Following the success of LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special and LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales comes the third installment from Disney+ with LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation – an equally short entry that matches the others quite well at about 40+ minutes, but actually proves to be the strongest entry thus far with a more heartfelt, entertaining, and interconenctive story than I expected. This special picks up after the finale of The Rise of Skywalker and finds the sequel trilogy gang trying to take a vacation together. But as their plans start to clash with each other’s, Finn becomes wary that after the vacation, he might not see his friends as much as he is used to now that the war is over. This results to him being visiting by the force ghosts of Leia, Obi-Wan, and Anakin – who all have wisdom and stories to share of vacations they went on in the past.

As to be expected with these LEGO specials, they’re super comedic and obviously are not to be taken as canon – however, I do think all three of them have done a good job at adding depth and a sincere friendship to the sequel trilogy team that the actual films didn’t necessarily have time for. I also appreciate how the writers seem to acknowledge the shortcomings of how Finn’s force sensitivity was treated in The Rise of Skywalker, so it’s briefly explored here and does some solid nods to confirming it.

Even when it’s going full-tilt into comedy this time around, I found Summer Vacation to be the most entertaining of the three specials thus far. All of the stories from the respective force ghosts were super entertaining to watch, my favorite in particular being from Leia as she tells a story about a young Kylo stealing the Millennium Falcon as a youth to impress a girl during one of their summer vacations together before he was dropped off at Luke’s Jedi temple. Obi-Wan and Anakin’s stories were both entertaining and funny as well. But what made this special work best for me among the other two was the overarching story between Finn and his friends and how the stories he hears ties into the heart and theme of the special – change is okay, and friends will always be there for you! It’s a simple message, but it was done with much sincerity and brought a genuine smile to my face.

While nothing groundbreaking, Summer Vacation is the most entertaining entry to this series of LEGO Star Wars specials for Disney+ and makes me excited to see what the next one they have in-store is.

3/5