Lego Star Wars Holiday Special review

A long time ago on Disney+…

Do you want a savage but loving spoof of Star Wars’ biggest dud done by creators with an eye for detail and history and a spot-on sense of humor?

Too bad.

Before you get to ahead of yourself, know this: The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special is not at all like the original. It’s not a variety show, it doesn’t have guest stars, it doesn’t introduce any new characters, it doesn’t change mediums and there’s no singing (well, almost no singing).

What it does do is depict a Life Day celebration (with considerably less magic Wookie walks to the Tree of Life) taking place after the sequel trilogy with a bunch of named characters chilling on the Millennium Falcon.

In the traditional comedic and self-referential styles we’ve all come to know from Lego works in general and their Star Wars branch in particular, the special’s B plot handles everyone but Rey and BB-8 preparing for and throwing the party, with mixed results that don’t turn out to be very humorous, somehow. I think the writers were saving themselves for the A-plot, which does get rather zany.

And what is this A-plot I speak of? Rey ditches the party prep to go on a force-powered excuse to show a bunch of Star Wars’ greatest hits… and have things go wildly off the rails as the greatest hits see her back.

While there are plenty of laughs to be had along the Rey, the special suffers from unnecessary expectations it made for itself with the title. Despite the legendary place in fandom it’s title refers to, this is just some by-the-numbers Lego Star Wars work. Anybody who has seen the other shows or played the video games knows what they are getting here.

The title just trades on the infamy of the original special to get attention. I know the talent behind Lego Star Wars could have gone all-in with a screwy mock-up of a variety show that completely smashes the fourth wall, but instead we got a Life Day skin on a story that could have been told on any other day.

To cut to the chase, let’s keep on that skin metaphor. The plot had a “Life Day” skin when it could and should have had a “Star Wars Holiday Special” skin. They left a lot of potential on the table, and it’s a shame. I would have loved to see the special I described in the first paragraph.

This of course just serves to underscore that the original special still doesn’t have any legal presence anywhere. Considering the tremendous influence it seems to have over multiple Disney+ offerings (there is an awful lot of it in The Mandalorian just for starters), it’s absence does strike me as odd.

Verdict: Rental. Stripping aside the baggage, it’s mostly enjoyable for people who like the comedic end of the expanded universe, but not worth it for anyone else.