By George & Josh Bate
Last year, Star Wars fans had the chance to experience a range of intriguing ‘what if’ scenarios in LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy. The four-part Disney+ miniseries beautifully captured what it was like to play with Star Wars LEGOs as a kid and create all sorts of crazy mash-ups and crossovers, in addition to introducing a compelling new protagonist in Sig Greebling and simultaneously honoring and poking fun at the Star Wars franchise. Now, a follow-up miniseries, LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy – Pieces of the Past continues the story of Sig Greebling and his master Jedi Bob with yet another fun, light-hearted, fast-paced, and reality-bending adventure.
LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy – Pieces of the Past picks up where its predecessor left off. Sig Greebling (voiced by Stranger Things’ Gaten Matarazzo) enjoys life in the remade galaxy he accidentally created last time around and continues his training under Jedi Bob (voiced by Bobby Moynihan). Meanwhile, reeling from defeat, Sig’s brother Darth Dev (voiced by Tony Revolori) attempts to reclaim his power by any means necessary. This pursuit accidentally leads to the re-emergence of Solitus (voiced by Dan Stevens), a dark side Force user determined to destructively remake the known galaxy to his liking.
Pieces of the Past delivers exactly what its ingenious premise promises. If you’re like us, you probably grew up building LEGO Star Wars sets and had fun creating all sorts of wild mashups you’d never see in an actual Star Wars movie. The new miniseries beautifully recaptures the spirit of such creativity with episodes filled to the brim with remixes, mash-ups, crossovers, and more. Pieces of the Past goes even bigger with its ‘What If’ scenarios and mashups than the previous season, many of which have been left out of promotional material. This time around, fans are treated to all the beloved mash-ups from the last season (welcome back, Darth Jar Jar!) but also so many more, including Brickheadz Ahsoka Tano, evil K-2SO, and Porgills. This is likely the closest we’ll ever get to Star Wars venturing into the realm of ‘what if’ scenarios in television, something executive producers Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit take full advantage of.
The new four-piece miniseries continues to build on the foundation of last year’s show by introducing fan-favorite characters into television for the first time. Darth Revan from Knights of the Old Republic, Jaxxon, and Cal Kestis from the Star Wars Jedi games all make their television debuts in Pieces of the Past. While disappointingly none of these characters occupy too much screentime nor play integral roles in the story, seeing them in-action and exchanging dialogue (except in the case of Revan, of course) still takes your breath away.
The inclusion of Darth Revan and Jaxxon is indicative of Pieces of the Past’s willingness to go more obscure and deep-cut with its Star Wars references and easter eggs. Intelligent writing ensures that inside jokes never alienate viewers less well-versed in Star Wars lore, while simultaneously giving die hard fans plenty of winks and nods to feast on. Both iconic and less well-known lines from Star Wars stories over the decades are remixed in witty and creative fashion, as are strands of instantly recognizable and less popular musical cues from various Star Wars projects and even camera movements (such as a snap zoom mirroring JJ Abrams’ work on The Force Awakens). Independent of the story and its characters, the four 20+ minute episodes warrant viewing from hardcore fans for these easter eggs and references alone.
Like its predecessor, Pieces of the Past strikes a perfect balance between honoring and poking fun at Star Wars. A jab at some Star Wars line, plot point, or character arrives seemingly every minute, but the miniseries never jokes about Star Wars in a mean-spirited way. Instead, it employs a more self-depreciating humor that allows one to celebrate Star Wars while also playfully mock elements of it along the way. A perfect example of this is a brilliant line about Snoke in the third episode that both fans and detractors of the sequel trilogy will eat up.
Amidst all the reality-bending shenanigans, the story still firmly focuses on Sig, Dev, and Jedi Bob. The plot parallels that of Deadpool & Wolverine and Loki in focusing on the Force Hold, a realm housing all the discarded pieces from various galaxies, much like The Void at the End of Time in the MCU. Dan Stevens’ gravelly-voiced and surprisingly ominous antagonist Solitus finds a way out of the Force Hold after years of exile, which triggers a series of events that encompass the mini-series’ narrative. In keeping with it being a love letter to Star Wars, Pieces of the Past harbors all sorts of thematic parallels to previous Star Wars stories, namely redemption, attachment, family tension, and the power of visions. There’s also all kinds of concepts from the sequel trilogy, Ahsoka, and more that are fascinatingly weaved together into the story. Whittled down to its barebones, Pieces of the Past certainly doesn’t have the most novel of stories, but, ultimately, the characters and the variety of ‘what if’ scenarios at play prove compelling enough to remain engaged.
Although Pieces of the Past is far from the first animated LEGO movie or show, the new miniseries marks yet another upgrade in the quality of animation. Every time Sig uses the Force to build something out of hundreds of disparate LEGO pieces makes for such a satisfying viewing experience. The animation team makes the most of the rigidity of LEGO characters’ facial expressions and makes each and every character expressive and fully-realized in their own way. Perhaps the greatest testament to the strength of Pieces of the Past’s animation (and filmmaking) is an action sequence aboard the Death Star that may just be one of the most innovative and unique action set-pieces we’ve ever seen from any Star Wars story. To delve deeper into this would be to spoil the surprise, but those who saw the recent news about the upcoming LEGO Death Star set will be particularly pleased with this sequence.
VERDICT: 7.5/10
LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy – Pieces of the Past gives Star Wars fans another exciting opportunity to experience all sorts of crazy mash-ups, crossovers, and ‘what if’ scenarios. Going bigger with its reality-bending antics, the new four-piece miniseries also grips with its inclusion of various fan-favorite characters making their television debuts, who, despite having somewhat disappointingly small roles to play, will take fans’ breaths away nonetheless. Striking a perfect balance between honoring and poking fun at Star Wars, Pieces of the Past serves as a beautiful love letter to Star Wars, with so many iconic and deep-cut lines, characters, musical cues, moments, plot elements, and even camera movements in the franchise referenced and replicated in creative fashion. Unlike the host of ingenious mashups, the story, which parallels key elements from Deadpool & Wolverine and Loki, lacks novelty and creativity. However, a surprisingly ominous villain in Dan Stevens’ Solitus, strong thematic parallels to other Star Wars stories, and an innovative integration of various plot elements from across a galaxy far, far away prove compelling enough to remain engaged. All of this comes to life with stunning animation that continues to improve from each LEGO Star Wars special. In particular, an action sequence aboard the Death Star may just be one of the most unique action set-pieces we’ve ever seen in any Star Wars movie or show. LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy – Pieces of the Past offers the exact kind of reality-bending, universe-altering, ‘what if’ antics Star Wars fans have been yearning for and, best of all, beautifully recaptures what it was like to play with Star Wars LEGOs as a kid and create all sorts of mash-ups and crossovers.