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Star Wars Visions Vol 2
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Andrew and J Scotty return to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away to give their reaction and review of Star Wars Visions Vol 2, now streaming on Disney Plus!
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Transcript
Introduction to Star Wars Visions Volume 2
00:00:01
Speaker
On another exciting entry of animation deliberation, may the fourth be with you all. Star Wars and animation go hand in hand and they just did it once again with Star Wars Visions, volume two coming at you right after these ads. We have no control over it. Sing along if you know the words. I hope you've missed this as much as I have.
00:00:22
Speaker
Oh, I know. Animation, deliberation, a conversation, and a celebration of our favorite action animated series. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Welcome back, everyone. And we are just so excited to be here. We are your hosts. I am Andrew Rogers. And my name's Jay Scottie St. Clair.
00:00:50
Speaker
And I just cannot contain my excitement about this. Star Wars Visions has been a long time coming. It's going to hold a special place in my heart because it was one of my first podcasts as a permanent fixture host, I think was doing the first volume of this. And then to have them come out the gates and kill us with this second season with what seems like three times the budget was absolutely phenomenal. So I'm so here for it. Jay Scottie, how are you doing? What did you think of all this?
00:01:20
Speaker
I'm good. I'm great. I'm fantastic. You know, it's at the time of this recording, it is exactly one week after May the 4th. So I belated May the 4th to you, Andrew. I belated May the 4th to everyone.
00:01:33
Speaker
but we could not wait any longer. That's why Zuhaer is unfortunately not here. He historically has not been the most prompt when it comes to consuming Star Wars visions. But volume two is here and we are here to talk about it. And I had a wonderful time breaking it down with you last time. So I'm really excited to do that again with volume two.
00:01:54
Speaker
Yeah, awesome. Without further ado, listeners, just so you know how we're going to do this, we're just going to kind of jump in with our favorite episodes, go back and forth and
Excitement and Episode Discussion Plan
00:02:05
Speaker
talk about them. Because interestingly, spoiler alert, J. Scottie and I had different favorites this time. So it's not just going to be 40 minutes of the Ninth Jedi and then everything else like it was that first time. But yeah, we're just going to kind of bounce it around, do it as a bit of a back and forth conversation as opposed to like a hardcore breakdown. Right.
00:02:23
Speaker
I just want to say real quickly before we get dive into the nitty gritty of like the specific episodes.
Impressions of Volume 2 vs Volume 1
00:02:29
Speaker
We had our news episode earlier and we kind of gave non-spoiler reactions, but I do just kind of want to give my impressions of this volume as a whole. And what I said earlier is that I still really loved this volume. I coming away comparing it to volume one doesn't
00:02:50
Speaker
I don't know, we've often said it before, but it's kind of like comparing apples and oranges and that feels kind of the same here. Like it's obviously like animated Star Wars with all these different studios getting the opportunity, but I didn't have one that I like absolutely loved and was over the moon for this season. Like I did in volume one with the ninth Jedi. There was no ninth Jedi for me this time, but that being said,
00:03:14
Speaker
the sheer representation of culture, getting to see animation from different corners of the globe, and just the varying art styles. That made Star Wars Visions Volume 2 worth it for me, and it made me excited that I really hope we get a Volume 3, Volume 4, and so on and so forth. I know Star Wars means so many things to so many different people,
00:03:35
Speaker
in so many different places and it certainly means a lot to me. So to get to see everyone's unique take on Star Wars and the galaxy far, far away is just, that's what Visions is all about and I love it. Yes, I think you said it best when you say it means a lot to a lot of people because this show is an opportunity to let people express without rules what Star Wars can be and create their own little corner of this extraordinarily vast universe and
00:04:05
Speaker
that said i think that's part of where this is differs a little bit from volume one volume one felt so removed from the star wars we knew and there were a few episodes in this volume that were very they tried to slot it into what we already knew with their own unique storytelling and style and i think personally i just like the uniqueness that volume one had in terms of like oh i've never even thought of this being a possibility before kind of thing but yeah it's a very different take
00:04:32
Speaker
from the first one while still holding true to the idea of visions is everyone's vision. It was culturally great. It was storytelling great. So yeah, it's just it is apples and oranges. That's the best. Don't compare the two because they're two wildly different things. Sure.
Deep Dive into 'Sith' Episode
00:04:53
Speaker
All right, you want to kick things off with
00:04:57
Speaker
of your favorite episodes? Yeah, we'll kick it off with mine because it's the easiest because it's the first one. Yeah. Sith really, really drew me in from the start. Like, as far as a starter episode goes, I think they did a killer job of saying, All right, here's the tone that we have to set. The style was just
00:05:19
Speaker
all over the place, the fact that you didn't really know where you were throughout half of the episode. It was just this artistic way. I mean, literally artistic, because it was about painting. It was about the atmosphere that you could create. But then when you actually got into the storytelling and finding out who this person was and the darkness within them and the light that got that the way that they just had this visual smattering of paints and all these things, I, I don't know what it was, but I was just so enamored by the whole thing.
