These guys get it. They really do. Star Wars: Visions is what happens when storytellers with a deep understanding and an abiding love for this franchise are allowed to play in its sandbox. This is the consequence of freedom, and variation, and experimentation. And we’ve seen it before, for one brief and shining moment, with The Last Jedi, when Rian Johnson was given the license to “let the past die.” We witnessed the promise of something fresh, before Disney and Lucasfilm lost their nerve and gave us the muddled mess of a retcon that was The Rise of Skywalker.
With The Mandalorian and The Bad Batch, Lucasfilm is once again trying to make up for the missteps and mistakes of their movies. Yes, these experiments are a lot less costlier, but they have reinvigorated Star Wars in a way that none of their big screen outings have.
Star Wars: Visions does the same. Yes, this is fan fiction brought to life. But in the best way possible. These nine shorts are beautiful and fun, they are cleverly crafted and well observed. But most of all, they possess an intimacy that sucks you in and makes you feel like you’re a part of this vast and wonderful world of stories. Watching these will snap you back to your childhood. They will leave you feeling excited again at the prospect of everything that Star Wars has to offer.
Kurosawa-esque
Star Wars: Visions opens with The Duel, a Kurosawa inspired, Seven Samurai-esque tale, in which a group of mercenaries fight to protect a village from a thuggish Sith Lord and her Stormtrooper lackeys. The animation is absolutely stunning, in all black and white, that is occasionally punctuated by the bright blades of lightsabers and the pew pews of blasters.
From there, the anthology traverses the universe with a series of eight more short stories, all of which perfectly capture everything we love about Star Wars. Young dreamers. Hopeless optimists. Good versus evil. The dark side and the light. Rooted in a profound mythology. And brought to life by some of the most thrilling lightsaber battles we’ve ever seen.
This anthology is very much a throwback. A tribute to everything that first inspired George Lucas. From “jidaigeki” (also the origin of the word “Jedi”) like The Hidden Fortress – that told of the trials and tribulations of samurai and peasants caught between churlish warlords – to the space operas of Leiji Matsumoto, to the principles of Bushido and how they gave rise to the spiritual elements of the Force.
The genius of Star Wars: Visions lies in how it brings all of this back full circle. Lucas, an unabashed fan of Japanese cinema (and possibly even anime), mined its art and culture, fused it with his own, and came up with Star Wars, a franchise which would go on to inspire generations of Japanese artists and creators, who have now been tapped to bring their own perspective to it. This is Japanese swordsmithing, where these stories are forged in the same way as a fine katana, by repeatedly heating, hammering, and folding the metal in on itself. This isn’t dilution. This is the best kind of meta-cultural evolution. With artists and writers layering all of their influences, one on top of the other, to further refine and strengthen the narrative and its mythology.
Watashi Wa Jedaidesu
Star Wars: Visions will no doubt remind you of The Animatrix, the Wachowski’s 2003 effort to broaden and flesh out the world of the Matrix. That anthology, also overseen by notable figures from the world of Japanese animation, served a functional purpose. It had been four years since the first movie and those nine shorts provided an expanded look at the universe beyond what was going on with Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus. It was an incredibly clever (and relatively low cost) way to cater to an audience who were chomping at the bit for more.
This series, however, comes from a different place – and at a different time. We’re no longer living in those drought years between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. In fact, we get so much Star Wars these days that “wanting more” is no longer a problem.
Visions doesn’t exist to further expand the Star Wars universe. Instead, these nine shorts serve to reinforce the universality of these stories. So much so that we can only hope that it opens the door to even more wild and diverse cultural takes on the franchise. (I can already picture what an Indian fusion of Star Wars would look like and it’s absolutely glorious!)
It feels like there are no rules here (except maybe to have the line “I have a bad feeling about this” in every episode) and that’s what makes this so exciting. It’s like when DC tells an Elseworlds tale, or when Marvel plays around by asking What If…? Unbound by the shackles of canon, and undeterred by the toxic opinions of idiots on the Internet, this is a wonderful demonstration of everything Star Wars can be if Disney and Lucasfilm just let loose.
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