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

This has been done a long time ago

[archeopterix]

See telnet://blinkenlights.nl

Let's hope it's better than Asciimation!

[ToadMan8]

Not that there's anything wrong with Asciimation but I'm not sure if the masses would accept this sort of thing. Hey, and besides, your TV would need screen font anti-alaising! This thing should have sound too, it'd be really cool then...

Too "cartoony"

[MidoriKid]

I've always been a fan of Tartakovsky's work, but I don't think his style suits the universe. I imagine it wouldn't have the detail that I need in a Star Wars franchise.

Animated Trek

[Crixus]

The animated Trek series of the 70's didn't last long, but there were a few decent stories among the lot.

Rich...

humping my childhood

[someguy]

I wonder some days whether I would have liked the original trilogy even half as much if it were to come out now over when I was a wee little tyke.

(hint:the answer is no.)

I wonder how many people that were in their 20s when the original trilogy came out are at the same level of fandom as the people who are in their 20s now and grew up with the movies.

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

[NoodleSlayer]

George Lucas has said in interviews that he never intended to make a sequel trilogy and probably won't, then again the capitalist in him might prevail, if a sub-par Star Wars movies (read: Episode I) can make $200+ million at the box office then more Star Wars movies are easy cash. However considering how long it took him to start making Episode I it seems doubtful.

As for complicating the Star Wars "canon" the general rule of thumb for any SciFi universe is to treat extretaneous sources (Books, animated series, etc.) as seperate and inconsequential in the universe. However there are exceptions, there's been a number of Babylon 5 books released drawn up on plot outlines written by J. Michael Straczynski that works nicely within the existing B5 canon, however there hasn't been many major B5 projects since Rangers. If Lucas is willing to write out some storylines for the animated series that fit into the existing Star Wars "canon", it could provide a nice treat for Star Wars fans.

~Noodle

Now, the question...

[Pig Hogger]

... Will it be a cheap "Hanna-Barbera/Toei"-style flat animation, a good-quality "Looney-Tunes"-quality with Carl-Stalling-quality music flat animation, or will it use extensive CG (à la "Reboot") (and in that case, no one cares about the music)???

Incoherence? Star Wars?

[Lemmeoutada Collecti]

Let's take an objective (yeah, right) look at the Star Wars universe...

First we have episodes 4,5, and 6. Taken in their own right they are a coherent plot spread over three movies, holding a single universe intact.

Then add the many, many books and references, written after episodes 4-6. While each stands well in it's own right, very rarely do two seperate authors works integrate into the overall universe. The books have covered timeframes before the as yet unreleased episodes 1-3, after them, in between them, and anywhere else the authors felt prudent. The Star Wars universe has now grown more complex and massive than congruent unto itself.

Then add the role playing games, cartoons, comics, etc. Over 20 years a lot of Star Wars information has come out.

Now we come to the present, where Lucas is releasing episodes 1-3, and in so doing is pretty much ignoring everything other than the episodes 4-6, thus breaking what little (if any) continuity remains.

So I would expect that any efforts to make a cartoon based off the movies would just further complicate and already messy universe.

This seems to me like trying to build a Beowulf Cluster by combining 8086's running Minix, 2/386's running DOS, Mac IIgs's running MacOS, and whatever else happens to have been built over the last 20 years. Doable, but not easy or effective.

My Grudge with Harry...

[BTWR]

The thing that pisses me off about Harry Knowles is his elitism, which is twofold. First off, he seems like a real nice guy who feels very fortunate about his fame, but some stuff about him just piss me off so much. Harry is a film geek in every stereotypical way possible. This is not a bad thing necessarily, but just pisses me off that he should be SO stereotypical. He loves all the movies a movie geek "should" love (from Night of the Living Dead to the new must-love-if-you're-a-geek films like Pitch Black, Robocop and Princess Monanoke). Occationally, he tries to make himself look good by posting a negative review of some marginally-accepted good film (Like Signs or something) - but coincidentally, he NEVER says something like "I hates Superman, Rocky, Matrix" etc. Just seems so shallow that he loves every movie you're supposed to love and sometimes bashes movies that are too cliche to love. The Newsweek article had him stating his favorite movies. They were all obscure 1930's horror movies that no one knew and just made him sound so intelligent. On Aint-it-cool, whenever some correographer on Hong Kong martial arts movies from the 1960's dies, he cries about how a "Legend has left us" - once again dropping how intelligent he is that he knows the impact that one person had on the entire industry.

Second, WILL HE STOP IT WITH THE NAMEDROPPING??? Honestly, I used to think it was just a matter of jealousy on the aicn users part that they hated when he'd mention Robert Rodriguez as a friend. Now, however, he states in every article almost how some director called him personally, or how scared the industry is of him. Ugh. So annoying.

However, the ultimate reason why I don't visit AICN anymore has nothing to do with Harry at all.

a) His forums are not threaded. When a major forum with 1000 posts comes, it's impossible to have a CONVERSATION (the responses are 100 posts apart)and it's impossible to read any of the posts towards the bottom.

b) The forum posters piss me off more than anything. These people do NOT know how to enjoy something. AICN forums are simply mediums to pick apart every film's most microscopic (and even if non-existing) flaws and state such claims that Spiderman with organic web shooters "robs my childhood" - THOSE are the guys I want to take a bat to (which is why I LOVED the end of Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back!(

Geeks don't bother me (hense, I'm on Slashdot), but assholes do.

Star Wars TV series

[Anonymous Coward]

Uncle George does not have a good history with the TV medium. Witness the 2 ewok adventures, Droids, and the steaming pile that is the Star Wars Holiday special. I will give it a chance but, I am not holding my breath.

Star Wars does good film (usually) while Star Trek does good TV (again usually).

Re:Star Wars TV series

[Packets]

When I was a kid I thoughly enjoyed the 2 ewok adventure movies, and the droids cartoon.

I haven't seen them SINCE I was a kid, but I loved them back then.

Voice acting

[yerricde]

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.

Do you discount the importance of a good voice actor? In some respects, voice acting is harder than traditional stage/screen acting.