LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace Blu-ray Movie Review

The Farce is strong with this one.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater September 22, 2011

After a fun but thoroughly exhausting weekend making my way through the nine-disc Complete Saga box set, I was sure I had met—and probably exceeded—my Star Wars intake quota for the year. So, I was a bit wary when Star Wars: The Padawan Menace landed on my doorstep. Was this going to be an even more kid-friendly version of The Phantom Menace? Would it be yet another desecration of a once-sacred franchise? A quick cash-in, perhaps, riding the OMG, OMG, Star Wars on Blu-ray! hype train? I had no idea what to expect. I was surprised, then, to discover that The Padawan Menace is actually an officially sanctioned Star Wars spoof—a pretty funny one at that— a collaboration between LucasFilm, the Lego Corporation, and Cartoon Network. It’s a bit more reverent towards the series than the recent Robot Chicken or Family Guy parodies, but it has quite a bit of fun at the expense of Star Wars and its rabid fandom, from the universal hatred of Jar-Jar Binks to Yoda’s strange syntax. And while it is geared primarily towards younger viewers, there are in-jokes, Easter eggs, and sight-gags galore here that only older fans will get.

Levitate bricks, I shall.

The Padawan Menace is only 22-minutes long—it originally aired during a half-hour timeslot on the Cartoon Network in July—but the short, dense-with-comedy film takes us on a breakneck-speed tour of several locations in the Star Wars universe, set roughly around the time of the prequels. (This is strictly non-canon stuff, so continuity goes out the window.) We touch down first on Coruscant as Master Yoda (Tom Kane) leads a field trip of padawan apprentice “younglings”—some of the same kids Anakin strikes down in Episode III, I perversely like to presume —back from the Outer Rim territories, with plans for a guided tour of the Senate Building by C-3PO and R2-D2. When he senses a disturbance in the Force, Yoda leaves the kids in the care of the droids—who will make for completely inept babysitters—and discovers that Sith saboteur Asajj Ventress has stolen secret Republic battle plans, which are now on their way to soon-to-be Emperor Palpatine.

While 3PO (voiced by the real deal, Anthony Daniels) and his young charges are accidentally blasted to Tatooine, where they’re stranded, besieged by Jawas, and eventually captured by Jabba the Hutt, Yoda and a young orphan stow-away who calls himself “Ian” travel to Hoth to hunt down the battle droid carrying the precious intel. For a hint on the not-so-secret identity of “Ian,” just turn the “I” in his name sideways. Get it? So, yeah, we’re dealing with a pre-teen Han Solo, who acts—and talks—like a mixture of Bart Simpson and Dennis the Menace. (This is no coincidence, The Padawan Menace was written by Michael Price, one of the lead writers on The Simpsons since 2003.)

The story is simple but it serves its purpose as a loose outline that’s filled in with non-stop jokes about Star Wars geekery. From the moment a young Lego figure version of Jar-Jar Binks gets blown to bits—or is it bricks?—with a laser blaster most decidedly not set to stun, I knew I was in good satirical hands. Padawan Menace riffs on just about every complaint fans have leveled against the prequel trilogy, from the endlessly boring political jibberjabbering to the fact that no one seems to notice that Senator Palpatine is an evil Sith overlord bent on galactic domination. There’s a great scene here where Palpatine appears in the Senate chamber with his hood up, prompting a gasp from all of the delegates, but then remembers to lower it, eliciting a collective phhheeeeew from the intergalactic officials. (Seriously, though, how could the Jedi Council not sense something was awry?)

