The Spy Dancer was the most surprising short in Star Wars Visions Volume 2 for me. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, but there was a turning point where all of a sudden I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. Here are my thoughts on the story!
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The MTV Multi-Terrain Vehicle was a cool Legends reference. I wonder what the Imperial Officer will do now that he knows who he is. This was one of the best episodes so far.
Watched up to and including this, it’s my favourite so far maybe of both volumes. I am a big history buff so the WW2 inspiration was felt and the general story and perspective felt fresh. I love the characters and the whole story arc. The fights and aesthetics were beautiful too just hit every point for me.
I really liked this episode, mostly because it didn't focused on any Jedi, Sith or force-user, it's just a cool short with some cool new ideas, everything we actually need, but don't always get from some modern Star Wars.
haha french
I loved the animation style of this short, and i loved all the characters, from the elegant but brokenhearted titular character to her feisty assistant, and all of the alien resistance figures. I even liked the fresh faced stormtrooper who was visiting the place for the first time. I would have liked to learn more about him and how he ended up in the Empire's military. I don't think it's right to say that the stormtroopers' helmets are simply their true faces. If anything, this short was trying to convey that all the imperials are people who, for whatever reason, be it just looking for a job or something more complicated like being abducted as a chils, have become a part of the Empire's machinery.
In a season of great episodes, this one is my favorite. I especially loved how her clothes during the second dance looks like fire to show her passion/rage at the imperial, but as soon as she sees it’s someone else the colors go back to normal. And seeing how her demeanor changes throughout, from starting out almost defeated, moving on to her rage, confusion, and eventually hope. It just hit all the right beats for me.
This one was probably my favorite episode, I loved the art direction and the story caught me by surprise in a great way.
I thought this episode was gonna be about stormtroopers.
I'd argue that the force was there just more subtle.
I think this may have been my favorite from volume 2.
I loved this one
This and Aau’s Song were my favourite of the season!
This short is easily in the running for my favourite visions episode
The thing that really gets me is the way the son had been mutilated in order to conform with the mostly human centric empire.
This one was soooooo good ! Well ok I'm a spy, I'm french 🇨🇵
Fabulous episode that I now really want to watch in French!
An improvement from season one is getting shorts, like 4, 6, and 8, that do not feature Force users in the lead role. The result is we get great stories from the regular peoples perspective. As someone that loved Andor, I loved getting more of this perspective.
I loved this one. As I get older I feel I can appreciate stories like this more. A mother’s love can ignite the stars.
Loved this eps and Screechers Reach!
Probably my favourite short across both seasons – just wonderful!
This one is my personal favourite coldly followed by a Screechers reach
2:18 So anyway, I started blastin'
The animation in this short was amazing and I loved the inspiration behind The Spy Dancer.
This was the biggest surprise for me probably. Like, I was similarly unsure of what to make of everything at first, but then the twist happens and suddenly boom I love it. This and Screecher's Reach with their twists were the most exciting for me narrative wise, the fact they could do something so impactful in such a short amount of time is a testament to these creators and reminds me we often take short form stories for granted sometimes.
Visually it's great, but I actually kind of got bored with it at the halfway point when it was revealed to not be the man that took her son away. The twist was so obvious as soon as she realized it wasn't the old man, so I was just waiting for him to get it, and he just never did until the end, and it didn't feel cathartic. I guess I was waiting more for him to come to the realization that he was one of the oppressed people and take arms up against the Imperial forces, but it just never happened. The stuff before that was great, I loved seeing the trauma this woman felt when she thought she saw an arch enemy of hers, it felt very much like Katara having her mother taken away in Avatar, that's so rad. The action in the short is also good, but since I could kind of tell where the story was going, it was more just spectacle than having a lot of weight behind it for me, and spectacle without story can only do so much.
There's also something kind of weird about this short, and it's kind of a gripe I have with the whole Volume because while we do grab different studios from across the globe, some just design their shorts to be in English (to be fair, half come from English speaking countries), when this was French through and through, and yet, it wasn't designed for the characters to speak French, just have the French accent. Volume 1 had a Japanese version and then an English version for all the shorts, and while I certainly have the option to change the language to French, I would rather keep things as the studio designed, but it just seemed like a missed opportunity. The language barrier can actually sometimes help the short, like how The Duel was designed to specifically be like an old Samurai movie, I just cannot watch the English Dub of it, it's so jarring. Tatooine Rhapsody also feels like it needs to be Japanese because the song just works better, and in my opinion, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's singing was not good. Journey to the Dark Head was designed first to be in Korean, and I liked that it was just another part of their culture coming through the short. I even watched Sith and In the Stars in Spanish because the voice actors could do both Spanish and English, I wanted to see if they made a difference, and I'm not sure there really was one that changed the story for me on those, but the option was there as part of the intended art. At least have the French one be in French, I mean, what are we even doing?! If there was a Hindi setting on Disney+ I'd probably have watched the Bandits of Golak that way, too, had they designed it that way, and that one is just as Indian as The Spy Dancer is French, and I'm really curious what stopped them from going all in.
So combine my lackluster interest in the story and my insane expectations for some great Sub v Dub debate, and this short winds up only being ranked 7th on my list for Volume 2. The action and visual design kept it from being lower, but had the story really grabbed me, it would have been higher, or at least the competition for my favorites would have been harder, but in the end it was just fine. I don't even think it was burnout because every other short really grabbed my attention. Odd ones were good to great, even ones didn't really hit most times.
Next to Screecher’s Reach, this was one of my favourite Star Wars Visions stories. Liked how it humanised the Imperial characters in the story. They may be serving an evil fascistic regime but they are still humans. Liked to see the men and women under the helmets.
Love the art style in this, but that’s true for most of these shorts
one of my fav, for the originality of it.
Are these supposed to be Devaronians? That’s kind of what I was thinking throughout this short. Like the “Butcher of Montellian Serat” guy from “Tales of Mos Eisley Cantina”. I know they probably are not, but I think it would be really cool if they were.
Its one of few stories thats doesnt follow the norm so its good cause of that. And I like the idea of having a dancer being a hero – That should be a movie or a series. J.
The moment Loi'e hugged him I instantly went from "not a tear" to "all the tears". Just even thinking about that moment is emotional. And those dances and fighting with the fabric! Just elevated the whole thing to another level! Loved this one so much!
As a Frenchman, I immediately thought about one particulare spy dancer (and national hero): Joséphine Baker. She was obviously the inspiration. Great episode!
The animation in this short was so beautiful
Glory to the Empire!
This has got to be my favorite one next to screeches reach, but I absolutely love that this one has no force of lights sabers since a majority of the shorts do. The animation is just icing on an incredible story sundae
This and Screecher' Reach were my favorites, with this you blowing me away. It was so good.
From the thumbnail and title I wasn't expecting much from this ep – a fancy animation style of how dancing is fighting the Empire – but WOW was I wrong. This is definitely up there as one of the best eps of Visions. The WW2 inspired story, the dancing element, the personal story and background, the characters, were all great! Definitely want more of this too!
I loved this episode!!!!!
You forgot to mention how the kipnapped son has a missing eye and his horns were shaved off which is like taken away his ethnic/ cultural identity?! I mean we know the Empire had a thing for a human superior face which I guess the "adoptive father" try to pass him off as a human eventhought he has red skin?
The art style and general aesthetic reminds me of the original aeon flux cartoon