It is Life Day on the Wookie home planet but, while his father, wife and child are all at home, Chewbacca is nowhere to be found. The family contact Luke and princess Leia to try and track him down, only to find that they are stuck in space, battling clips from the original Star Wars movie as part of an Imperial attempt to capture them. Everyone was join forces to help battle the Empire and help Chewie reach his family in time.
There are two extreme schools of thought on this holiday special. The first defends it, reminding us it was all for children and claiming that those who think it was rubbish are only being revisionist and looking at this piece of light entertainment through the eyes of people who see Star Wars as a massive saga, which it has become. The second line goes more like how awful the whole thing is and what a travesty to the series of films it is and thank God it has been nearly wiped out. Obviously it has a cult appeal and many people have seen it since its screening as part of a "so bad its good" type curiosity. An article in Empire Magazine reminded me of the existence of this film and, as a sort of gift, someone found it for me and gave me an (admittedly ropey) copy. The plot implies tensions and standoffs between the Rebellion and the Empire, with the ultimate message of family being the core of the piece. Or at least that was the intension I guess.
What actually happens is that the special doesn't have the material or the budget to fill all this time and we get lots of filler and a glacial pace that makes things that are already not that good, just that bit more painful to sit through. In theory perhaps the idea is a good one but the sense of how cheap it is, combined with the filler just gives the whole thing a bad air. In terms of pace, it is painful as scenes crawl by with little dialogue (and not just the ones with Wookie dialogue), characters seem to be "hanging around" even though they are the focus of the shot and a plot that simply doesn't have enough action to fill the run time.
So what happens? Well the first thing you realise is that each scene will be dragged out longer than it should be so straight away, scenes that are "necessary" for the "story" to move forward are giving you the impression that time is being filled and filled in stupid ways such as lingering over lines, standing around etc. The more obvious filler are the segments chosen to make up the "entertainment". These include a holographic circus act (the type you quickly walk past on the street), a Golden Girl singing in a bar, Jefferson Aeroplane, Harvey Korman doing TV sketches and other sections that are equally (a) bad, (b) stretched or (c) both. My personal favourite is when the father Wookie gets a new virtual reality chair that appears to take him into some sort of virtual flirt chatroom where Diahann Carroll talks dirty at him. From this part I learnt two things. Firstly, Diahann Carroll has not always been old and was once very sexy. Secondly, whoever was in charge of this special had really bad judgement and was so desperate to fill the time that any ideas put on the table were not discussed so much as immediately added. The cartoon section is the only bit of interest because it does have a bit of a story and it does introduce Fett into the series shame it is so short.
With weak material stretched, the cast cannot do much about it even though most of them do their best to make it "fun" for the viewers by putting on big smiles and being "fun". The Wookies are OK in my view, despite the budget limitations on their outfits. Hamill's car accident means he is a nightmarish vision of a plastic world in his heavy makeup. Ford looks like a man with a gun to his head and Fisher has to deliver a terrible song at the end. Spare a thought for the other entertainers though, most of whom are weak. Arthur is poor, Korman has nothing to work with and too much time to fill while Carney is just a bit creepy in his low-cut shirt. Carroll is hot but her bit just feels totally out of place (whereas the other bits are only slightly out of place).
It is a terrible mess of a show and t is hard to see any single explanation change my mind. OK it was the 1970's; but I have seen many good things from the period could this not have been one of them? OK it was for kids; but what about the sluggish pace, misjudged sexual asides and adult light entertainment makes it therefore "good" for kids? Lucas let go of this project to a certain extent and trusted others and this was the result. Later he would be far too close and controlling of the newest films so perhaps one can trace that back to this special? That's a stretch (to blame Jar-Jar on this special) but regardless, this is indeed a badly misjudged and badly paced show which is rarely entertaining but is frequently painful.
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