The force is still with “Robot Chicken: Star Wars”
November 14, 2008 at 12:26 pm by Curt Holman in A&EThe Cartoon Network goes back “not long ago, in a galaxy not far enough way” with “Robot Chicken: Star Wars, Episode II,” the second all-Star Wars themed episode of the animated comedy series. Created by actor Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, “Robot Chicken” uses stop-motion animation — frequently of familiar action figures and product tie-ins — to lampoon pop culture. In 2007, “Robot Chicken’s” its first wide-ranging goof on the Star Wars franchise earned the some of the show’s greatest acclaim, and even an Emmy nomination.
Airing Nov. 16 on Adult Swim, “Episode II” offers more sketches and “one-liner” gags about Jedi, the Galactic Empire and even the maligned Ewoks (who someone escaped direct assault the first time around). In addition to comedy voice talents like Green and Bob Bergen, the special features cameos from Star Wars alumni, including Carrie Fisher and Ahmed Best (the voice of Jar-Jar Binks). Billy Dee Williams offers a particularly amusing lampoon of his own performance as Lando Calrissian. Part of what makes the “Robot Chicken” treatment so amusing is the way Green and company have such a good grasp on how to mock George Lucas’s iconic characters. Middle finger gags, for instance, prove hilariously “wrong” in a context of robots, Sith Lords and space stations. Evil Emperor Palpatine comes across like the most jerky, exasperated boss imaginable, while bounty hunter Boba Fett is like a cocky braggart at a sports bar. This new promo gives a taste of how the show treats Darth Vader.
Plus, even at 22 minutes (twice the show’s usual length), “Robot Chicken’s” hyperspeed pace insure that even weak ideas don’t overstay their welcome. Most of the sketches prove so short that you can’t even describe them without spoiling them. Overall, they offer the kind of observations that only obsessive fans would remember, confident that the Adult Swim audience appreciates Star Wars as a cultural touchstone. Gags might involve, for instance, that giant snake-like skeleton seem in background of the desert planet in first film, or a line of dialogue like “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.” And “Robot Chicken” proves much more appealing than the Star Wars and pop culture jokes in, say, Kevin Smith movies, partly because it’s more fun to laugh at action figures than slackers and clerks with bad attitudes.
In one respect, “Robot Chicken Star Wars” is not like its inspiration, in that Star Wars” first sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, was the rare follow-up that improved on the original. “Robot Chicken: Star Wars – Episode II” isn’t quite as much fun as the previous outing. It focuses more closely (if not exclusively) on Empire Strikes Back jokes and provokes more chuckles than belly laughs. We see fewer out-of-left-field gems like the George W. Bush Jedi fantasy in the first special (which ended with W. having a light saber duel with one of our most beloved former presidents). It’s still a treat to see what Green and his plucky band of basic cable rebels do with such real-world concepts as “Take Your Daughter to Work Day” in a space operatic setting.
It would be fun to see “Robot Chicken” give the business to “Star Trek” or Lord of the Rings, but the creators come across as such helpless Star Wars geeks, they could probably complete a trilogy of spoofs. What’s really odd is that given the fact that The Cartoon Network broadcasts the new “Star Wars” series “The Clone Wars,” it’s like the Atlanta-based station is now the home of the franchise’s most recent product and its best source of satire. And if you’ve ever seen “Clone Wars,” you might even think that Lucasfilm is ensuring that “Robot Chicken” will have even more material to work with.
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