Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion Review

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, the Republic fell to the Galactic Empire. New hopes have yet to arise, but the galaxy must never fall to despair, for the act of only a few rebels can spark major blows for the Galactic Empire

Yup, I'm not including this under the Star Wars Month banner, because I'm reviewing episodes of the show, just like I am many others at the moment. However let's take a look at the first Disney/Lucasfilm animated offering not to involve Lucas himself

So, we have the season premier of Star Wars Rebels, and it’s a really good one, not to say there aren't problems, but it’s a well told story, introduces likeable, if flawed characters, and presents opportunities that weren't available in the Clone Wars.

So, synopsis wise, we have a group of rebels consisting of Jedi Kanan Jarrus, pilot Hera Syndulla, Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren, Lasat warrior Zeb Orrelios, and astromech droid Chopper encountering an orphan named Ezra Bridger, and generally conducting a fight against the Galactic Empire, specifically at this point, rescuing a bunch of captured wookies.

The story is a fairly light-hearted one, intended to be more in line with the tone of the original Star Wars trilogy. The thing is; it needs more to develop the characters before it becomes as compelling as the original trilogy. But I have faith that they will allow the characters to develop beyond their fairly stereotypical personalities at the moment.

That being said, it isn't entirely shy of darker moments. There's a point where Ezra is taken hostage by a Stormtrooper, and Zeb decides to leave him behind. Admittedly this is an area of the story I wish had been played out more, rather than being over so quickly in favour of the Wookie plot. There's also a scene where the holocron reveals a message from Obi-Wan Kenobe (voiced still by James Arnold Taylor) about the fall of the Republic and the Jedi order, and the rise of the empire.

The one place where the episode slips is in certain character designs. There are some nice elements to the animation, but the design of the wookies isn't one of them, they do like their heads are detachable to their bodies, rather like plastic dolls as opposed to the real thing. This is something that was a problem in the Clone Wars (although it was very detailed) but it's much more prominent here.

We also see our antagonist for the season, the Jedi hunter known as the Inquisitor. It'll only be a matter of time before the Rebels encounter and I'm very much looking forward to it.

We have an experienced team doing the production of the episodes. Greg Weisman's name on the title of this show is one of few reasons I got interested in Star Wars at all, he is also responsible for Gargoyles, the Spectacular Spider-man (which is just that) and Young Justice. It's disappointing to hear he won't be working on the recently announced season 2 of the show, and I wish him the best for whatever future endeavours he has.

This episode has given me enough faith in the show to continue watching to review it, so I shall, since the next episode airs Monday October 13^th, my next review will be Thursday October 16^th with bi-weekly reviews following from then.

Rating: 7/10

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Images used in this review are from Star Wars Rebels and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.