Blu-ray Review: 'Star Wars: Rebels - The Complete Season Two'
Created by: Simon Kinberg, Carrie Beck, and Dave Filoni
Based on the works of George Lucas
A year after the Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm Limited from its founder and CEO George Lucas, Dave Filoni and his crew at Lucasfilm Animation were told to close down production of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which was airing on Time-Warner's Cartoon Network.
The Clone Wars had just finished its fifth season, and Filoni's team was in the midst of producing Season Six when Disney pulled the plug on the Emmy-winning series. Lucasfilm's corporate owners wanted to focus the company's creative efforts on the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens feature film and other projects - including a new animated series for the Disney Channel's cable sibling Disney XD: Star Wars: Rebels.
Created by Filoni with writers Simon Kinberg and Carrie Beck, the series' first season is set 15 years after the events of Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge on the Sith. It follows the adventures of Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray) an adolescent from Lothal, and the crew of the Ghost, a small smuggling ship with a motley crew that includes:
- Hera Syndulla (Vanessa Marshall), the Twi'lek captain and daughter of the famous Cham Syndulla, veteran of the Clone Wars
- Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Hera's second-in-command and one of the few Jedi Knights to survive Order 66
- C1-OP, "Chopper," a cantankerous astromech droid
- Sabine Wren (Tiya Sircan), a 17-year-old Mandalorian who left the Imperial Academy and turned her back on the tyrannical Empire
- Zeb Orrelius (Steve Blum), one of the few surviving members of the Lasat, a race that was nearly annihilated by the Empire
The series takes its inspiration not just from Lucas's original 1977 Star Wars film, but also from various TV and movie Westerns (including 1992's Unforgiven), and the action-adventure series The A-Team. It's also a glimpse at the birth of the Rebel Alliance and a canonical connection between the Classic Trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi), the Prequels, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
The first season of Star Wars: Rebels aired on Disney XD from October 3, 2014 to March 2, 2015. The original run consisted of one TV movie (Spark of Rebellion) and 13 22-minute-long episodes. It was subsequently released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 1, 2015.
Star Wars: Rebels - The Complete Second Season
 |
| Kanan Jarrus and Darth Vader meet for the first time on Star Wars: Rebels. (C) 2015 Lucasfilm Ltd. |
"If Season One represents A New Hope, Season Two is very much inspired by Empire Strikes Back." - Dave Filoni
Star Wars: Rebels' second season was ushered in with the premiere of the one-hour TV movie The Siege of Lothal at Celebration Anaheim in April of 2015; most viewers saw it on Disney XD on June 20, 2015. The film, which features appearances by Lord Darth Vader (James Earl Jones), Lando Carlissian (Billy Dee Williams), and Emperor Palpatine (Sam Witwer), sets the tone for the 20 regular episodes and a story arc that will lead to a reunion between Vader and his former Padawan Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein).
In addition to The Siege of Lothal, the series consists of the following episodes:
- The Lost Commanders
- Relics of the Old Republic
- Always Two There Are
- Brothers of the Broken Horn
- Wings of the Master
- Blood Sister
- Stealth Strike
- The Future of the Force
- Legacy
- A Princess on Lothal
- The Protector of Concord Dawn
- Legends of the Lasat
- The Call
- Homecoming
- The Honorable Ones
- Shroud of Darkness
- The Forgotten Droid
- The Mystery of Chopper Base
- Twilight of the Apprentice
As was the case with Lucasfilm Animation's The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Rebels told a multiplicity of stories, each one with a different narrative tone. Some, like The Lost Commanders and Relics of the Old Republic, answered the question "Where are they now?" about a trio of clone warriors from The Clone Wars. A Princess on Lothal marked the first appearance of Princess Leia Organa (Julie Dolan) in a Lucasfilm Animated series, while The Honorable Ones was essentially a retelling of John Boorman's Hell in the Pacific and Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones.
And because Disney XD is geared toward children and young teens, there were a couple of kid-oriented episodes, namely The Future of the Force (a riff on The Clone Wars' The Children of the Force) and The Forgotten Droid, which featured the cute-but-cranky C1-OP, aka "Chopper."