00:05:49
Speaker
And then their camera work. Actually, I have to say, camera work in all of the episodes was phenomenal. Camera work in this episode, I definitely have a few things to say specifically, just all the bike scenes, where you would suddenly go into POV, but then you would be on the front facing inward. And there were just so many interesting things that they did that they didn't need to do. But I was so there for it the entire time. Yeah, no, I
00:06:15
Speaker
I know this one's a divisive episode because it's not going to be for everyone, but the paint smattering, very avant-garde artistic motif of it, it worked for me tremendously.
00:06:28
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, well said. And yeah, I agree with that a lot. I think the standout for me for this episode was the art style and the atmosphere. The fact that she is an artist and she, our protagonist, is an artist and a painter and her painting is unfinished and she's kind of having this artistic block that's kind of connected to her connection to the force. I loved
00:06:50
Speaker
That whole through line there and the fact that like as like just the art style like kind of like this kind of like smudgy design but with sharp lines where you need them to give that definition and
00:07:00
Speaker
fact that she's like walking through these environments and like just like her painting is unfinished some of these like interiors are completely unfinished and in that regard it kind of felt like an unfinished painting or kind of like concept art and it was interesting you know with a studio named like Elgiri like it's obviously you know from Spain and you can tell
00:07:20
Speaker
with the voice actors like they're all Spanish and it has a nice flair to it but it's interesting because I just read an article about how like animation in Spain is kind of like having a renaissance because I don't think I knew it at the time but they it was a Spanish studio that did Arcane and yeah yeah exactly so very similar art style now that I actually like think about it indeed yeah yeah
00:07:47
Speaker
Yeah, and I will say caveat at the top here listeners, we will mention what the studios are. But one of the unique things, unlike volume one, where we could say, oh, this is the studio responsible for Attack on Titan, this one's kill a kill, this one's, you know, black clover, this
00:08:05
Speaker
has a lot of names attached to it. But this is a lot of their like big first outings in the US doing things more than short films or, you know, things on the side. So we're gonna be able to talk about the studios and how great they are. But the coolest part of this is just digging into studios that I have no experience with any of their previous works. Yeah.
00:08:26
Speaker
for sure and I do want to give a little shout out to the droid E2 because like even though we only got to spend like what like 12-15 minutes tops with these characters like when E2 was in danger I was like don't shoot do it don't don't shoot anything but E2
00:08:43
Speaker
him coming back at the end was like, okay, we're good. She put them back together. Like, again, I want to stop bringing in season one, but I have to the droids across both of these seasons, they've done a really good job of finding fun droids for us to like latch out to in a lot of these different stories. And definitely, definitely. All right, shall we move on to one of my favorites?
00:09:08
Speaker
Yes, I'm very intrigued to hear what you have to say here.
Exploring 'The Pit' Episode
00:09:12
Speaker
Certainly. So my first pick comes from the latter half of the season with the penultimate episode, episode eight, The Pit, which came to us from D'Art Schatagio and Lucasfilm itself. So this one
00:09:27
Speaker
I thought it had a unique art style, but nothing that particularly blew me away. It was kind of like, okay, this is an anime style. It's very well done. The proportions and anatomy are very accurate. Like I thought the stormtroopers were kind of like the most striking thing. I liked the way the shading on the stormtroopers were kind of done. And there was almost kind of like a lack of detail there. But what really drove this one home for me was
00:09:53
Speaker
the story, and you get to see this group of enslaved people have to basically dig their own grave, and they're digging for kyber crystals, and these crystals are used to build a city, and then when that city is built, they are basically left in that pit, and just the sense of despair that you get immediately, and you get endeared to these people so quickly. But it was definitely the story of a martyr. You see this young guy,
00:10:22
Speaker
the synopsis that I read afterwards, like indicated that he was talking to his daughter, but I got more of like an older brother, younger sister. So yeah, that was my kind of takeaway there. But the fact that he even in like, you know, the worst situation kind of seeing the
00:10:40
Speaker
depths of humanity for lack of a better term because we're talking about alien species and whatnot but it seemed like everybody that was enslaved was from the same planet and very humanoid in nature but even in this like war situation he still has hope and he has faith in people and has faith that when people hear about their situation they're going to do the right thing and the episode has like one of the absolute
00:11:05
Speaker
biggest gut punches of all like when he was getting tossed back into the pit and fell to his death I thought surely he's going to find some way at the last minute to get his way out of this or we're going to find out he's force sensitive or everyone at the bottom is going to find some way to like cushion his landing or something like that but no he actually ends up being a martyr
00:11:26
Speaker
And his sacrifice is not in vain. He goes on to inspire everyone, the people in the city as well as the people in the pit and his daughter or sister to follow the light. And then I loved how this was the only one that kind of had an after credits stinger where you got to see that beautiful mural that the one guy was working on the whole time. And it was kind of like, what's this guy doing? And then you got to see that awesome tribute. So emotionally and story-wise, this one just really stuck the landing for me.
