Review by Adam Stephen Kelly
Stars Stars the Voices of Seth Green, Abraham Benrubi, Bob Bergen,
Ahmed Best, Rachael Leigh Cook, Donald Faison, Keith Ferguson, Carrie Fisher,
Seth MaccFarlane, Breckin Meyer, Dan Milano, Conan O'Brien, Amy Smart, Billy Dee Williams
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £14.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 58 minutes | Directed by Seth Green
The guys behind Robot Chicken have been very sensible indeed about how they have approached this sequel of a parody. Rather than take the route of so many shows that have spoofed Star Wars, like Family Guy for example, Episode II does not proceed the events of the film its title references, but is instead quite literally a follow-up compromised of a mish-mash of skits that encompass the entire Star Wars saga and universe, not just 2002's Attack of the Clones.
Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II takes scenes and scenarios from all six films in the franchise and puts its own comedy spin on them, with the help of the show's signature action figure stop-motion and claymation, of course, and while it's a lot of fun to watch as a fan of the films it so lovingly satirises, I didn't laugh nearly as much as during a regular episode. The problem may just lie in the two editions of the Star Wars special as on the DVD you can see the 22-minute broadcast version, which is the length of two standard episodes, or the 38-minute Special Extended Edition, which, as you can see, runs almost four times as long as a regular instalment of the show. Choose wisely which version you see first as it may just hinder your enjoyment – I found the near 40 minutes a little tiring myself.
EXTRAS ★★★★ Over two hours of special features, including two full bonus episodes; Chicken Nuggets: a sketch-by-sketch video commentary; The Making of RCSW II; Animation Meeting: Seth Green acting out all the sketches for the benefit of the show's animators; Skywalker Ranch Premiere: the cast and crew of Robot Chicken spend the day touring Skywalker Ranch before the evening's big screening, featuring a very special guest; 501st Visit: the crew are invited to join the “501st Stormtrooper Garrison of Southern California”; Behind the Scenes: Sneak Peak; Accepted/Rejected: writers discuss some of their favourite sketches, only for most of them to be rejected by Seth Green and Matt Senreich; Time Lapses: the crew painstakingly creating a selection of sketches; Production Design; video blogs on the writing process, voice records and puppet making; deleted animatics (not quite); seven alternate audio clips; On-Air Bumps: comical behind the scenes photos from Adult Swim on the run up to the broadcast; six promo spots; a selection of trailers for Robot Chicken's debut season on DVD and other Adult Swim shows; and six audio commentaries for the extended edition, including select voice actors, writers, the crew, special guests from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Frank Oz.