Star Wars Rebels Series Premiere Review: The Force Is Strong With This One

Star Wars Rebels S01E01 and S01E02: "Spark of Rebellion" (Parts 1 and 2)

The action-adventure cartoon series that targets youngsters is struggling to keep a foothold on U.S. television. Cartoon Network has all but abandoned the format—only Ben 10: Omniverse still clings to life—in favor of 11-minute comedy shows that may have some action elements to them. Nickelodeon is also struggling the realm of the action cartoon; its relaunch of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been terrifically successful, but The Legend Of Korra has turned out to be something the cabler just isn't interested in any longer. Even The CW has ditched The Vortexx, a programming block of action 'toons (and WWE wrestling) that it used to air on weekend mornings. Older action shows may continue to survive on other channels owned by Cartoon or Nickelodeon, but new ones consistently struggle to gain traction.

As for an explanation as to why, we need look no further than Cartoon Network's inability (or unwillingness) to exploit its corporate ties to Warner Bros. and thus DC Entertainment. Young Justice, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, and Beware the Batman were all shuffled around the schedule or removed from it entirely, and often without warning. And, really, if you can't make superhero-related cartoons work this day and age, something is obviously wrong.

Which brings us to Disney XD. Disney's behavior is pretty much the exact opposite of Warner Bros'; Warner Bros. has apparently decided that primetime, live-action versions of its superhero properties work better than animation, and it could be right. The audience is more diverse, and it has far more buying power (provided "buying power" even means anything in this post-network, DVR-VOD-streaming era). Disney, however, as it is wont to do, is exploiting its various holdings across the spectrum. Live-action primetime shows that tie into its massive comic book film franchise? Check and double check. Forthcoming live-action comic-book shows on a popular streaming service? Quadruple check. And, most importantly for us, animated action shows of varying quality that feature superheroes they own? Check, double check, and triple check.

And now comes Star Wars Rebels, an animated action series that marks Disney's first foray into developing a television series from the properties it acquired following its purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012. Not only does Rebels help to fill the ever-widening gap in solid animated action programming (I'll miss you when you're gone, Legend of Korra!), it's every bit the worthy successor to The Clone Wars. Rebels might even be a bit better right out of the gate, so while we should certainly continue to mourn The Clone Wars' passing, we should also rejoice that it wasn't "replaced" with something terrible.

None of this should be all that shocking, however. Dave Filoni, who helped guide The Clone Wars, returns to do the same thing with Rebels, and he's joined by Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days of Future Past) and Greg Weisman (Gargoyles, Young Justice) in the executive-producing roles. Filoni's the one who really matters, though, as I imagine many of you are aware. He's a Star Wars nut, and he worked with others to craft stories within this universe during The Clone Wars that, frankly, put the prequel trilogy to shame (ditto for many of the licensed Star Wars novels). Filoni has a grasp of this narrative world, its style, and its tone that manages to feel both "right" and fresh at the same time.

Rebels is set over a decade after Revenge of the Sith and five years before A New Hope. The Jedi are believed to be extinct and the Empire's iron fist is steadily gaining hold of Outer Rim planets—including Lothal, where the show set some of its action in "Spark of Rebellion," Rebels' two-part series opener. The Empire has been at this long enough that there's already a mist of discontent starting to form, and the episode made that clear by showing us corrupt, lazy, and sniveling Imperial officers arresting a hapless trader for treason right off the bat.

That sense of possible rebellion was also in the air because a group of raiders had been making focused attacks on Imperial supplies on Lothal. It's one thing when pirates move around, attacking multiple convoys or bases, but it's another when a group focuses on a single location. Such a situation could, as the Imperial Intelligence agent Kallus (David Oyelowo) noted, light that spark of rebellion that could engulf the Empire.

The members of the "team" include human Jedi-in-disguise Kanan (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), Twi'lek pilot and group mom Hera (Vanessa Marshall), Mandalorian weapons expert and graffiti artist Sabine (Tiya Sircar), Lasat enforcer Zeb (Steven Blum), and their chatty and sarcastic astromech Chopper. Along with the Force-sensitive orphan street rat they picked up on Lothal during the premiere, Ezra (Taylor Gray), they form your standard group of outlaws with no love of the Empire.

