Cartoon Review: "Star Wars: Resistance," Season One SPOILER ALERT!
The cartoon follows the adventures of Kazuda Xiona, a young Hosnian pilot, sympathetic to the Resistance's cause, who happens to run into Poe Dameron in one of his missions. Poe is impressed with Kaz's skills, and recruits him to act as a spy for the Resistance. One problem is that Kaz's father is a Senator of the New Republic, which currently has its capital on Hosnia Prime.
Kaz, deciding to be his own man, accepts the mission of trying to blend in on the Colosus, a space ship depot in the middle of a seemingly endless ocean on the planet Castilon. The Colosus is a convenient place for pilots on long journeys to fuel-up, to have their space ships repaired, to enjoy a stop in Aunt Z's bar, and to watch the races. The platform's operator, Captain Dozer, has organized the races to keep the residents entertained. A group of the best racers, called "The Aces," are the best among the platforms pilots, and are called upon from time to time to defend the platform against pirate attacks. This include Dozer's young daughter, Torra.
The Resistance, we learn, believes that the First Order is interested in the Colosus. Poe wants Kaz to keep his eyes and ears open to learn what he can and report it back to General Organa.
"Star Wars: Resistance" is unabashedly a children's cartoon. But where "The Clone Wars" fails in this regard, "Resistance" succeeds. It doesn't have the graphic violence of the "The Clone Wars." Don't get me wrong, there is the occasional blaster fight. However, the violence depicted has a much more cartoon-like feel to it, even more mild than say, "Tom and Jerry."
The female characters are not overly-sexualized. They are dressed appropriately, and have independent personalities that help drive the plot.
And, unlike "The Clone Wars," which mixed isolated simplistic episodes in an attempt to draw in a younger audience from time to time with more complex and mature episode to please the hard-core Star Wars fans, "Resistance" goes all-in in attempting to appeal to children. My estimate would be that children between the ages of say, eight to thirteen are probably this cartoon's target audience.
"Resistance" portrays simple characters, who are easy to follow, but not two-dimensional, as many of the characters have depth. Kaz, for example, develops from am overly eager and idealistic recruit to a wiser, more cautious and better skilled agent who provides valuable services to the Resistance.
The cartoon employs a few over-the-top characters to provide appropriate comic relief. Neeku, for example, is an overly friendly, green alien working for Jarek Yeager, a mechanic who runs a repair shop in the Colosus. Neeku takes everything people say literally, as he has a complete inability to appreciate metaphors and figures of speech. Unlike Jar-Jar Binks, Neeku is not imbecilic and annoying. His misunderstandings may draw groans, like bad dad jokes do, but Neeku turns out to be a valuable friend. He is intelligent and sympathetic. His sympathy for others and outgoing nature leads him to know many of the forgotten laborers on the Colosus, and understand the ins-and-out of the depot probably better than anyone else on the structure. He becomes an valuable friend for Kaz and his mission of espionage.
As a further tactic to keep the attention of the younger audience, "Resistance" employs a number of running gags. There is the continued hilarity stemming form Neeku's failure to recognize Kaz's sarcasm when he first introduces himself as "The Best Pilot in the Galaxy." There's Opeepit, the janitor, who keeps having his work interrupted by Kaz and the rest of the cast, running around on the Colosus, paying attention primarily their own interests. There's the elderly alien in the background who seems to have impeccable timing to take advantage of the chaos that ensues from time to time. There's Aunt Z and her sarcastic nature.
Even with simple characters and plots that appeal to children, "Resistance" does much to fill-in the blanks concerning the questions left open by "The Force Awakens." These are questions, such as what is the nature of the New Republic, where did the First Order come from, and where does the Resistance fit into all of this.
We see the First Order as an organized entity, that takes advantage of the inability of the New Republic to provide order to the outer reaches of the galaxy. It worms its way onto the Colosus by manipulating the need of Captain Dozer to provide security from the space pirates who attempt to rid the structure from time to time. But, we also see its hidden agenda, why the First Order was able to develop a weapon like Starkiller Base in secret. Namely, by operating in the shadows, the First Order was able, through experimentation involving a settlement far beyond the charts of most people's radars, to develop the technology to drain energy from a star system's sun into a weapon built into the core of a planet.
"Resistance" also shows us how the common folk could be vulnerable to accepting the First Order, which had its roots in the Old Empire, by demonstrating that some people in the galaxy benefited from the order that the Empire provided. We get to follow the development of Tam Ryvora, another of of Yeager's mechanics, who is suspicious when Yeager hires Kaz. Tam informs us that her grandfather benefited from working at one of the Empire's factory, and that she appreciates the security the First Order brings to the Colosus. Much like even today, you can find young people in Russia who praise Stalin's leadership. Tam's suspicion only grows through the first season, as she sees the unusual things Yeager lets Kaz get away with. Her demands to know why Kaz gets Yeager's repeated benefit of the doubt is met with constant dismissals. When Agent Tierny takes Tam under wing, and reveals that Yeager has been hiding the fact that he was harboring a Resistance spy all this time, Tam is hurt, and is all the more willing to join the First Order in a more official capacity.
And finally, we see how inhabitants outside of the movies view the Resistance and its struggle with the First Order. The first season starts a little bit before the time that "The Force Awakens" is set in, but it eventually catches up. We get to see the reaction, not only of stormtroopers to the destruction of the New Republic on Hosnia Prime, but of Kaz, too, who has lost all that he has ever known, including his family and friends.
"Resistance" is by no means perfect. Implausibilities exist in the plot. For example, Yeager hires Kaz as a mechanic for his cover as a Resistance spy. However, Kaz, a pilot, has no experience fixing starship engines. Nonetheless, Yeager throws Kaz straight into the fire, giving him responsibilities to fix starships, without providing training. It's a tactic that Tam notices, and prods her to ask questions, while feeling left out.
The first few episodes of season one are heavy on exposition. It takes a while for the action to and intrigue to build up.
The computer animation style leaves much to be desired. It is high contrast, with lots of bright colors, juxtaposed with dark shades for the shadows. It's a stye I first encountered when MTV aimed "Spider-Man: The New Animated Series" series back in 2003. It's called a cell-shaded look. That style was hard on the eyes back in 2003. The style has improved a little in seventeen years, but it is still somewhat hard on the eyes.
All things considered, the first season of "Star Wars: Resistance" was fairly well-done. I do recall growing weary of the first three episodes. But I gave the series a chance, and wasn't disappointed. It is technically part of official Star Wars canon, so die-hard Star Wars fans should give the series a try. If you stick with it, I don't think you will be disappointed.
The video version of this critique can be found on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6fFqWq9ztTA
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References
"Star Wars: Resistance," Internet Movie Database (site visited July 3, 2020).
"Star Wars: Resistance," StarWars.com (site visited July 3, 2020).
"Star Wars: Resistance," Wookieepedia (site visited July 3, 2020).
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