Pink Five

THE PINK FIVE TRILOGY
creator's Web site

Read an interview with creator Trey Stokes and actress Amy Earhart

review written 2/23/2003

Ever run across something that just had you grinning for the rest of the day?

Trey Stokes' Pink Five made me smile. A lot. Pink Five, played by the utterly charming Amy Earhart (I can't help but think that's a stage name invoking aviator Amelia Earhart) (but I've now been informed that it's not a stage name, and the two are related) (where was I?)...

Pink Five, played by the utterly charming Amy Earhart, is a ditzy Valley Girl assigned to duty in the Battle of Yavin. Following a simple and effective (and funny) opening crawl, we drop right into the action.

There's only one set—Pink Five's X-wing. It looks well-built; in reality it is well-digitally-constructed, but ya can't tell sometimes. Pink Five's costume and helmet look great. The bluescreen matte is not flawless, but not distractingly bad either. And while you can tell that the background plate is occasionally blatantly ripped from ANH, I would argue that that's part of the fun.

Think of this as a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead for the end of ANH. We see the whole battle through Pink Five's eyes, and thus, there's a lot of "it's funny because it's true" moments. "Little robot guy?... The bad guys live in that basketball, right?... We just fly around and shoot at things?... Y'know, why don't ya just talk... all the other robots talk..."

You'll learn things you never knew about Jek Porkins. You'll get the truth about why Han decided to save Luke in the end. And you won't get saddled with a bunch of bad jokes—everything works, and you get the feeling that if something hadn't worked, it was cut for your benefit.

I hope one day we get to see Pink Five take that 'skiing trip' mentioned at the end.

PINK FIVE STRIKES BACK

review written 6/19/2003

The crawl somehow managed to get briefer. And shortly after that, we get our first surprise. This is not about Pink Five's "skiing trip". No snowspeeders. Nope, Pink Five has gone to Dagobah.

There's many surprises, in fact.

Amy Earhart has lost a bit of energy since the last film, and lost a lot more hair. Something is missing in her performance. Pink Five has lost her happy, optimistic charm and become bitter. And to be frank, I think a lot of the joke went with that. Something didn't sit well with me. I missed the oblivious smiles in the face of utter destruction that made things work.

The best joke ever on droid names ensues. ("Am not" may become a catchphrase on fan film boards for years to come.) Then we get a really funny and really neat effect of Artoo being carried off. Heh.

Is that an Apocalypse Now shot reference afterwards, with her head rising up in frame?

And is that an honest-to-God Yoda puppet? Whoa. Whoa.

"A billion years old" may be another big line. And "What is it with you and handstands?"... Oh, crap, I really laughed out loud. There's still humor in spades in this film, it just comes about in a different way than the first.

The production values on this film were impressive, and I'm in for a sequel if it happens, despite my reservations about the character change in the leading lady. The other characters kept things going, each in their own way. But this doesn't have the rewatchability of the first. Still, I'd love to see what would happen if Pink Five ran into the Imperial guards of ROTJ. Or Admiral Ackbar. Or my favorite character, Salacious Crumb. Or, dare I beg for it, Palpatine?

In any case, keep watching after the credits for the shot you've always wanted to see. Well, Trey Stokes knows his audience.