WARNING: The following contains spoilers for LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales, now streaming on Disney+.
Sometimes the oddest pairings can make the best companions. The new LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales does just that with one of the most iconic films of the 1980s. Now streaming on Disney+, the 45-minute adventure arrives just in time for Halloween with a fun spin on one of the era’s best-known creature features, The Lost Boys.
The new animated LEGO story features Poe Dameron and BB-8 crash-landing on Mustafar, where they visit the “all-inclusive, Sith-inspired, luxury resort” at Castle Vader. It’s there Vader’s servant, Vaneé, tells them three spooky stories, including "Dueling Monstrosities," "The Wookiee’s Paw" and "The Lost Boy." All stories borrow elements from other popular tales and Star Wars themes, giving a nice mix of the unexpected with some familiar tropes.
During the appropriately titled "The Lost Boy," the segment sees a young Ben Solo meet a much scarier (albeit LEGO) version of the Knights of Ren. The short montage begins just as the scene plays out in the film, with hopping on the back of a motorcycle/speeder bike. It even does a near faithful adaptation of one of the blockbuster’s signature scenes when the recruiting vampire horde hangs beneath a train bridge before free-falling through the misty abyss below. They even chant “Kylo… Kylo… Kylo," just to put an exclamation point on the scene's faithful homage to The Lost Boys.
The best part is how it all comes together, complete with the requisite saxophone soundtrack, with a Bith playing the woodwind beachside by a bonfire. It’s a magical and hilarious tribute to the original film. Clearly, Terrifying Tales' creators have affection and a strong appreciation for The Lost Boys' continual impact on pop culture.
Before he gave a rubber-suited Bruce Wayne nipples and his own credit card in Batman Forever, director Joel Schumacher had a far more hardcore approach to the concept of mixing people and bats on-screen with his 1987 vampire film, The Lost Boys. The movie was a big turn away from the genre's typical campy offerings, blending '80’s teenage angst with a much darker, scarier and sinister look at vampires.
The horror movie is a dark tale of spiraling self-destruction as characters are led to the temptation to escape life and find acceptance from their peers. Partially inspired by Peter Pan’s Lost Boys (vampires also don’t grow old) from J. M. Barrie’s literary classic, the movie was laden with current and future stars like Kiefer Sutherland, Dianne Wiest, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Jami Gertz and Alex Winter, just to name a few. So the fact the movie still resonates with such force that it’s being referenced over 30 years later speaks to its legacy.
This latest LEGO holiday-themed-special keeps Disney’s recent upward momentum of well-received reimagining of George Lucas’ inspired universe. On the heels of its new and well-received anthology series, Star Wars: Visions, this latest offering has a lot of fun at the brand's own expense while peppering enough outside references to keep a good balance of winking at the past and exploring a new future.
To see The Lost Boys' spoof first-hand, LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales is streaming now on Disney+.