The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special Early Review

When it comes to The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special, this isn’t the Star Wars that many are used to for better or worse. Geared towards younger audiences, this animated, Lego-fied tale is definitely on the sillier side which will certainly take some getting used to and will surely be a dealbreaker for some but lets face it, this subgenre already has an audience therefore any nonfans are likely to be staying away from this one regardless. While the bright colors and the cutesy characters will be a draw over the course of its 45+ minute running time, this special doesn’t seem interested in providing much beyond that.

As far as the story is concerned, The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special is purely a convoluted mess of inside jokes and references in the cheesiest of ways made worse by the overall exaggerated nature of everything. Not only was it hard to follow, the painful humor will also be a challenge. The actual for the most part doesn’t matter all that much as it saw Rey and BB-8 go off on an adventure while the others prepare the festivities for the latest Life Day. The concern was about whether or not they would return in time but that didn’t matter nor was Rey’s quest to learn more about the force. Any deeper meaning will merely get lost on most viewers as it was just a means to facilitate all the lackluster humor for which the special repeatedly beats viewers over the head with.

Being an animated feature adjacent to the Star Wars universe, this allowed it some creative freedom. This meant plenty of source material and characters to choose from. Whether or not what it chose to do with all of that made sense or worked, the fact that it managed to fit so much within 46 minutes was impressive. On a similar note, the level of animation was also very good. Though some may not immediately recognize the Lego versions of familiar characters, the character detail was solid while the environments, without giving anything away, were surprisingly good. The voice acting saw some actors from the original film series and The Clone Wars make appearances as their respective characters. Though this made a big difference, the dreadful material they were saddled with did not.

At the end of the day, younger viewers and diehard Star Wars fans are sure to get a kick out of The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special but that’s about it. At least it’s 46 minutes.

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.