Star Wars: Skeleton Crew - Disney +

[jvmacross]

19 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Have a "senior moment" there, mate?

You launched into this tangent by arguing that Star Wars isn't being produced for kids.  I pointed out that George Lucas is on record as saying it has always been for kids first and foremost.  You asserted that Disney Star Wars is totally separate from Lucas's so Lucas's opinion doesn't count.  I pointed out that practically everything in the catalog disproves that claim directly because all but two of the shows are direct extensions/continuations of Lucas-era stories that were developed for kids, and that even the two titles that aren't direct continuations of Lucas's work are still explicitly developed and marketed as family friendly kids shows per Disney itself.

 

 

Nope....but you are hitting the sauce hard tonight professor....I just said Star Wars is no longer just for kids as Lucas had originally purported it to be....you then went on a long manifesto that had nothing to do with that....

[jvmacross]

50 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Or maybe your opinions of these shows are not universally held and people actually like titles like Skeleton Crew?

Just a thought.

Again....another nonsensical statement....my like or dislike of this or any show has no bearing on whether or not other people may actually like it....good for them if they do!

Which is funny you even bring up "reviews and viewership data" as you were just hell-bent on your assertion that D+ is hemorrhaging subscribers....it's not...at worst it fluctuates based on the shows non-core subscribers.....which presently have apparently zero impact on Disney's willingness to create Star Wars content that will be guaranteed hits everytime...

Anyways.....I have to call it a night...sweet dreams Mister Bassett....

 

Edited Saturday at 04:50 AM by jvmacross

[Big s]

2 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Nope....but you are hitting the sauce hard tonight professor....I just said Star Wars is no longer just for kids as Lucas had originally purported it to be....you then went on a long manifesto that had nothing to do with that....

Honestly, I haven’t really seen anything on D+ that’s not really for kids other than some odd additions like the Deadpool and Alien stuff. Andor kinda sits on a line that’s more like young adult, but still kinda kiddish

[Seto Kaiba]

14 hours ago, Big s said:

Honestly, I haven’t really seen anything on D+ that’s not really for kids other than some odd additions like the Deadpool and Alien stuff. Andor kinda sits on a line that’s more like young adult, but still kinda kiddish

Disney makes no secret of the fact that they, like Lucas-era LucasFilm before them, tailor the Star Wars franchise's content to maintain a PG-13/TV-14 rating at most.  Even Andor, which has a more mature story than usual, is TV-14.  (The OT are rated PG, but that's because the PG-13 rating didn't exist until 1984.)

Kids aren't the only audience, but they are the PRIMARY audience for Star Wars and always have been.

[Big s]

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

  (The OT are rated PG, but that's because the PG-13 rating didn't exist until 1984.)

Pg was definitely a much lighter rating than it is today. I remember Clash of the titans as a kid with odd mixes of nudity and gore that was the stuff of nightmares for a young kid.

 

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Kids aren't the only audience, but they are the PRIMARY audience for Star Wars and always have been.

I’m a little iffy on who the primary audience is, but it’s definitely the target audience for sure. I am sure that there are a lot of kids watching though and it’s probably gonna be one of those franchises that will be passed to the younger generations for a while 

[Seto Kaiba]

31 minutes ago, Big s said:

Pg was definitely a much lighter rating than it is today. I remember Clash of the titans as a kid with odd mixes of nudity and gore that was the stuff of nightmares for a young kid.

There's a good reason for that.  Prior to 1984, the PG rating in use was effectively equivalent to the PG-13 rating we use today.  The MPAA split it into the modern PG and PG-13 in 1984 based on audience feedback to make separate categories to denote films not suitable for small children vs. films not suitable for pre-teens.

 

31 minutes ago, Big s said:

I’m a little iffy on who the primary audience is, but it’s definitely the target audience for sure. I am sure that there are a lot of kids watching though and it’s probably gonna be one of those franchises that will be passed to the younger generations for a while 

Depending on if you ask Disney or George Lucas, the target age group is either 9-14, 10-14, or 12-14.

Probably not coincidentally, the cast of Skeleton Crew are 13-14 and their characters are written to be around the same age.  Relatable protagonists for the target demographic, I guess.

[Big s]

5 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

There's a good reason for that.  Prior to 1984, the PG rating in use was effectively equivalent to the PG-13 rating we use today.  The MPAA split it into the modern PG and PG-13 in 1984 based on audience feedback to make separate categories to denote films not suitable for small children vs. films not suitable for pre-teens.

