And so begins the new Star Wars animated series. No title crawl or opening theme music; the movie immediately opens on the planet Lothal, home of the show's protagonist, Ezra Bridger. He's an orphan and a pickpocket; not above helping others, but looking out for himself first. This is established shortly after his introduction. He stumbles through some Imperials who were shaking down a street vendor, and grabs a comlink off one of them. As the vendor is about to be arrested, they're called away by an emergency, which turns out to have been Ezra. The vendor thanks him, and Ezra promptly stuffs his backpack with the vendor's fruit. "A kid's gotta eat."
The Troopers he diverted lead him to a shipment of crates filled with Imperial blasters, who are then ambushed by the titular Rebels-- their leader Kanan Jarrus, tough guy alien Zeb Orellios, and Mandalorian demolition girl Sabine Wren. Not knowing what's in the crates other than that they're valuable, Ezra uses the situation to take some for himself. A chase ensues with the Rebels pursuing Ezra and the Imperials pursuing them all, which comes to a head when TIE Fighters zoom in. Given the choice between Kanan and the TIEs, Ezra jumps on board their ship, the Ghost, and they all escape. The remaining members of this Rebel crew are aboard- Twi'lek pilot Hera Syndulla and ornery astromech droid 'Chopper'. Ezra's not too happy with his situation (Sabine aside) and wants to go back to Lothal, but the crew of the Ghost has a mission to complete first.
Our heroes arrive in Hooverville-esque settlement called Tarkintown where they drop off the weapons shipment and take a moment to ration food to the settlers, all people who were forced from their homes by the Empire. Ezra is thanked by one of these settlers and has a twinge of guilt because he didn't actually do anything to help. The Ghost crew receive their payment from their contact Cikatro Vizago, and are tipped off to an Imperial shipment of Wookiee slaves, part of their mission all along. They make way for the transport to perform a rescue. Meanwhile, Ezra snoops around the Ghost and something draws him to Kanan's cabin, where he finds a holocron and a lightsaber. He's caught rather quickly, hands over the lightsaber and is shoved out, the holocron still on his person. Kanan, Zeb and Sabine board the transport looking for the Wookiees, but Hera realizes It's A Trap when a Star Destroyer appears. She sends a reluctant but willing Ezra to warn the others, and the four fight off a boarding party of Stormtroopers and make their way back to the Ghost. However, before they can board Ezra's grabbed by an Imperial leader named Kallus, who's been following them since the blaster heist. Zeb leaves him behind, "I'm sorry, kid. You did good."
Now imprisoned aboard the Star Destroyer, Ezra is told by Kallus that he'll be used to lure the Rebels back for him. Ezra has his doubts that'll hold up. Kallus just brushes it off and has the guards search him. With nothing left but the holocron, Ezra sits in his cell and somehow manages to open it, revealing a message from Obi-Wan Kenobi, the one warning surviving Jedi to stay away from the Temple during the fall of the Republic. Back on the Ghost, the others chastize Zeb for leaving Ezra behind and Kanan inevitably decides to go back for him.
Ezra manages to escape his cell on his own, feigning illness to get the guards to open it up then trapping them inside. Making his way into a storage room, he grabs a Trooper helmet, allowing him to listen to communications channels in the ship. Not only does he learn that the Rebels came back for him, but also that the Wookiees were being sent to Kessel to work in the spice mines. He goes through the airducts to the hangar where the Ghost crew had begun their rescue. They promptly escape and head for Kessel. Ezra's helmet left behind, the Imperials realize he was listening in; so by the time they arrive, Kallus was ready for them. With our heroes cornered, and Hera needing time to pull the ship around, Kanan draws his lightsaber to keep the blaster fire concentrated on him, while Ezra goes to rescue a Wookiee child separated from his parent during the struggle. The Stormtroopers are dealt with, Kallus is knocked away (but survives), and the Wookiees are rescued. Ezra is returned to Lothal, but grabs Kanan's lightsaber before returning the holocron and making his way back to his home. Hera notices that it was opened and she and Kanan both realize the boy's potential connection with the Force. Kanan meets Ezra at his home and asks him to join them, offering his training. Ezra agrees, and the full crew takes off, Kanan listening to the rest of Obi-Wan's message. Meanwhile, on a Star Destroyer, Kallus communicates with one who appears to be a Sith called the Inquisitor, informing him that there is still a Jedi that needs to be dealt with.
Not a bad start to the series overall. The characters might not be completely original, but they're still unique enough to be interesting and fun to watch. Ezra himself closely resembles Aladdin, both in personality and appearance. This is further backed up early on when Kanan calls him a "street rat". He's a pretty good representation of the potential this series has, and someone the target audience will likely grow to love. Kanan's a nice departure from the Jedi Knights of the past, similar to the Anakin we saw in The Clone Wars with a bit of Han Solo thrown in. It's supposedly been 14 years since Revenge of the Sith, leading me to believe he may have still been a Padawan when those events occurred, and might not be as bound by the rules of the Jedi Order as others might have been. Sabine has a really cool character design; bright pink Mandalorian armor with some dyed streaks in her hair. It's a common design trait for cool female characters, but I still like it. Zeb's a tough guy with a chip on his shoulder appropriately voiced by Steve Blum. Hera's pretty modestly dressed for a Twi'lek, which is honestly a nice change from the usual portrayal of the species. She and Kanan seem to be romantically involved, although they don't have any real romantic scenes in this pilot film. Some people like to think that R2-D2's beeps and whirls were actually filled with profanities. With Chopper, you just know that's the case. The little droid does a lot around the Ghost, and doesn't seem particularly happy with his job. He's also unique among R2 units in that he has a couple of small arms, it's a nice feature. Obi-Wan's message at the end was a really nice touch. I'm reminded of how in the series premiere for each Star Trek spin-off, there's a guest appearance from one character from the previous series to help get the ball rolling. With James Arnold Taylor reprising his vocal role as Obi-Wan, I think it serves the same purpose here, passing the torch from Clone Wars to Rebels.
The animation's good too. The characters have much smoother features when compared to Clone Wars. Then we have the music. Plenty of familiar cues from the movies, although nothing that really stands out. I still would have liked to see an opening text crawl, at least for this first outing. It just doesn't feel like Star Wars without that. The Clone Wars had their own variation of the theme music along with a newsreel style recap at the beginning of each episode, which worked for the series timeframe of a galaxy at war. Here, we just get an establishment scene and a title card.
Nitpicks aside, I'm optimistic for what the series has in store. I hope that the Force is strong with this one.
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