‘The LEGO Stars Wars Holiday Special’ plays it too safe to be very memorable

Posted on November 20, 2020

By MARK VIOLA

While “Star Wars” fans will always debate the flaws and virtues of the prequel trilogy and the new Disney-produced sequel trilogy, one thing is certain — no matter how bad you think those movies are, they will never be as bad as the made-for-television “Stars Wars Holiday Special” which hit the airwaves in 1978, one year after the original film made its debut.

The film is so outrageously awful that George Lucas reportedly tried (and failed) to buy up all of the master copies to ensure it was never shown again. As such, it lives on in bootleg copies, although the only entertainment value it holds is watching it with friends and marveling at the spectacular disaster contained in its one hour and 37 minutes.

This week, we got a much less terrible special in the form of “The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special,” a 44-minute feature available on Disney+.

I’m a big “Star Wars” fan, and with the new season of “Mandalorian” on Disney+ and having recently finished watching the superb “Clone Wars” and “Rebels” animated series (also available on Disney+), I’ve been very much in a “Star Wars” mood.

Enter “The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special.” Set after the end of “The Rise of Skywalker,” the story finds our heroes preparing to celebrate Life Day, a holiday created in the original special (one of the few direct references to the special).

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