I kinda feel like they should go back to the pg setting and just have the pg13 stuff there since most of the g rated stuff is more like 80’s pg stuff these days. Finding Nemo still has one of the highest kill counts in the first few minutes and leaves a child mutilated and motherless 

[Thom]

Skeleton Crew is definitely made for the kids! But whether that is in age or just young at heart is subjective to the viewer. I fall hard into the latter category though.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Thom said:

Skeleton Crew is definitely made for the kids! But whether that is in age or just young at heart is subjective to the viewer. I fall hard into the latter category though.

I’m pretty sure that the majority of us here kinda fall into the latter category since we’re logged in at a website dedicated to a different kids show

[Seto Kaiba]

Well... Skeleton Crew would like us to know that we have a lot to learn about pirates.

Why?  Because that's the title of the new episode: "You Have a Lot to Learn About Pirates".

Spoiler

LIMB FROM LIMB!

lol, that's gonna give the kids some nice lasting trauma.

 

The episode opens back on At Attin, and we get to see Wim's dad's workplace.  Not our first Star Wars cube farm (thanks Andor!) but definitely a good deal nicer and more personal/comfortable than the Imperial Bureau of Standards.  Not a fan of the glass upper walls of the cubicles, but it looks really nice and sleek and pleasant.  Is At Attin really just nice and post and presentable everywhere? 

It's good to see that the parents aren't taking their kids disappearance and the Supervisor's inaction lying down.  Wim's dad and Neel's mom are conspiring to steal a "barrier access code".  There's some really effective use of music in this scene to ramp up the tension.  The seemingly omnipresent public safety droids help too.  Particulalry in the jerky, almost stop-motion way the one that confronts Wendle moves.  He gets busted, but Fern's mom covers for him and reveals she's taking the matter through the proper channels with little success.  

Over on the ship, Jod and the kids are getting ready to "interrogate" SM-33.  They've tied the super-strong murderbot to a table and are preparing to switch him back on.  There's an adorably immature little back-and-forth between Fern and Jod as they each accuse the other of being scared... as though being scared of the insane murder-bot that tried to manually dismember them all a short while ago weren't perfectly reasonable.  SM-33 boots up in a completely affable mood and jumpscares the kids, and then starts dropping exposition.

He mentions his previous captain's name was Rennod.  This is enough to send Jod into a fullblown dramatic narration where he explains, to the completely unimpressed kids, that the ship they're on is the Onyx Cinder... the legendary lost ship of the greatest pirate of all time: Monkey D. Tak Rennod.  Captain Rennod, his ship, and his crew all went missing while searching for the legendary lost treasure planet of At Attin.  Jod is appropriately stunned by this revelation.  The kids couldn't care less and just want to know whether SM-33 has the coordinates.  He says he doesn't, but that the coordinates were kept in Rennod's secret hideout beneath the ominously named "Skull Ridge Mountain".  The kids order him to take them there, and he obligingly jumps up and obeys, and while he's at it explains how the ship ended up on At Attin... it crashed because the crew mutinied against the captain while the ship was en route and the crew discovered too late that he'd locked out the controls.

 

Wim, it seems, has finally had enough.  The galaxy is a much scarier and more confusing place than he thought it was and he just wants to go home and see his dad.  This episode shows a lot more of Jod trying to be a quasi-parent/big brother figure to the kids.  Jod initially tries to walk out on Wim to give him some privacy, and instead ends up sitting down with him and offering some advice about attachments and focus that are literal quotations from Jedi characters in other titles.  He then seemingly uses the force to put Wim's story pad back in his hands and walks off without answering how he did that.

 

There's a lovely bit of anticlimax when they actually get to the planet.  The planet has apparently changed quite a bit since SM-33 was last here.  They are politely greeted by local security forces who inform them that Lanupa is a neutral world welcoming all, and when we Skull Ridge Mountain it's now home to an adults-only spa resort.  SM-33 is absolutely outraged and keeps disparaging the facilities.  Apparently the reason security is so tight is that the banking clan is holed up there for a summit.  Jod's attempt to check in under a stolen reservation is immediately foiled by someone he knows calling him by another alias, because nothing ever goes right for him.  Apparently his friend with the unnaturally wide smile is a bounty hunter working for a private client... and even she warns the kids not to trust Jod.  (And we thought Lando got no respect, eh?)