Overall, as Dave Filoni's comparison to Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back illustrates, the tone of the series' second season is dark and ominous, as the cover art of the three-disc Blu-ray set illustrates so vividly.
 |
| (C) 2016 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) and Buena Vista Home Entertainment |
The Blu-ray Set
Like several of BVHE's other Star Wars-related Blu-ray sets, Star Wars: Rebels - The Complete Season Two comes in a standard-sized multi-disc jewel case which holds three Blu-ray discs (BDs). Disc One is stored by itself in the inside part of the front cover; BDs Two and Three are "stacked" on one another inside the "back cover" part of the case. I'm not sure if I like this method of storage; on the one hand, it's less complicated than other multi-disc packaging that has fragile moving parts.
On the other hand, sometimes it's difficult to get Disc One out of its compartment, especially when the set is brand new and you want to take the BD with Episodes 1-8 out of the jewel case for the first time. To eject the disc from its storage compartment, you must firmly push the "button" that grips the BD at the center, but not so hard that you poke a hole in the thin plastic of the casing.
The three BDs divide the 20 episodes of Season like so:
Disc One: Episodes 1-8
Disc Two: Episodes 9-16
Disc Three: Episodes 17-20
In addition to the 20 Star Wars: Rebels episodes listed earlier, The Complete Second Season includes several extra features, some of which are exclusive to the Blu-ray set.
Bonus Features
Blu-ray Exclusive: From Apprentice to Adversary: Vader vs. Ahsoka
Connecting the Galaxy: Rebels Season Two
Rebels Recon: 20 quick and light-hearted episode recaps hosted by Lucasfilm publicist and Star Wars Show host Andi Gutierrez. These "recons" discuss each Rebels episode and features video clips, interviews with members of the cast and crew, and end with a question (or two) about Star Wars lore for Lucasfilm Story Group head Pablo Hidalgo.
My Take
Although Star Wars: Rebels has, like most TV shows, its share of episodes that I am not fond of, overall, I have enjoyed The Complete Season Two immensely.
Not only has Dave Filoni's creative team done a good job at creating a TV series that evokes the spirit of Lucas's original Star Wars film through the writing, but the show is wonderful eye candy for even the most cynical Star Wars fan.
Part of the series' appeal - especially in Season Two - is that it literally bridges the gap between the rise of the Empire and the start of the Galactic Civil War. Here, Hera, Kanan, Zeb, Sabine, Ezra, and Chopper are midway in their transition from a local insurrectionist band to members of the Rebel Alliance, which is beginning to gel together under Commander Sato (Keone Young), Princess Leia, Bail Organa (Phil Lamarr), and Ashoka Tano.
Another reason for Star Wars: Rebels' success is that the graphic design takes its cues from various sources that fans appreciate. The art department is clearly influenced by the work of Ralph McQuarrie for the Original Trilogy; some of the Imperial troops wear helmets and equipment designed by the late conceptual artist in production paintings in the 1970s and early 1980s. In addition, many of the spaceports, bases, and other facilities shown in the show can trace their origins to material done by McQuarrie (early versions of Bespin's Cloud City, as well as designs for replacements for the Death Star intended for Return of the Jedi) that were not used but filed away in the Lucasfilm Archives.
The Blu-rays are pretty good, too. The video quality is nearly flawless, especially for 1080p high-definition TVs, with a colorful palette that includes Ahsoka's orange skin and Hera's greenish Twi'lek flesh tones. The details, especially those seen on characters' clothing and the various starships' hulls and interiors, are also well-rendered and reflect the craftsmanship of the graphic artists who work on the series.
The audio elements of the Blu-ray set are not as impressive. Disney discarded Warner Bros. Home Video's use of lossless audio tracks in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars BD sets for Seasons Three, Four, and Five and reverted to the use of a standard Dolby Surround audio track.
Now, I'm not saying that the audio of Star Wars: Rebels sucks. It doesn't, and most viewers who are not audiophiles probably won't notice. It is, at best, a good if not thrilling sound presentation that still captures the many sounds of a Star Wars adventure - humming lightsabers, screeching TIE fighters, and booming explosions, as well as an occasional "Wilhelm" scream from a falling stormtrooper. But picky viewers who know about audio tracks and the difference between lossless and "lossy" sound will be annoyed.
That quibble aside, though, Star Wars: Rebels - The Complete Season Two is a fine addition to any Star Wars fan's video collection. It explores many corners of the Star Wars mythology that the features have only hinted at or not shown at all, and it gives viewers a richer, more detailed look at that galaxy far, far away.
Comments
Post a Comment