The Worst Star Wars Movie Inspired A Great Character Design?
By now, you’ve probably heard of the Star Wars Holiday Special in hushed tones, with those who have seen it adamantly reminding the world that this stinker isn’t even worth hate-watching. For the most part, the haters are right … we haven’t always agreed with George Lucas, but his decision to never give that awful film any kind of home video release was a wise one. However, it’s worth noting that the worst Star Wars movie ultimately inspired one of the franchise’s greatest shows: the same company that handled the animated segment of the Holiday Special later made the Droids cartoon and re-used their earlier design for C-3PO.
The First Time Star Wars Was Animated
Despite its awful reputation, the Star Wars Holiday Special has exactly one bright spot: a short animated adventure that effectively made franchise history. Not only was this the first time that this galaxy far, far away was animated, but this segment was the first time that Boba Fett ever appeared onscreen. For those who saw this special live, this early appearance helped build excitement for later seeing the infamous bounty hunter in live action in The Empire Strikes Back.
Character Designs Worked For Future Projects
Of course, George Lucas wouldn’t trust just any company to animate Boba Fett, C-3PO, and other iconic characters. Back in 1976, fellow director David Acomba showed George Lucas an animated film named A Cosmic Christmas from the company Nelvana. The Star Wars creator was generally pleased with their work, and despite the Holiday Special itself being such a hot mess, he kept Nelvana in mind for future projects.
And they were some of the first creators Lucas called to continue the story of Star Wars after Return of the Jedi premiered in 1983.
Casting A Wider Net For The Fanbase
At the request of Lucas, Nelvana went on to create two Star Wars spinoff cartoons: Ewoks (which focused on Wicket and his fuzzy friends as they had misadventures on Endor) and Droids (which focused on C-3PO and R2-D2). The shows might seem silly now, but they were strategically chosen by Lucas to appeal to children whose embrace of Star Wars toys had made the franchise creator richer than Jabba the Hutt. Additionally, focusing on side characters like this meant that their animated escapades would be less likely to disrupt future Star Wars movies.
C-3PO’s Animation Style In Droids Came From The Ill-Fated Holiday Special
Interestingly, Nelvana didn’t keep the exact same animation style from the Holiday Special, which is arguably a good thing … for example, humans in the Droids cartoon don’t have the same general design as Han Solo, who looked like a melting Mick Jagger in the earlier animated short. However, the design of C-3PO is clearly carried over from his design in the Holiday Special. That means that despite that Christmas special being dead and buried, you can still stream the show that carries its animated legacy on Disney+.
Forget About The Holiday Special, But Droids Holds Up
Incidentally, whether you’re a big fan of C-3PO and R2-D2 or just starved for new Star Wars content, the Droids cartoon is very much worth watching. Pay careful attention and you may notice certain ideas introduced in this vintage animated series that are later referenced in the Star Wars prequels. As for the Holiday Special, it’s rarely referenced at all…except for when Disney wants to sell you tacky holiday merchandise at their theme parks, of course.