Darth Vader shows up anachronistically on three occasions, and a Lego version of George Lucas—complete with gray hair and plaid shirt—yells cut and walks onto the set to explain, “Darth, Darth, you’re not in this scene! You want a donut? Hey guys, can someone get Darth a donut?” Yoda is hilarious here too, a pint-sized badass who says “peace out” and gets called “bro” by storm troopers. Oh, and look out for C-3PO’s Tony Montana impersonation. Actually, you'll want to keep your eyes peeled at all times, because there are clever references and jokes all throughout Padawan Menace at a blink-or-you’ll-miss-it pace, from bafflement at the purely pictorial instruction booklets of Lego kits to a Cloud City reality show called “Keeping Up with the Calrissians.” I was pretty burnt out on Star Wars when I popped in this disc, but it had me laughing from the first scene. I’d be more than happy to see Lego Star Wars turned into an ongoing Cartoon Network series.

LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The whole time I was watching The Padawan Menace, I was thinking this would look amazing in 3D. That's not something I often think —I have mixed feelings about the recent return of 3D tech—so it says something about how fantastic Lego Star Wars looks on Blu-ray, specifically the depth and punch this 1080p/AVC-encoded image displays. From deconstructing droids to Yoda levitating Lego pieces to build a spacecraft from the parts of busted ships, there are numerous examples of objects floating—or lunging—into the foreground, giving a great illusion of dimensionality. There's also something about the crisp, clean Lego bricks that works really well as CGI—everything looks so sharp and defined. The plastic pieces even have a discernable texture. Color is vibrant too; the white-hot lightsabers and blaster shots, 3PO's plated gold exterior, the neon blue of holograms, the bright red of Lucas' plaid lumberjack shirt—all the hues are rich and dense, with a foundation of deep blacks and strong contrast. The only oddity here is that several scenes have what looks to be a rather heavy layer of film grain. Not noise, but honest to goodness film grain. I'm assuming Padawan Menace was created almost entirely digitally, so I'm not sure if this was an intentional choice or what, but it is a bit strange. It's never a distraction, though, and there aren't really any other compression or encode issues worth noting outside of some mild noise.

LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While not quite as brain-fryingly awesome and immersive as the DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 tracks that graced The Complete Saga, the lossless 5.1 mix included here is no sonic slouch—it's punchy, dynamically solid, and full of cool sound effects. After the iconic yellow text crawl, a Lego spacecraft rumbles overhead, impressively activating the LFE channel. Later, laser blasts crisply pew-pew between speakers, ships zip to and fro, and at the award ceremony at the end, fireworks explode in every direction. There's even some windy ambience on Tatooine and bar chatter inside the Mos Eisley cantina. The best effect, though? The scattering Lego sound as spaceships and droids explode into bricks. You'll be hearing that one a lot. Of course, Padawan Menace also recycles many of John William's themes, and the music sounds nearly as big and bold as it does with the theatrical films. Throughout it all, dialogue is clean and easy to understand. The disc also comes with French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 dubs, as well as optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles.

LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Exclusive Minifigure: The best bonus, by far, is the exclusive "Young Han Solo" Lego figurine that comes packaged inside the film's thicker-than-normal slipcase.
• The Quest for R2-D2 (1080p, 5:46): An even shorter short film, about Anakin being sent on a mission to find R2, who's carrying top secret information. Look out for a cameo by Indiana Jones.
• Bombad Bounty (1080p, 5:15): Another short, with Boba Fett on the hunt for Jar-Jar while Darth Vader in traction. Listen for the reggae version of the Imperial Death March.
• Star Wars in 2 Minutes - Parts 1 and 2 (1080p, 2:15, 2:24): A Lego stop-motion short made from actual Lego bricks.

LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I wasn't expecting to have nearly as much fun as I did with Lego Star Wars: The Padawan Menace. It's extremely short—clocking in at a scant 22 minutes—but this sit-com length TV special makes each minute count, with more in-jokes and references than you'll probably be able to catch the first time around. Which is a longwinded way of saying that, yes, it has replay value. It also looks great, sound excellent, and even comes with a "Young Han Solo" Lego minifigure. Sweet. As of now, Padawan Menace is a Walmart exclusive, but I imagine it'll get a wider release sometime in the coming months. Recommended!