A small group of children go on adventures.
Some people seem to take issue with the fact that this was clearly made purely for kids. My question for them would be: how many hours of Star Wars that aimed at least partially at teenagers do you need? All the other animated ones fit that description. This one is rated TV-Y, so age 6 or 7, thereabouts. This is a franchise that makes sense to make content directly aimed for such, since it is telling a story that can be appreciated by them, and the world can appeal to them with its seemingly endless possibilities. Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for Cronenberg adaptations for that group. I don't think it makes a lot of sense to show someone like that any of the 11 movies without fast forwarding or having them look away from certain parts. So here's something that you can let them watch without doing that.
It is true that this has them go off on adventures without adult supervision, which is of course not something you would want the audience to imitate. I don't know if it makes it better that a number of times they do specifically get permission to do this. Do note that the lightsabers they run around with are not the same kind that we're used to seeing adults wield: they clearly can't actually cut through anything, they're essentially wiffle bats that glow and deflect Blaster fire.
There's basically four leads, and two of them are female. The three younglings Kai Brightstar(who's black, overconfident), Lys(girl, who loves animals to the point where sometimes she struggles to focus on anything else) and Nubs(who can't get enough of plants, and is basically the Wookie or Ewok: doesn't speak galactic basic, cute and cuddly, your kid's gonna want one) and the pilot Nash durango(who has two mothers, Mama and Mommy, an interracial couple who are clearly great parents, leading her to being very well adjusted).
They are on the planet Tenoo, studying at the temple, near the small town of Kublop Springs. It uses these various settings, building a recurring cast, and sometimes they do also leave for other places, meeting people there. Sometimes they're flying through space dealing with asteroids and other ships. While no one is ever in mortal jeopardy, it does fit in a substantial amount of action scenes, where they face the talents and gadgets of various bounty hunters and pirates, including Taborr, who basically serves as their nemesis, making multiple appearances.
Each episode runs 22 minutes and has two separate stories, the first one ending and the second one starting around the midpoint. I've seen some argue that they are too long - I think the idea is that you watch one half, and then if you feel like watching more you can keep going. Keep in mind that this is on Disney Plus, a streaming service, rather than traditional television; so if you feel like not watching any further you can just pause it, turn off, and when you come back later, it will remember where you got to. While there is some soft continuity such as characters met in one episode will not get a reintroduction in a later one they appear in, it really is very much a completely new plot each time.
There are a number of times where the conflict is a plant that has not had its needs met either withering, which is sad and needs to be counteracted, or actually being a threat to someone's safety, something that has to be stopped. Many animals that have been misunderstood and just need to be treated nicely. Lots of the antagonists just don't really understand that what they're doing is wrong and why, and are given a chance to change for the better. It doesn't tend to encourage you to laugh at the pain of others, no matter how bad they have behaved they are given a chance. It's very optimistic.
I would definitely say that it is careful to try avoiding stuff that's going to make your offspring dumber. It hopes to teach universal values: patience, compassion, teamwork, etc. There's no doubt that a number of the things it preaches would be very nice to see the parent company actually also practice. As usual for recently, they're basically trying to make sure that as many consumers as possible still think of them as a force for good, even though we know a lot of the time that isn't true.
The protagonists are frequently happy(about experiences, food, each other, mission success, etc.), laughing, dancing, singing, cheering, smiling and celebrating. Not non-stop, mind you. The colors are bright in a way that they've largely avoided in SW until this - there was always a gritty lived in feel, which I appreciate, though I'm glad they decided against that here. And this doesn't look shiny and fake like the prequels. Heads and eyes are huge. The quality of visuals is very high, this is not some cash in. There's incredible detail to everything, and a very realistic physics simulation. This was clearly made by people who have a taste for vintage classics, with very clear references made to Fantasia 1940 and at least one decades old Donald Duck cartoon.
No matter the situation, this goes out of its way to not put anything on screen that might scare someone young. Basically, the only thing this ever shows that I thought might cross that line, is a twisted ankle, and I can imagine they might have felt that it would be good to prepare them for seeing something like that. Comparatively, the two Ewok TV movies(remember those?) both definitely have some stuff that could terrify them. And I'm not one of the people who say that there's nothing good about those two.
I recommend this to parents who want to share the IP with the little ones as soon as at all possible. 8/10.
