Star Wars Forces of Destiny
So, Star Wars Forces of Destiny. For those that might not be aware, Forces of Destiny is a new line of merchandise, including books, toys, and animated shorts that highlight and star all the major female characters in Star Wars, from Leia and Ahsoka to Sabine and Rey and many more. Naturally, I wasn't the target audience. I know a lot of people like to say, oh, this is just Disney trying to push an agenda down our throats. I'm not touching that argument with a ten-foot pole. Instead, I'm going to look at that shorts based on their own merits. Eight short episodes, ranging from 2-4 minutes each, were released in July with eight more coming in October. How are they, well let's find out shall we?
So, first things first, how are the stories. They're fine... ok, for what they are. These aren't meant to be major lore expanding material. They are almost like small behind-the-scenes moments that you didn't get to see in either the TV shows or movies. The first two episodes revolve around Rey getting BB-8 to Nima Outpost in the Force Awakens. The next episode shows Leia escorting Wicket back to the Ewok village from Return of the Jedi. There are episodes highlighting Ahsoka (in her younger Clone Wars form), Padme, Sabine, and Jyn Erso. There is even an episode revolving around a concept of a deleted scene from Empire Strikes Back with Leia and Chewbacca.
Overall, these stories are short and simple because the episodes were meant to be short and simple. Would I have liked each episode to be longer, like perhaps the length of a regular TV episode? Yes. However, for what they are, they're fine. Not great, not horrible, they're serviceable.
Ok, I know what you are all thinking, how is the animation? Well, for one thing, it's 2D, which we haven't seen from Star Wars since the 2003 Clone Wars microseries. I can tell that this series is most likely made on a shoestring budget and for what it's worth, most of the time, the character models are animation are decent. I mean, for the most part, the characters look like they do from their original forms, just changed around a little, which is fine.
However, I have some problems with the animation. While the animation can keep up with the action fine, I feel like, and maybe it's just me, but the animation frames slow down greatly when there is smoke or an explosion. It's a nitpick, but I kind of bothered me. Also, while most of the characters used look good, there are some exceptions. The ewoks look creepy to me, and Anakin. Oh Anakin. While it was nice to see Matt Lanter's Anakin again, his redesign is horrible! Like, what the hell were they thinking? You need to see it to believe.
One major thing that I like to highlight is the voice cast. While the budget on the animation may have been limited, they certainly didn't spare any expense with the voice cast. Pretty much everyone is back to reprise their roles. Ashley Eckstein, Catherine Taber, and Tiya Sircar reprise their roles as Ahsoka, Padme and Sabine respectively. Daisy Ridley returns as Rey with John Boyega set to voice Finn in an upcoming episode later in October. Felicity Jones also comes back as the voice of Jyn from Rogue One. Even Lupita Nyong'o reprises her role as Maz Kanata in voice-over introductions at the beginning of every episode.
Finally, the voice actress they got to voice Leia is an actress named Shelby Young. Some of her most notable voice acting roles include voices in the video games Dead Rising 3 and Battlefield 1. I thought she did well for what she was given in the role.
So overall, how is Forces of Destiny and would I recommend it? I would say this, the series isn't going to hurt anyone. You can literally watch the entire series right now in about 15-20 minutes. These are just small self-contained stories that is meant as a small passion project for the animators at Lucasfilm. Did I like the shorts, yeah, I thought they were decent. Would I say they are anything spectacular? No. Would I say they are pieces of crap. No. They are just small decently-made shorts meant to entertain everyone, specifically little girls. And you know what, if these shorts help introduce or get little kids into Star Wars for the first time, then I'd say that's a good thing for the franchise now moving forward, isn't it?