00:11:55
Speaker
Yeah, it definitely has a lot of like you said, it's a gut punch because some of these are very, you know, up and going and have the usual Jedi tropes to them. And this one was
00:12:06
Speaker
pun kind of intended down to earth. It wasn't about lightsabers. It wasn't about blasters. It didn't need to be stormtroopers. It could have just been, you know, people. It didn't need to be aliens in the city. It could have just been more people. Like, it was a very unfortunate thing to watch, but gripping because of that. And it wasn't like, yeah, we got that acknowledgement at the end that the daughter sister
00:12:33
Speaker
daughter or sister was daughter. Yeah, I was like, Wait a minute. daughter or sister was force sensitive, but it wasn't a crux of the story. She did not get the people on their side because she was force sensitive. She did not save someone because she was force sensitive. It just was a part of what happened to occur within this story. Everything else around it was still very relatable and very, wow, this is something that could happen. And I think
00:13:02
Speaker
It held so much weight because of that. And I think it very much carried that story. Even like you said, it wasn't the best art style. It didn't blow you away, but it was still enough to hold your attention entirely. And this one really made me take some note because it was diverse in an interesting way, because I actually looked up it's a Japanese studio, but they are American owned. And I noticed
00:13:28
Speaker
If you look, they had very American features on a lot of the characters and almost all of the works within.
00:13:35
Speaker
their portfolio when I looked them up seem to actually be having more accurate representation of Black or African Americans than most anime tends to have. So I'm wondering if that's actually a part of their MO and I kind of hope to see a little bit more of them coming out of Japan with some interesting stuff because they did a very good job. It reminded me almost of like the animation style on the boondocks a little bit. I had to look up like, is it the same studio, but it is not.
00:14:01
Speaker
I had the same experience. I had the exact same experience. I thought, oh, this must be the one that the studio that worked on Boondocks did. And I'm really grateful that you did that side research, because that is fascinating. And I would love to see more from the studio. And the fact that this is the only one that Lucasfilm directly partnered with, I think says a lot about the
00:14:26
Speaker
level of respect and credibility this studio has. Yeah, well the super interesting part I think of like where the Lucasfilm tie-in is, is a little bit more side research. There was a writer-director and a co-director. The writer-director is Leandre Thomas, award-winning writer and director from California, won best director at the Pasadena International Film Festival, and worked at Lucasfilm for 11 years
00:14:51
Speaker
working on titles such as Light and Magic, The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars Tales of the Jedi, and more. And then the co-director, Justin Ridge, is the executive producer of Emmy-nominated Star Wars Resistance, and also has worked on Star Wars Rebels, Storks, The Cleveland Show, Star Wars The Clone Wars, and Avatar The Last Airbender. So this episode had some heavy hitters behind it. So I'm not at all surprised that it was such a gripping story.
Analyzing 'In the Stars' Episode
00:15:18
Speaker
For sure. For sure.
00:15:21
Speaker
All right. But I'm going to jump to my first pick that we did, because we kind of did it in order, not of favorites, but just in like what order the episodes came in. I like the first one because the art style. This episode, however, might be my favorite story of the group. OK. Because I legitimately cried at the end. Yeah. In the stars is was probably my favorite story.
00:15:49
Speaker
It was one of those, like, okay, I kind of see where this is going, that the stormtroopers have done their usual, we take over a planet and gut it for resources, but to actually find out that these were the only two left of their race and that they had to rely on each other, but then come to find out they had the power within them to take down all of this,
00:16:12
Speaker
while making me wonder is it force sensitivity or is it some power that these people have because the ancestors were in the stars and suddenly when the stars come out and the magic was able to come back to the rocks that was when it was just okay turn on the waterworks i'm open just as much as the dam in this imperial facility is at that point because it was just so amazing to see the handprints of the people and just
00:16:39
Speaker
knowing that they are going to continue to uphold the traditions like they made it out. I didn't know if they were going to I didn't know if we were going to take the dark turn with this episode. So it's like, okay, there is that hope there is that next step and you know, they were able to do it together with their power. I just thought it was honestly, amazingly gripping and so
00:17:01
Speaker
visually interesting because I had to Google this one, it was a combination of stop motion and CG. And I think it worked gloriously the combination of the two because I, I really couldn't tell where one started and one ended. But I was looking at it like this can't all be stop motion, but it can't all be CG either. Like it was, yeah, it was super pretty, like
00:17:24
Speaker
I wouldn't necessarily say the prettiest because there were very, very pretty episodes. But it definitely ranks in terms of I don't think I'd change anything about the way that this studio animated it. For sure. For sure.
00:17:38
Speaker
I just want to point out how fitting it is that we go from the pit to in the stars. I also just have to say I read the pit when the episode started and the song of Parks and Rec has been in my head all day. That's great. That's great. That's great.
00:17:59
Speaker
But no, I agree with you. This is definitely one of my favorite episodes, definitely probably in the top four or five for me. And I can't help but compare it to a couple of other episodes for reasons, for different reasons.
00:18:14
Speaker
one that'll be coming sooner rather than later, but you talked about how it was done in stop motion and a combination of CGI and not knowing where one began and the other ended, like totally co-signed to that. Like I just assumed it was all stop motion. I just thought it was really, really well done and like so visually interesting. And I didn't have the opportunity to look the studio up, but Punk Robot, I have to imagine is like South American and
00:18:39
Speaker
some regard because I definitely got South American cultural influence in terms of our main characters.
