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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 ;)
See telnet://blinkenlights.nl
I hate to see the already over commercialized star wars further cheapened like this. Are they going to have a Leia in the prisoner outfit???? If they do I'll watch it, cheap or not.
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...
I haven't posted in so long, my sig is out of date.
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.
Hmm. Well, this could be a boon to the Star Wars franchise (which of course has done amazingly well anyhow ;) ) or it could just throw the chances of any sequels (Episode VII, anybody?) into the toilet.
It's simple, and I'll illustrate it by the example of Back to the Future. BTTF was a successful trilogy with many fans (among whom I am one), but then they introduced an animated TV show, and did a ride at Universal Studios: Florida, which used a plotline set after (fourth-dimensionally-speaking) all three of the movies. Both of these things added quite substantially to "the canon", as they were all officially blessed by the producers of the original BTTF trilogy.
Every episode of any official "Star Wars" cartoon that's even remotely related to the Skywalker clan or other key figures from the series has the potential to -greatly- complicate the Star Wars "canon", and making another series of movies that fit with the sum of the existing canon that much more difficult...
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
The animated Trek series of the 70's didn't last long, but there were a few decent stories among the lot.
Rich...
Ignore Alien Orders
"It takes a long time to become young." -- Pablo Picasso
Then we got Senator/Princess/soon-Milf/ Amedalla and Pricess Laya. That covers the middle age male crowd.
Then we got Anakin, Obi Wan, Luke, and Han Solo. That covers the middle age female crowd.
Then we got Episode II Yoda whoppin some ass, but then getting really tired. There's a happy senior citizen crowd.
I think Lucas is just trying to appeal to as many people as possible to make as much money as possible. Make something for everyone and everyone will want one.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
I'll be finished my first degree (Chemical Physics) in the spring. I rent, but I pay for it myself. I ride a bike because it's cheaper and better for the environment. (Ironic that you work in the Department of...Atmospheric Science, eh?) I love to cook. And yes, you have lost touch with us all.
'Growing up' doesn't have to be about losing touch with your sense of wonder. Heck, it's what will keep me going in the sciences in grad school.
Oh, and for the record, I loved Lilo & Stitch.
~Idarubicin
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.
A planet where apes evolved from men? Long live the apes.
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.
-- -- --
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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.
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
... 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)???
Much of Lucas' dialog writing skillz come off like Mojo Jo Jo.
Luke, I, Darth Vader, am your father! And you shall obey my commands because I am the father (not the son). It is I who you will obey! Obeying my commands is what you will do as the son. I will give you commands, and you will obey them! Ha ha ha ha ha! I do this because I am bad, I am evil, I am the father. I am Darth Vader!
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.
You can have it fast, accurate, or pretty. Pick any 2.
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.
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.
After all, he only needed 30 minutes to save the universe and get the girl, instead of the hour he used to need.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
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.
A little overkill never hurt anybody.
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.
Watching fine animated shorts helps me unwind after dealing with self important jerk-offs all day.
Generally, the kind that feel the need to let me know about their education, car, and / or family.
Now, try sitting down in front of something like, Samuri Jack, Aqua Teen Hunger Force,Invader Zim or, god forbid, The Powerpuff Girls, have a Coke(tm), and try to enjoy yourself for a change.
You'd be amazed how good things work out, when the creators have a hand in making the animation come to life, and dont just sell out to a studio, and let their characters get whored out in marketing promotions.
Cheerio.
Word on the street is that it's just rumors for now. I submitted this story four days ago.
(Luke is busy working on a piece of machinery)
Leia: "HI LUKE!!!!!"
(Luke tumbles from the shock of surprise)
Luke: "Leia, what do you want? I wish you would leave, because you are so STUUUPID. You are dumb and you are stuuupid."
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
The force is strong w/ this one.
If anyone can restore the balance, I hope it's him.
[o]_O
*sniff... sniff*
I R is good jedi!
Take that, silly weasel!
*sniff... sniff*
No sig
my bad - that's why I prefaced it with "if I understand correctly." Guess I'm not up on my ST facts... damn.
"Too cartoony" is how I personally would describe the way the prequels look, with everything but the actors being generated by computers.
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.
Will I retire or break 10K?
The word "ewok" is a tribute to merchandising.
It is never said in Return of the Jedi.
What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
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.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
Not many, really. I can only think of a few, myself.
The Real Ghostbusters comes to mind. That ran for quite some time - several years. Also, Voltron, which was basically a rehash of the old Ultraman movies (they're kind of like Godzilla flicks). MIB has done pretty well as well. Jumanji lasted one or two seasons, which was enough to make money.
