Aau's Song

Slightly odd music-based episode to close out the second season of "Star Wars: Visions".

Aau (Mpilo Jantjie/Dineo Du Toit) tries to help her father Abat (Tumisho Masha) and his people purify Kyber Crystals after the end of the Empire and the defeat of the Sith. She finds a large deposit of crystals as they seem to react to her when she sings, but the instability of the cave structure threatens the whole community.

Again, this episode has the season theme of a matriarchal figure being required for a young, gifted person. This time it's in the form of a Jedi Kratu (Cynthia Erivo) who spots Aau's true power and again, the young Jedi having to leave their family is a plot point. The storyline for this episode is a bit strange, as it's never made clear to us exactly what is causing the threat. Is it Aau's singing, or her father's reaction to it.

Visually though, this one is really strong. South African Animation Studio TriggerFish have a decent pedigree of both short films and features, and their work with Magic Light Pictures have been staples of the UK Christmas schedules for the last few years. This is perhaps the most traditional 3D computer animation in this run and, though it's probably the standard model at the moment, I really appreciated it. There's almost an "Animal Crossing" type look to the characters, with a tactile feeling to the build of the world.

Any series like this is going to have it's good and bad editions and I'm not sure whether through coincidence or design but this season seemed to have themes running through it whereas I remembered the first as being more random. It's a great concept though and I hope it runs to a third season.

The felt doll stop motion animation is absolutely gorgeous. It evokes the warm cozy vibes of a young girl living in simple comfort with her loving father. Small choices in the animation invoke complex feelings. When Aau and her father take a motorcycle down the mountain she clings tightly to his back as they bob up and down on the road, and the mountain spins around them while their destination stays in place, evoking both childlike wonder but also the sense that the world is a huge and complex place and she only feels secure in her father's presence. Aau's gift in the force is her ability to use song to connect with the kyber crystals her people mine. This is a novel use of the force but one that feels right at home in the universe, and the music is appropriately beautiful and innocent to match her demeanor. Kratu, the visiting Jedi has one of the best character designs I've ever seen. Its a simple but compelling story about understanding your potential and stepping outside the safety of your home, but its a visual feast for the eyes that perfectly matches the sweet and innocent tone of the story.

I thought this was a pretty good episode, and a fine finale.

The animation is ADORABLE and really beautiful as well. The pacing and voice work was all pretty decent too. Aau was a pretty likable character.

But this was also just a refreshing take on the force, and how it finds people, as opposed to people just finding the force. The whole music angle just felt very original and honestly pretty believable for a Star Wars piece. The ending was really, really satisfying too. I honestly would not mind seeing more of these characters and this animation style.

This might be one of the better episodes of Season 2! I didn't think any of them were inherently bad, some better than others. It was very enjoyable and I hope this show moves forward with an third season.

I'm honestly conflicted on this one. Every other episode in this season, I have a pretty confident, strong opinion about whether I like it or not. This one, I'm pretty torn. For example, the animation style. I adore the backdrops, but am not sure I like the characters. I enjoy Studio Ghibli and I feel like this may have been somewhat inspired by that type of thing. The characters aren't necessarily designed badly either. It's more the disconcerting way they move with the animation style. Then there's the plot; not much is really going on here, but it is somewhat interesting and unique (up until the end where pretty much the same thing happens as most of these episodes). I like that a jedi manifested in a way other than some combat situation. After some thought, decided I like this one more than I disliked it and can't really pinpoint any specific flaws besides preferential problems. It's a pretty good end to the season, but definitely not the season's highlight.

Okay, let's start with the good. Aau's Song looks great as far as design. The story is okay. Nothing special.

Okay, now that we got the good out of the way. Throughout the second season of Visions, the animation has been terrible. Whether it was CGI, stop-motion or CGI disguised as stop-motion, the animation has been choppy to say the least. It's like Disney tried to save money by taking out half the frames or by doing without in-between animators. And Aau's Song has maybe the worst animation from the whole season. I don't know if it's because of the animation in the Spider-Verse movie or what, but it seems this new style of animation is here to stay. And it's horrible. I don't know if it's the use of computers to animate, rather than than traditional cel animation. I don't know if it's cheaper. Don't know if people actually like this style or what. But for me, it's terrible, just terrible.

Bottom line; except for 2 or 3 episodes, this season was almost unwatchable due to this bad animation. Take also into account that most of the episodes were terrible story-wise too. Very disappointed, considering season 1 was fantastic.