00:18:48
Speaker
The other episode that I will kind of compare it to, I'm not gonna say the episode right yet, but it had a lot of cultural influence as well, that it kind of wore on its sleeve and it also focused on a relationship between siblings. But for me, I thought this was the more relatable and powerful story between a younger and older sibling. And this one didn't really fall into the trope of like the,
00:19:15
Speaker
very eager and gung-ho younger sibling coming across as unbelievable or annoying for me. I loved how different the sisters were and how they were able to bring out each other's strengths ultimately. In the wake of their mother's loss, they were each other's rocks. Everything else, the action, the story, it was just super satisfying and super heartfelt and beautiful in all regards.
00:19:42
Speaker
Yeah, and it is Chilean, you were correct. And okay, I do think it is that that little bit of close to home, just a lot of so many of the native, like tribes within the Americas just have so many interesting stories that like you want to tell and like you said, they wore it on their sleeves be it the way that they talked the way that
00:20:02
Speaker
They had their clothes and then the murals that they had were just also reminiscent. But the one thing that I didn't mention that like is the number one thing in my notes when we talk about the stop motion, the miniatures, when they zoomed in like through the binoculars on the facility, you could tell someone worked so hard to make the miniatures of how that scene was going to look and was over the top. And then is one of many
00:20:29
Speaker
the notes that the music was just so great. The to be and I think the music was better in this one than it was in the first volume, because it was all very related to the cultures that each of these studios holds. It was flute heavy in terms of like a wood flute that you would hear from a native population. So it's just
00:20:53
Speaker
chef's kiss in so many regards and then it it does hit harder and I hate it when the Empire is always British because they're always British and it just makes sense and I don't I don't like it but it's great but they're always British it's always British yeah
00:21:12
Speaker
All right, and another, I can't help myself but point out, you mentioned how this one turned on the waterworks for you and it was all about the waterworks. Oh yeah, it was intended in there, don't you worry. Okay, just making sure.
00:21:25
Speaker
Just make sure. Yeah, you've alluded to I believe this next
Thoughts on 'Aau's Song' Episode
00:21:29
Speaker
episode enough. So please launch us into the next bit. Certainly this I remember seeing. OK, so the next one is is our song. I'm just going to get right into it. This came to us from Triggerfish, which is a South African studio. And this is one of those studios that I did look up and I looked at their previous body of work. And I'll be honest, like based on what I saw, it seemed like a lot of like kids films like just CGI.
00:21:53
Speaker
kids films like so I wasn't super excited for this one to be honest with you but this one really took me by surprise like you brought up camera work earlier. This one had amazing camera work some of the camera movements and tracking the way that they depicted like a vehicle moving in a space just by moving the background but having the vehicle itself kind of like kind of like hover in one spot was just
00:22:16
Speaker
wonderful. And this was another one that like, this one, I know that there was some CGI incorporated, but I had myself like questioning sometimes I'm like, is this entirely CGI? Or do they just do such high quality renders that this looks like actual fabric in front of me. And I have not done my due diligence and done the research, but I loved how they kind of looked like these stuffed animals just like brought to life. And
00:22:41
Speaker
It was very simple storytelling like I think our main character I was she does she has very few lines of dialogue but again instantly endeared to her and this kind of like she has this protective father who obviously cares very much for her and they only really have each other.
00:22:56
Speaker
And his helicopter parenting is keeping her from reaching her true potential. And when she feels this connection and the way that was visually depicted, these kyber crystals calling out to her and that tactile sensation there. And when she sings, it's just beautiful. And I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it again. But this one, I think, was just the most pleasant surprise for me. I went in with the lowest expectations and came away just really moved by how
00:23:26
Speaker
incredible this was on a visual standpoint and just how moving it was in a simplified storytelling just super effective and it got in it got out I think it was one of the shorter ones like overall but just we weaved a great story and I have to use the word weave because so many things looked like they were just like even the lines on their faces looked like it was like woven yeah it was great well while you were doing your
00:23:51
Speaker
rant, I just started poking around a little bit. And I have found an article that says it is crafted in stop motion. There's no mention in the article of CGI. So I'm assuming there has to be some touch up that they're doing in CGI just for the lighting effects that were happening. But it makes it seem like there was a lot of this done in stop motion, which just sounds fantastic and amazing because all of the praises you sung
00:24:18
Speaker
It's true. It was one of the most visually gripping, so vibrant. I just wanted to give everybody a hug. They look soft and great. But then the camera work and the symmetry, it felt almost Wes Anderson at times with some of the way that like it would move up the mountain and then the characters were in between the two. And it's just like, wow, it is so amazing how those little things can really, really draw you in. But yeah, they did.
00:24:45
Speaker
a crazy job with that. And then the story was just as good. I did have a hard time in my head. I'm like, which do I like better I was song or in the stars because they were both like, very, I don't want to compare them just because they were the two stop motion. But in my head, they're the two peas of this pod that went together a little bit. Well, there were three stop motion.
