A little while ago, I asked readers if they’d like me to write about Young Jedi Adventures. It’s certainly not designed for me, it’s a show for preschoolers, but it is also Moar Star Wars so… is there anything to write about here?
There is, of course, something to write about everywhere. Here is an article about plants that make your garden stink. Here is an article that asserts the favorite cheese of each US state. (South Dakota’s is String Cheese, so you know, don’t go to South Dakota?) Here is a real adult person, a peson who is paid to write, using his column in the Washington Post to complain about swearing in 2023. Here’s an article about how to clean your own butt. So, surely, I can write something about Young Jedi Adventures!
Caveat: I am about to write one of those pieces where the writer has no idea what he’s talking about, and does it for a long time. I do not have children, I have not been A Children for decades, so whatever I say should be received with a minuscule grain of salt. If you’re a parent who received this show with “Thank the Maker, finally Star Wars I can show my son!” then bless you, go with God. (Final caveat: I have a bit of a ‘If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all’ approach to writing things online which is being suspended for this article. I am a childless man. Telling children to get off my lawn and pipe down is my role in society.)
In my useless and uninformed view (you’ve been warned!), making a children’s show set in the Star Wars galaxy is like putting a hat on a hat. With or without Young Jedi Adventures, lots of children love Star Wars, sight unseen. Their parents drive them to it, their surrogate uncles (read: guys like me) buy them Star Wars Legos and shirts and stuffed animals. Kids see how cute Baby Yoda is and want one. Star Wars is already designed for a wide audience, from children to adults, it’s one of it’s best tricks.
So, whenever Star Wars is ‘aged down’, it feels forced and artificial. For example, Star Wars: Resistance tried to have a more kid-friendly, ‘younger’ feeling and it never really became the jumping-on point intended. Even the Saturday morning cartoons I grew up with, like Ewoks and Droids, were more curiosities than successes.
Those shows had a weirdness that made them memorable, though, theme songs that stuck with you.
Count me as skeptical that generic characters like Nubs, Kai, Lys and Nash are going to be remembered in this same way. The whole thing is norm-core. There are no lyrics in the opening credits, for example, just kids happily lifting rocks (“It’s not about lifting rocks!”) and flying speederbikes. It’s an opening theme that doesn’t mind if you Skip Opening Credits on your streaming platform.
After one season with them, I don’t have a deep impression of our heroes. Liking animals, for example, is not a personality, it’s a hobby. The kids do Star Wars-y things like have mini-lightsaber duels, fly around asteroids, run races, or tell baby pirates not to steal fruit. They look at Master Yoda like “wow that’s Yoda!” But mostly, they declare things and run at them. “Wow that’s a big tree, let’s run to the tree!” “A ship, let’s run at the ship!” “What’s that? Let’s run at it!”
There are children’s television shows that I recall having a little something for parents and kids alike, but this doesn’t feel like one of them. I’m watching Muppets Mayhem, for example, the awesome Disney Plus show, and there was just a Meet The Feebles joke. If there’s a kid out there that got that joke, they should be put directly into therapy. Of course, there isn’t, that’s an obscure reference even for adults. Luckily, it’s the Muppets. Kids can see the adorable Janice singing and being a wonderful friend, they don’t need to understand every one-liner.
Young Jedi Adventures is not intended to have those levels. It feels like a show you’re supposed to put on and leave the room so you can finally watch an episode of Succession on your iPhone as you finish the Lunchables your kids refused to eat. It’s a babysitter.
The only really noteworthy thing about the show is that it’s set in the High Republic era. This is the first on-screen appearance of the High Republic (if you don’t count video games), after years of publishing, a big moment for Project Luminous. I would characterize this landmark moment as a soft launch, mostly signified by different robes. Yoda is younger, sure, but basically Kids Show Yoda. Jedi Master Zia is a very nice person, less portentous than the Jedi Council of The Phantom Menace, but is that about the era or the genre? Either way, she’s the ideal person to leave with a bunch of orphans taken away from their families when they were infants.
Wait…yes, that’s accurate.
Sorry, I suddenly remembered all these Jedi children are facing the immeasurable trauma of having been torn from their families because they are ‘special.’ And, for the most part, their families or tribes willingly gave them to the Jedi because their special powers meant they couldn’t be safely raised by anyone else. Remember that Obi-Wan Kenobi has a brother somewhere he’s never met? But he knows exists? That’s sad. That’s really sad.
Maybe that accounts for the incredibly forced happiness. Fear of abandonment?
Look at these eyes.
I see a cry for help.
Getting back to The High Republic… with Young Jedi Adventures, the High Republic’s appearance in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and the upcoming The Acolyte, there’s a full-court press to make THR register with the non-reading audience (maybe that’s the wrong name for them, I mean, I’m sure lots of people who don’t read The High Republic novels can technically read). Young Jedi Adventures implies not-very-much about the era other than there are Jedi who are not, you know, being actively hunted.
We’ll see if this amounts to “trying to make fetch happen” or if it truly constitutes an emerging front for great storytelling. To my eye, there’s not much in Young Jedi Adventures for High Republic Easter Egg hunters other than Jedi Vectors, which are used to zip around for a bit late in the season.
And there you have it. Over 1000 words about a program for preschoolers by a person who can see fifty years old on the horizon. This man’s take: not a lot for him to enjoy. Chillingly positive animated characters, perhaps, and the realization that these Young Jedi are probably desperate for approval because they were from their mother’s arms untimely ripped.
Finally, there’s this thing:
This is what you get when you remove the good ideas from BB-8.
Perhaps it will be tragically killed like R4, K2S-O, IG-11, L3-37 from Solo and NED-B in Obi-Wan Kenobi. I bet it’s huge eyes would produce amazing oil-based tears. Perhaps it’s inevitable, fiery demise will make plucky Kai Brightstar rethink his headstrong approach to life.
If I didn’t have a kid, I would say all these same things. As someone with a toddler directly in her Cocomelon era, I am so beyond grateful for YJA. We get to talk about Pantorans and Yoda and Nubs and Gamorreans and lightsabers with my 2-year-old. I love it so much. It’s the only show we’ve had on for days.
This rules