Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

There is a downside to forcing myself to write about everything I’ve ever seen. There comes a time when I have very little to say and I’m uninspired. I’ve taken a cue from Mark Twain and started letting the movies conjure life memories. It’s why I am more anecdotal than actually critiquing the film. Twain did the same with the newspaper. That was his method for writing his autobiography which he then had published 100 years after his death. It came out in 2010. The story of the autobiography itself is pretty fascinating too but I’m getting off topic.

I’ve said a lot about Lego direct-to-video. I’ve complained a lot. I think anyone reading these non-reviews probably gets it by now. I don’t care for them but I like Lego. So maybe I’ll focus on what I liked about Lego direct-to-video productions even if they are half-baked claptrap with dated non-jokes trying too hard to be funny.

Here we go:

I liked the exclusive Lego minifig that came with some of the Lego Star Wars dvds.

That… that’s about it.

Okay but seriously…

The Padawan Menace had some genuinely humorous moments like Yoda getting frustrated with stupid questions and chewing a kid out in standard Yoda speak.

The DVD… in fact all the DVDs came with extra shorts that were considerably more amusing than the main feature, probably because they were short. “Brevity is wit” my grandmother used to say before complaining about electricity and the evils of recording cylinders. I particularly liked the… I don’t know what they’re called. These two minute shorts narrated by a kid and it sums up the trilogy of trilogies in a humorous fast-paced way. Most of these shorts are on YouTube. You can watch it right here:

I feel like the Lego Star Wars videos are worth the watch even if it is a lot of groaners and hip lingo that didn’t stand the test of time longer than a month. At least you get a few chuckles from the jabs at commonly queried Star Wars plot holes and tropes. If you have a kid into Star Wars they’re bound to enjoy it but don’t expect any secrets to not be spoiled by the end of it. That’s kind of my main beef with these. They (gnome Minifigs) really have zero compunction about spoilers for the actual movies. Vader even says “Spoiler Alert” after spoiling something. Who would do that!?! Okay I’ve done that but it was probably for an 80 year old movie no one was going to see anyway.

I did find Lego Starwars: The Yoda Chronicles halfway palatable. This was a mini-series that actually took itself fairly seriously. It had a joke now and then but the story arch was action packed and full of feels. It’s directed toward kids but it’s not insulting to their intelligence or patronizing of a supposed underdeveloped sense of humor. It gives its intended audience some credit. I appreciate that. Or I’m remembering it incorrectly and mixing it up with the excellent Clone Wars series.