Review: Star Wars Droid Tales: Crisis on Coruscant

Spoilers Below

Monday night was a good night to watch Disney XD. Wreck-It Ralph aired before a new Gravity Falls and a new Lego Star Wars Special? I might have just had a boring weekend, but that I don’t think I’ve ever had a reason to stay tuned to Disney XD for so long in one sitting.

Last we left our heroes, they were leaving our heroes on Endor. Someone stole R2-D2, and Admiral Ackbar was giving C-3Po a lift. In fact, I’m not sure why Ackbar had Threepio. Anakin really should have kept better track of his stuff.

When Threepio and Ackbar land on Coruscant, our familiar useless friends, the battledroids, are there to greet them. Not only do we get to see what became of them, it segues perfectly into another of C-3P0’s accounts from Attack of the Clones, in which he serves drinks at a separatist cocktail party, crashes Grievous ship, and recounts R2-D2 destroying the droid factory. If you think it can’t be any worse than most of the actual film, you’re right. Once again, we have a serviceable substitute for sitting through Attack of the Clones, just as Exit From Endor retold the important stuff from The Phantom Menace in less than 10% of the time.

There’s a level of frantic silliness that one expects from any Lego rendition, and here I think it helps a lot. The Jedi are short-tempered. The Jedi Council chews out Anakin for smashing their windows, but then when they get a whiff of the Battle of Geonosis, even Yoda jumps out the window in his haste to get some action. Everyone is oblivious to Palpatine’s true identity, even when his double-sided Lego face is spinning around to reveal Sidious. Its silly, but it isn’t that far from what most fans would describe if you gave them the Legos themselves to act it out. Okay, not entirely, and that’s my small beef with Crisis on Coruscant.

Threepio glosses over some of the more family unfriendly elements of the second two films. Largely the political and murdery aspects. Exit From Endor rightly called the political aspect boring and skipped it. For that, I’m glad. Its probably evil of me, but I do dock Crisis on Coruscant a point for not giving me Lego Order 66. Its weird how many characters die by being flung into some abyss. I would have thought in a Lego story, they’d have no problems showing mini-figs in states of dismemberment. I guess I was wrong. Threepio’s version of events skips over Anakin and Obi-Wan’s final exchange, but it does work in the line “from a certain point of view.” Just when you think one reference is going to be made, they pick a different one.

The second half of Crisis covers Revenge of the Sith. I was hoping for more stories of Threepio during the Clone Wars, but alas, we don’t get everything we want. The story telling is a bit weaker in this segment, no doubt owing to how dark the film actually is. Though it does cover the material, C-3P0’s account is scant, even on the jokes. Did you know Padme almost named Luke IG-88?

During the commercial break they played a trailer for Lego Justice League. Kudos, Lego, you’ve found a way to play both sides and win. I just wonder how long people will keep watching The Lego Movie re-skinned with different franchises?

After watching I told a friend that Admiral Ackbar was a main character this time. Now as the Daisy May gets towed away, it looks like he’ll be sitting out Mission to Mos Eisley, the third and next of the five part Lego Droid Tales mini series. I’m going to miss hearing the voice of Tricky Dick.

I don’t know Star Wars continuity very well… is his ship really called the Daisy May? This fish alien man defeated the Empire? Really?

Oh wow, and people are listening to C-3P0? I forgot. Totes obvs not canon.

Droid Tales suffers from a conundrum. Between Family Guy and Robot Chicken, the well of Star Wars parody is shallow and drying fast. Luckily, the Prequel Trilogy is something that most people making Star Wars parodies don’t want to touch. Adding in a requisite TV G rating, one can’t help but think the entire series would be hamstrung. Fortunately, the folks behind it have the benefit of being an official work. It not only slowly inches the story past Return of the Jedi, but abridges the ten-ish hours of the prequels into something easier to stomach.

If you’re a Star Wars fan and haven’t seen the prequels yet, Crisis on Coruscant, like Escape From Endor before it, is a decent substitute that you and the younglings can watch. If you have seen all of the prequels and don’t want to have to again, this will jog the memory enough for Episode VII.

Having seen The Lego Movie and more Star Wars stuff than I can remember, I enjoyed hearing C-3P0 recollect events he was there for after forty years of being bossed around. But, and this is nerdy to say it this way, having been there for those events myself, I wish he didn’t sugar coat some of it for the kids.