Captian Simian and the Spacemonkeys obviously drew its inspiration from the Starwars movies, and that one was on for a while (though you may not have heard about it - it was kind of a small scale cartoon).
Of course, if we open up the category to include series based upon movies, there are a few more, though still not many.
The ever popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a shining example of that. And we probably should add Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, which are really just rehashes of Ultraman mixed with Voltron.
And then there are all of the Spy shows inspired by James Bond: first Get Smart, and then Inspector Gadget, and then young Inspector Gadget (or whatever they called that).
It all comes down to whether or not enough people identify with the ideas in the series to make it work. Just because its live action doesn't mean it doesn't translate into a cartoon or a series.
However, the cartoon or series can't stand upon the concept of the movie to work, just as a sequel can't be a rehash of the first movie and expect that it will do incredibly well (*cough* Home Alone 2 *cough*). It has to have its own new ideas, even if it has the same beloved characters.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
This series is produced by Genndy Tartakovsky
Nooooooooooo! I'm going to be victimized with cheesy anime-like fight scenes:
Droid
Droid
Droid
Fire
Fire
Fire
Slash
Slash
Slash
Zodiac Survey
[o]_O
Yeah, but can you explain why 'uncle owen' didn't recognize the droids? And why the hell wouldn't the droids recognize him or anyone else?
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
"StarWars Christmas Special"?
'nuff said!
Online Starcraft RPG? At
Dietary fiber is like asynchronous IO-- Non-blocking!
I have a feeling that this cartoon series is related to this news tip (while we're all waiting for episode 3 movie to be completed) from TheForce.Net's archive:
I work in a bookshop in England. Yesterday our friendly Penguin/Dorling Kindersley rep was in and was going through new books for next year. He showed me the cover for Star Wars - The Worlds of Episode II and told me an interesting story.
Very recently, the head of LucasFilm UK was giving a small presentation to the Penguin Group. She was telling them how Episode III was going to be the biggest thing ever, partly because of it being 'real time'. "You mean, "asked a quizzical rep,"it will only cover 2 hours of Star Wars time?"
No. What she meant was that when Episode III opens in May 2005, the Clone Wars will be just finishing as the film opens. The Clone Wars last for three years. "So the Clone Wars are happening now," she said. Ergo, Episode III takes place exactly three years after AOTC. Cool huh?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
"Yeah look what good Ewoks & Droids did for the SW universe ;)"
I suspect that some of the people who worked on the plot and storylines for both episodes 1 and 2 were some of the very same people who wrote for those two shows.
But it's only as good as the scripting. And because this is a less important project than the big films, perhaps, PERHAPS, a good writer or two will sneak in under the radar and do something which has apparently become of late truly offensive; A good bit of story telling.
I hope they go for high-end dramatic realism with proper pacing; for all those kids who haven't burned out their attention spans on video games, MTV and E. --The last couple of Harry Potter films, though by no means land-mark works, were still pretty damned good considering. And they were both LONG! --Which just goes to show that slowing things down will not annoy the younger set, and certainly won't annoy the older viewers.
My recommendation to the studio: "You have an opportunity to make good. Please don't blow it."
-Fantastic Lad
Cartoon Network would have been better off to contract for something set in the New Jedi Order period, where everything has fallen apart, the New Republic has basically collapsed, the Star Wars galaxy is being invaded by a seemingly unstoppable new alien race, major characters in the Star Wars universe are killed, etc., etc.
Of course, that would be adult anime, not childrens' cartoons which are better suited to the new pre-episode IV world of pablum.
* As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
If I had mod points, you, sir, would have them all.
I thank God that I was not drinking as I read this, all I can picture is Mojo Jojo wearing a Vader mask. And pulling it all off without seeming out of place.
Wu-Tang Name: Half-Cut Skeleton Get your own Wu-Na
Nowadays, of course, distance is a bit less of a problem. Movies are shot all over the world, whereas they used to be done almost exclusively in Hollywood backlots. Had it not been for the unprecedented success of the original trilogy though, ILM never would have made it off the ground.
I do agree, absolutely, that money is not Lucas's concern. However, those below him in the power structure most certainly do care about the money. Since Lucas probably does not micromanage the promotional material and licenses, that may be where some of the "moneygrubbing" accusations come from.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
You laugh. Try "Starwars the 70's Custom Van!" I shit you not.
Apparently, all of star wars was designed to make buckets of money. Interestingly, it's still fun to watch, so I guess Lucas has some kind of talent
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