Over the weekend, the new series Star Wars Rebels premiered on Disney Channel. The new series is set 14 years after Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and 5 years before Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Rebels 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. The pilot was an one hour movie titled “Spark of Rebellion”, and so far, I thought this series has a much better feel than Clone Wars, although some of the animation could have been better.
The new series features a motley group of rebels that band together aboard a freighter starship called the Ghost. At the beginning, we meet Ezra, who likes to steal and take advantage of others to survive. Some people are comparing Ezra to another Disney character, Aladdin. And I have to admit, they look very similar!
Let’s start with the animation qualities, which I had some trouble with in some places. The main characters had good animation qualities, the animated action scenes like the shootings, space scenes, and fighting was great. But some of the side characters were poorly animated! I especially found the animation of the Wookiees as very poor! The Wookiee looked like they came straight from Toy Story. The Wookiees looked like real plastic toys. I hope the Wookiees are better animated in future episodes.
As for the storyline, I was very impressed with it! A lot of people have said that Rebels has a more unique Star Wars feel and has a better Star Wars like story arc than Clone Wars. I have to agree with these people! I never got bored watching Spark of Rebellion. Ezra is that person who has given up on society, and has become the bad person to survive. He has to make a decision that not only changes his life, but the lives of many other people in the Star Wars universe. Throughout the first episode, he keeps saying “I am not a kid.” I give the writers some props for developing Ezra in the first episode, I hope we get to see more character development from Ezra in the series.
The main cast is also all misfit characters who don’t fit in the Galactic Empire. Kind of like me, who thinks a lot differently than many other people here in Alabama, when it comes to politics, and how to turn around a depressed town around. Kanan is a Jedi survivor who is critical and sometimes grumpy. Hera really knows how to pilot the Ghost and likes action. Sabine really likes explosives, as you can see in the pilot. And Zeb is mostly very critical and left Ezra behind, how cruel! I will be interested to see these characters develop in the series.
Overall, I felt like Star Wars Rebels was more like the original trilogy we saw back in the 1970’s/1980’s. I enjoyed the storylines, humor, and the action. The animators do a really good job with the action scenes, but could improve on the animated characters. I think we will see the character development and storylines improve throughout season one, I hope. Disney has already ordered a season two, before the series even premiered! So, we will be seeing lots more Star Wars Rebels. New episodes air on Monday nights on DisneyXD.
Learn more about Star Wars Rebels at: http://www.starwars.com/tv-shows/star-wars-rebels
All images and videos copyright from Disney Channel
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