I personally found those to be the weakest of the bunch, and then the fourth picked the quality back up for me.
I really wanted to like this, but I found the quality of most of them to be really low. I assume it was intentional, but the throwback to 80s cartoon quality and art did not work for me, and the plots were super juvenile.
There were a couple standouts, but overall I was not a fan.
Finally got a chance to watch the first one, and it was definitely an excellent way to open. It definitely intersects the Kurosawa style samurai film and Star Wars perfectly.
I really enjoyed the first two so far. Fantastic additions to the Star Wars universe. I think I like the second one slightly more because it feels like a completely original idea to me, not just to Star Wars.
3rd Episode was by Trigger. Very over-the-top, as expected from Trigger, I think. My least favorite so far. But I’ll give it bonus points for using a variation of the Holdo maneuver from my favorite Star Wars movie.
I’ve now watched 3 episodes each of both What If? and Star Wars Visions. I just love Visions, and What If does nothing for me.
Seems I’m not the only one.
I thought this was pretty meh. Usually, the strength of 15 minutes shorts is having a bold vision, or strong, original idea. Which is exactly the opposite we have here, they feel constrained because it has to be about Star Wars. So jedi, sith, lightsabers, western/samurai motifs, bounty hunters, etc. The ‘Vision’ here is so small and timid.
A couple of those stop motion takes look really fantastic. Wallace and Gromit Star Wars is not something I realized I wanted.
Season 2 of Visions is up.
I loved the little droid in the first episode.
The addition of the new season reminded me to get back to this. I watched the fourth episode last night.
The world in it kind of reminded me of two world in Andor: the world that Andor was from when he was a kid, and the world the heist took place on. Other than that, the episode wasn’t that great. It was too short and didn’t really go anywhere, I felt. But kudos for reminding me about Andor, which was excellent!
In season 2 there was some oddness with the episode themes.
Three of them had endings where a kid has to leave their loved ones to go be an apprentice. What a coincidence!
I was fascinated by The Bandits of Golak short that was basically a Star Wars story filtered through Indian culture. I think that kind of thing is where the Visions concept really shines.
Okay, I’m sold. This is basically the Star Wars version of Animatrix, right?
The stories are a bit looser than that. IIRC in the Animatrix they were all more or less considered part of the Matrix canon. The Visions episode creators were given license to make up whatever stories they wanted to with no concern how well they actually fit with each other or the canon Star Wars universe.
I liked this second season better than the first. More varied art styles, and a pair of good stories in there, while I thought almost all on the first season was just mediocre.