00:25:08
Speaker
There were three stop motion. Why am I forgetting one off the top of my head? Hardman Studios had a I am your mother. Oh, yes, obviously. Yeah. I will have some things to say about that one at some point. Okay. But that one was definitely a little bit lesser than these two, just in terms of how over the top it was. And I think it's like you said, the surprise factor. Like I didn't go in knowing much about any of these. So it was just blowing me away at every turn.
00:25:37
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. And the last one that we'll kind of talk in depth about before we pause for an ad break is a shout out to listener Chrissy
Review of 'Journey to the Dark Head'
00:25:52
Speaker
Giesen. She sent us some feedback that we read on our previous episode, but she had just finished watching episode five, which is Journey to the Dark Head. And she was
00:26:03
Speaker
ranting and raving about how much more Star Wars anime she wants. And this one came to us from Studio Mur, the South Korean studio that has done things like we mentioned, which what studio was it that did the boondocks, but they also did Legend of Korra and Voltron, the legendary defenders. So what'd you think about this? I thought this was a really good one. I think it's a good
00:26:27
Speaker
For lack of a better term middle ground like nothing it did in terms of story was like so over the top amazing or so I don't care about it. It was just a generally good story across the board.
00:26:41
Speaker
I thought it was a very gripping setting that they used. I think that really let them just take their strides and really visualize the Star Wars tropes. So often we get these stories of, oh, is it the light side? Is it the dark side? Is it some combination of the two? And we got to watch that happen in just groundbreaking scale, I guess is really what it comes down to. But they had a very intriguing villain in
00:27:10
Speaker
Lord bison, I think is what they're quoted as with the like snake tail whip that they had going on. Yeah, and I I'm gonna go off the rails a little I think that's one of my few complaints about volume two versus volume one was the cool weapons We got in volume one. I wish we had more of that in volume two. This is one of the like One or two episodes that I was like, oh cool new weapon cool new Star Wars lore that like this thing exists So they definitely got some bonus points for that
00:27:39
Speaker
But I think it was nice to, you know, visit in on a Star Wars, Jedi Council, that is smaller, and we haven't seen and kind of shrink the universe back down a little bit. But yeah, I think it was just altogether a fun episode. And what is one of the few that I mentioned at the top, it left us on a cliffhanger. And I was like, we actually kind of want I want this series, I want to know what their next little adventure is between the two of them. Like they did a very good job of making me ask for more right at the end, because
00:28:07
Speaker
The whole time I was like, I don't know. And then we started to get toward that climax. I was like, no, wait, this is good. Give me more. Like, what else can I get? Yeah. Yeah. This one kind of felt like a spiritual successor to the 9th Jedi for me. It didn't like blow me away like the way that the 9th Jedi did. But I do think it was one like technically speaking, one of the best animated ones in terms of kind of going back to traditional animation. And I think you brought up a lot of good points about like,
00:28:37
Speaker
you know, as much as the series expands the Star Wars universe, it is kind of nice to also
00:28:43
Speaker
kind of zoom in a little bit on a particular group of people, have a smaller council, have a smaller conflict that we kind of look in here on. But to that end as well, I kind of liked how it built out another way that the force manifests itself. The fact that there's this planet that has the ability to do some fortune telling or look into the future with these stones. And it's not just limited to the Jedi or the Sith.
00:29:09
Speaker
places that are so strong in the force, the balance is there. One of our two main characters had this notion that once I destroy the dark head, that'll fix everything. But when she gets there and realizes that the future that she saw, it was kind of like predestined. She was always gonna wind up there and always, she was that third figure, that blurred figure. And she finds that the,
00:29:38
Speaker
One does not exist without the other. The force flows between both of them. I always appreciate the nuance there. Star Wars very much delves into the good versus evil motif. But more and more, we've been able to see that it's not always so black and white. There are shades of gray in between and while.
00:29:56
Speaker
Lord Bishan was definitely sadistic and not very redeemable in any way. It was kind of nice to spend time with a Jedi that was a little more disillusioned. He wasn't as moody as Anakin per se, but he definitely had his angst and to have him form this relationship. And again, it left off on a cliffhanger, but they decided to have adventures together and to continue to travel together. It left me wanting to see more from both of them.
00:30:21
Speaker
Yes, especially when you remember how big the universe of Jedi is. It's like they could have survived Order 66. Who knows how far before Order 66 this even was. It seemed like it was long before all that. Yeah, there's always more Jedi coming out of the woodwork anyway when it comes to Order 66. Seriously, there are just so many.
00:30:42
Speaker
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00:31:02
Speaker
And I'm going to use my BlendJet 2. And you might be asking what that is. The BlendJet 2 is a portable blender, so you can blend up a smoothie at work, a protein shake at the gym, or even a margarita on the beach, which is a great option, trust me. It's small enough to fit in a cup holder, but powerful enough to blast through tough ingredients like ice and frozen fruit with ease. BlendJet 2 is whisper quiet, so you can make your morning smoothie without waking up the whole house. It lasts for 15 plus blends and recharges quickly
00:31:32
Speaker
USB C. Best of all, it cleans itself just blend water with a drop of soap and you are good to go. And let me tell you, that is probably one of the most convenient features. I feel like I talk about it every ad read, but I don't care because I hate doing dishes. And this solves that problem for me. Every time I use it, I know I don't have to go through the hassle of cleaning it and making it look pretty again, because I know it started at a glorious color because they have a lot of great colors to choose from 30 plus.
