While there have been a couple of other LEGO Star Wars CG shorts in the past, both included on this disc, they don't really compare to the quality of both the graphics and the writing of The Padawan Menace. Visually speaking, everything looks great. The plastic feel of the LEGO pieces are perfectly rendered, the storyline is amusing and the comedic style that I always associate with LEGO Star Wars is very prominent.
The story takes place during the clone wars. Yoda is taking a group of Jedi younglings out on an educational field trip to the Senate, but when he senses a disturbance in the Force, he asks tour guides R2-D2 and C-3PO to look after the group. Yoda, and a new clinger-on whose name tag says Ian, end up chasing Asajj Ventress off planet in order to retrieve stolen secret military plans. Meanwhile, the droids and the younglings end up in a ship of their own and find themselves on the desert planet of Tatooine.
The two groups end up having quite a few interesting adventures in the short episode, but there is a lot of fun had as well. The show doesn't take itself seriously and doesn't have any kind of problem stepping outside of continuity in order to get some extra laughs. Seriously, there is nothing like having a LEGO George Lucas stepping in front of the camera in order to tell Darth Vader that he isn't in the show and needs to get off the stage.
Another difference between this short and the past LEGO Star Wars productions includes actual dialogue. Where the shorter, older shows kept to the amusing grunts and sounds found in the games, The Padawan Menace has full voice-acting. In fact, several actors from the Clone Wars TV series reprise their roles. Tom Kane plays Yoda, while Phil LaMarr plays Bail Organa and several other characters including Vader and Jar Jar Binks. Finally, Anthony Daniels takes on the role of C-3PO.
So while the episode is only a half-hour long, is it really worth the purchase. Well, a quick search on the Internet tells me the release is about $13.00 at the time of this writing, it comes with a LEGO mini-figure of young Han Solo, and then there are the special features. I already mentioned that it comes with the two other CG shorts, "The Quest for R2-D2" and "Bombad Bounty," each clocking in at just after five minutes, but it also comes with both "Star Wars in 2 Minutes" shorts. Here, a stop-action film using LEGO Star Wars figures goes through the plots of both trilogies in an amusing way. The last special feature is a series of animated Clone Wars comics narrated by one clone or another. Like I said above, there are enough special features here that kids will want to watch, in other words, not just featurettes, that really makes this Blu-ray a good purchase, and considering the fact that both the feature and the extras are on both the Blu-ray and DVD disc, you will be able to take the show on the road if you have an in-car player.
