The force is quite strong here
THE BIG RELEASE LEGO STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL 6+ ★★★✩✩
‘THAT debate was the worst thing I’ve ever seen & I was in The Star Wars Holiday Special,’ Mark Hamill tweeted of the Trump/ Biden slagging match. It’s true, the infamous 1978 TV special has few fans, not least among the stars involved in it. Hamill has said he’d rewatch it ‘only as punishment’.
So the news that Disney intended to reboot it prompted ‘horror’ from the cast. ‘Are you crazy?’ C-3PO actor Anthony Daniels recently declared, adding: ‘I was genuinely surprised that they would risk awakening those dreadful memories.’
This, however, is to overlook the new golden rule of moviemaking: everything is made better by Lego. And so it proves here… just about.
Directly following the events of Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, this festive story sees Chewie once again rejoining his family to celebrate ‘Life Day’ – seemingly the Star Wars version of Christmas, since it involves a decorated tree, a turkey and novelty knitwear.
Meanwhile, Rey sets off with BB-8 to gain a deeper knowledge of the
Force via a ‘key to the galaxy’, a plot device enabling her to gatecrash the series’ greatest hits moments, from Luke blowing up the Death Star to Baby Yoda. Seeing these recreated in Lego is mildly amusing. And Star Wars devotees can relish collecting the ‘Easter egg’ in-series references most of us won’t notice. But it’s not until the halfway point that this special starts living up to its name by shaking up the bricks and having some much-needed irreverent fun.
The returning cast includes Kelly Marie Tran (Rose Tico) and Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian), as well as
Daniels, who clearly got over his misgivings. But the biggest giggles come from Emperor Palpatine, who demands ‘less talky talky, more fighty fighty’ while playing gleefully with his Imperial chair. ‘It spins both ways!’
At 45 minutes, this affectionate meta-comedy tribute is more of a stocking filler – even if, for Star Wars devotees, it’s still the biggest release of the year. LARUSHKA IVAN-ZADEH
Out now on Disney+