I was going to post this yesterday, but I had so many things on my mind... I'll still be back tomorrow afternoon to review you know what. For now, read my Letterboxd review of this disaster:
Yep... yep, I watched this infamous television special. No, it's not the version currently on YouTube, which I understand doesn't even have the best part (the animated bit where Boba Fett is introduced); rather, it's a version I've had illegally-to be honest-for years now, and I did watch it once before. I figured this was the best time for a revisit.
This introduces Chewbacca's family. Really. We see his wife, son and father. After the fact it was revealed they have longer names but as given here, they are Malla, Lumpy, and Itchy. It's about Chewie trying to get back to his home planet of Kashyyyk to celebrate “Life Day” with his family but really, this is a 70's variety special, but a bad one. Art Carney is alright with his role but Harvey Korman has three different ones, none of them amusing or worthwhile. This is just terrible.
I can't give it the lowest rating as it's not so bad I am not able to finish it; in fact, it can be quite unintentionally hilarious, between the extremely cheesy 1970's TV special effects, the idea of the Wookiee family only speaking their native language and it not being translated (leading to awkward stretches of time; you rarely have trouble understanding what's going on, but still, it's rather European arthouse of them to do such a thing), and a lot more... let me list some highlights, or maybe they're lowlights:
* Itchy watches a hologram of Diahann Carroll and it's uncomfortably erotic. This was supposed to be made for families, after all.
* When Jefferson Starship performs their tune-which is fine-lead singer Marty Balin pretty much sings into a pink-purple neon glowing dildo!
* The Boba Fett cartoon is cool; it coming from Canadian studio Nelvana gave me nostalgic feelings as I saw products from them as a kid, but the animation style is, well, avant garde.
* Mark Hamill looks different here. I'll excuse that as he was in a bad car wreck and all those scars had not fully healed yet, which explains why he wore pounds of makeup.
* Carrie Fisher... well, she's always tongue in cheek but I hear that she had issues with “the drugs” at the time and she allegedly doesn't remember working on this special. Like with Luke and Han and Chewy, their roles here are basically cameos, although Leia DOES sing a goofy song that was to the melody of the Star Wars theme. It's as goofy as that recording of Nichelle Nichols warbling a tune to the Star Trek theme.
I have heard differing stories on how closely Lucas followed production on this while working on The Empire Strikes Back but no matter that, he hated how this turned out, although it was supposed to be like a variety show all along. It was just a bad idea all around, between focusing on a species that doesn't speak English, it being so cheesy and all the bad moments. While I'd like to see it in pristine quality and it'd be nice for the fans, I do understand why Old George has prevented this from being legally seen again and why everyone has to bootleg it.
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