SPOILER WARNING!! Do not read ahead if you have not watched the series premiere of Star Wars: Rebels "Spark of Rebellion".
Star Wars: Rebels premiered recently with a one hour television movie entitled "Spark of Rebellion". Rebels is Disney's first foray into the Star Wars universe since acquiring its production company, Lucasfilm, from creator George Lucas in 2012.
Unlike the previous Star Wars animated series, The Clone Wars, Rebels takes place after the destruction of the Jedi Order and fall of the Galactic Republic. To be precise, the series is set approximately five years before Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
This mini-movie mostly served to introduce the viewer to an entirely new cast of characters set in the galaxy far, far away.
First up, the audience meets Ezra, a young orphan living on the planet Lothal who quickly demonstrates some of the characteristics common to someone who is strong in the Force. Ezra is shown using trickery to save a local merchant from being arrested by an Imperial officer, and then swindling the merchant out of some of his merchandise.
Shortly afterwards, Ezra notices a group of beings stealing several crates from the Imperials and realising that they must be valuable steals a crate from them in turn!
Ezra is chased by the leader of the thieves, Kanan, as well as storm troopers and even an iconic Imperial TIE-fighter! Along the way, Kanan saves Ezra from being killed by the Imperials and everyone escapes aboard the groups ship, Ghost.
Whilst Kanan serves as the leader of the Ghost's crew, the ship actually belongs to the pilot, Hera, a warm and maternal Twi'lek. We are also introduced to Sabine, a young Mandalorian girl who appears to be an explosives expert, Zeb, a giant Lasat warrior and Chopper, an astromech droid with almost as much attitude as R2-D2.
Ezra realises the group are not so much thieves as freedom fighters when the group takes the supplies stolen from the Imperials to an impoverished village, Tarkintown (named for Governor Tarkin from the movies himself)! Whilst there, Era discovers a lightsaber and a Jedi holocron amongst Kanan's possessions.
The crew learns that the Empire is in the process of transferring Wookie prisoners to be used as slaves and take off to rescue them- as they had been great warriors for the Republic before its fall. Unfortunately, the crew's information turns out to be bait planted by Agent Kallus of the Imperial Security Bureau, who is keen to extinguish the spark of rebellion the crew is set to become. Although the crew escapes and Hera manages to avoid the Imperial's tractor beam, Zeb allows Ezra to be captured by Kallus rather than risk being captured himself.
Kanan and Hera decide to mount a rescue mission, as Ezra had been captured whilst trying to warn them of the Imperial trap. The crew easily rescues Ezra, who learnt during his brief imprisonment that the Imperials really are transporting Wookie slaves to the spice mines of Kessel.
The crew engages Imperials in order to free the Wookies on Kessel, however, they are heavily outnumbered. In order to defeat the Imperial's, Kanan is forced to reveal himself as a former Jedi by using his lightsaber and Force powers to even the odds.
The group escapes and manages to rescue the Wookies. Later, back on Lothal, Kanan offers to train Ezra in the ways of the Force, who agrees and formally becomes a member of the Ghost's crew.
Unfortunately, it is revealed that Agent Kallus survived his encounter with the rebels and is able to report to his superior, the Jedi-hunting Inquisitor, that he encountered a living Jedi.
Overall rating: ★★★★½
From the beginning to the end of this episode I was struck by how much I was reminded of the original trilogy of films. It is quite clear that Disney are hoping to distance themselves from the poorly recieved prequel trilogy in favour of the much loved older films. Everything from the musical cues used throughout the episode, the Ghost's similarity to the Millennium Falcon and even the British accents of the Imperials is pleasantly reminiscent of the first three Star Wars films that I so enjoyed as a child.
Similarly to The Clone Wars, the animation used for this series is simply stunning! I have rarely seen a television series able to pull off something so realistic. However, I must confess that I did find the animation of the Wookie prisoners highly jarring, as the quality was simply not at the level of every other aspect of the episode.
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