Star Wars Tales: Skippy the Jedi Droid

Skippy the Jedi Droid is a 1996 American animated short science fiction film written and directed by Peter David. The 9th entry of the Star Wars Tales short series, it takes place shortly before and during, and features R5-D4 as "Skippy".

Produced by and Lucasfilm Feature Animation in association with Crossover Films Co., Ltd., and released by, it was shown in theaters before The Nerdlucks on December 25, 1996.

Plot
Obi-Wan Kenobi leaves a cantina, sensing the Force in someone. But no matter how hard he looked, he wasn't able to find anyone, despite his great ability in the Force. Suddenly, unbeknownst to Obi-Wan, an astromech droid serving drinks at Jabba's Palace is bumped into by Boba Fett, spilling one of the drinks from his tray. But before it can hit the ground, the droid, named R5-D4, is able to reach out with his mind and turn the drink back in its upright position and serve it to Jabba the Hutt; thankfully nobody had noticed what had just happened, as it had gone by so fast.

One day, R5 removed his restraining bolt with the Force, and Force persuaded the Gamorrean guards to let him leave. Skippy wandered the desert for days in search of his destiny, until finally he was picked up by a Jawa sandcrawler. There he had visions of Darth Vader and Princess Leia, and met R2-D2 and C-3PO. Eventually the Sandcrawler stopped, took all the droids out, and lined them up side by side in front of Owen Lars and Luke Skywalker. Skippy immediately sensed the Force in Luke, and persuaded Owen to choose him. Skippy was ecstatic at the undoubtable destiny that lay before him and Luke.

However, R5 soon envisioned that, without Luke, stormtroopers would come and take R2 back to Vader, where he would be destroyed and Leia would be killed, leading to a chain reaction of horror that will include the Rebellion being destroyed, R5's memory being wiped after 3PO refuses to translate his 'rubbish', and Luke dying on Tatooine without ever fulfilling his destiny. R5 knew what he had to do, and suddenly set off a mild explosion inside himself, leading Luke to believe that he had a busted motivator. Skippy then used the Force on 3PO, telling Luke to buy R2 instead. Owen did so, leaving R5 to be destroyed by a stray stormtrooper blast during the later raid, with nobody ever knowing the great deed that R5 had just done.

Voice cast

 * as
 * as
 * as Uncle Owen Lars
 * as the Narrator
 * and as  and  from  in their cameo appearances