Josh Reviews The Great Kamino Kaper

Over the summer I wrote a glowing review of The Naboo Movie, a live-reading of the script for Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace by an incredible array of actors and comedians.  The event was organized and hosted by the folks behind Star Wars Minute and The George Lucas Talk Show — Alex Robinson, Pete the Retailer, and Connor Ratliff.  The recording is on youtube — click here to watch it right now — and I loved every second of it.  I thought it was brilliant and hilarious.

To my surprise and pleasure, the gang wasted little time in reuniting for a sequel: The Great Kamino Kaper, a live-reading of the script for Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones.

You can watch it right now!

It is, once again, phenomenal.  This is pure Star Wars nerd joy right here; I laughed a lot watching this.

I’m happy that many of the standout performers from The Naboo Movie have returned.  Eric Bauza is back as Jar-Jar Binks; he also plays Padme’s father Ruwee Naberrie and Geonosan Sun Rit (neither of whom are in the finished movie, but are in the script — more on this below), using an array of his absolutely-one-hundred-per-cent-perfect Loony Tunes voices.  (Padme’s dad is Foghorn Leghorn, Sun Rit is Marvin the Martian!!)  Pure genius on display, and so funny.

Matt Gourley (Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend) was my favorite of all the performers in The Naboo Movie; he has a little less to do this go-round, but he’s back as both Watto and Nute Gunray, and his performance as Dexter Jettster is astounding.

Haley Joel Osment (who became a child star after The Sixth Sense and recently has been showing off his comedy skills in projects as Silicon Valley and The Spoils of Babylon) returns as Anakin Skywalker, now a mopey teenager.  Mr. Osment gets a lot of comedic mileage out of his depiction of this bratty, selfish Anakin (and almost every other performer gets lots of laughs by repeatedly reminding us that Anakin, despite lusting after Padme, is still basically a little boy who is way younger than she is).

Also back are Bobby Moynihan (SNL) as both Yoda and now also Jango Fett; Vic Michaelis as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Corin Wells as several characters including Captain Typho, and Laraine Newman, Jeremy Carr, Hal Lublin, and Mark McConville, all of whom are once again so funny playing a variety of supporting characters.

There are lots of great new additions this go-round, most notably Jess McKenna, who absolutely slays as Padme Amidala.  Perfectly attired in all-white (mimicking Padme’s look in the film), Ms. McKenna is brilliant as Padme, bringing heart to her scenes while also mining a lot of humor from the ridiculous Padme-Anakin romance.  She’s amazing.

Then there’s Nina West, a towering drag queen who is jaw-droppingly hilarious as Senator Palpatine/Darth Sidious.  She stole the show!!  She was amazing.

I was thrilled to see Seth Green (the Austin Powers films, Robot Chicken) in several roles, including Count Dooku.  I was also very surprised and delighted that they got Daniel Logan, the real actor who played kid Boba Fett in Attack of the Clones, back to play Boba!  (As fun as it was watching Mr. Logan recreate the scene in which Boba holds up his father Jango’s severed head, it was even more fun to see a clearly delighted Seth Green snapping a photo of that scene on his phone from the side of the stage!)

I was also surprised they got Vivien Lyra Blair, the girl who played young Princess Leia on the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, to appear here!  She’s terrific, playing several different characters including the absurdly named Elan Sleazebaggano (who tries to sell Obi-Wan Kenobi death sticks in the Coruscant nightclub) and Queen Jamilla (the new queen of Naboo).

I also have to make note of Debra Wilson, who is so funny as a very pissed-off, gender-swapped Mace Windu.  I loved her.

If this second Star Wars live-read has a weakness, it’s that it’s too long.  Many of the performers leaned a bit more into mugging for the audience in this go-round, which drew out what is an already long film.  (The worst offender was Haley Joel Osment.  Mr. Osment was so, so funny at times… but at other times he drew out his line readings to such a degree that I started to get a little impatient.)  Whereas I tore through The Naboo Movie quickly, I wound up watching this one over the course of a few days, in several one-hour-ish sittings.  I thoroughly enjoyed it that way; I don’t think I could have watched this three-hours-plus performance in one go.

One other interesting aspect of this performance is that, as was the case with The Naboo Movie, they’re working from the original script, as opposed to what wound up in the finished film.  Attentive Star Wars fans will notice far more changes in Attack of the Clones from script to screen, such as the idea that Jar-Jar had learned to speak proper English (or rather, as it’s known in the Star Wars universe, “galactic basic”) and a whole sub-plot with Padme’s family on Naboo.  It’s neat to see all those differences.

I loved this and highly recommend it to all Star Wars fans.  I hope their version of Episode III — Revenge of the Sith comes soon!  Will they continue with their Muppet Movie naming convention??  I can’t wait to find out!

In the meanwhile, you can enjoy The Great Kamino Kaper right now.

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