Hogan Reviews

I really enjoyed the original Visions back in 2021, made entirely of anime shorts, so hearing of a second season was exciting enough but hearing it included studios from all over the globe made it really interesting as well, so I’m happy to report that Season 2 lived up to both those expectations and delivered another fun selection of unrestrained-by-canon Star Wars storytelling. Let’s take a deeper look!

May as well go in order, I guess! The first short, “Sith”, is by El Guiri studios in Spain and has a rather striking paint-splash-like art style that sometimes took my breath away. The actual story was fun in that the lead character of Lola was apparently a Sith who left the order to live a peaceful life, and so some other Sith arrive to bring her back into the fold. Not much to it other than that, but it was a real looker, that’s for sure. “Screecher’s Reach” was the next one, animated by Cartoon Saloon in Ireland, and you can certainly tell not just by the actual Irish talent used for the voices but the designs of the characters. This one really took me by surprise though as a group of young friends working in a factory leave for an adventure to a supposedly haunted cave where the leader of their little group, Daal, is determined to face her fears. I will talk about the end of this story in the spoiler section but it really took me by surprise, in a great way. My pick for best of the nine, overall.

An example of “Sith”, though admittedly not the best given its often more colourful art style!

Short #3, “In the Stars” is by PunkRobot from Chile and has a unique, almost stop-motion quality to their story that really looked great. Koten and Tichina are the last survivors of their race after the Empire arrived and stripped the planet of its water and food. Tichina wants to fight back like their mother did, but Koten saw their mother die trying and wishes to just meek out what little life they can. As you can imagine Tichina inspires hope in her older sister and they manage to take down the Imperial factory and watch as the sky clears for the first time since the Imperial factory was erected. Very pleasant. Short 4 is “I Am Your Mother” by the instantly recognisable Aardman studios here in the UK, and in that sense for me it was extremely nostalgic as it focuses on a pilot academy where a young girl is too embarrassed by her mother and her old banger of a ship to enter the academy’s equivalent of sports day and features all the English accents and Aardman humour you’d expect. Had a smile on my face the whole way through.

Number 5 is “Journey to the Dark Head” by the South Korean studio, um, Studio Mir (should’ve rephrased that sentence, oh well!). It’s an interesting concept as a child monk called Ara believes her tribe’s massive statues, one light and one dark, has a legitimate impact on the on-going war between the Sith and the Jedi, so eventually leaves her convent to seek the Jedi Council out and tell them. They send traumatised Jedi Toul to accompany her on her quest to destroy the evil statue but the Sith that killed Toul’s Master arrives on the same planet. I’ll get to the rest later but it was good fun, and really well animated. Short 6 “The Spy Dancer” by French Studio La Cachette is the close runner up in my pick of favourites as we see a race with horns and two different coloured eyes run a club for visiting Imperials that is actually a cover for a Rebel cell. The lead dancer, Loi’e, plants trackers on all the troops and has a strong hatred for the Imps due to her child being taken away from her shortly after birth by an Imperial Officer with a walking cane. This is another one I don’t want to spoil so I’ll get to later, but again it was great stuff!

No issue guessing which short THIS screenshot it from!

“The Bandits of Golak” by Indian company 88 Pictures is a simple tale but the working in of Indian imagery was really good, loved the design of the central villain. Basically two siblings are on the run because the young girl of the duo, Rani, has Force powers and is therefore being hunted by the Inquisitors. They reach a sanctuary but an Inquisitor arrives anyway, only to be fended off by an older woman who turns out to be a retired Jedi herself. Nothing special story-wise, but I did enjoy the visuals. “The Pit” by American-owned Japanese company D’Art Shtajio was my least favourite. Imperials force a whole group of people to dig a massive hole for kyber crystals and once they’re done they’re left in the pit to die. One brave young lad manages to climb out and ask for help at the city, eventually inspiring the populace to rise up and help them. Perfectly serviceable story with an obvious and very relevant message, but it just seemed a little plain and flat for me, animation was fine though. Lastly “Aau’s Song” by South African studio Triggerfish closes us out with a weird felt-textured, stop-motion-looking story focusing on a bear-like creature called Aau and her father Abat, who is digging up corrupted kyber crystals so the Jedi can purify them. It was very cute, and a perfectly pleasant way to end the season.

Overall Thoughts:

Something tells me he’s not one of the good guys…

Star Wars: Visions’ second season has a great variety on show, both story-wise and visual styles. Screechers Reach was the best of the bunch in my eyes, but most of them were fun and/or exciting enough as well. Another fun series of shorts, here’s hoping for a third run!

“Screecher’s Reach” reveals the ghost in the cave is actually a Sith that had been left to starve and Daal faces off with it because a voice on a very Jedi-looking receiver tells her to face her fears and overcome them, so she eventually grabs its red lightsabre and strikes it down. As the group of children are leaving the cave a ship lands and a clearly evil Sith woman appears and reveals herself to be the one on the other-end of Daal’s radio and asks her if she is willing to leave with her “to be safe”. She says goodbye to her friends and leaves in the Sith ship. Chilling, and not at all the kind of ending I was expecting!

Daal strikes down a Sith to become the next apprentice, she just doesn’t know it yet.

“Journey to the Dark Head” has Toul and the Sith duel while Ara goes to destroy the titular head but the two statues’ colours start to blend, both monuments glowing blue and red as the two lightsabre wielders fight, very literally showing that good and evil exist in everyone. The Sith is defeated and the standoffish Toul has come to terms with his past enough to start to joke around with Ara. It’s a very satisfying little story. Finally “The Spy Dancer” has Loi’e freeze when she thinks the Imperial Officer has returned to her performance but it turns out to be a younger guy with an eyepatch and the same cane. As the Imperials and the Rebels breakout in conflict Loi’e confronts the officer and reveals to him that he is her son, his horns forcibly removed and the eyepatch covering the different eye colours. A fun, if not obvious twist (but you know, they only have 15-20 minutes to work with here…) and although they all get away we see her son contemplating his future while looking at his reflection. It was a good story well told, especially given the run time.