So, what can be said about this disaster that hasnât been said already? Iâm honestly not sure, but Iâll see if I canât cobble something together. My brainâs still seeping out through my nose, though. I hear thatâs a common symptom which follows exposure to this very âspecialâ Holiday Special. Sorta like opening the Ark of the Covenant only worse because you have to stare at the unfathomable horror for 96 minutes.
Whatâs the plot? Chewieâs Original Trilogy Extended Universe family wants him to come home for Kashyykâs most important holiday of the year, Life Day. Itâs sorta like a vague amalgamation of Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza and every other winter holiday minorities celebrate. However, Chewie is having a hard time getting to Kashyyk because the Empire is chasing him and Han all over the galaxy. The bulk of the feature-length Special revolves around Chewieâs treehouse-dwelling family; his wife, Malla, his son, Lumpy, and his geriatric father, Itchy. Sound like rejects from a Hanna Barbara cartoon, donât they?
In-between the soap opera that is Chewieâs Family, you are treated (???) to a collection of bizarre shorts and even MORE bizarre celebrity cameos. Possibly the most famous of these celebrity cameos is the sequence in which Bea Arthur works the Mos Eisly Tavern and breaks-out into a song and dance, all to the tune of the Cantina Bandâs song from A New Hope. But of course, the tempo is slowed a down a notch or two so she can keep up. It is quite painful. You also get to enjoy a holographic music video by Jefferson Starship. It is VERY painful.
The one celebrity who has the largest effect on the story, though, would be Art Carney. Yes, THAT Art Carney. From the Honeymooners. And they donât seem to shy about reminding you heâs from the Honeymooners, as he basically plays Ed Norton; even going so far as to include a scene where he fiddles with a hologram device for so long the Imperial Guard heâs stalling loses his temper and shouts âOh will you just get on with it already!â
You might wanna look that one up, kids.
The cast from the first film is there. Youâve got Carrie Fisher, stoned out of her gourd, Harrison Ford, intensely pissed heâs having anything to do with this project, Mark Hamill, with a face covered in so much make-up he might very well be Scott Baio in disguise, both of those annoying Droids, Chewbacca, obviously, and James Earl Jones dubbing over some stock footage with two lines of dialogue.
I suppose the most entertaining portion of the Special, and the reason most people seek this atrocity out, is the animated segment. The story of the cartoon is pretty predictable, its length is short, and the animation (though decent) makes the characters all look like disfigured caricatures of the actual actors. So what makes this cartoon so important? It is the very first appearance of the ever-popular Boba Fett. Yes, even predating his more official first appearance in the Empire Strikes Back.
Basically, Han is poisoned by some radiation and Chewie lands the Millenium Falcon on a hostile swamp and waits for Luke and the Droids to come help him. Luke shows up but theyâre swiftly attacked by some brontosauruses. And then, big surprise, theyâre rescued by Boba Fett! Boba Fett pretends to be their buddy and takes Luke to a nearby town for the antidote. However, Bobaâs true intentions are to turn all of the cast over to Darth Vader for the bounty.
If it werenât for Boba Fettâs presence the cartoon would be just as unbearable as the rest of the Special. The cartoon actually looks like it was directed by Ralph BakshiâŠjust with none of the commentary or intellectual layers.
The rest of the movie involves short comedy (???) segments, like Malla watching an alien cooking show starring some stand-up comic who obviously didnât withstand the test of time because Iâve never heard of him, while we wait and wait and WAIT for Han to get Chewie back to his freakinâ family so the Special can just END.
Eventually, they do. And in the only real action sequence in the whole Special, Han and Chewie ârassle with a single Storm Trooper and he trips and falls out of the treehouse. Oh the intensity.
But it doesnât end there! Oh no, we havenât suffered enough yet. Chewie and his family then celebrate Life Day by holding hands in a sĂ©ance which, apparently, teleports them to another dimension (and dresses them in robes, too) where they meet up with all the other Wookies on Kashyyk and, strangely, the rest of the cast of Star Wars. This âother dimensionâ, by the way, appears to be some sort of cave.
And before it can all be over, Carrie Fisher serenades us with a lovely melody about peace on Earth, all to the tune of John Williamsâ classic Star Wars theme. Yes, THAT Star Wars theme. And following that, we finally get to the best part of the Special; the credits.
This all may seem rather pointless, and I suppose it is. Anybody who actually has the drive to track-down and view a copy of the fabled Star Wars Holiday Special MUST know that itâs an utter machete to the face. I sure did. But like everyone else who watches it for the first time, I underestimated just how BAD it really was. And I guess there is no way to convey in words the level of pain this will inflict upon all those who see it. You just have to watch it for yourself to understand.
I give it an F to end all Fs. The only redeeming value this installment in the Obsolete Extended Universe has is that it makes The Phantom Menace look like a work of utter brilliance.
Grade: F