LEGO Star Wars: The New Yoda Chronicles takes the sensibilities of the LEGO video games and translates them into episodic TV set in the Star Wars universe between the original movie and The Empire Strikes Back. This means that a reasonable story is made ridiculous by copious addition of amusing in-jokes, creative use of LEGO props, and jokes so dumb that they punch through that barrier to be funny again. Not to mention the innate silliness that results when everyone is a LEGO mini-figure.
A plot synopsis for the four episodes on The New Yoda Chronicles is almost superfluous, and also highly dependent on familiarity with the original trilogy movies. After the destruction of the Death Star, Luke Skywalker’s inexperience as a Jedi nearly gets him and his friends captured by Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. The discovery of a cache of Jedi Holocrons sparks a race between the Empire and the Rebels to grab them, with the Empire hoping to continue its eradication of the Jedi Order and Luke hoping that they will jumpstart his training as a Jedi. Along the way, the Rebels pick up Jek-14, the Clone Trooper ex-Sith Jedi jack-of-all-trades, and a few extra bits get explained as a tenuous setup to The Empire Strikes Back. It’s all played big, broad, and stupid, which is just about right. The jokes land more often than not, and the assorted in-jokes and references will keep supervising adults entertained as well. There is also an unexpectedly poignant moment when Luke discovers a holocron showing the adventures of a unnamed Jedi that we recognize as Anakin Skywalker. It’s a moment that works only because all the silliness is rooted in a surprisingly deep understanding of what makes the Star Wars characters tick. If Warner Bros. is insisting that every age group can enjoy a different brand of Batman, then Lucasfilm/Disney are certainly following suit in insisting that every age group can enjoy a different brand of Star Wars.
LEGO Star Wars: The New Yoda Chronicles is a bit disappointing as a home video release, though. The DVD audio and video are both fine, but four episodes totaling barely over 90 minutes makes it mighty light as far as content is concerned. There is exactly one bonus feature: an alternate ending to “Clash of the Skywalkers” that flips roles for giggles. The fact that “Attack of the Jedi” seems to have gone missing from DVD releases is also a bit puzzling, since the initial Yoda Chronicles DVD was even more lightweight with only 2 episodes on it.
I find I prefer the LEGO version of the prequel movies over the actual prequel movies, and I’m totally OK with The New Yoda Chronicles’ spitballing ideas to fill the space between the first two movies in the original trilogy. I would have liked a better DVD (or even just a complete one), but if it’s something the kids like on TV, it’s nice to be able to watch it without commercials or network bugs. I do have to question the business case behind a release like this, though, given that there are so many other ways to obtain the same material via online legal streaming, on-demand services, and assorted apps and websites. If you’re big on these LEGO Star Wars releases, there’s enough to like to justify a purchase, although I wonder if you’re not just encouraging the bad behavior by doing so.
I’ve been following Cartoon Network’s Clarence intermittently since its premiere, finding the show mildly entertaining but not enough to make a concerted effort to follow it. So the good news is that the 12 episodes on the latest Clarence: Dust Buddies DVD is that there are a few gems on the disc that fully follow through on the show’s potential. The bad news is that watching this span of episodes has clarified some of the problems that I have with the show overall.
The title character of Clarence is a young boy who compensates for a lack of sophistication (or intelligence) with enthusiasm and energy, with any given episode centering on some misadventure or another. His usual partners in crime include the straitlaced, square-headed Jeff and the near-feral Sumo, with his put-upon mother and her boyfriend Chad often serving in important supporting roles. Clarence is very much a “how are we getting there?” show, with the average plot synopsis clipped straight from any slice-of-life show and entirely open for comedy, drama, or both. Clarence, Jeff, and Sumo try to stretch a dollar as far as it will go at the local Chuck E. Cheese stand-in. Clarence learns how to go on a date with some exceptionally bad advice from Jeff and Sumo. Clarence gets lost on a nature hike. Clarence tries to stave off boredom while waiting with his mother in a doctor’s office. Clarence lives and dies on execution, and fundamentally, this is where my issues with the show are rooted.
At its best, Clarence is disarming and very funny. My favorite episode on this disc (if not the show overall so far) is “Dinner Party,” where Clarence and his friends try to amuse themselves as his friend’s snooty parents show off their latest home renovations. “Patients” is the episode where Clarence waits for his mother in a doctor’s office, and manages to nail the experience exactly with charm and good humor. I was also heartily amused by “Lizard Day Afternoon,” where Clarence and Sumo chase a lizard through town while Jeff tries in vain to get a turn on their rich friend Belson’s latest video game system. Finally, I got a kick out of the numerous Peanuts references in “The Forgotten,” though they may push it a bit too far as they break the fourth-wall near the end. I also appreciate that Clarence focuses as much on lower-class families rather than the ambiguous upper-middle class that most animated family sitcoms use, and how the show joins the recent crop of animated shows that don’t make a big deal about its non-traditional families, like the fact that Clarence is being raised by a single mom or how Jeff seems to have two mothers.
However, I find Clarence is highly inconsistent. Many episodes of Clarence catch the peculiar kid-logic that anyone with kids will recognize, but there are more that feel more like grown-ups depicting what they think kid-logic is like instead. These episodes tend to ring more false. The way Clarence is portrayed also suggests he may have developmental issues rather than just being too energetic for his own good, and I find that some of the episodes drift a bit too far into making him and his unusual way of looking at the world into the butt of the joke. These episodes (“Dust Buddies” and “Dollar Hunt” among them) feel like they’re laughing more at him than with him, which comes off as singularly unappealing. Some of the later episodes on the disc drift into total randomness, but feel more like desperation moves rather than some kind of organic sensibility in play (as something like Adventure Time or Pig Goat Banana Cricket do). Finally, my biggest beef with Clarence is that I don’t feel like it really had to be animated. Unlike shows like Adventure Time or Regular Show or Steven Universe, Clarence is almost always set in the here-and-now real world, and doesn’t always take advantage of the medium for its zaniness. There’s no reason why this sort of material can’t be animated, of course, but it there’s no particular reason why it is. However, I suspect the same scripts would be significantly less appealing if shot in live-action, which might be why I’m not as taken with the show.
Clarence: Dust Buddies is about as good as can be expected for a “soccer mom” DVD release of the show. The 12 episodes (running just over 2 hours) get a fine video presentation and a 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo soundtrack, but no bonus features of any kind. Again, I have to question the logic behind these sorts of releases given the general downturn in the home video market and the fact that there are so many ways now to have essentially the same experience via legal online means, cable TV on-demand services, or the Cartoon Network website or app. But if you’re a big fan of the show or know a kid who is, Clarence: Dust Buddies is better than nothing, and a purchase might signal to the powers-that-be that there is still demand for home video releases. It seems like disappointing releases like this one just turn the decline of home video into a self-fulfilling prophecy, though.
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