Star Wars: Visions (TV Series) The Spy Dancer (2023) User Reviews

More a start than an end

[sevskirita · 7/10 · 5 May 2023]

This episode was fairly good. The style and premise is interesting, and the execution is pretty good.

However, this feels more like the start to a promising series than a self-contained story. It kinda makes you want to watch more than be purely satisfying with what you've got, and it's yet another circumstance in this series where I wish we could get follow up for some of these specific shorts.

So I give this a 7/10, it's not great great, but it's good and I enjoyed watching it. It's also very cool that it was inspired by true WWII stories from the anti-fascist resistances if I remember correctly.

Heavy French influence with a semi-interesting twist

[FloppingSeal · 7/10 · 4 May 2023]

I went into this one thinking this is not for me, and to some degree, it isn't. I'm not big on the stage show type entertainment depicted here and thought the premise would bore me. However, I'm glad I didn't skip it as there's some very unique action here that proves to be very entertaining. There's sort of a 2 vs. 2 going on that makes the episode feel more dynamic. For once, the supporting character being told to leave the main character behind for their own safety and ignoring it doesn't feel annoying. There's also a pretty interesting twist. It becomes apparently midway through the episode before they officially reveal it, but it's still fairly engaging.

Kylo Ren, nah, KILO REN🥖

[Trey_Trebuchet · 9/10 · 20 May 2023]

Wí

One of the best episodes in the season without a second thought. It feel detracted from Star Wars like the rest, but this easily could be a canon episode and I'd be more than content with it.

The reveal halfway through actually kept me on the edge of my seat, to a point where I genuinely wasn't sure how it was going I end. The mother-son twist I sort of saw coming, but that didn't make it any less powerful. Imagine if we had more stories like this in canon lore. People would probably like it.

I do agree with others that it sort of feels like a pilot episode for a series, which is sad because there probably won't be more to this story here (not on Disney+ at least). I'm still cool with what we got. The animation and dancing was all very cool, and I liked the protagonist.

Great episode, great vision.

The Cottin Club

[southdavid · 7/10 · 16 August 2023]

More traditional style animation from French house Studio La Cachette, who provided the "Sucker of Souls" episode on Netflix's "Love, Death and Robots" series. I felt that was an engaging premise that perhaps could have done with some more world building, and I think largely the same thing here.

Loi'e (Camille Cottin) runs a nightclub catering to a clientele of Imperial Troopers who have been the planets overlords for decades. Whilst outwardly welcoming to the invading force, the staff provide any intelligence they can gather to the Rebel Alliance. Loi'e has an eager apprentice Hetis (Kaycie Chase) who operates as the maitre'd but is eager to more involved in the rebellion. Loi'e keeps her passions in check though, until one night a particular Empirical officer returns to the club.

Another episode in this run that uses the theme of motherhood as a key aspect of its story, or even wider, that of a young female character either accepting or rebelling against a parental figure. I wonder if it's a reaction to "I am your father"? Also though, this one uses an explicit aspect of French history to tell its story, specifically the period of occupation during the second World War, when the French (and a few other countries) had to balance their appeasement and insurrection tendencies in order to stay alive. There's a "Star Wars / Casablanca" style series to be made somewhere, in the right hands.

Visually I liked it, as I say, traditional looking animation style, but with enough visual flourishes to be entertaining. Cottin plays her character well, and there's also a role for Lambert Wilson, The Merovingian from "The Matrix" series.

Perhaps the only one so far from this particular run that I'd like to see more of.