"Spark of Rebellion" did a mostly solid job of introducing everyone, though Sabine felt more defined by her abilities than any real personality. Ezra, understandably, enjoyed the most shading and pathos, what with his dead parents and yearning for adventure, and he's very much a Luke Skywalker type. Kanan's vibe basically said, "This is how Han Solo would come off if he were a Jedi," except that it was likely something of a pose because there's also a current of seriousness to Kanan, the kind that stems from losing your friends and your entire culture in a matter of moments. Hera and Zeb are fairly one-note so far—Hera's compassionate, and Zeb is the crusty-on-the-outside, probably warm-and-fuzzy-on-the-inside sort—but Rebels has plenty of room to develop everyone, and there's no reason to believe it won't do so.

I say this because there's a real sense of freedom to the show that helps to set it apart from The Clone Wars. The Clone Wars was yoked between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, and since it focused so readily on many of the Jedi, it could never really push too far in new directions before it was forced to snap back to a point where its events could reasonably lead into Revenge of the Sith. When The Clone Wars focused on its troopers, the episodes were able to loosen up a bit because the troopers belonged to the series, and the series could do with them as it pleased.

Rebels has that same advantage and none of The Clone Wars' limitations. All of its core characters are original creations—though the designs for Zeb and Chopper are based on Ralph McQuarrie's early designs for Chewbacca ("Haven't you ever seen a rare hairless Wookiee before?") and R2-D2, respectively—so Rebels can tell a very fresh and exciting story, and since it's five years out from A New Hope, it can be go bold without having to worry too much about running up against the continuity of the films.

More than that, though, Rebels harkens back to that time when Star Wars was fun. Don't get me wrong, I love a good debate about galactic banking, trade embargoes, and senate procedure as much as the next fictional policy nerd, but Rebels has so much of A New Hope in it, from the aesthetics (it's not quite as dirty, but it's getting there) to the chemistry of the main group, that the tone is very much, "We have a plan but we're making this up as we go along!" (like when the gang was captured and ran around the the Death Star attempting to save Leia, and later, when they tried to escape). It infuses everything with a sense of lightness that hasn't really been part of the Star Wars franchise for a while.

The action is good—and even better in the show's fifth episode, which Disney XD made available to the press—and the show has an energy that recalls B-movie serials more than war or some samurai films, but in an animated way. Between the premiere's speeder chases, blaster shootouts, running in ship corridors, and exploding graffiti, there were plenty of good sequences and inventive ideas already circulating, though I could've done without Ezra's energy ball slingshot.

All in all, I'm very excited about Star Wars Rebels. It knows it's nostalgia bait, and it isn't shy about that. Like The Clone Wars, it lifts lines from the movies left and right, and the musical cues (I love how the show uses sound to indicate Ezra sensing something in the Force) are straight out of the films, particularly—and appropriately—the original trilogy. When Kanan put together his lightsaber and ignited it, there wasn't surprise but excitement. It was a moment, not just for Kanan deciding to reveal himself as a Jedi, but for us, watching a Jedi stand up against the forces that had hunted down and killed his peers and friends after being in hiding for so long. That Rebels managed to elicit that feeling even though we haven't spent much time with Kanan—seeing him walk into the blaster bolts and move his head just enough to dodge them certainly didn't hurt!—sells me on the show. This is good stuff, and a welcome addition to the dwindling number of animated action shows on TV for kids (and adults, of course!).

HOLOCRONS

– I know mentioning the fifth episode—"Rise of the Old Masters"—is sort of mean, but it's very good, and it provides a much better sense of the Inquisitor (Jason Isaacs), whom we saw at the end of the premiere.

– Some early good, albeit not surprising, news: Disney has already renewed Rebels for a second season. I say "not surprising" because, due to the time required to produce animated series, it's always wise to hand out early renewals whenever possible so that producers and animators have the time they need to actually make the episodes. Depending on how Season 1 performs, I think a Season 3 renewal could probably happen before Season 2 even airs.

– "I'm in space! And I'm about to die!" Ezra may be kind of a mopey, selfish, and annoyingly brash teenager, but at least he's funny!

– I really liked the idea of Tarkin Town, the shanty town of displaced farmers on Lothal, so I hope the show revisits that area again. Related to Lothal: I totally thought it was Dantooine at first.

– It was a dark moment, but I let out a loud laugh when Kallus kicked that stormtrooper to his (presumed) death after the trooper asked, "First Jedi you've ever seen, sir?"

– To spare him the burden of shameless self-promotion (and so he fully devote his time telling me that while he agrees with me, I'm still wrong on some points), here's a link to JT_Kirk's thoughts on the premiere and "Rise of the Old Masters," which he got to see at a screening in Los Angeles.

– The series officially launches on Disney XD on Monday, October 13.

What'd you think of the premiere of Star Wars Rebels?