Animated Star Wars on Cartoon Network

NeoCode writes "There were rumours and speculations first. Now it looks like its a done deal. Harry Knowles, of AintItCool.com has reports on an animated version of Star Wars set after AOTC but before episode 3. This series is produced by Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack). The cartoons will be a series of short films. Could this infuse Star Wars with a new life or is this just another merchandising plot? Nevertheless, this could be quite interesting." Yeah look what good Ewoks & Droids did for the SW universe ;)

Comments

same author as samurai jack

[hfastedge]

If its by tartakovski, i seriously think that this will be amazing.

Samurai Jack is one of the most peaceful, and exhilirating cartoons I have watched. The director is not afraid of satisfying the modern day attention span. Rather, I find this show to be a truly artistic maverick in company with other more marketable shows. Example: in a given episode of Jack, you can easily find 2-3 minutes of pure silence, which brings out the mood of 2 great warriors resting midway through a battle, or a quiet brook trickling next to a snowy field where our hero is seen in the corner of the screen slowly making his way.

Yet....the show is sorta cooky AND funny at times. Its VERY well done, as emersive as Aeon Flux for sure.

I know the cartoon will be good.

Moo....

[Chicane-UK]

Thats the sound of the cash cow, getting milked for all its worth.

If they make a Star Wars cartoon, they can make a whole new range of merchandise to keep em going until Ep3 comes out..

I wish they weren't so bloody obvious about it though.

Re:Additions to, complications of "the canon"?

[Anonymous Coward]

The SW Expanded Universe (i.e., any story in a medium that's not the films: games, comics, novels, TV) has always been rather consistent with the original trilogy of films, and elements that originated in the EU were incorporated into the prequel films (the name of the Republic capital planet from the Thrawn novels, a Twi'lek Jedi from the comics, other names from places like the Droids series). The few problems have had "continuity fixes" in place for a long time now. Moreover, LucasFilm Licensing has always strived to make the EU consistent with itself, and you'll see things like novels referencing game characters (like the main character from the X-Wing PC games being a prominent general in the last New Jedi Order novel).

This series is rumored to involve the Clone Wars, and LFL held a fairly large summit last summer to plot out the war's major events and decide in which medium they'll be covered. Episode III begins with the last battle of the Clone Wars, so there's no danger of something zany happening in the next film to throw out all the events being depicted in the interim. There's already been several post-AotC EU titles announced and released showing war events:

• Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns (game)
• Clone Wars (game)
• The New Droid Army (game)
• Boba Fett: Fight to Survive and Crossfire (children's novels)
• Republic #49 and on (comic)
• Shatterpoint (novel)

There's an article on the CW publishing program here:

http://www.starwars.com/eu/news/2002/11/news200211 15.html

SW licensed stories/etc. are different from things like Trek in that they're edited rigorously precisely to prevent continuity problems. It's all meant to be one story (whether it's a good one or not varies from audience member to audience member).

Lucas in it for the money, again

[Gary Franczyk]

I wouldn't get too enthused about it just yet. It has been evident that George Lucas not been in touch with the Star Wars phenomenon since Jedi. Since then, he has only been extending his retirement fund with poor quality "extensions" on the original masterpiece.

- Rerelease of the originals with "additional" footage, with a slew of promotional and marketing gimmicks.
- Three prequels, with a slew of promotional and marketing gimmicks.
and now:
- A cartoon version, with a slew of promotional and marketing gimmicks.

Re:Hi

[lvdrproject]

Sigh... either i'm looking harder, or people are getting lamer and lamer recently. While i'm obviously younger than you (which might bias me just a touch), allow me to explain something.

You associate cartoons with childishness. Just because it's animated doesn't make it any less mature than your favourite live-action movie/TV series. There are many serious-minded, dramatic animated features ("Grave of the Fireflies", anyone?), and there are a number of advantages cartoons have over live action:

Virtually-unlimited special effects budget. In animation, you don't have to pay millions upon millions of dollars to show someone jumping out of a huge time portal, or show some horrific monster eat a man whole, or show a squadron of soldiers firing laser cannons. This is as simple to create in animation as anything else.

Character "casting". You don't have to hunt down the perfect actor/actress with the perfect weight, the perfect hair colour, the perfect voice, the perfect skin colour, etc., etc., in animation. You just draw the character the way you want him/her to appear, and there s/he is.

Idealism. The world just doesn't work the way some people want it to. You can't change the laws of physics, every single person you find won't be attractive, etc.. Cartoons work the way you want them to, whether they're realistic, deep, moving depictions of life (like many anime series/movies), or goofy, childish Saturday-morning cartoons (which can be masterpieces, despite their childishness).

What does the fact that you perform the same tasks as any other adult (and some teenagers) have anything to do with cartoons or video games? Seems to me like you've been brainwashed by some of the "intelligent" connoisseur types who associate these things with childishness/immaturity/unintelligence. This same phenomenon can be observed with Pokemon. The Game Boy games (which few who bash it have even played) are actually quite fun, and aren't really any more childish than any other game. What started this whole "Pokemon is for kids, you fanboy losers" thing is the fact that some American corporations saw that Pokemon made money, and they milked it for all that they could. They sold dolls, they sold stuffed animals, they sold cards, they sold McDonald's toys. THAT is why people hate Pokemon. If it had gone on as a regular Game Boy game like any other Game Boy game, nobody would've given it a second thought. Same thing happened to cartoons.

Anyway, video games, Harry Potter, anime, and cartoons are forms of entertainment, no different than your favourite band, your favourite TV show, or your favourite book. If it ENTERTAINS you, it's served its purpose.

:Lav

Umm...different details.

[fireboy1919]

Like making people look like people.

Dexter is roughly the shape of a pill. Dee-dee and her friends have all of her limbs extending from a single point. All legs look like they did in the flintstones - like pipes that have a turn and end with a round stub (the turn is where the feet begin).

Almost nobody has any noses, or the noses look very strange. Also, no one has normal looking hands - very few have thumbs, or a full complement of fingers (10 total). The powerpuff girls have no hands and no feet. Samurai Jack is a little better, but still...there is very little detail in the characters. Jack himself has fingers that are apparently glued together, since they never seem to separate. Also, his four fingers are all the same length, unlike human fingers (his thumb is opposable, they show that when he holds a sword).

I would expect a Star Wars Universe to be much more lifelike since its based upon a live action universe, with, at the very least, five fingers on each hand, and the ability to move them the way humans do, and normally drawn noses. I don't expect that it'll happen because I think it costs more.

Which means really, really bad reviews, I think.