Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion Review
On Friday, October 3rd, Disney Channel will air the one-hour Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion TV movie (which is already available to view over at WatchDisneyXD.com) as a way to introduce everyone to the series. Then on Monday, October 13th, at 9/8c, Disney XD will begin airing the official half-hour episodes of Rebels.Star Wars Rebels Already Renewed for Season 2
Sure, the show has received some initial internet flack (WHAT???) because it's aimed at kids, though truth be told it's actually very much in line with the tone of the original Star Wars trilogy - which itself probably wouldn't even hold up to today's fan's standards of wanting most things to play very dark.Like "A New Hope," Rebels features a frustrated and spirited teen character, Ezra, getting swept up into a space crusade with a bunch of grownups on a one-of-a-kind ship. And the galaxy vibe is not unlike that of we all experienced with Episode IV. The evil Empire rules supreme and everyone bends to their will. Jedi are thought to be all but extinguished and little hope remains. And so here you'll see, as the title of the movie explains, the first "spark" of the rebellion.
What's It About?
Star Wars Rebels is set 14 years after Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and 5 years before Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. It takes place during an era when the Galactic Empire is securing its grip on the galaxy and hunting down the last of the Jedi Knights while a fledgling rebellion against the Empire is taking form.We'll follow the adventures of orphaned teen Ezra, as he finds a new home among a gang of space vigilantes - Kanan, Hera, Zeb, and Sabine - each of whom has lost dearly at the hands of the Empire. Ezra will discover that he has both a higher calling and a new family.Star Wars Rebels Image Gallery
Throughout the series, the feisty Rebels crew will meet up with some familiar faces from the Star Wars Universe while taking on an all new villain in the form of "The Inquisitor," and it will ultimately be interesting to see how the show ties into the initial trilogy and if it takes the opportunity to use its "prequel-ness" in cool and fun ways.Who's It From?
Rebels comes from Star Wars: The Clone Wars' Dave Filoni, along with EPs Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days of Future Past) and Greg Weisman (The Spectacular Spider-Man) - though we've now learned Weisman won't be back for Season 2. The visual style is heavily inspired by the original Star Wars trilogy concept art by Ralph McQuarrie - though it should be said that the CGI involved is not as detailed as The Clone Wars (Rebels is notably being produced on a faster schedule).Filoni, talking to IGN, explained his take on the series. "I believe it's the opening crawl of A New Hope that says, 'The rebels have had their first major victory against the Galactic Empire.' That gives you some insight into how organized they are, which is not very," he said. "I think one notion we attack to make this series was, how long does it take them, the Rebel Alliance, to really become something formidable? Are they ever formidable? The Empire never actually seems that worried about them. The only ones I know that are kind of worried about them a little bit are the guys running the star fleets. They seem to have the most frontline trouble with the rebels.""So we've really tried to look at this whole time period of the Rebellion against the Empire and tried to see, how does that develop, and how do our characters fit into it?," Filoni continued. "For us, it's really starting with five characters that are against the Empire. They know it's wrong, and they all have their own reason for wanting to fight against the Empire. That's the compelling thing. They all have different motivations that have put them on this path to being Robin Hoods, as it were, which is kind of more what our group is than being part of a giant Mon Calamari fleet -- and it makes sense."
More about Star Wars Rebels on Page 2, including what we thought of it.Who's In It?
Uber-Star Wars fan Freddie Prinze, Jr. (who even bears a scar on his chin from a childhood lightsaber incident) plays Kanan, the default planner and point man for the crew of Ghost, their starship.Vanessa Marshall (Spectacular Spider-Man) plays Hera, the Twi'lek mother-figure, and pilot, of the group.Rounding out the crew are Zeb, a Lasat enforcer played by Steven Blum (Cowboy Bebop, Naruto)..... and Sabine, a Mandalorian weapons expert voiced by Tiya Sircar (The Internship).Taylor Gray plays Ezra, the 14-year-old "street rat" who trouble-makes his way into lives of the Ghost crew and has to learn an important lesson about helping someone other than himself.On the villainous side of things, David Oyelowo (Red Tails) plays Agent Kallus.And Jason Isaacs, of the Harry Potter films, plays the Jedi-hunting Inquisitor.Franchise familiars like Lando (voiced by Billy Dee Williams), Obi-Wan, R2-D2, and C-3PO (voiced by Anthony Daniels) will also appear.
What Do We Think?
As you can read in our full review of Spark of Rebellion, Rebels has a lot of fun to offer and does an admirable job of capturing that classic Star Wars feel that long time Star Wars fans will appreciate.There are echoes of scenes from previous Star Wars movies, but with a knowing wink, including a part where one of the Rebels crew has to pretend to be a prisoner, with very humorous results. Think "Indiana Jones in Temple of Doom doing that callback to the gun vs. sword scene in Raiders, even though Temple was a prequel."Star Wars: Spark of Rebellion Review
One element that's a bit rough here is the animation, particularly the weird-looking Wookies. Even though it's known that fur and hair are often a CGI animator's nightmare, the Wookies really don't look that great in this.