'Star Wars: Rebels - The Complete Season One' review

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“Star Wars Rebels – The Complete Season One”

Created by Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and Carrie Beck

Based on “Star Wars,” created by George Lucas

Starring the voices of: Taylor Gray, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Vanessa Marshall, Tiya Sircar, Stephen Blum, Ashley Eckstein

On Tuesday, September 1, 2015, Disney/Buena Vista Home Entertainment released “Star Wars Rebels,” an animated series set five years before the events of George Lucas’s “Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope.” Produced by Lucasfilm Animation, the team behind the Emmy-winning “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” the series is Disney’s first “Star Wars” project since the company’s purchase of Lucasfilm Limited in 2012.

As created by Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and Carrie Beck, “Star Wars Rebels” bridges the gap between “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and the original “Star Wars” trilogy. It airs on cable’s Disney XD channel, although it premiered on the mothership Disney Channel on October 3, 2014 with the one hour pilot, “Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion.”  The first 30-minute episode, “Droids in Distress,” premiered on Disney XD 10 days later.

“Star Wars Rebels” focuses on a small group of insurgents led by Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), one of the few Jedi Knights who survived Emperor Palpatine’s Order 66. Jarrus is joined in his fight against the evil Galactic Empire by the crew of the Ghost, a smuggling ship reminiscent of the Original Trilogy’s Millennium Falcon. The Ghost’s complement consists of:
·        
Hera Syndulla (Vanessa Marshall), the Twi’lek captain/owner of the Ghost

·        Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios (Stephen Blum), a large Lasat enforcer who is the crew’s designated muscle 

·        Sabine Wren (Tiya Sircar), a 16-year-old Mandalorian who dropped out of an Imperial academy on her home world when she realized the evil nature of Palpatine’s New Order. Sabine is an explosives expert and an enthusiastic graffiti artist.

·        C1-10P, aka “Chopper,” is the Ghost’s cranky but versatile astromech droid. Chopper is best described as the series’ anti-R2-D2; he performs many of the same functions (starship repair, information retrieval), but doesn’t readily warm up to his organic companions.

·        Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray) is a 14-year-old (later 15) native of Lothal who lost his parents to the Empire seven years ago. He’s street smart and reckless, and he has latent Force powers that have helped him survive on his own. “Star Wars Rebels” is told mostly from Ezra’s point of view because he is the Ghost’s newest crew member.

“Star Wars Rebels” takes place on and in the space around Lothal, a planet which has recently been occupied by the Empire. Its 13 episodes depict the Ghost crew’s efforts to fight against Imperial force and to liberate them from bureaucrats such as Minister Maketh Tua (Kath Soucie), enforcers such as Agent Kallus of the Imperial Security Bureau (David Oyelowo), and the Emperor’s Inquisitors, including Inquistor #1 (Jason Isaacs).

Evaluating the Series

As the bridge between the Prequel Trilogy, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” and “Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope,” “Star Wars Rebels” also features familiar characters from the entire saga. Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), Anakin Skywalker’s former Padawan, returns as a rebel leader, while Darth Vader (James Earl Jones), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), and Grand Moff Tarkin (Stephen Stanton) have recurring or featured guest roles.

The series’ visual style reflects the sensibilities of Lucas’s Original Trilogy, since it depicts the beginning of the Rebel Alliance that will challenge Palpatine’s Empire. “Star Wars Rebels” distinctive look is based on the concept art by Ralph McQuarrie, whose design sketches and production paintings for 1977’s “Star Wars” were instrumental in that movie’s success.

Although “Star Wars Rebels” airs on kid-friendly Disney XD, the series is not “Star Wars” watered down for the younger set. Like its predecessor “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” the series created by Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and Carrie Beck depicts space dogfights, running gun battles between the Ghost’s band of rebels and Imperial stormtroopers, plus the lightsaber  battles that are the hallmark of most “Star Wars” stories.

Also, as was the case with “The Clone Wars,”  “Star Wars Rebels” features good writing and is told in a more linear version. (As originally aired on Cartoon Network and packaged on home media, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” was an anthology series which skipped back and forth across the “Star Wars” Prequel era timeline.) The quality of the script reflects Lucasfilm’s strategy to appeal not only to the younger set that normally watches Disney XD, but also to adults who grew up loving Lucas’s original trilogy of “A New Hope,” “The Empire Strikes Back,” and “Return of the Jedi.”

In addition, by bringing back established “Clone Wars” characters such as Ahsoka Tano (who’s now in her late 20s) and clone Captain Rex (Dee Bradley Baker), “Star Wars Rebels” adds necessary canonical continuity that links all of Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars” movies and TV series. Truly, this show is must-see TV for casual and die-hard “Star Wars” fans alike.

Episode List: Season One
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“Spark of Rebellion – Part One”
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“Spark of Rebellion – Part Two”

·  “Droids in Distress”
·     
  “Fighter Flight”
·   
     “Rise of the Old Masters”
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    “Breaking Ranks”
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“Out of Darkness”
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    “Empire Day”
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  “Gathering Forces”
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      “Paths of the Jedi”
·        
“Idiot’s Array”

   “Vision of Hope”

· “Call to Action”
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       “Rebel Resolve”
·        
“Fire Across the Galaxy”

Blu-ray Specifications:

Video

  • Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
  • Resolution: 1080p
  • Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
  • Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1

Audio

  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
  • French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
  • Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
  • German: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)


Subtitles
  • English, French, Spanish



Discs

  • 50GB Blu-ray Disc
  • Two-disc set (2 BDs)

Packaging


  • Slipcover in original pressing

Playback
  • Region free 

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