Younglings never say die.
I must admit, I wasn’t that interested in the latest Star Wars show to hit Disney+. Skeleton Crew’s marketing failed to reel me in, giving the impression the series would be sillier and kiddie for lack of a better term. But despite not being that excited to watch it, I hit play regardless. And despite it not exactly breaking new ground (it wears its influences proudly on its sleeve), I was surprised by just how much fun I had with the first two episodes of Skeleton Crew.
Skeleton Crew comes to us from Jon Watts and Christopher Ford, best known as the director and writer respectively of the Tom Holland Spider-Man films. The duo’s assignment and pitch seemed clear: make a Star Wars story that’s in the vein of the old Amblin films of the 80s. Which is exactly what the show ends up feeling like. And I don’t just mean aesthetically. The first episode in particular has a pace that feels almost forgotten now by modern entertainment, but I was instantly transported back in time to an age of VHS tapes and action figures. As mentioned, it’s not very original, it’s Star Wars meets The Goonies meets Pirates of the Caribbean, meets E.T., meets Stranger Things, but despite that, it’s just a lot of fun to watch and be a part of.
After the show opens up with a failed pirate heist somewhere in space, we’re whisked away to the planet At Attin, which looks like a sci-fi version of the town from E.T. It’s a little distracting, to see a Star Wars planet look so Earth-like, but once the larger mystery begins to unfurl (more on this later), I think I’ll end up being on board with the creative decisions here. It’s on the planet we meet the protagonist of the show, a kid with big dreams and no focus named Wim. With a largely absent working dad, Wim dreams of adventure when he should be doing his homework. His distractions cause him to be late for taking a very important placement test one day however and he stumbles across, what he thinks, is an old Jedi temple. Convincing his best friend Neel to come with him, the duo, along with two girls named Fern and KB who have also stumble upon the mysterious site, do some investigation and learn that it’s not a Jedi temple, but an old abandoned spaceship. Wim, who has to touch everything in sight, inadvertently sends the ship into orbit and subsequently, into hyperspace, resulting in the quad being lost in space with only a grumpy old droid named SM-33 (get it? Peter Pan’s Smee) as a companion.
Working with kids is one of the hardest things for filmmakers, as they’re given far less time to hone in on their craft and have shorter attention spans. Thankfully, the four children in this series are pretty solid in terms of acting chops and characterization. Fern’s taunting exaggerations in particular reminded me of Buzz’s “Old Man Marley” story from Home Alone, while Wim will no doubt be put on a trajectory which will teach him humility and patience. The show also strikes a great balance of being accessible for adults and kids, with enough whimsy to keep kids on board, but there’s also an element of “campfire horror” found in a lot of those older 80s movies, such as jump scares on skeletons covered in dust and spider webs in the dark corners of the ship (hence the title of the show).
While the digital effects are a bit iffy, the practical effects in Skeleton Crew are really fun to behold. There’s a lot of creature effects here, mainly thanks to a pirate safe haven the kids end up going to in the second episode. The locale was a mishmash of the cantina from A New Hope with Tortuga from The Curse of the Black Pearl and it was here when asking for directions back home that the kids learn that there may be something more to their homeworld, which may actually be a lost mythological planet said to house a vast treasure.
I’m curious as to why their planet is so cut off; it even has a network of sensors above orbit, preventing the stars from showing and from anyone leaving. When in class, the undersecretary of the planet (who is also Fern’s mom), kept reiterating the importance of the test the kids have to take and how they’ll contribute to the great works. The wording was very similar, if not identical, to the wording used in the High Republic novels, so I wonder if the planet is actually cut off from the New Republic and believes the older, High Republic era is still in effect. The pirates were very confused and shocked at the type of Republic currency Wim was in possession of, so I don’t think the planet is part of the current form of government, no matter what they’re telling themselves.
The episode ends with the promise of future adventure as the kids, now imprisoned by the pirates, end up crossing paths with a mysterious Force user. Wim, of course, is starstruck, believing he’s crossed paths with a Jedi like he’s read about. But I think it’s a safe bet that Jude Law’s scoundrel is the Pirate Captain we saw in the opening of the first episode, imprisoned by his crew after the botched heist. I wonder why he didn’t just break out on his own, considering he could use the Force to get the keys out of the cell, opting instead to break out once he had companions in his cell. Maybe he didn’t have his own ship and knew stealing one would be next to impossible? Time will tell. Also, just an aside, but Skeleton Crew does continue the trend of having very short runtimes, with the second episode being less than half an hour, so it can be frustrating that the episode cuts right at the worst time. I think episodes one and two should’ve been one-hour-long episode, personally.
Skeleton Crew boasts some top-notch directors involved, including The Green Knight’s David Lowrey for the second episode of the series, so there’s no shortage of talent involved. Despite being a show made with kids in mind, I have to wonder if the aesthetic and feel are actually made more for millennials, regardless of whether they have kids of their own. But two episodes in, I’m having a pretty fun time with the latest Star Wars show. Now, with all this talk of pirates, one can only hope a certain Hondo Onaka will make an appearance at some point. Fingers crossed.
