Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode III

"We've done so many of these, we've run out of things to say, and we're horridly frightened of just not being entertaining."

So says Seth Green, co-creator of Robot Chicken, in his introduction to the Chicken Nuggets video commentary. His words could apply to the Robot Chicken: Star Wars specials in general, which have certainly run out of steam, but he intends them to refer specifically to the DVD extras.

These are exhaustive, and exhausting – literally hours on end devoted to every tiny aspect of a TV show that, at less than an hour, already felt too long. There is a full audio commentary from the writers, a second from the crew, and two more from the voice-actors – and then lengthy animatics for sketches that (rightly) never made final cut, as well as a disposable gag reel, multiple featurettes that are individually short and sweet (but collectively less so), a pointless (and seemingly endless) featurette on a skate tour of the US promoting Robot Chicken, and ten minutes of the versatile Green acting out different character roles on a reference video for the animators.

Perhaps most interesting here is a panel discussion where Green announces a forthcoming animated comedy, set in the Star Wars universe, that he is working on for Lucasfilm ("it won't be like any Star Wars that you've seen before"); the premiere of Episode III at the Skywalker Ranch (where naturally the crew gravitates towards the toys in the giftshop); and a boardroom meeting with Lucas himself in which the billionaire filmmaker declares: "It's hard to not know that I'm funny if you've seen the movies."

Overall, though, these extras deserve five stars for their sheer completism, but maybe one and a half for their entertainment value. Sometimes, less really is more.