I am definitely part of the Star Wars generation. What I mean by that is that I'm old, and just like everyone else my age, I saw Star Wars in the theater and I was fascinated by it. I had the toys and such, and I couldn't wait to see The Empire Strikes Back, and I loved it as well. But, after that, I left Star Wars behind and moved on with my life. However, I seem to be alone in this, as so many people close to my age are still obsessed with Star Wars. People like Seth MacFarlane, Simon Pegg, and Kevin Smith apparently love Star Wars and love to reference it in their material. For me, Escape from New York had more of an impact. Anyway, Seth Green is also part of this group, as evidenced by Robot Chicken: Star Wars III.

For the uninitiated, Robot Chicken is a show on Adult Swim which was created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich. Green is an avid collector of action figures, and the show utilizes action figures and custom made dolls in stop-motion animation to spoof popular culture and life in general. The show (which, like many Adult Swim originals, runs for 15 minutes) is presented as a series of shorts which is meant to simulate someone with ADD watching television. Robot Chicken: Star Wars III was an hour-long special which focuses on spoofing the Star Wars films. The show features a wrap-around story which lampoons Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith by focusing on Emperor Palpatine (voiced by Seth MacFarlane), as he contemplates the end of his life. From there, we are treated to a series of brief pieces which alternate making fun of the movies themselves or applying our world to the Star Wars universe.

Robot Chicken: Star Wars III does something similar, but the results aren't as good. If you've seen a regular episode of the show, you know that there's always one long piece which dominates the show, but all of the segments have no over-arching theme. Robot Chicken: Star Wars III is a bit different, as the Emperor Palpatine bits run throughout the show, creating somewhat of a skeleton of the special. Outside of that, the show is comprised of snippets, all of which relate to Star Wars in some way. I don't know this for sure, but I assume that some of these aired on a regular episode of the show.

In the end, it comes down to a matter of personal taste. Both shows feature jokes aimed squarely at those who know the movies by heart, while other jokes are more broad. I've always found Robot Chicken's use of action figures interesting, but some of the jokes simply fall flat. Is it humorous that Greedo was involved in building Palpatine's first house? Sure, but it's not laugh-out-loud funny. The jokes often go for the obvious, as opposed to being clever or subtle. And while I love a running gag, and I love Boba Fett, the Boba Fett jokes here are simply redundant and never funny. Still, fans of Robot Chicken will love this, and anyone who knows Star Wars will get a kick out of this, and yes, most any stormtrooper joke is funny.

Robot Chicken: Star Wars III drove me crazy trying to figure out what the show's opening was spoofing on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Warner Home Video. The show has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the Disc contains a VC-1 1080p HD transfer which runs at 15 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing no grain and no defects from the source materials. The use of action figures and miniature sets gives the image a nice amount of depth and the level of detail is very good, allowing us to see the intricacies of the figures. The HD transfer does make some jerkiness more evident. The Disc carries a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 5.0 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. While this is certainly an acceptable track, it's not as good as the high bitrate would suggest. The bulk of the sound comes from the front and center channels, with some nice surround sound effects peppered in. But, this is far from being a home theater demo track.

The Robot Chicken: Star Wars III Blu-ray Disc contains extras which run about four times longer than the show. We begin with four AUDIO COMMENTARIES -- the first with actors Abraham Benrubi, Ahmed Best, Keith Ferguson, Seth Green, Matthew Senreich, and Billy Dee Williams; the second with actors Bob Bergen, Donald Faison, Seth Green, Breckin Meyer, and Matthew Senreich; the third with writers Matthew Beans, Mike Fasolo, Dan Milano, Tom Root, Hugh Sterbakov, and Zeb Wells; and the fourth with crew Cameron Baity, Christopher Covel, Trisha Gum, Alex Kamer, Cam Leeburg, Chris McKay, Jeanette Moffat, and Rob Ronning. "Chicken Nuggets" is a play mode option which allows the viewer to see the speakers doing the commentaries at certain points during the show. "The Robot Chicken crew talk about their own experience with Star Wars toys in "For the Love of Toys" (4 minutes). "For the Love of Star Wars" (3 minutes) has the crew share their own stories about the Star Wars movies. The Star Wars lovefest continues as the folks discuss how the movies influenced them to get into show business in "For the Love of Filmmaking" (4 minutes) . "Behind the Scenes: Writing" (3 minutes) takes us into the writers room as the staff pitches ideas and we get to see pencil sketches of ideas. "Behind the Scenes: Voice Acting" (4 minutes) lets us see the familiar faces who bring the characters to life. "Behind the Scenes: VFX" (3 minutes) breaks down several scenes to show how the puppets got a little help from effects. "Robot Chicken Skate Tour '09" (22 minutes) provides footage of the really weird skating parties which the show sponsored. "Deleted Scenes and Animatics" (25 minutes) offers 26 moments which were cut from the show or never fully animated. "Time Lapse" (8 minutes) quickly takes us through the slow, pain-staking process of stop-motion animation. "Skywalker Ranch Premiere" (4 minutes) shows the show's crew visiting George Lucas' company. "Animation Reference" (8 minutes) offers candid videos in which Seth Green acts out characters for the animators. "Star Wars Celebration V Robot Chicken Panels" (8 minutes) shows a Q&A for Green and his pals at a convention. There is a 3 minute GAG REEL which is mostly vocal problems. There are four TRAILERS (commercials) for the special. We see the guys fawning over the Star Wars creator in "Sunday in the Boardroom with George Lucas" (8 minutes).