Star Wars: Children of the Jedi (film)

Star Wars: Children of the Jedi is a 1995 direct-to-video animated epic space opera film directed by and written by  from a story by. Produced by and Lucasfilm Feature Animation, in association with, and distributed by , the film is set several months after The Jedi Academy Trilogy in the Star Wars Expanded Universe timeline. It serves as a sequel to , and it is a first installment of The Callista Trilogy, which is involving Callista Ming, an ex–Jedi Knight. The next two movies in the trilogy is Darksaber (1996) and Planet of Twilight (1997).

Plot
During a meeting on Ithor between the New Republic Chief of State, Leia Organa Solo, and the local star herd there is a sudden attack, which, however, is foiled. Through Han Solo's acquaintances from his old days as a smuggler, it turns out that Drub McKumb, an old friend of Hans, is responsible for the attack. It also becomes clear that McKumb has gone completely insane and insane and is only spouting crazy things. Besides, he didn't want to commit an attack, but to warn his old friend. Luke, along with Cray Mingla and Nichos Marr, is able to make sense of his incoherent words. So he comes to the conclusion that McKumb draws attention to the neglected and long-forgotten ice world of Belsavis, where Jedi children are said to still be held. Han, Leia and the Wookiee Chewbacca decide to make the journey to Belsavis to check on things there.

Luke's student, Cray, who is engaged to Nichos, is also an artificial intelligence scientist. When Nichos was stricken with a deadly disease, she transferred his memory into a droid to preserve it. The droid's construction is perfectly based on Nichos' appearance. Investigating Nichos, Luke stumbles upon alien coordinates, which he immediately follows along with Cray, Nichos, and the droid C-3PO, who accompanies them. Eventually, the trail leads them to an asteroid field near the planet Pzob. Completely unprepared, the group finds themselves under fire from a stranger, forcing them to make an emergency landing on the neighboring but uncharted planet. It would later emerge that they were being attacked by a new, automated dreadnaught called Eye of Palpatine.

Sometime later, Luke and the others meet Triv Pothman, a former Imperial stormtrooper, who tells them about a secret Imperial mission. However, this mission was set up thirty years ago and was supposed to pick up a force of stormtroopers from the planet. After thirty years of waiting, Pothman is the only survivor of the raiding party. In a subsequent attack by swarms of droids, Luke, already weakened by the crash, faints. Upon regaining consciousness, Luke finds himself in an autopiloted ship dubbed the Eye of Palpatine. The battleship's supposed autopilot is a highly developed artificial intelligence, also known as The Will. Along with his friends and two entire - and rival - tribes of Gamorreans, Luke has been brainwashed.

After this procedure, the Gamorreans mistake themselves for Imperial stormtroopers, and Luke is ultimately the only one who has been able to resist the brainwashing influence and retain common sense. While searching for Pothman, Cray and Nichos, Luke eventually finds out that the Gamorreans gone mad are plotting to arrest and execute Cray. Luke further discovers through his foray into the ship that there are also other beings present there who, due to a mistake and the Empire's said mission, boarded Eye of Palpatine thirty years too late. Luke encounters innocent groups of robbers such as Affytechaner, Jawa, Kitonak, Talz and Tusken Raiders, as well as the spirit of the former Jedi Knight Callista Ming, who tried to destroy Eye of Palpatine thirty years ago. However, she had not succeeded in doing this, only partially deactivating her will. Both Luke and Callista are speechless at the enigma of Eye of Palpatine.

Meanwhile, on the ice world of Belsavis, Han and Leia have stumbled across a Plett's Citadel, which served as a secret lair for young Jedi to hide from Emperor Palpatine over thirty years ago. The search for the subterranean passages indicated by Drub McKumb's remains unsuccessful. Later, Leia recognizes a supposed stranger as Palpatine's ex-lover. It is Roganda Ismaren, who is pursuing a power-hungry plan to build an opposition to the New Republic with the help of her son Irek and some nobles. Leia also secretly overheard one of Roganda's conversations and found out about their secret plans. Irek knows how to use his Force gifts to influence machines and endow them with tremendous abilities. It was also he who resurrected Eye of Palpatine, but he is unable to control the will, causing it to continue its original thirty-year-old programming to destroy the Citadel on Belsavis. Before Roganda and her villainous son could put their plans into action, Leia and Han had managed to drive them off.

Eye of Palpatine is heading straight for the planet Belsavis to destroy the Jedi children's lair. The fact that the Jawas, unaffected by the Doctrine of the Will, are attempting to dismantle the entire ship makes Luke's situation unnecessarily difficult. Luke and Callista have also learned that Eye of Palpatine is about to attack the citadel on Belsavis, and they are now trying to thwart this plan by any means necessary. After successfully freeing Cray from the Gamorreans, Luke pulls out all the stops to evacuate the occupants of Eye of Palpatine using transport ships, eventually destroying the ship. Luke, who has fallen in love with Callista, plans to take down the spaceship himself in an attempt to save Callista. This plan is eventually prevented when Cray stuns Luke. Skywalker later wakes up in one of the evacuation shuttles only to see Eye of Palpatine explode. Cray and Nichos, having decided they didn't want to live any longer after realizing that the droid was just a copy of the already deceased Nichos, destroyed the ship.

After the successful evacuation, an escape pod is picked up, which - as later shows - saved Cray from the explosion. After the pod is recovered, Luke realizes that it is Callista's spirit in Cray's body that is standing in front of him. Despite the loss of Cray, Luke is still happy to embrace Callista, especially as a love affair developed between the two aboard Eye of Palpatine. However, in taking over Cray's body, Callista lost her abilities in the Force.

Voice cast

 * as
 * as
 * as
 * as
 * as
 * as Jaina Solo
 * as Anakin Solo
 * as Callista Ming
 * as Cray Mingla
 * as Nichos Marr
 * as
 * as
 * as Roganda Ismaren
 * as Irek Ismaren
 * as Drub McKumb
 * as
 * as Winter
 * as Triv Pothman
 * as Ugbuz
 * as Krok
 * as Shorty