Ah, Christmas Day. For a “Star Wars” fan, that means listening to Chewbacca croon “Silent Night”and watching the “Star Wars Holiday Special” on YouTube, right? On second thought, Life Day (the GFFA’s Christmas equivalent) really should be observed on Nov. 17, the date the “Holiday Special” premiered 36 years ago, so I’ll skip the re-watch for now.
Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever made it through the entire “Holiday Special,” and honestly, I’ll have to be scraping the dregs of the “Star Wars” back catalogue before I ever do.
Heroes make animated debut
However, I’ll make an exception for the “Special’s” 10-minute animated segment, officially titled “The Story of the Faithful Wookiee” but known colloquially as “the Boba Fett cartoon.” While it’s not an amazing piece of storytelling, and while it doesn’t comfortably fit in the continuity, it does have several cool elements. To this day – despite the existence of five “Star Wars” animated series – it marks the only time Luke, Leia and Han have appeared in animated form (outside of parodies like “Robot Chicken”).
“The Story of the Faithful Wookiee” (1978)
Part of the “Star Wars Holiday Special”
Writer: George Lucas
Editor: Ben Burtt
Stars: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford
And what’s more, they are voiced by the screen actors, as are C-3PO and Darth Vader, and the actors all do a great job despite their reported reticence to the “Holiday Special” in general.
The star of the segment is Boba Fett, who was also introduced to fans around this time via a sneak-preview action figure that famously appeared on a “Star Wars” card in advance of “The Empire Strikes Back.”
He is voiced here by Don Francks in cultured tones that contrast with Jason Wingreen’s gruffness in “The Empire Strikes Back.” This was perhaps a strategic move, as viewers – and the characters – are supposed to be surprised when Fett is revealed to be a bounty hunter working for Darth Vader, although Boba lays it on pretty thick by repeatedly calling Luke “friend.” Heck, even C-3PO is suspicious of the guy.
Unknown Fett
In a story set between “A New Hope” and “The Empire Strikes Back,” none of our Rebel heroes recognize Fett. This was later contradicted by numerous Legends stories, notably A.C. Crispin’s “Han Solo Trilogy,” where the rivalry between Han and Fett (and Lando) is established well before Han joins the Rebellion.
Technically, it doesn’t contradict the Disney canon yet, but nothing from the “Holiday Special” is considered part of Disney canon – nor are “Ewoks,” “Droids” or the first “Clone Wars” series – even though George Lucas is credited with writing the animated segment.
Another oddity is that Luke’s Y-wing features a detachable cockpit that can then be used as a sea-skimmer (a cool feature, actually – and one that Kenner perhaps should’ve taken advantage of). Luke lands on a moon called Panna Prime that appears to be covered in pink Jell-O, although he calls it a “water planet.”
Although the idea of a Jell-O planet is actually rather creative, and although later sources label this the “mud moon,” I suspect Nelvana simply animated water in this fashion, as it portrayed water with similar thickness in some of its later “Star Wars” work: Think of Wickett dropping bags of “water” that looks like blue sludge in the first “Ewoks” episode, “The Cries of the Trees.”
Trial run for ‘Ewoks’ and ‘Droids’
While “The Story of the Faithful Wookiee” was the calling card that earned Nelvana the rights to make “Ewoks” and “Droids” a half-decade later, it didn’t entirely earn the studio the trust of Lucas, who declared all the main characters other than the droids off-limits in the two series. As Nelvana co-founder Patrick Loubert said in Star Wars Insider No. 72 (February 2004):
“We tried to talk George out of that. We really wanted more ‘Star Wars’ characters, because I thought we could’ve done really well with them. George was adamant that he didn’t want to expose those characters at that time, and he wanted just the droids.”
Considering the fluctuations in quality throughout “Droids” and “Ewoks,” that might’ve been a sensible dictate by Lucas. Although there’s nothing too embarrassing about “The Story of the Faithful Wookiee,” its quality gets a tremendous boost of legitimacy due to the presence of the screen actors.
A cartoon series in the wake of “Return of the Jedi’s” success probably wouldn’t have secured any of those actors – although I suppose there’s a chance Mark Hamill, a future voice-acting star known for the Joker on “Batman: The Animated Series,” would’ve done it.
One good thing about Disney’s ownership of “Star Wars” is that fear of overexposing the main characters won’t be a sticking point anymore. Maybe some of them will appear on “Rebels” (Leia seems the most likely possibility, as Han and Luke would be contingent on the series continuing beyond “A New Hope” on the timeline), or maybe they’ll all star in a future series.
For now, though, “The Story of the Faithful Wookiee” retains its unique status.