Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures Season One Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 8, 2016

The business partnership between LEGO and Star Wars has blossomed into one of the most visible and, almost certainly, lucrative pairings in the entertainment marketplace. It seems every store carries LEGO Star Wars toys, and in some places the merchandise can fill up an entire aisle. Even with the premium price tag, those building toys don't seem to have all that much trouble moving. Add in several popular video games and the resurgence of the Star Wars brand since Disney took over and started cranking out one-per-year movies, and there seems to be no end in sight for how far the paired brands can go. With LEGO's familiarity with movie entertainment -- there's The LEGO Movie as well as a number of other films, including a Star Wars movie -- the transition to LEGO Star Wars TV seemed a natural fit. Taking place in the latter stages of the original trilogy -- after the destruction of the first Death Star and while the second is still in its planning stages -- LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures offers a humorous side story glimpse into the greater galaxy. It tells its own unique tale while adding in plenty of familiar faces and refrains that make it feel not so much like canon -- Vader and the Emperor are as much clown as they are Sith -- but certainly a fun little diversion in a familiar far, far away galaxy.

The Freemakers.

Young Rowan (voiced by Nicolas Cantu) and his older siblings Kordi (voiced by Vanessa Lengies) and Zander (voiced by Eugene Byrd) are scavengers who scoop up galactic debris -- blown-up TIE and X-Wing Fighters -- and do repair work for anyone in need around the galaxy. When they, along with a leftover battle droid they call "R0-GR" (voiced by Matthew Wood), travel to a planet to find parts for a ship Zander is building, Rowan finds himself mysteriously drawn to a power calling his name. He's led to a cave where he finds something amazing: the remnants of a light saber. He's rescued from peril by a kindly Jedi -- one of the last of her kind -- named Naare (voiced by Grey Griffin) who tells him about the history of the Kyber Saber, the first, and most powerful, of all lightsabers. Its pieces have been scattered around the galaxy. It's her hope that Rowan can lead her to the missing pieces. She, in turn, takes him under her wing as her Padawan learner, but little do the Freemakers know that she harbors a dark secret.

Much like the upcoming Rogue One, The Freemaker Adventures is more a tangential Star Wars story that integrates lore and universe truisms but doesn't continue along the primary Anakin-Luke-Rey(?) timeline. But the similarities pretty much end there. It's Star Wars on the surface, and its handful of main cast players are new and unique to it, but beyond that it's more LEGO than it is anything else, putting humor first and wrapping Star Wars canon -- familiar faces, places, vehicles, sound effects, and lore -- around the gags. The show has no qualms about integrating old story details from previous films as both key plot drivers and jumping-off points for gags that can last a moment or nearly an entire episode. In one episode, Darth Vader falls in love with the Naboo fighter he flew in Episode I when he was a boy. It's a fun moment, made even more so when he's mistaken by Storm Troopers for "Rebel scum" simply because he's cruising around in an enemy ship. Vader and the Emperor share some boneheaded moments in which they tease one another about Vader's failure to defend the Death Star in A New Hope. It's a show that has tongue planted deeply in cheek -- it's LEGO, so of course the laughs dominate -- but there's enough of an interesting little side story to make it worth while for hardcore Star Wars fans who would otherwise not give a LEGO product the time of day.

In a way, the show reminds of one of the most entertaining an insightful episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Called "Lower Decks," it's a tangential story about the otherwise invisible background characters. It's directly related but part of the whole that usually gets swept up under the rug, sort of like the Clerks joke about what it really took to build the Death Star, the sort of background things that eventually grow more hypothetically interesting once everyone has seen the movie a couple dozen times. The Freemaker Adventures is very much in that spirit. It's smack-dab in the middle of all the well-known Star Wars goodness while focusing on some characters who aren't exactly saving the galaxy with every torpedo launched, lightsaber wielded, or bomb planted. Certainly the hero in them grows, but as the series begins they're more outsiders peeking in and taking advantage of the conflict around them rather than participating directly in it. It makes for a nice glimpse into the galaxy from a different perspective, and it works well with the LEGO brand of humor, even if it makes Vader and some other familiar faces more clumsy bozos, true "phantom menaces" than seriously evil villains.

LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures Season One Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures Season One features a fair 1080p presentation. It's sharp enough and all of the finer little plastic-like textures on the LEGO bricks reveal some interesting imperfections and lines in close-up shots. General detail impresses, particularly in the ways all the little pieces interconnect on starships and LEGO-built environments. Colors are pleasing, particularly reds and blues that define both fighter engines and lightsabers. Various bits of attire and environmental locations beyond some of the more drab gray-toned ships and interiors are pleasant, if not a bit flat by design and absent the sort of nuance real life allows. Light aliasing is ever-present but never to a debilitating level. This is a rather simple presentation, typical of LEGO and enjoyable more for the clarity of construction 1080p allows than for anything else in play.

LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures Season One Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures Season One lacks a lossless soundtrack, and it's easy to tell. The included Dolby Digital 5.1 lossy presentation lacks oomph, aggression, the more refined clarity and detailing listeners have come to expect, and take for granted, from lossless presentations. It's a bit timid, unable to really command the stage in any fashion: dialogue, music, or effects. There's adequate width and surround usage; it's just that little in the track engages with the material at the sort of power level expected of a Star Wars presentation. Musical clarity is fair. Stretch out to the sides never gets quite as wide as it might, but a gentle back channel support helps ease listeners in. There are some good seamless moments of ship directionality, as they fly from one speaker to another with seamless transition. Laser blasts and some more chaotic action moments could stand a boost in power, but there's enough full-stage immersion to please. Dialogue is clear and well prioritized, though it, like everything else, would benefit from a boost in raw power.

LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures Season One Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures Season One contains two featurettes, both located on disc two. A Disney digital copy voucher is included. This release also indues six small (coin-sized) and soft magnets depicting characters from the show. They're a bit dark and sticking on them on a dark (black or gray) refrigerator makes them appear even more so; best to find a lighter background for them.

• The Freemaker Adventures: Meet the Freemaker Family (1080p, 2:21): The main voice cast introduces the characters they voice.
• Freemaker Salvage and Repair (1080p, 1:02): This is basically a television commercial for the business, featuring the main characters from the show.

LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures Season One Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Freemaker Adventures borrows equally from both LEGO and Star Wars, but it's ultimately more Spaceballs than anything else. It's fun, familiar, serious enough at its core and entertaining enough around the periphery. It offers an interesting side look into the universe that gradually becomes more integral to the primary Star Wars story action as it builds. Structurally, it's classic LEGO, with ships, characters, and environments carefully bricked together. Voice acting is fine for both newcomer characters and those challenged with getting as close as they can to some of the classic cadences from the series. LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures Season One is unfortunately devoid of any kind of meaningful bonus content. Video is fair and audio could use a boost up to lossless. It's not the greatest technical package in the galaxy, but the show's quality and fun factor make it worth a pickup. Recommended.