Skeleton Crew may not please everybody, but it's good old-fashioned fun.

            Skeleton Crew, Disney’s latest foray into the Star Wars universe, follows young Wim, his friend Neel, and rough-and-tumble local girls KB and Fern who, upon discovering an old ship buried in the ground, are accidentally blasted through the barrier (more on that later) onto an adventure that includes a gang of blood-thirsty pirates, and a Han Soloish rogue who may or may not be a bad guy, on a galactic adventure to find their way back home. It represents something of a departure from Disney’s more recent Star Wars efforts, and that not only might be just what fans wanted but also might be brilliant on the part of the House of Mouse, which has struggled to keep fans on their side.  

            Early in the first episode, we meet young, shaggy-haired Wim, a young boy playing with Jedi and Sith action figures on his bed before breakfast, where a stern but loving single father advises young Wim on the importance of scoring well on the upcoming career assessment test before he dashes out to meet his friend Neel, a Myykian (think of the guy in Return of the Jedi playing the keyboard in Jabba’s palace) upon which the two have an imaginary lightsaber battle before boarding a hoverbus that travels through their idyllic suburb on the way to school, where young Wim doodles Jedi while his teacher and guest speaker are talking. While Neel is concerned with the upcoming test, Wim is obsessed with being a Jedi and having adventures someday.

            If you think this sounds almost Spielbergian in its construction, I would say you would be spot on. The planet of At Attin looks straight of a neighborhood  in an 80s summer film, and I couldn’t help but think of E.T., The Goonies, Close Encounters, Poltergeist, Explorers, or any other number of films from my childhood era, which was likely intentional because lifelong fans my age will get the stylistic reference, even if only on a subconscious level, but it is also a formula that worked and still does: frustrated young people surrounded by adults that don’t understand them eager for adventure and when they find it, only want to get back home. Skeleton Crew is, in essence, a kid’s story, which not only takes Star Wars back to its positive, fun roots, but might also be brilliant, for Wim, Neel, Fern, KB, and their pirate droid SM 33 will likely appeal to young children, building up the next generation of fans, which of course Disney needs to do, not only because people like me born in the 70s and early 80s get more and more ambivalent about the Star Wars “back in our day” but also because, sorry lifelong fans, Star Wars doesn’t belong to us anymore. Once purchased by Disney in 2012, it took on a new life that will take it into a galaxy far, far away.

            With our hapless young heroes blasting through space, they meet an old broken-down pirate droid, SM 33, voiced with Captain Jack Sparrowish flare by Nick Frost. Turns out the ship they’re on is a pirate ship and Fern convinces the droid she’s the new Captain, and he takes them to a nearby outpost that is full of yep, you guessed it, more pirates. The kids tell anyone who will listen they want to get home to At Attin, a planet, it turns out, that is the stuff of legend, a place full of Republic treasure. The kids are thrown into a cell where they meet Jod Ja Nawood (Jude Law), a fellow prisoner who seems to wield the force that helps them escape and promises to help them get home.

            Disney is firing on all cylinders here, combining all sorts of proven formulas in one with young kids trying to find their way home, bloody-thirsty pirates, and a rough-around-the-edges adult to be their guide who may or may not be unscrupulous. Skeleton Crew is not particularly original, the idea of the planet of At Attin, hidden from the galaxy behind a powerful barrier, is not all that sensical, and the is-he or isn’t-he a Jedi or even a good guy character in Jod an overused trope, but at the end of the day none of it matters because this is not a show to take too seriously. It's a Star Wars pirate adventure for kids and plays out that way. Diehard fans will enjoy seeing X-Wings, lightsabers, and all the familiar alien races in the background, and while they may not find any new favorite characters to get behind, might not rush out to get a t-shirt with Jude Law’s face on the front of it, and they might find the plot a little convenient and even a little silly, it hopefully is Star Warsy enough to enjoy. If you really think about it, and at the risk of committing Fan Boy Heresy, the original trilogy, and I MEAN the original trilogy, has some plot and logic holes big enough to pilot a Super Star Destroyer through, and if we’re to take Star Wars: Skeleton Crew at face value, it’s fun, and it is supposed to be.  

 

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