LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace

LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace is a LEGO-brick non-canon thirty-minute TV special. It aired on the television channel Cartoon Network on July 22, 2011. It was released on blu-ray disc and DVD on September 16, 2011.

Plot summary
Grand Master Yoda has just arrived back on Coruscant from the Outer Rim with a group of Younglings on a field trip. They arrive at the Senate Building to take a tour, headed by C-3PO and R2-D2. As they enter, a young child who had sneaked away from an orphanage manages to get into the building and joins the group on their tour. Meanwhile, Asajj Ventress is in the Senate Building, having just stolen secret battle plans with the intention of delivering them to Palpatine and plan an attack on Coruscant.

While on the tour, the young child, now known as "Ian" stirs up trouble causing C-3PO, R2-D2 and the rest of the younglings to flee into space, where they find themselves in the middle of a space battle between Republic and Confederate forces. While avoiding destruction, they accidentally end up on Obi-Wan's hyperspace ring sending them to Tatooine, with a quick check in on Anakin Skywalker and General Grievous fighting. Meanwhile, Yoda and Commander Cody battle with Ventress and a small group of battle droids.

On Tatooine, C-3PO, R2-D2, and the other younglings look for passage off planet and back to Coruscant after their ship is scavenged by Jawas while 3PO had his back turned. After heading to Mos Eisley cantina, C-3PO sneaks in in the hopes of finding a ride, disguised in a cloak so he is not seen as a droid&mdash;meanwhile, the younglings are mistaken for the house band. When C-3PO is seen to be a droid, the group is captured and sent to Jabba the Hutt, where the younglings are caged and C-3PO has to fight R2-D2 for Jabba's amusement. After encouragement from the younglings, the two droids help free the children and escape Jabba's custody.

Ventress is captured but a battle droid escapes with the plans, causing Yoda and Cody to go into pursuit. While in space, it is revealed that Ian had sneaked aboard Yoda and Cody's ship. The droid ship is tracked to Hoth, where Yoda and Ian go after the plans. In the cold, they find a tauntaun for shelter where they find the battle droid with the plans hiding in it. After recovering the plans, they are attacked by droidekas and escape with the plans after a brief battle, heading back to Coruscant after picking up the others from Tatooine.

They arrive back on Coruscant where they are rewarded for bravery and in the end, it is revealed that Ian's name is Solo and that the "H" on his name tag was sideways, meaning he is Han Solo while Admiral Gial Ackbar screams, "IT'S A WRAP!"

Behind the scenes
The special featured many references to the Star Wars saga.


 * The beginning has an opening crawl similar to the six Star Wars movies.
 * The introduction also has a homage to the very first scene of the Tantive IV pursuit in A New Hope.
 * Lobot is seen as the driver of the school bus
 * When Ventress and Yoda are fighting, their saber lock resembles the one between Luke and Vader in the Return of the Jedi.
 * Han saying "I have a bad feeling about this."
 * When Yoda tells Han they have to go into the tauntaun for shelter Han says "And I thought they smelled bad on the outside," like he did in The Empire Strikes Back when putting Luke into his tauntaun for shelter.
 * Yoda begins to make a speech to Han similar to the one he made to Luke about the Force in his hut on Dagobah.
 * Darth Vader frequently makes appearances, causing George Lucas to have to go on set and escort him off, telling him he is not in this scene, and calling him "Darth" the same way Obi Wan did in A New Hope.
 * When Yoda is talking to the Jedi Council, Han changes the channel to a show called "Keeping up with the Calrissians." Also Bib Fortuna is seen singing in a performance much like American Idol.
 * Mos Eisley Cantina is visited and the same policy of "We don't serve their kind in here" for the droids. It also features R2-D2 playing an archived clip with Luke and C-3PO from A New Hope.
 * The ending features a medal ceremony similar to the one seen at the end of A New Hope.
 * This Rancor is based from the 1983 rancor action figure.
 * Han shows a lack of respect for C-3PO during the medal ceremony much the way he does in the Original Trilogy.
 * Admiral Ackbar says "It's a wrap!" At the end, referencing his line "It's a trap!" from Return of the Jedi.
 * The shot of the school bus flying through the squadron of separatist fighters in the beginning of the Battle of Coruscant echoes the shot of the Millennium Falcon flying through the squadron of Imperial fighters in the beginning of the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi.
 * The way C-3PO and R2-D2 were looking at the sky is a reference to the end of the movie Revenge of the Sith.
 * C-3PO talking to a Duros is a reference to Ben Kenobi talking to Han Solo during A New Hope.
 * The name is a play on Episode I of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Other

 * C-3PO says he is aprotocol droid not a pilot even though he has piloted before