Robot Chicken Star Wars Episodes 1, 2, 3

No moment captures the anarchic spirit of Robot Chicken as much as the sketch where Darth Vader calls Emperor Palpatine to report that the original Death Star has been blown up by Rebel forces. "What the hell is an Aluminum Falcon?" screams Palpatine. The sketch, told entirely from Palpatine's point of view, filmed with stop-motion-animated Star Wars figures, makes fun of this imagined, unseen moment in the fawned over franchise in a way that only true fan boys could create. And while the Robot Chicken series has applied this approach to just about every pop culture property imaginable, Star Wars clearly remains close to the heart of creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, as well as the show's writers. This is why, aside from the financial gains that come with associating anything with Star Wars, the series produced a trio of specials dubbed Robot Chicken Star Wars. This collection of those three previously released DVDs adds nothing to the originals besides shrink-wrapping the cases together for your shopping convenience, but in watching the trilogy back to back, it's amazing how sharp the writing is throughout. In fact, the third instalment includes some of the best material. The sketches work best when they operate outside the realm of the original series, or reimagine scenes through a lesser character's perspective (Gary the Stormtrooper's "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" sketch, which happens to coincide with the Imperial forces' storming of Tantive IV at the beginning of A New Hope, is a perfect example). The DVDs come loaded with extras, especially given the short original broadcast length of each episode. The best include deleted sketches, either filmed or described by their creators, and some pretty cool "making of" vignettes. Far better than Family Guy's straight reading of the original trilogy, Robot Chicken Star Wars is the work of nerds given the keys to the kingdom, something that Hollywood should allow more often.