Star Wars Rebels borrows what worked for Firefly and puts it squarely in the post-Empire universe

I watched the whole pilot for Star Wars Rebels this weekend with my special out-of-town guest, Grumpy Bulldog who is quick to say that his favorite movie of all time is probably The Empire Strikes Back. So I guess between his reverence for Star Wars, and my ability to spot things, I was able to put together a decent opinion about this series.

It is one I'm going to continue to watch. The action comes at you fast and swift, just like all Star Wars movies and television has thus far. In some ways, Star Wars follows a formula: 1) things are always gigantic, 2) there is always a lightsaber, 3) there is always a force user despite the fact that someone/anyone will tell you that Jedi are all dead or that "the Force" is an ancient religion with no modern practitioners, and 5) whenever you deal with anyone associated with the Empire (unless they are a named character) they are utterly incompetent.

Things that Rebels has going for it include: 1) humor, 2) a Firefly-esque crew out to do good but essentially a team of morally ambiguous privateers just trying to eek out a living in the wake of "Order 66 and the fall of the Jedi." 3) a clear homage to Ralph McQuarrie's artwork. One of the aliens is even an early concept drawing of a "wookie" done by Ralph McQuarrie and there's kind of an inside joke when Stormtroopers don't recognize the creature as a wookie.

If you're used to the animation style of The Clone Wars, this will take a little getting used to as it's a little more "cartoony" even though the animation is quite fluid. Ezra (the kid), for example, looks more or less like a cross between the detailed faces we saw in The Clone Wars and a muppet from Jim Hensen's studio. I think I say that because of the shape of his nose. That and his hair is shiny as if he puts a lot of product in it, which he probably doesn't. It's just a "texture" choice that's made by the animators.

In the pilot we got a Jedi Holocron with Obi-Wan Kenobi's message warning all Jedi to stay away from the Temple and to trust in the Force (I assume this thing is loaded with Jedi training from some master at least as good as Yoda since holocrons are ancient and powerful relics of the Order), a droid that smacks of R2, a rogue Jedi and  a kid (wonder where this is going), a grumpy Mandalorian that's a demolitions expert and has rainbow-colored hair, and that "Wookie-esque" alien I mentioned above. He serves the role of muscle and comes from the whole "tough love" crowd with regard to the kid; he's also the butt of some  hygiene jokes.

This is the new "Big Bad." I didn't actually see this lightsaber in the pilot, but
I know they are going with this design. I'm not sure if I like it or not, but the
entire Old Republic did die so that we could get this design.

All in all, Star Wars Rebels did what it set out to do. I felt entertained and the mysteries were enough to keep me questioning. It had the feel of something filmed in the Star Wars universe, and I'm curious as to where it intends to go. Oh and we got a glimpse of this series' "Big Bad" that may be a placebo for Darth Vader, even though we could technically see Vader in this series as much as they want to show him. One reason for not showing him might have to do with "diminishing" his competence, because we all know that Vader meant business in all three of the original Star Wars films.

What about you guys? Any of you out there catch the pilot? If so, what did you think of it?