Stream It or Skip It: ‘The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special’ on Disney+, a Festive Trip through Star Wars’ Past

Disney+’s The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special is here to smuggle a freighter of cheer into your living room—and if it shoves the original 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special further down in the Google results? That’s just a bonus gift for Lucasfilm. The animated special once again brings LEGO’s unique, irreverent humor to a galaxy far, far away with a plot that facilitates a whole lot of visual mayhem and continuity gags. But does LEGO’s holiday special outdo the infamous ’70s holiday special, or is it another shipwreck? 

THE LEGO STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Set after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special finds the heroes of Disney’s sequel trilogy preparing to celebrate Life Day, the Wookiee holiday that’s basically Christmas. The gang’s all here: Rey, Finn, Poe, BB-8, Rose, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO—and then the party guests start showing up! Before you ask: yes, Babu Frik is in attendance.

But Rey’s got something else on her mind besides the festive attire, twinkling lights, and unopened presents that come with Christma—I mean, Life Day. She’s having a really hard time training Finn in the ways of the Force, so she sets out to find some guidance with the help of a mystical time crystal that allows her to literally crash in on iconic moments throughout the original and sequel trilogies. Who better to show her how to train a Jedi than previous masters like Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Qui-Gon Jinn?

Of course, the past is filled with as many bad guys as allies. Once Emperor Palpatine gets his eyes on that time crystal, Rey’s trip through time turns potentially cataclysmic.

Also worth noting up top because a small faction of very vocal Star Wars fans have revealed themselves to be completely void of humor over the past few years: this is a children’s animated holiday special. Nothing in this is gonna alter The Canon forever. Just sit back and enjoy the puns for once!

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Every other small screen LEGO special and series. If you’ve seen one of them, then you know the kind of fast-paced jokes you’re in for. It makes sense, too, since The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special was written by David Shayne, the same person who wrote previous LEGO specials in the Jurassic World, Ninjago, and Star Wars franchises.

Performance Worth Watching: I love anything that amps up Emperor Palpatine’s already extreme campiness, and he really gets to shine in this special. Trevor Devall is still clearly having a blast giving Palpatine a voice, and he has lots of experience doing just that after seven years of voicing the mad emperor in various LEGO series.

Memorable Dialogue: When a Return of the Jedi-era Darth Vader bumps into an A New Hope-era Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, he proclaims, “My son! I mean… my… these… binary suns!” Like pretty much all the jokes in this special, it’s a cheap laugh—and there’s nothing wrong with that. It just means you can afford a lot more laughs!

A Holiday Tradition: Life Day, duh! Of course, it’s been 42 years since the franchise last celebrated Life Day on this grand a scale, and the last holiday get together was such a disaster that everyone involved spent a solid 20 years denying it ever happened.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: Yep! Of all the original holiday content dropping this year, it’s hard to think of a special that’s as accurately named as The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special.

Our Take: Continuing the thought from the previous segment—it’s The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special. If that combination of words doesn’t at least bring the slightest of smiles to your face, then this isn’t for you. This special is fast, loose and silly. These jokes aren’t aiming for womp rats so much as hitting the broad side of a bantha. Adult Star Wars fans will love all the continuity jokes (like the constant rundowns of the complicated Skywalker family tree), in-jokes (young Obi-Wan being beyond bored by trade disputes), and shout outs to memes (a Mon Cal proudly clarifying that the gift he gave Lando Calrissian was “a wrap!”). And the kids will love the antics—and, thank the maker, there are antics aplenty!

There are only two areas where The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special falls short, coming from this Star Wars superfan who went in with high but reasonable expectations. The first missed opportunity: there are no direct shout outs to the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special. Yes, that special is a trippy ’70s nightmare, but it’s a beloved-to-hate artifact from Star Wars’ initial surge of popularity. I was hoping we’d get LEGO Ackmena (you don’t have to clear Bea Arthur’s likeness rights for a minifig, do you?) or an inscrutable Wookiee cooking segment. The closest we get is the arrival of Chewie’s family, but the special stops short of naming them Itchy, Lumpy, and Malla. This special loves deep-cut references, and it doesn’t get much deeper than Itchy!

On that note, I’m also bummed that the special didn’t close with “R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”

The other thing I wanted was just a little more sincerity—which does make it sound like I went into this special with high and unreasonable expectations. But the LEGO and LEGO Batman movies managed to pack in some serious, introspective moments amidst the hilarity. And if there’s any season that allows us to indulge in saccharine emotions, it’s this season. Do I really want Yoda to explain the true meaning of Christmas or the importance of family or whatever? That sounds so lame… and yes, yes I do. There are a lot of jokes and joy in this special, but it’s missing that heart—that turn-on-a-dime teary-eyed vibe—that makes specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Muppet Family Christmas, and A Garfield Christmas essential holiday viewing.

On the plus side, this special makes a million family tree jokes and features extensive scenes of Rey interacting with Emperor Palpatine and never once mentions that plot point. What a gift!

Our Call: STREAM IT. It’s not a new classic, but it’s nice that Star Wars fans finally have something watchable to put on during the holiday season.