 

Poor Jod is learning the hard way about parenting... none of the kids pay him a blind bit of notice while he and SM-33 are talking about how to find the captain's lair.  They IMMEDIATELY sass him when he asks if they're paying attention, and he has to remind them that they're wanted.  

Pokkit, meanwhile, has already called Brutus the dogman and he's sending two ships to deal with Jod.  

Jod, KB, and Neel get to have a little chase scene when security realizes their alias doesn't hold up.  They're totally prepared to arrest just Jod until KB points out that they aren't wise elders, they're just kids, and then it switches to "Well, then you're under arrest too!".  

There's a beautifully timed beat here where KB threatens the guards with what appears to be a wrench, and everyone laughs... until she makes a tweak to the mass of pipes nearby that sends a jet of high-pressure mud out with such force that it knocks the guards off the catwalk.

Once again, a random person the kids just met tells them not to trust Jod as soon as they lay eyes on him.  Jod is clearly getting very tired of the way this keeps happening.

 

We get to see a few of the Indiana Jones-esque traps that Captain Rennod's lair boasts... including a laser designed to bisect people, and some kind of antigravity spike pit.  Just in time for the pirates to start catching up and the kids to find a chamber full of flesh-melting acid.

We get to see Rennod's horde, which is straight out of Aladdin in terms of being a literal Cave of Wonders full of treasures that Must Not Be Touched.  (One of the treasures Wim finds is a lightsaber on an illuminated pedistal.)  Neel ends up finding the captain's logbook, access to which is hidden under a fake roast on a dining table.  SM-33 is able to access the coordinates to At Attin in the captain's log, and even an old recording of Rennod talking about the mission.

 

Y'know... I was expecting that the treasure that merited hiding At Attin from the greater galaxy was going to be a bit of an anticlimax, but this is a lot more banal than I expected.

 

Spoiler

According to the hologram of Captain Rennod, the treasure that merited hiding At Attin from the galaxy at large for so long is...

Spoiler

... an office of the Old Republic mint.

Apparently the last surviving Old Republic mint in the galaxy.

I guess that explains why it has a reputation as a "planet of eternal treasure".  It literally prints money.  That said, I'm not sure that it really makes sense given that the currency it's producing is the fiat currency of a long-defunct government.

Jod receives this news and announces his intention to challenge Fern for captaincy of the Onyx Cinder.  SM-33 refuses to interfere because it's a valid challenge under the Pirate Code, and so Jod quickly takes Fern hostage and tries to get her to yield.  

Wim valiantly attempts to face down Jod with the lightsaber he found earlier... only to discover he's holding it upside-down and drop it when it sends its blade down between his legs.

Ultimately, Jod wins and takes control of SM-33 as the new captain, and the kids escape down one of the traps Neel found earlier, and telekinesis-es the lightsaber that Wim dropped into his hand before lighting it.

 

All in all, a much better episode than the previous one.  Very fun, very exciting, a strong Goonies vibe with a little bit of Aladdin when they finally get where they're going and discover the captain's hidden treasure chamber.

The big reveal of At Attin's hidden treasure was flatter than flat, though.  I don't know what I was expecting, but this is just so mundane that it makes the idea of the Republic having hidden multiple planets from the entire galaxy for the sake of this feel downright silly.

They are also going really hard on the "is Jod a Jedi or not" angle in this one... 

[Big s]

This episode was definitely better than the last one. Oddly for such a dull setting had way more action than the post apocalyptic constant war planet that basically had no war to be seen.

Spoiler

Kinda a more adventurous kind of episode and fun to see goofy traps and such murdering people, although off screen mostly with acid and spikes.

the treasure kinda seems pretty lame since it’s just a mint that molds coins. I’m pretty sure they could just take an existing one and make another out of it. They don’t seem that special. I’m sure the pile of gold that they look like they’re made out of would be worth more. I think at this point they really gotta explain why these particular coins are worth something other than what they’re made out of, because if it’s just a coin , the metal is the value and if it’s due to some kinda computerized banking currency, then it should be totally useless since there’s no other planet that uses that system anymore 

 

[Duke Togo]

Well, this episode was just delightful. I'm really enjoying this show. They've done a really good job with it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: they should be exploring different genres within the Star Wars universe instead of just giving us the same space opera stuff. Skeleton Crew and Andor are excellent examples of what can be done with the IP that doesn't stick to the script. 

