Robot Chicken: Star Wars
By Skip • Aug 7th, 2008 • Category: Cult/Sci-Fi and Horror, Lead Story
A very lovely lady over at digital marketing agency Hyperlaunch has kindly given the Gay Sci-Fi Nerds a review copy of the [adult swim] new DVD release, Robot Chicken: Star Wars out on DVD 11th August 2008. So here is a shameless plug as we review Robot Chicken: Star Wars.
Now Drew and I have spent a few late nights watching [adult swim] on the Bravo channel in the UK. Actually, it’s mostly me doing the watching while Drew is surfing the Internet or something as he’s not too much of a cartoon fan. One thing that Drew and I have in common is that we’ve never managed to watch an episode of Robot Chicken. The other thing we have in common is the hots for red heads like Seth Green. There’s something about red haired guys that’s absolutely hot which people in the UK normally just don’t get. I’m finding Michael C. Hall in Dexter especially hunky.
In modern-day UK, despite (or because of) being one of the places with the highest populations of redheads, the words “ginger” or “ginga” are derogatorily used to describe red-headed people, with terms such as “gingerphobia” (fear of redheads) or “gingerism” (prejudice against redheads) used by the media. Redheads are also sometimes referred to disparagingly as “carrot tops” and “carrot heads”. “Gingerism” has been compared to racism, although this is widely disputed and bodies such as the UK Commission for Racial Equality do not monitor cases of discrimination and hate crimes against redheads. A UK woman recently won an award from a tribunal after being sexually harassed and receiving abuse because of her red hair; a family in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, was forced to move twice after being targeted for abuse and hate crime on account of their red hair; and in 2003, a 20 year old was stabbed in the back for “being ginger.”
What’s all this got to do with Robot Chicken: Star Wars? Well Seth Green is the Director and one of the writers on this 22-minute extravaganza of sketches all related to Star Wars . The episode was nominated for an Emmy (Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour)) in 2008.
Robot Chicken: Star Wars features 33 skits and a Star Wars themed Robot Chicken opening intro and a end credits. Some are credibly short like the Jawa in the Mos Eisley Cantina who shouts “Martini!” instead of the Jawa’s usual call of “Utini!” to the longer skits such as Luke Skywalker having a “Yo Mamma Fight” against Emperor Palpatine. Darth Vader announces the fight to others and keeps score. It would be wrong to review every single skit here but we can honestly say that every single one of them had us laughing. It does help if you’re a Star Wars fan as most of the jokes involves scenes and situation taken from the franchise.
The most notable skits include Darth Vader’s collect call to the Emperor informing him of the destruction of the first Death Star; A Day in the life of Ponda Baba as we find out what exactly he was saying to Luke Skywalker in the Cantina before Obi-Wan Kenobi slices his arm off with a lightsaber; Orientation day, as a bunch of new Death Star recruits are told how to react when Darth Vader “uses the Force” death grip on them; and George Dubya Bush as a Jedi.
The best skit has to be the one featuring Han Solo frozen in Carbonite while Bobba Fett tries to impress Han with his bounty hunter skills saying “you like that don’t you”. Fett then proceeds to lust over Han Solo, stroking him before reaching up and holding Han’s hand (Editor’s note: I told you that Bobba Fett was gay here, which explains why the Clone Troopers are behaving in this manner).
The most annoying skit (and rightly so) is the Jar Jar Binks and Darth Vader reunion as Binks continues to call Vader by his childhood cosename “Ani”; in order to get rid of him, Vader throws him out an airlock into space. Later, however, as Vader prepares to sleep, he is woken up by Jar Jar, who has returned as a Force ghost. Ahmed Best returns to the role of Binks and provides the voice again.
In fact in a skit featuring George Lucas, La Georgina himself provides his own voice, thus giving Robot Chicken: Star Wars his seal of approval. And here at the Gay Sci-Fi Nerds podcast show, we give our approval too!
Robot Chicken: Star Wars is available on DVD in the UK on 11th August 2008. If you’re on Facebook, you can access wallpapers, video clips, with more to come by becoming become a fan of Robot Chicken: Star Wars by clicking here.
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Skip is the nerd out of the GSFN partnership. Skip enjoys nothing more than good sci-fi and horror, be it on the big screen, TV or in a book. He also likes the bad stuff too. Skip also has a thing for faces and continuously likes to point out actors from one film to the next, much to the annoyance of Drew.
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