LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation is the newest canon-adjacent special to follow the sequel trilogy crew in a post-TROS adventure.
The Skywalker saga may have come to an end but there’s no shortage of new adventures with Rey, Poe, and Finn. Where Rey (Helen Sadler) had the big focus in the LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special, Finn (Omar Miller) gets the biggest focus in this one. Overall, this one is fine. Viewers are getting exactly what the LEGO Star Wars brand has come to offer in recent years. Only this time, it comes with a side of vacation and three wise Force Ghosts.
The Rise of Skywalker hinted to its viewers that Finn was Force-sensitive. However, the film didn’t really follow through on this. Since this time, we’ve come to see Finn learning Force powers in the aforementioned Holiday Special and now Summer Vacation. It goes without saying that the LEGO specials are canon-adjacent but not actual canon. The special sees Finn, Rey, Poe, Rose, Chewie, BB-8, R2-D2, and C-3PO, taking a vacation on ultra-luxurious Galactic Starcruiser, the Halcyon. It’s certainly an interesting way to tie it into the new Star Wars hotel in Disney World. This is their last trip together before going their own separate ways. Everyone is off doing their own thing, leaving Finn wondering where they are. I wonder if this means no more LEGO Star Wars specials?
Anyway, Finn gets visits from Force ghosts of Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor), Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter), and Leia Organa (Shelby Young). They all share one of their own summer vacations as a way of offering advice to Finn. Kenobi spoke of a time that he had to save the day on Tatooine. I know it’s canon-adjacent but the appearance of Luke Skywalker leaves me wondering just when this took place. Kenobi is not showing any gray hair at all. In fact, he’s closer to his appearance in the Disney+ series than A New Hope. Anakin’s memory ties directly into the Scarif trip. Leia’s memory dates back to a trip to Endor. It comes just before shipping Ben Solo (Matthew Wood) off to Luke’s Jedi school.
Michael Kramer’s handles composer duties. However, it feels like there are less original themes because the familiar John Williams themes are all over the score. Everywhere you look, there’s a classic Star Wars theme. “Weird Al” Yankovic finally joins the Star Wars universe and also gets to sing a tune…that’s mostly relegated to background because of Emperor Palpatine (Trevor Devall) and Darth Vader (Matt Sloan) bickering with each other.
There is one part of this special that makes zero sense. If you’ve read the Star Wars comics taking place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, you know that Jedha was basically gone. What few citizens left on the planet were as good as dead in a few weeks time. Now if that’s the fate of Jedha, there’s no reason to believe that Scarif wouldn’t also be the same. This is why I have a hard time believing that the beaches of Scarif were rebuilt. If Scarif was hit as hard as Jedha City was, the planet would likely suffer from a similar fate.
The LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation special is the next best thing to staying at the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser in Walt Disney World.
DIRECTOR: Ken Cunningham
SCREENWRITER: David Shayne
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Shayne, James Waugh, Josh Rimes, Jacqui Lopez, Jill Wilfert, Keith Malone, Jennifer Twiner Mccarron, Jason Cosler
CAST: “Weird Al” Yankovic, Yvette Nicole Brown, Thomas Lennon, Paul F. Tompkins, Dee Bradley Baker, Ashly Burch, Kyliegh Curran, Anthony Daniels, Trevor Devall, Allie Feder, Jake Green, Matt Lanter, Ross Marquand, Omar Miller, Kevin Michael Richardson, Matt Sloan, James Arnold Taylor, Kelly Marie Tran, Helen Sadler, Billy Dee Williams, Matthew Wood, Shelby Young
Disney+ launches LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation on August 5, 2022. Grade: 3.5/5
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