It is Life Day, a holiday celebrated on Chewbacca's home planet of Kashyyyk. Chewie and Han Solo are trying to get home to Chewie's family waiting for him, but the Empire is out searching for the rebels. While we await their arrival, we look at the everyday life of a Wookiee family. Yes, people, it's the big one, the infamous Holiday Special. I honestly cannot believe that this actually exists, but it does, so we've gotta talk about it. Releasing a year after the blockbuster hit Star Wars (1977) we are reunited with the whole cast in an epic adventure, this time right from the comfort of your own home. What is this grand event, you may ask? Well, it is the exciting experience of watching Wookiees in their house doing menial tasks. That's right, you heard me correctly. Nothing envigorates me more than an hour and a half movie of watching Wookiees cook, play games and do varying other tasks. It is completely barmy that this is a real thing cause I am sure all Star Wars fans are aware, that Wookiees don't talk. They roar, grunt and growl so imagine an entire film revolving around this very notion with no dialogue. How can anyone honestly sit through this feature with a straight face or any level of seriousness? I think the first time I watched this it was as a joke simply to see how bad it was. The only good thing to come from it is the overwhelming amount of videos of people mocking it and all the memes. I adore watching YouTube videos like JonTron's and The Nostalgia Critic's reviews of this piece, they are hilarious and worth checking out. The three Wookiees we follow are Chewbacca's family, his son Lumpy, his wife Malla and his father Itchy who all make their first and last appearance in Star Wars. I found it bizarre that Chewie has a family because it raises too many questions. For instance, why did he leave them to join Han to be a smuggler? It's strange, to say the least. As previously mentioned, we watch them doing many activities leading up to the holiday. We see Malla doing cooking watching a viewscreen, Lumpy playing games and (worse of all) Itchy watching a holographic woman doing some peculiar stuff. It seems quite explicit without doing anything untoward and yet it still manages to feel wrong, bearing in mind that the family is in the other room. I cannot even begin to imagine the thought process behind this idea. Another baffling idea is watching Lumpy build something whilst watching a tutorial, which you'd think would be something you could do in real life with how much they show of it in excruciating detail, but no. It doesn't exist. Breaking up all these Wookiee antics is the occasional appearance of the original stars who somehow manage to feel slightly off. Not only that, they too are doing some strange tasks like Leia and C-3P0 doing paperwork. Things do take a more drastic turn when the Empire invade and occupies Chewie's home as they search for him. It is a pretty menacing aspect to see their enforcement of the family if it wasn't for one of the officers immediately watching Jefferson Starship on a hologram performance. One of the most memorable aspects of the entire special is an animated segment that sees Han, Chewie, Luke, R2 and C-3P0 encounter the deadly bounty hunter, Boba Fett in his first-ever canonical appearance before Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). It easily stands out as the only good part of the flick even if some of the animation offers some nightmare fuel (Han Solo's face). There are plenty of other moments scattered throughout, from a singsong at the cantina to the dealings of trader, Saun Dann. However, the most unexpected thing to come of this, is Princess Leia singing about Life Day to all the Wookiees and the rest of the original crew. Overall, The Holiday Special is by far one of the worst creations to come from Star Wars and that is saying something. Fans don't like it, I don't like it, the actors didn't like it and, most of all, George Lucas didn't like it going as far as to say, "If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it." If you want to see the entire special feature for yourself, check it out below, at your own peril... Happy Life Day!
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