00:31:59
Speaker
if you were wondering out there listeners, I personally have any lavender one and a red one. And I'm trying to keep them both that same nice color even in my cup holder. Jay Scotty, what colors did you get again? Right now I'm rocking the seafoam green as well as slate so I get to have that splash of bright
00:32:16
Speaker
jovial color and then my more sophisticated little down to earth color. So I'm well represented on both sides being a big fan of various shades of green. But I did want to mention, you know, one of the great things about Star Wars is the lightsaber. And as Star Wars has persisted, we've gotten to see so many different
00:32:36
Speaker
hilt styles and so many different color variations of light sabers that people can really make their lightsaber their own and kind of a reflection of their personality. And you can do the exact same thing with BlendJet. There's something super satisfying about the hum of a lightsaber when it ignites and I can say the exact same thing about my BlendJet. When I go to press that button and get that, you know, whisper quiet hum, I know I'm in store for some tasty nutrition in just a short 15 seconds.
00:33:06
Speaker
good times. But I also do want to bring up the Orbiter lid. It's a new product and feature offered by the BlendJet, and it is a leak-proof lid. So let's talk about it. It's leak-proof. Your favorite ensemble is safe from spillage with this lid.
00:33:21
Speaker
It's got one-hand convenience. You've got your hands full. Luckily, you only need a thumb to open this lid, much like a lightsaber. And large opening, perfect for thick smoothies. There's even more room for a straw if that's the way you like to sip. It's also self-cleaning, as Andrew mentioned. Simply spin the lid and rinse. And it's also engineered to keep spills at bay.
00:33:45
Speaker
Yes, it really feels like you are kind of putting the pieces together like a lightsaber because now I pick the bottom color is when you, you know, really deep clean it, you take off the middle section, that's your crystal in there and then you have the lid that you put right back on top. It's just all of the things you could want coming together in one place. And if you want to see what this looks like,
00:34:04
Speaker
Get it for yourself. What are you waiting for? Go to blendjet.com and grab yours today and be sure to use the promo code STAYWELM12 to get 12% off your order and free two-day shipping. No other portable blender on the market comes close to the quality, power, and innovation of the BlendJet 2. They guarantee you'll love it or your money back. Blend anytime, anywhere with the BlendJet 2 portable blender. Go to blendjet.com and use the code STAYWELM12 to get 12% off your order and free two-day shipping.
00:34:33
Speaker
shop now and get the best deal ever. And I'm really wondering when the day is that we're just going to become both smarter and lazier or less creative. I don't know which but we just start recording these preemptively so we can just have them ready to go. Because it's really fun. I have had a couple people be like, Are you just improving that the whole time and listeners? Yes, we are the notes that we know we should be saying and then everything else is like, What can we talk about? And we go too far into these ad reads. But now
00:35:02
Speaker
We'll reel it back into the Star Wars content that we know you were here for, because there are still three more episodes that Star Wars Visions gave us.
Insights on 'The Spy Dancer' Episode
00:35:11
Speaker
And we'll start it off. Just next up on our list is the Spy Dancer. How did you feel about this one?
00:35:18
Speaker
I enjoyed this one. It didn't really stand out to me as like a super, super memorable one. I think the art style was one of the more unique art styles. And we talk about how like culturally just kind of wearing that identity on their sleeves. And as soon as like I kind of saw the art style, I was like, oh, this is very French. And then of course, once you start to hear the characters speak, they've got those French accents. So I kind of like how it embraced that kind of like
00:35:49
Speaker
courtesan for lack of a better term, kind of like the empire is kind of like pig-ish and arrogant and so easily deceived that they're just reeled into this like night of entertainment, like whining and dining and they don't even see the treachery coming. And it had some intrigue, it definitely had
00:36:13
Speaker
some interesting revelations when it came to the parentage coming from the main character, the main dancer there. And it certainly had some moments where I was kind of on the edge of my seat, like, oh, what's going to happen with this character? What's going to happen with that character? And I think some of the final revelations might have been a little predictable, but on the whole, I had a good time with it. I can't really knock it too much other than just some of the other episodes standing out a little bit more for me.
00:36:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it wouldn't be Star Wars without some daddy issues going on somewhere. But no, I agree. Honestly, I feel like they did a very good job of kind of hiding what those revelations were. And I was really intrigued at the end. And I just almost wish there was a little bit more into the ramp at the start of the episode. I felt like it just didn't it didn't have the hook that some of the others had. Like you said, it's still good. It just didn't shine because it didn't have all of the pieces floating together. But like you said, the French intrigue
00:37:13
Speaker
I mean, you can't think about a French performance with silks without immediately going to Cirque du Soleil. And that's right where it was when I'm watching this performance. I'm like, it feels as grandiose as well. Wow, really going into French there. As you know, what a French performance should be and just having this imagery of the beautiful robes flowing off and flying around from the ceiling. It
00:37:38
Speaker
It really did a good job of bringing into the, you know, like you said, just pulling the wool over the empire's eyes and what this beautiful culture was at one point. But.
