Star Wars Rebels: The Complete Season 3 (Blu-ray) - Home Video

Review | Talking Points | Discussion

Witness Grand Admiral Thrawn's return to Star Wars!

Review

For the purposes of this review, the Blu-ray release of Star Wars Rebels season two was viewed on 55” Samsung television. Your personal results may vary based on your viewing environment.

The third season of Star Wars Rebels left fans with a lot to talk about during the wait for the show’s fourth and final season. Grand Admiral Thrawn was reintroduced to canon and served as the season’s main villain. Maul and Obi-Wan met yet again. The Mandalorians are back in action. This season even depicted the formation of the Rebel Alliance and introduced key figures such as Mon Mothma, Saw Gerrera, and Wedge Antilles. To be clear, this is a review of the season three Blu-ray and not the season episodes themselves. You can find my reviews of every episode of season three right here.

Picture

This is the way you should be watching Star Wars Rebels. Forget about commercials and the Disney XD logo taking up half of the screen! As with the past seasons, this Blu-ray release is presented in 1080p high definition and a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The Blu-ray transfer truly brings out the cinematic nature of these episodes. From the isolated duel between Obi-Wan and Maul in the Tatooine desert to Thrawn unleashing an orbital bombardment on the rebels in the season finale, there are some truly breathtaking visuals in season three. The animation quality has noticeably improved with each season and the clarity of this Blu-ray release highlights how far the animation has come since season one. Your favorite episodes have never looked better.

Sound

This release has a 5.1 Dolby Digital mix. Sound design is key to storytelling, and that is particularly true for Star Wars. Thankfully, the sound mix for this release delivered. It felt immersive and was well balanced. Listening closely to the sound mix reminded that Kevin Kiner is a wonderful composer. I don’t think he gets enough credit for the work he has done on this series and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The haunting theme he created for Thrawn might be his greatest accomplishment.

Packaging

Instead of simply regurgitating familiar promotional material for the cover like the season two Blu-ray, the season three release features unique and striking cover art. It isn’t revolutionary, but the cover art is effective and sleek. Out of the three Star Wars Rebels Blu-ray releases, the season three set has the best packaging. As with previous releases, the back of the box features images from throughout the season. This is a three disc set, but there are only two spots so disc three sits on top of disc two. Each disc features an image of a particular character. Disc one features an image of Ezra while Sabine and Thrawn can be seen on discs two and three respectively. The first eight episodes are on disc one. Disc two features episodes nine through sixteen while the remaining episodes and the majority of the bonus features are on disc three.

    

  

Menus and Presentation

The menu design is the same one that was used for season two. Select scenes from throughout the season play on a loop. It’s a standard design, but the menus are easy to navigate and are pleasing to the eye. As an added bonus, there are no previews. When you put the disc in, it jumps straight to the menu.

   

Bonus Content

Good news, everyone! There is actually a good amount of bonus content to talk about this time. The season two Blu-ray release only had a handful of bonus features, which was disappointing to say the least. Thankfully, that isn’t that case with the season three Blu-ray. As with past releases, this set includes all of the Rebels Recon episodes that accompanied the season. I would imagine that a lot of Star Wars Rebels fans have already watched these Recon episodes, but if you haven’t then you should check them out. They’re definitely worth your time if you are a fan of Star Wars Rebels. This set also features five behind the scenes bonus features. They aren’t very long or in-depth, but they do contain some interesting information and a few tantalizing looks at season four. The first bonus feature, A Rebel Alliance, focuses on the growing Rebel Alliance. In particular, it highlights the introduction of Mon Mothma and the ways in which Star Wars Rebels intersected with Rogue One. It ends with an extended look at season four (it looks promising!). Next up, Return to Mandalore shines the light on Sabine and the reemergence of the Mandalorians. There are some interesting tidbits in this one. For example, Dave Filoni revealed that George Lucas wrote Pre Vizsla’s speech in The Clone Wars that explained the history of the Darksaber when it was first introduced in that series. Thrawn: A Legend Reborn was one of the most interesting bonus features, particularly when it dealt with Timothy Zahn’s role in the process of reintroducing Thrawn. In addition, it gave us a better look at Rukh and his role in season four. Apprentices and Outcasts: Kenobi and Maul was the most enlightening and entertaining of the five bonus features. It’s a must-watch in my opinion. The last bonus feature, The Original Rebel: Saw Gerrera Returns, was by far the shortest and felt fairly inconsequential. Although, it did offer a look at Saw in season four. That’s not all though, there are also five audio commentaries. Audio commentaries have been a glaring omission from past releases and I’m thrilled that they were included here. There are audio commentaries for the episodes Trials of the Darksaber, Legacy of Mandalore, Through Imperial Eyes, Double Agent Droid, and Twin Suns. The Twins Suns commentary is probably the best one. It’s just Filoni walking you through the episode, but I could listen to Filoni talk about Star Wars all day. He provides some great insight into the process of making the show as well as the mind-set of Maul and Obi-Wan in the episode. I would also highly recommend the Through Imperial Eyes commentary, but you should really listen to them all. Double Agent Droid may seem like an odd choice when they only did five audio commentaries, but that might be the most entertaining one. Some of Filoni’s blunt and honest comments about the episode are pretty amusing and you learn about a very intriguing canceled story line from Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I’m glad they finally included some audio commentaries, but it would have been nice if they had included some deleted scenes or content as well. All in all, this is a must buy for Star Wars Rebels fans. It is by far the most comprehensive and enjoyable Blu-ray release of Star Wars Rebels yet.

Star Wars Show Season 3 Blu-ray Announcement

Points of Discussion

• Audio commentaries
• Expanded bonus features
• Packaging and image quality
• Season Three's greatest hits and a look at Season Four

External Links:

• Buy on Amazon.com
• IMDB Listing