Dave Filoni has spearheaded this current glut of Star Wars material, and it’s interesting that the animated adventures he’s created and/or supervised have often been more interesting than the live-action series. The Tales series, which Filoni created and is an executive producer along with Athena Yvette Portillo and Carrie Beck, is definitely in that category. The latest iteration, Tales Of The Underworld, shows two villains with actual personalities, who make the same good and bad choices that the franchise’s live-action heroes need to make.
Opening Shot: Overhead shot of glowing pools of water. Two men walk in, one carrying a woman’s body.
The Gist: The woman is Asajj Ventress (Nike Futterman), a disciple of Lord Dooku who often fought Jedi and others in the Republic. The love of her life, Quinlan Vos (Al Rodrigo), gently puts her in the pool, saying she always wanted to return there. Once in the pool, she is revived, hearing the voice of Mother Talzin (Barbara Goodson). She gets a choice: Join her and “your sisters” as a Jedi spirit or go back to the world of the living. The cost? “Your heart’s desire,” says Mother Talzin. Ventress chooses to live again.
Ventress is then seen working as security at a transport depot in a remote Imperial village. She wants “peace and quiet,” which she gets in between forcibly removing people threatening her boss. Then a young traveler named Lyco Strata (Lane Factor) comes in looking for transportation; Ventress notices him trying to use Jedi mind tricks on her boss because he doesn’t have enough money to pay for the ticket.
Ventress knows that the Empire has been looking to capture and kill Jedi, and she reluctantly helps him escape trouble when some stormtroopers blast their way into the transport depot — she’s a Jedi, as well, and is able to use her skills much more effectively than the teenage Lyco.
He tells her about “The Path,” a place where Jedi can escape the Empire, and wants Ventress to lead him there. She’s never heard of it, but when he tells her that Quinlan Vos discovered it, she decides to help him at least get to a starship that will get him there.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Tales Of The Underworld is the third in the series of Star Wars animated anthology series, following Tales Of The Jedi and Tales Of The Empire.
Our Take: The two stories in this six-episode season — the episodes are about 15 minutes each —- feature the aforementioned Ventress and Cad Bane (Corey Burton), a bounty hunter first seen in the Clone Wars series. The one we saw in its entirety is the one with Ventress, who befriends Lyco Sarta despite the fact that he used to be one of her sworn enemies. The relationship moves quickly, and the ending of that arc is definitely open-ended, but it gives an indication that Ventress, once she’s revived, will start to have — for lack of a better term — a sense of humanity about her. And from what we’ve seen from the Cad Bane story, that will also be the case.
It feels that the stories are there to lead into other tales featuring those character. There is still unfinished business Ventress has in finding Quinlan, the love of her life, for instance. But they provide a good introduction to these characters and makes them look like a lot more than just evil mercenaries.
What Age Group Is This For?: Tales Of The Underworld isn’t exactly geared towards kids, and there’s a high body count in both arcs. But it’s bloodless animated sci-fi violence, and just like most of the franchise, it’s appropriate for kids 8 and up.
Parting Shot: Ventress tells Lyco who she is.
Sleeper Star: We loved the animation on the fight scenes, so we’ll give this to the animators.
Most Pilot-y Line: None we could find.
Our Call: STREAM IT. While the stories in Star Wars: Tales Of The Underground are a little skimpy, they help to deepen the characters of two well-known franchise villains.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
Read the full article here
