Thursday, May 4, 2023

Star Wars: Visions - Volume Two (Part One)

The Star Wars anthology series Visions returns with a new series of animated shorts, each produced by different animation studios. Reviewing the first third of Volume Two, the first two of these episodes each have ties to the Sith, and a character choosing a path between the light and dark, while the third in the series focuses on a pair of survivors becoming something more.

Produced by El Guiri, "Sith" looks in on an artist (Úrsula Corberó) using the Force to paint. Darkness keeps creeping in to her work, both as a warning for the arrival of a figure from her past, her former Sith Master (Luis Tosar) attempting to force her back on the path of the Dark Side, and as an understanding of a part of her nature she struggles to suppresss rather than understand. My favorite of the first third of these episodes, the art style gives the mostly unseen Force vibrance through Lola's work while also offering some fun tech such as her speeder and protective droid.

Cartoon Saloon's "Screecher's Reach" gives us a group of young industrial workers (Molly McCann, Eva Whittaker, Alex Connolly, and Noah Rafferty) who sneak out to a cave outside of town haunted by a Sith ghost. There's a nice twist here as we see it's not a story of surviving horror but instead a test for Daal, who alone was drawn to the cave, to prove herself worthy apprentice for the Sith as she gets her wish for a different life which costs her leaving everyone she loves behind.

Produced by PunkRobot, "In the Stars" is a tale of two squabbling sisters (Valentina Muhr and Julia Oviedo), survivors of the unsuccessful uprising their mother led against the Empire on their ravaged planet. While the older sister is content to stay hidden in an attempt to survive, her younger sister desperately wants to fight back eventually forcing both of them into the fight.

  • Title: Star Wars: Visions - Volume Two
  • wiki: link

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