New Star Wars Animated Shorts Reintroduce The Original Trilogy

Star Wars is such a cultural phenomenon that the major characters and story beats seem to soak in by osmosis before watching a single film. On the off chance that a young new fan might need to catch up, though, Disney has launched a new "Star Wars Kids" YouTube channel with a series of impressive shorts that summarize some major events in the original trilogy.

The Galaxy of Adventure shorts are only about a minute long apiece. They feature some light narration, but seem mostly built upon audio effects and voices from the original trilogy. Despite that, it does take some slight liberties to take advantage of the medium, like allowing Luke some more kinetic animation upon first activating his father's lightsaber or playing up the manic, comic haplessness of Han and Chewie desperately trying to fix the Falcon. In one short featuring Darth Vader, the animation appears largely based on a scene from Rogue One.

Other shorts feature scenes revolving around R2-D2, Luke's encounter with a Wampa in The Empire Strikes Back, and Vader's entrance set to the Imperial March. The animated shorts are complemented by brief "Fun Facts" videos that intersperse animation and original film clips, introducing both characters and starfighters.

The animation style is really something to see for newcomers and seasoned fan alike, and it's left plenty of room for other vignettes. So far, popular characters like Leia, Yoda, The Emperor, and Boba Fett are no where to be found, so we can probably expect more on the way. Check out a sampling of the shorts below.