Star Wars Lego Padawan Menace on Blu-ray, plus Picnic on Dagobah!

You know when I do too many Star Wars posts the other contributors threaten to hurt me? I am risking life and limb to share all this news with you and I really love my life, and second to that, I really like my limbs. So I'm going to roll two of today's big stories into one post and I hope that I get away with it. But if I suddenly start typing like this: jsfasfasf jasfas9fjafg dgg, then you'll know I've had my shit busted.

Hey! Don't you roll your eyes and dismiss this based on that image alone! Join me after the jump because I am going to school you on why this is one of the greatest and most unexpected things to happen to Star Wars in a long time!

Firstly, the 30 minute animated special Lego Star Wars: The Padawan Menace is dropping on Blu-ray (and wretched low-quality DVD) on the same day as the Holy Trilogies in the US, and a week later (21st September) here in Australia.

Now, if you don't know, this Lego special just appeared out of the blue. No one expected much from it, and many were quick to write it off entirely, but then we saw it and HOLYCRAPYOUJUSTGOTTABELIEVEME - it is good! Way better than you'd ever expect it to be, and way better than it has any right to be. In fact I am yet to hear a bad word said about it, and that's rare on the Internet, where the residents are a cowardly and suspicious lot. And assholes.

The Padawan Menace was produced by the same company that produced Happy Feet and the simply stunning animation is near movie quality. It was written by one of our greatest Simpsons writers. It is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, or "lolworthy" as the kid's like to say, until you tell them to stop it.

But one of the best things about it is that it loosened everyone up about Star Wars. We're such whiny bitches about continuity and timelines and character biographies and all that bullshit, and this special just through it all out the window and mashed together the prequels, the original trilogy, and all manner of (surprise) characters. It made Star Wars fun again and showed the potential that it has once we're prepared to allow ourselves to be entertained, and to throw all our baggage out the window.

Here's the trailer, which still doesn't do it justice (but will give you a taste):

And best of all, the Blu-ray is packaged with an exclusive (SPOILER) young Han Solo minifigure (END SPOILER). In Australia, the JB Hi-fi website is already showing the pre-order for the disc at a mere $15.98, but sadly does not show the bonus minifig. To my knowledge it's not yet been revealed what the extras are, but expect them to be fun and to pad out the short running time.

And now for a Star Wars video that's hilarious (and a little creepy) for other reasons. Today stalwarts Aint It Cool News posted this rare video of a young English boy having a picnic with Luke Skywalker on the Dagobah set for classic British TV show Jim'll Fix It. Be sure to stick around until the end for an awkward conversation on the couch and a surprise appearance by a naked Chewbacca:

I sure hope that's on the new Blu-ray set! Just over a week to go!