Well, for an Englishman such as myself, this was around the most unlikely "Star Wars" content ever produced. Perhaps not the Aardman of it, that makes sense, but Northern accents, a touching story of maternal embarrassment, written by the writers of "Motherland"!
At the Wedge Antilles (Denis Lawson) flight school a gifted young pilot, Anni Kalfus (Charithra Chandran) is embarrassed by her modest upbringing, and especially by her mum Kalina (Maxine Peake). She's so embarrassed that she's decided not to tell her mum about the family day race, and instead sit it out. However, that day she forgets her lunch and as Kalina delivers it, she learns the truth.
You might think from that plot summary that the film would explore the embarrassment but to its credit, Kalina knows that parents are supposed to embarrass their kids, so just runs with it and the film barrels on into the race. Plot is perhaps the weakest element of the short, it is a relatively straight forward and uncomplicated. The vocal performances are really good, particularly if you're from the UK and have known Maxine Peake as one of the best actresses there is. She's joined in this by Daisy Haggard, who takes a role as a rival parent who is used to winning this race and will stop at nothing to ensure that her daughter carries on the tradition. There is something odd but interesting about hearing regional accents in "Star Wars" though.
And of course, visually it's very strong. With Aardman having years to perfect their Claymation style and using it to good effect here. There are a number of visual gigs about both "Star Wars" and their own previous output.
It's not perhaps a particularly memorable or inspiring addition to the series, but it's certainly a charming and humorous one.
