Time: 98 Minutes
Cast:
Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker
Harrison Ford as Han Solo
Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia
Anthony Daniels as C-3PO
Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca
James Earl Jones as Darth Vader (voice)
Beatrice Arthur as Ackmena
Art Carney as Trader Saun Dann
Diahann Carroll as Mermeia Holographic
Jefferson Starship as holographic band
Harvey Korman as Krelman/Chef Gormaanda/Amorphian instructor
Director: Steve Binder, David Acomba

Chewbacca and Han Solo try to get to the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk to celebrate Life Day, but are impeded by an Imperial blockade. Chewie’s family passes the time with various forms of entertainment.

The Star Wars Holiday Special is the infamous holiday special, and is the most mindboggling piece of media to come from the franchise. It was released a year after the first Star Wars released, and while I don’t know the full backstory for its existence, it seems that this special came to exist after the film’s surprising success. It was disowned by everyone, from Harrison Ford acting like it doesn’t exist, to George Lucas saying that he’d destroy every single copy of it if he could. Naturally I was curious enough to check it out, even just to have an opinion on it. Though afterwards I was wondering whether it was even worth it.

The plot of the holiday special basically focussed on Chewbacca’s wife, son and father as they wait for him to arrive home to celebrate Life Day. It is utterly baffling and at times it is hard to tell what is even going on. The actual plot alone takes up less than an hour in the film. Much of the rest of the runtime feels padded out, as it’s devoted to the three Wookiees walking around doing random things, and random divergences including fake commercials, segments with famous people making appearances, musical numbers, cooking shows, and bad animation of the main Star Wars characters. There’s even a particularly uncomfortable moment of a wookiee watching VR. There’s also no shortage of scenes with the Wookiees are just yelling at each other without any translation, making you want to switch off the movie within the first 10 minutes. Granted the movie can get so unintentionally funny at points because of how bizarre it is. However, on the whole it is so dull, and there’s just not enough of the actual original cast to keep you interested. If it was an hour or less, I think it might’ve been a little more enjoyable. The most interesting part is that this is the first appearance of Boba Fett, albeit in an animated section which doesn’t tie into the plot of the special. One could argue that this is a movie made for kids and that it shouldn’t be taken too seriously. However, not only is it disturbing and unsettling with how weird it gets, it’s so boring that its hard to picture kids wanting to stay with it. One could also argue that at least this is the most experimental that SW has ever been, but it isn’t done with any purpose. My conclusion is that they were genuinely on drugs while making it, or just trying to see how much they can get away with.

What’s really surprising is that they got stars of the original SW to return with Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, even James Earl Jones provides the voice for Darth Vader in a brief scene. The performances range from being completely out of it (Mark Hamill) or full paycheck mode (Harrison Ford). They seem to be costars within this movie however, more attention seems to be given towards random celebrity appearances like Art Carney. Even more attention is given to three Wookiees who you can’t understand at all.

On a technical level the Holiday Special is pretty bad, it’s a TV special with poor screen quality. It’s shot terribly and the makeup and effects are bad. There is a animated segment which isn’t relevant to the story, but at least had a story of its own that you could follow. Problem is that the animation was awful.

Although fascinatingly and enjoyably weird at times, The Star Wars Holiday Special is a dull, pointless and overlong spinoff which doesn’t work as a kids film, nor as a movie in the Star Wars franchise. It’s a strong contender for the most bizarre piece of media to come from a popular and iconic film franchise.