There are so few things out there that people can outright say is the worst thing ever done in the world of Star Wars. Well The Stars Holiday Special is one of those things as it's special that's so bad that even George Lucas himself wants to see every single tape of that special destroyed for good well now there's documentary all about that very special and well I just had to check this film the very first chance that I got and so then join me as I review the film that sheds some light on a very dreadfully bad special with the film in question being called simply just "A Disturbance In The Force" enjoy.
As this is a documentary film there is no plot to speak of but what this film is about is how the holiday special got made. This is a very interesting story to tell as it's one that's never been told with alot of the cast of the special just outright ignoring it's existence for the longest of times so much so that the special became something of a myth and as such hearing how this special came to be , what the original intentions where behind the making of this special and what ultimately led to it's downfall was something that was really interesting ad while it doesn't really make the special look good in any sense of the word what it does do is act as a cautionary tale as it says that you really shouldn't just hand of your property to a group of people who are only really interested in making alot of money and not because they have a passion for the source material but I will admit that the premise for the film really one that is very entertaining and really interesting one to say the least in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Bruce Vilanch , Kevin Smith , 'Weird Al' Yankovic , Mick Garris and Donny Osmond. Also starring in this film is Jason Lenzi , Seth Green , Taran Killam , Steve Binder , Craig Miller , Gilbert Gottfried , Lenny Ripps , Brian Ward , Paul Scheer , Fanboys director Kyle Newman , Matthew Robbins , Miki Herman , Marc Pevers , Jonathan Rinzler , Anthony Caleca , Larry Heider , Bob Mackie , Bonnie Burton , Beverly Abdurahmen , Alisa Abdurahmen , Scott Kirkwood , Steve Schuster and Gus Lopez.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about thew actual people that they actually got to interview in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual people that they actually interviewed in this very film were good choices. As a few of them do have ties to either Star Wars or the holiday special with at least three people in this film being involved with the special on the creative side as either co-writer or the director but alot of the people that they got too interview in this film were just fans of the franchise which isn't as fun and it goes against the premise of the film as such it would have been to this films benefit if we got more people who worked on the special to appear in this film so that they could talk about their experiences working on the special and add some insight into why they personally thought that the holiday special wasn't as good as it could have been.
In fact the very fact that this film is here at all is truly something to behold as for a long time the holiday special was just a myth and nothing more then that. As the special only aired once on November 17th 1978 and since then the special has never aired again on TV and it's never seen an official home media release as such not alot of people would have known about this special to begin with with even fewer people knowing about the specials very troubled production which resulted in several crew members including the specials original director leaving the project all of which combine to make it a wonder that we even got this special to begin with and as such it has a knock on effect of it also being a wonder that this film even got made in the first place as not alot of people would have known about this special in the first place.
While we do get some people who have a connection to Star Wars be it because they tried to produce a TV show based on Star Wars or because they produced and directed the film Fanboys which has Star Wars at it's core. I would have liked it if we got appearances from any of the original trilogy cast members who appeared in this special as that would have allowed then to touch upon things that they just don't touch on in the film as it is which is a shame as those stories could have made for some very interesting and entertaining aspects of the film and while we do get to hear people talk about Mark's dreadful makeup in this special it would have been more interesting to hear him talk about that as he was the one who made up like that and he was the one who has to put up with seeing pictures of himself like that.
This film does go into alot of the backstory about why the holiday special was created in the first place which while needed does go on a bit to long. As we don't really need to know every step of the creative process behind the special we just need a more condensed version of it and nothing more then that as what alot of us came to see this film to see is to find out why the special ended up as bad as it was we don't need to see why they decided to create a special and find out all of the process behind getting the writers and what was going in seven ties TV at the time as those don't add anything to the overall film and alot of them really could have been cut from the film yes we do need to see some of the main creative process and thoughts behind the film but we don't need to see every single one of it as that is something that drags the film down quite alot and it also makes the film quite hard to watch at times as well.
To this films credit it doesn't shy away from saying that the production of the special was a hellish one tow work on. With the cast working long hours and lots of interference from the network which led to several key creative people walking away so much so that nobody from Lucasfilm was left on the production of this special and this film doesn't shy away from the fact they all but admit that they hired the wrong writers for this special as they hired writers who mostly worked on variety shows and hadn't done anything science fiction and were most likely not Star Wars fans in the first place with that last part being understandable as there was only one piece of Star Wars media out at the time but they could have hired writers who had not only worked on a variety show but were also science fiction fans and had worked on something science fiction as that would have the special alot more better then what it ended up being.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total run running time of exactly one hour ad thirty one minuets and twenty eight seconds. Which while on paper doesn't sound like a long running time it very quickly becomes a long running time when you take into account that the film takes a long time just about detailing the production of the special and not really talking about the choices that led to it failing which is understandable as you have to tell the story of how the special came to be before you can talk about it how it became a failure but at the same time tho there's alot of that stuff that really could have been cut out as it adds nothing to the overall premise of the film and it's those scene that really bog the film done with this not really being helped by the fact that the film has some really bad pacing to it as well.
So now then as this film does have some comedy moments in tit that means that I have ti actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured /presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. As alot of the interviewees do tell some decent jokes but at the same time they also tell alot of jokes that really aren't that funny with alot of this films jokes not really being that memorable which is a shame as when this film does tell a good and funny joke it really is funny but on the flip side of that is the fact that this film doesn't put alot of focus on it's comedy which is rather understandable as this film isn't listed as a comedy but it would have been nice if this film had more jokes in it just to make the film a bit more easier to watch in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this film is a really solid but at the same time it doesn't cover alot of the things that would have made the film alot more interesting and alot more entertaining as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very review as such that means that this very film earns itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Christmas Specials fandom wiki page , the official Star Wars fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episodes that I used in this very review being Google Images simply just due to the fact that really alot of the images that are on Google Images are all really fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.