00:37:51
Speaker
it, it just didn't, it didn't mix those things. Well, both of those things, I think were great, the story and the parentage and the way this performance was beautiful. I just the mix of the two is where it was a little like, just give me more of the performance or more of the treachery. I don't know which I wanted more of. I just wanted more one, I think at the end of the day. But all in all, like you said, it was still beautiful. And still just a delight to
00:38:17
Speaker
watch and the French accents. Amazing. Yeah, the French accents. All right.
Discussion of 'Screechers Reach'
00:38:24
Speaker
Moving on to screechers reach, which came to us from the Irish studio cartoon saloon. Shout out to all our listeners in Ireland. We've had some crazy download numbers from Ireland. I don't know what to attribute that to, but this was an interesting one for me because I remember
00:38:41
Speaker
seeing some of the characters from this one in the trailer and it like the the art style really striking me and this is one of the ones I was really looking forward to and expecting to have pretty high up on my list and as a horror fan it certainly had some elements that I certainly enjoyed and again the art style was very interesting very unique kind of
00:39:02
Speaker
reminded me a little bit of Gindy Tartakovsky in some regards, kind of over the garden wall as well. But in terms of the story, it was serviceable, it was good.
00:39:15
Speaker
I kind of felt like maybe the order of the episodes were released, like having this revelation that she was actually, oh, she's a Sith apprentice, she's going to train with a Sith. I think coming off of the first episode, Sith, like having a similar revelation there, I think it took away from the impact for me a little bit, but it was still a good episode. Yeah, I think this one,
00:39:39
Speaker
was really visually gripping. They had so much of the scale going into these episodes and the way that they portrayed the light and the dark of the force. It was really, really moving. It reminded me a lot of the Nightsisters from Star Wars and Clone Wars who were like one of the original force users. There was a lot of those motifs
00:39:57
Speaker
I just think if I'm comparing all of these episodes, this one didn't land as high for the fact of it was a short. This one didn't have a huge world that they built out. Like we don't know what that sweatshop was. We don't really know what Screacher's Reach was. It was just a nice quality short where they gave you a small tidbit of a story and that was it. Whereas I think some of the other ones just built a whole world and lore that you got in their 15 minute chunk. Whereas I think this was also on the shorter end, clocking in closer to like the 12 minute time.
00:40:27
Speaker
So definitely it just didn't flesh it out. But everything we got I think was super gripping and super awesome. So yeah, I don't have complaints so much as just it didn't shine quite as bright. It was awesome with what we got. Totally fair assessment. Yeah. All right. And side note, you mentioning over the garden wall.
00:40:51
Speaker
Now that that's in the universe that you have also watched this, I feel like this is a Halloween special waiting to happen because that's like one of my favorite. I don't want to be too scared, but I want to enjoy something about Halloween. Over the garden wall just fits that cozy fall energy that I love. Definitely. And definitely, I like the notes because it's very close to what Cartoon Saloon was doing. But we do have the one remaining episode left. Or no, we have two left. All good.
Appeal of 'I am Your Mother' for Younger Audiences
00:41:20
Speaker
Next up we have I am your mother and this came from the UK studio that gave us Wallace and Gromit. And that was right on the box. Like as soon as I started this episode, I was like, Oh, yeah, there's Wallace and Gromit. I know it immediately. And this episode, I just feel like is a solid
00:41:38
Speaker
middle of the road for me because, in my opinion, this episode was not built for the likes of you and me. This was definitely the most kid forward episode. Like I feel like I've seen this exact story play out in countless kids TV shows like oh, here's how you should interact with your mother and different things like that, which is super fun and super cute, but it just didn't
00:41:58
Speaker
didn't give me a unique story aside from, oh, we're getting that in the Star Wars verse. I loved everything that we got of Wedge Antiles, just beer, Antilles being a little celebrity and like, oh yeah, I teach the Academy now, haha, like get your merch. It was kind of fun, kind of a
00:42:15
Speaker
slight at people like us, but fireblenders people. No, it was just it did exactly what it was supposed to do. And I have I have no complaints about that. I just know I acknowledge this is probably one of the more kid forward episodes close to the one that was the band of the cantina in volume one. I remember having the same review of like, yep, it's made for kids, not for us. And that's totally okay. Good, good job making an awesome kids episode, I will say.
00:42:45
Speaker
Yeah, I'm kind of on the same page as you there. I feel like this was Aardman doing what Aardman does best. And they didn't betray their sensibilities in any way. They were like, oh, you want us to do Star Wars? We're going to do a Star Wars our way. And in that regard, it was very British. It had that certain quirkiness and cuteness to it. And I had a good time with it. Again, it just didn't knock my socks off, really. I had a smile on my face the whole time, but it didn't really tug at my heartstrings or anything like that.
00:43:12
Speaker
how with Star Wars, the relationship between fathers and sons has always been at the forefront so much. The fact that we got to explore the relationship between a mother and daughter, and it be a little more lighthearted. I kind of got a kick out of that, and the fact that the title is I Am Your Mother. And she said, well, I am your mother.