[jvmacross]

Another spot that OT and PT character, setting or word bingo episode!....Never realized that Greedos and Hammerheads were so ubiquitous across the galaxy!....

It's sad when it was other media that would copy Disney and Lucasfilm ideas...now the often imitated are devoid of fresh ideas themselves so they are plundering concepts from their own IPs....

Took then long enough to bring out the lightsabers.....and I guess they really don't have any safety built into them!

Why blur out the pirate's face in the recording?  It's even brought up by one of the kids.....has to mean something, right?  

They also haven't shown the "supervisor's" face....

There's no way this is all about Old Republic mints, c'mon!

 

[pengbuzz]

Well, they could always stop by the Coruscant Mall and encounter...

Spoiler

...Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace Karensssssssssss........

 

[Dangard Ace]

Ooo that was a fun Pirate-y/Goonies episode!  Traps!  Quests!  Hijinks!  Betrayal!  Just missing some Pincers of Perils!

[Big s]

53 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Well, they could always stop by the Coruscant Mall and encounter...

  Hide contents

...Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace Karensssssssssss........

 

Release the Karensssssssss!!!!!!!!

[jvmacross]

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

Well, they could always stop by the Coruscant Mall and encounter...

  Hide contents

...Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace Karensssssssssss........

 

Already introduced in the Acolyte....and hopefully never again!

[jvmacross]

48 minutes ago, Big s said:

Release the Karensssssssss!!!!!!!!

Wait.....that disturbing looking giant squid/cat or whatever....was sort of kraken-like.....any more pirate tropes they haven't shown?

[Seto Kaiba]

10 hours ago, Big s said:

This episode was definitely better than the last one. Oddly for such a dull setting had way more action than the post apocalyptic constant war planet that basically had no war to be seen.

  Reveal hidden contents

Kinda a more adventurous kind of episode and fun to see goofy traps and such murdering people, although off screen mostly with acid and spikes.

the treasure kinda seems pretty lame since it’s just a mint that molds coins. I’m pretty sure they could just take an existing one and make another out of it. They don’t seem that special. I’m sure the pile of gold that they look like they’re made out of would be worth more. I think at this point they really gotta explain why these particular coins are worth something other than what they’re made out of, because if it’s just a coin , the metal is the value and if it’s due to some kinda computerized banking currency, then it should be totally useless since there’s no other planet that uses that system anymore 

 

It's a kid-friendly series... a burned-out battlefield is no place for lightly comedic hijinks, but a day spa full of mud baths definitely has opportunities for pratfalls and such.  Totally on brand for the series to put the action there.

 

3 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Another spot that OT and PT character, setting or word bingo episode!....Never realized that Greedos and Hammerheads were so ubiquitous across the galaxy!....

Oh yeah, that started a good while back in the Star Wars animated shows like The Clone Wars and Rebels. 

They didn't have to worry about budgeting for prosthetics or digital VFX, so they were able to make much freer use of alien characters in their stories.  Greedo's people were very common The Clone Wars, with one arc focusing on their homeworld and their senator being one of Padme's close friends and allies in the Senate.  The hammerheads were quite popular for crowd shots in The Clone Wars for some reason, but they also had a few minor focus characters like a padawan in The Clone Wars and the bartender and rebel organizer Old Jho in Rebels.

[Duke Togo]

Jude Law is just wonderful in this, isn't he? He 100% understood the assignment.

[Big s]

3 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Wait.....that disturbing looking giant squid/cat or whatever....was sort of kraken-like.....any more pirate tropes they haven't shown?

Not many. They’ve had a Kraken, stolen somewhat sinking ships , peg legs, talking birds, yar!!, treasure rooms, dead captains and the show even started out with a walking the plank off screen kinda thing.

 

1 hour ago, Duke Togo said:

Jude Law is just wonderful in this, isn't he? He 100% understood the assignment.

he definitely works pretty good here, although my favorite is Definitely the guy on the right, Nick Frost.

[Mog]

5 hours ago, Duke Togo said:

Jude Law is just wonderful in this, isn't he? He 100% understood the assignment.

It helps that he’s a pirate with about 500 aliases.

Charming but willing to slit your throat if necessary.

Spoiler

I suspect he’s probably a Youngling that figured out that he could use the Force to con his way to survive in life.

Can’t say I wouldn’t do the same in his situation.