a stopper, and keeps most of them in the ship. C3PO and Bail manage to defeat the three Empire ships, with Vader falling out of orbit, into Coruscant. The long flashback ends with Obi-Wan buries the holocrons on Tattooine.

Back in the present, they finish reminiscing, when Yoda realizes they still need to tell Luke about the holocrons. The Millennium Falcon is still being persued by the Empire, Ghost Obi-Wan shows up, freaking out Luke. He ends up shooting out the hyperdrive controls, which will cause them to go right into a planet. Obi-Wan inspires him to just use brakes, which stops the Millenium Falcon in it’s tracks. Vader isn’t so lucky, because he crashes on Naboo, right where the scourge of the Star Wars universe is living: Jar Jar Binks and his moronic family. Yoda deems Luke ready for the holocrons, and they awaken. Unfortunately, both Luke and Vader realize this.

I enjoyed this as much as the last one I watched. The good thing about Lucasfilm being under the Disney Umbrella is that everything will start to mesh together. The other Yoda Chronicles were rather outside of the movies, creating Jek and going way out of the way. This one deals, very comically, with events directly following Revenge of the Sith. The story was believable to be canon to the Star Wars universe, which is something that came under a lot of scrutiny.

Recently, Disney redacted the policy on the Expanded Universe, Almost all of it is out of the window, letting Disney create a whole new story, and keeping everyone on their toes. It also lets them reign in specials like the New Yoda Chronicles, tying them into the universe better than it has been before.

As for the story, I loved how the majority of the show took place on Coruscant, because you don’t see it at all during Episodes IV, V, and VI. There was enough comedy without making it seem silly, and enough action without taking itself too seriously. It was a very good mix of the two. I thought the recurring  joke of Vader talking to himself was funny as well. The Padawans were badass, but I’m not sure when Bail Organa turned into such a coward. That irked me a little.

It was a great special, and this gives me a little hope that Disney will treat Star Wars better than Lucas did with Episodes I and II. We’ll see what happens later on this year when Star Wars Rebels drops this fall.