00:43:31
Speaker
It is what it is. It's like, it's fun. No more, no less. They did give us the fun, the other fun droid that I was talking about in, I can't remember what the name of this droid was, but the dog court area. So much, so much fun. Yes. All right.
Cultural Representation in 'The Bandits of Golok'
00:43:50
Speaker
And rounding out the volume two for us this time around is the bandits of Golok from 88 pictures and
00:44:00
Speaker
Just off the top for me, it's kind of fitting that we're talking about this one last, because this was my least favorite. I felt it did some things wonderfully. To have the Indian culture represented so unabashedly in Star Wars was kind of cool. It just really felt like, let's take Bollywood to the galaxy far, far away, and that's what we're doing. That was really cool. And I thought visually, it was pretty interesting with all the colors and whatnot. I didn't feel like it
00:44:30
Speaker
did enough to distinguish itself from a lot of the Clone Wars and the Bad Batch. It wasn't the exact same style, but I felt it was very reminiscent of that. So I would have liked something a little more unique when it comes to the character models and whatnot. But aside from that, I felt it was a little overly long for the story they were telling.
00:44:49
Speaker
And it did have this brother and sister dynamic, but this one didn't work nearly as well for me as some of the other ones did. I do feel like it delved into that annoying younger sibling trope where they just lack awareness and continually put themselves in harm's way as kind of like a plot device. But all that being said, I will end on a high note. I thought it had really great choreography when it came to the lightsaber battle we got at the end.
00:45:17
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely agree that the story story didn't have too much uniqueness necessarily going on. We've seen a lot of that before. But the big thing is, I think this might have been the biggest like culture, amazing note that we got like this. It was just like you said, unabashedly representing the Indian culture. I believe the animation studio was out of Mumbai, if I remember correctly.
00:45:41
Speaker
And yeah, they just had so much color and brightness. I wanted those rebels to take this group in and really see what their village was like. And even though we didn't get that, we still got to see a little bit of what the village in the desert was. And there was just so much color and vibrance and personality to even these side characters and the way they were dressed and the towns in and of themselves. But the one note that I have, and you mentioned it, is the word Bollywood.
00:46:06
Speaker
There were some scenes that were very reminiscent, the slow motion of all of them falling when the storm rolled through. And then just the high octane energy of that lightsaber fight was very reminiscent of the invincible Bollywood hero that moves faster than the speed of light and is just, oh, I'm going to punch you from behind now. It had that same, oh, they're just flipping through the air with such rambunctious energy. I did like that. The music was great with the flute.
00:46:35
Speaker
that the one the younger sister had. There were a lot of fun little notes around the story that I just wanted to get there a little quicker. I agree. But no, it was unabashedly amazing. I think that that's the biggest thing. And that's the one takeaway that I'm going to have from volume two is these studios really open the door for Star Wars can be anything. And
00:47:05
Speaker
I hope as many people watch volume two is watch volume one because I believe it was the success of how many people surprisingly tuned into the first half that made a half truly possible. So yeah, definitely give us more of this. Yeah, I'm right there with you. Like I said at the top, I hope we get a volume three. The other thing I hope like
Listener Engagement and Feedback Request
00:47:27
Speaker
Speaking of more, I hope we get more people to join in on the conversation. I hope we can read some feedback. I hope we can do like a follow-up episode of this. I would love to know what everybody else out there, all our listeners, what you're thinking about volume too, what some of your favorite episodes were, what some of your favorite moments were. So I encourage you to reach out to us at animationdeliberationpodcastatgmail.com or any of our social medias and let us know what you're thinking.
00:47:50
Speaker
Yeah, and you can follow us on all of those social medias animation deliberation on Facebook and Instagram as well as animation deliberate one on Twitter and yeah tacking on your favorite episode or a list because I've seen like three or four different articles and they've all had a different order of these episodes like the last article I just read had I am your mother at the top and the pit at the bottom and I was like this
00:48:12
Speaker
totally different list than what I would have even thought was remotely like something people are thinking. So I definitely want to hear what everyone has going on, for sure. And hopefully, when Zuhair finishes, we'll give him a little bit of time to talk about it, because I'm just as curious what our co host of animation is really thinking.
Promotion of Multiverse News Podcast
00:48:34
Speaker
Yeah, right there with you. All right, a quick plug on my way out here. We are a part of the Stranded Panda Network, and I am a part of one of the new shows on that network, Multiverse News. We talk about the latest and greatest in the world of movie news, including the Writers Guild of America strike. So wherever you get your podcasts, check out Multiverse News. And as always, thank you for tuning in. That's T-double-O-N-I-N.
00:49:00
Speaker
May the force be with you. Stay...whelmed? That's not my sign off, but that is Zuhair's sign off, muscle muscle.
00:49:09
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Animation Deliberation Podcast, a proud member of the Strandepanda Network. If you would like to contact us, you can email AnimationDeliberationPodcast at gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at AnimationDelib1. For this and other great shows, you can visit Strandepanda.com or join the great community that is the Strandepanda Chat Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash spchat. Tune in next time and remember, stay well.