Saturday Night Showcase: Star Wars Droids

Thanks to a surprise doctor appointment the video’s been delayed again, although it may be to my benefit in that I have a little longer to do it right by next Saturday. I’d probably drop it if I hadn’t teased it already, so let’s ride the droid train all the way to the station. This past week we’ve seen R2 and 3PO fly the Millennium Falcon, watched Transformers sing their theme song, looked at the actual theme song, and the animated segment that led to the series. So…let’s watch the series! It may not be public domain but since the rights holders (the Disney-owned Lucasfilm) seems to not want to do anything with it, maybe this will encourage them.

The Ewoks/Droids Adventure Hour was a Saturday morning series produced by Canadian animation studio Nelvana for ABC and Lucasfilm. The first half, Ewoks, followed those little teddy bear warriors from Endor as tried to protect their homes and have fun. Since some of the one from Return Of The Jedi were kids, I think this was a prequel to that movie and possibly the live-action movies that followed. Star Wars Droids: The Adventures Of R2-D2 and C3PO was closer to the original movies. While the troubles our metal heroes got into each week were less epic than their times with the Rebels (or the Republic, thanks to the prequels and spin-off cartoons), they still were made of multi-episode story arcs, the first of which we’ll see tonight. R2 and 3PO find themselves in the employ of a racing team (thankfully minus pod racing) who run afoul of mob son Tig Fromm and his reluctant, snarky bodyguard Vlix, whom you may remember from one of the Star Comics reviews. That means this is actually connected to a previous BW review as well as the first storyline, that as far as I know wasn’t released on home video. There’s no reason not to use this to introduce you (or reintroduce for some of you) to this cartoon. Enjoy the four-part adventure!

I know, there’s no intros in this person’s postings, which he (she?) claims to be digitally remastered, but there’s a link in the first paragraph if you want to watch it before every video.

I wish they had used the transitions that the movies did, but we got fades to black. You’ll have to guess where the commercial breaks were. And of course they were going to work a lightsaber in there somehow, even without the ability to use Jedi. Until Star Wars Rebels we didn’t even get incompletely trained Jedi at first. And now our heroes are off to the races, but they aren’t done with the Fromm gang just yet.

One thing the show get right without having to (or perhaps accidentally) are the titles. The classic movie serials (which longtime BW readers know I love) were an influence for George Lucas, and you can see it in the titles for the six movies he worked on. (Is it just me or does The Force Awakens, good title that is it, not quite match that? Abrams needs to go back to what inspired Lucas to make Star Wars. Actually, Lucas should have done that before the prequels.) While this is a four part arc, it’s not really serialized, just an ongoing story arc which each episode capable of standing alone. Tig may have escaped, but he isn’t leaving yet.

I’m not sure why rebels were fighting a gang, but at least they won, and the Fromm gang is history? Or are they? This IS a four-part story, and each arc usually ends with Artoo and Threepio having to find a new master. So let’s see how Sise and Tig plan to disrupt their lives. And it involves the return of someone else from the Holiday Special short.

There are two more storylines and a made-for-TV movie to go, and we may come back to them. While this lacks the character development and large-scale of the two different Clone Wars cartoons and Rebels, or even The Freemaker Adventures, there’s still action and fun, which what you expect from a Saturday morning cartoon as opposed to other shows. Sometimes you just want a lighter adventure with good characters and fun action. That’s what this series offered and I hope someday Disney/Lucasfilm releases the full series instead of two story arcs edited into movies that wasn’t already a movie.

Whether it’s official canon or not (since I think only the CG non-LEGO shows are canon now animation-wise) it’s canon to me and I like seeing what Artoo and Threepio get into when they aren’t with the usual rebels. But this is why I put the Star Comics stories, and possibly the Dark Horse as well, before the cartoon, because of Tig and Vlix’s appearance in the comic. As for why Artoo and Threepio didn’t recognize Boba during the Holiday Special’s story…they didn’t get a good look at him and only heard who he was in passing. And we can assume at some point our heroes got separated from Bail Organa and went off on other adventures until they were picked up by Wedge Antelles for A New Hope, later becoming Luke Skywalker’s master. (Maybe he heard about being mindwiped by Bail to keep the existence of Luke & Leia secret since Threepio’s a talker? That why he thought he and the other droid had the same manufacturer? Just a thought.) See, they totally work despite having to connect them in hindsight.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.