Star Wars Rebels - Spark of Rebellion [Review]

Finally: New Star Wars material.
This is one of the first BIG things to come from Disney and Lucasfilm since the acquistion! The new animated series started it's run with a 45 minutes pilot that introduced the world to a new batch of Star Wars heroes. And it delivered!

Before I start, I have to admit that I wasn't too interested in Rebels at first. Obviously, the setting between the prequel and original trilogies is super-interesting and hasn't been covered by too many books and comics yet. Since the new storygroup decided that everything we used to know no longer was canon, the creative freedom in this era is endless.
However, I was more interested in the development of Episode VII, so I was relatively spoiler-free when I started to watch the pilot.

First of all: The animations are so much better than it's predecessor The Clone Wars. The faces look more alive, the locations look like actual paintings from Ralph McQuarrie and the characters' movements are much more credible than in The Clone Wars.

The score was a huge fan-service and subconciously brought back the feelings we all had as little kids growing up with the original trilogy. Most of the tracks were taken almost 1:1 out of John William's repertoir. However, the music fit perfectly throughout the episode and didn't distract from what was happening on screen.

The characters are the biggest win of this new series. As a pen and paper RPG-player myself, I couldn't help but notice, that the crew of the Ghost is just like the fictional crews we played throughout our various campaigns. Every single one of them is loveable, memorable and interesting (with one exception). Kanan (voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr.) is one of those Jedi you would trust instantly and he looks kind of hot, too! Hera is the heart and soul of the ship, Sabine is the cunning warrior-chick with a soft spot and Zeb is the muscles of the team.
The only exception for me was Ezra. I didn't like him. He reminded me of Aladdin and his tendency of winning every situation and being the most clever child ever annoyed me a bit. Sure, it's a children's show and kids will probably be able to identify with him more, but I just couldn't stop thinking about the Mary-Sue effect.
In contrary to that, the antagonist, Imperial Agent Kallus was a blast! Lawful evil, perfect voice, kind of bad-boy-DILF-sexy, he was the perfect villain for the episode. Something about him gave me the impression that he won't stay on the Empire's side forever...

Last but not least, let's talk about the story: Ezra meets the crew, the Empire is established as being evil and mean and we find out that Kanan is a fugitive Jedi and Ezra a potential Padawan.
The producers played it safe with this basic, simple introduction to the new characters, that was delightfully entertaining and easy to follow troughout.

In conclusion: except for the main protagonist, this pilot was quite promising and it's no wonder that Rebels was already renewed for a second season. Keep it up!