Mike Little
"The Solo Adventures" is fast, funny, and a wonderful tribute to George Lucas' cocky smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca, from the original trilogy "Star Wars" films.The biggest drawback to the whole enterprise is the length of the piece. I want more!!! The writing and action are tight and funny (although the final jokey bit about a reviled Episode I character falls a bit flat) and I could definitely see this as a fun companion series to Cartoon Network's CG "Clone Wars" show, focusing on Solo before do-gooder Luke Skywalker uncorrupted him. In fact, "The Solo Adventures" figures to give background to the comments in Episode IV about Solo dropping his cargo at the first sign of Imperials (we even get to see a cool IG-88 style droid in action). Heck, I'd even say let these guys do some animated versions of the post-Jedi era Expanded Universe novels...I'm sure Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill would be willing to earn a paycheck voicing some new "Star Wars" adventures.Directed by Daniel L. Smith and Jeffery Sheetz, "The Solo Adventures" is a CG cartoon short produced through the Digital Animation & Visual Effects (DAVE) School. And as nifty as the animation is (it really does appear to fit into the Dave Filoni-style "Clone Wars" universe), the real revelation here is that the voice work of John Armstrong is so close to ANH-era Han Solo, that I was mildly shocked when the end credits revealed that Harrison Ford himself didn't actually do the voice.A lot of fun! Saw this is 3D at Celebration V in August 2010.
