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"Star Wars: Clone Wars" coming to Cartoon Network
Androclese writes "E! Online News reports - 'Star Wars: Clone Wars, a series of animated shorts featuring the epic battles often mentioned but never seen in the Star Wars films, is being prepped for
its fall premiere on the Cartoon Network...helmed by Genndy Tartakovsky of Samurai Jack and Dexter's Laboratory fame.
Each Clone Wars adventure will run two-to-three minutes and focus on Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and their cohorts as they lead the Galactic Republic against evil armies of cloned troopers created by the Separatists.'"
I've seen the previews, and there's no way it could be as bad as Episode 1 or 2.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
I still say that Lucas missed out by having Episode III pick up after the Clone Wars. It's something that Star Wars fans have wanted to see for decades now, and I have a feeling that a series of animated shorts--no matter how well-produced they may be--just won't do the Clone Wars justice.
DecafJedi
my weblog: apropos of something
Anakin Skywalker and their cohorts as they lead the Galactic Republic against evil armies of cloned troopers created by the Separatists.'"
Nice. Only problem is that the Clones are on the side of the Jedi and the Republic, not the Separatists. The Separatists use droid armies. Someone really was doing their job over at E, weren't they?
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
This is a clone of the animatrix idea.
In a great galaxy, many years ago
The desire for more money took over the universe...
for these Clone Wars cartoons to be cut up and overdubbed on "Adult Swim"....
"Each Clone Wars adventure will run two-to-three minutes..."
Nothing like blipvids to make your brain explode, eh?
I suppose the best thing about 2-3 minute shorts is that you can only pack so much bad dialogue and so many plot loopholes into them.
blog |
I loved every minute of them, i wish they would do made for tv movies based on all the starwars books out there, ive only read a few.. but they all ruled.. or even better yet, made for internet divx movies.
wud
Hmmm, so each one will have as much plot, humor and character development crammed into it as Episode 1 did!
Lucas isn't getting another penny of mine after that sad commercialized ripoff.
Intolerance for ambiguity is the mark of the authoritarian personality.
I thought the cloned wariors were created by the republic, and worked for the Jedi? Thats what it seemed like from episode II, anyway.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
it has Jedi Master Porky Pig.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
I think clone wars is the perfect name for a cartoon series that is based on a series of five movies.
Wow this is just what I've been waiting! An animated Clone Wars! Lucas you genius you've done it again! I'm sure through watching 2-3 minute cartoons all the battles will be completed and the plot will be golden. I can't wait to watch the battles to see an animated Anakin Skywalker, because animated is so much better than CG and real live actors! Damn Lucas is a genius!
[/sarcasm]
Thanks a lot spolierboy.
Not that I was going to see the 3rd movie, but if they had been any good I would have been pissed about reading this. Oh well.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Hey! It's the George Lucas' Reality Distortion Field! Similar to but legally distinguishable from the Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field.
BOO! TERRO
Those of us in the know, know that Lucas has but a small part in Immanentzing the Eschaton. Fnord !
CORUSCANT-Presiding over a memorial service commemorating the victims of the attack on the Death Star, the Emperor declared that while recent victories over the Rebel Alliance were "encouraging, the War on Terror is not over yet."
"We will continue to fight these terrorists, and the rogue governments who harbor them, until the universe is safe, once and for all, and the security of the Neo-New Cosmic Order ensured."
It was one year ago today that the Death Star, perhaps the greatest symbol of the Empire's might, was destroyed in an attack by fanatic Rebels, who used small, single-person crafts to infiltrate seemingly impenetrable defenses. Thousands of mourners were on hand to remember and pay tribute to the victims and their families.
"We lost our innocence that day," reflected one mourner. "I guess we thought we were immune from the kind of violence that happens in other galaxies. We were wrong."
"I lost hundreds of buddies that day," said one teary-eyed Stormtrooper. "Guys whose only crime was trying make the Universe a safer place." Although the day was colored by sadness, the mourners found some relief in the news of a decisive victory over the Rebels.
In an attack led by Darth Vader, Empire forces were able to rout hundreds of Rebels from a network of caves underneath the surface of the planet Hoth. "We're not sure we got them all," says a Vader spokesman. "There are a lot of places to hide in those caves. But we've delivered a powerful blow to the terrorist's infrastructure, that's for sure. Today, the Empire has struck back."
Initial reports are unclear as to the fate of Luke Skywalker, a hero among the Rebels, who is rumored to have delivered the fatal blow to the Death Star. Skywalker, a former desert-dweller from the planet Tattooine, became a part of the Rebellion after family members were killed. Skywalker was trained by a militant wing of the Rebels, known as "Jedi Knights." Fanatical in their religious beliefs, the Jedi Knights claim to derive their power from the mystical "Force."
It's believed that Skywalker was specifically trained by infamous terrorist O bin Wankanobi. Wankanobi, occasionally called "Ben" and easily recognized by his bearded visage and long, flowing robes, achieved near-martyr status among the Rebels after his death last year during a spy mission. His more fervent followers believe that Wankanobi lives on within them today, some even claiming to hear his voice during times of duress.
The attack on the Death Star came shortly after the Empire's destruction of Alderstaan, a planet whose government was known to harbor terrorists. Responding to criticism over the total annihilation of the planet, Vader stated, "There is no middle ground in the War on Terror. Those who harbor terrorists are terrorists themselves. Alderaan was issued ample warning. The fight for continuing Freedom is often burdened by terrible cost." The cost of this war can still be seen today in the continuing efforts to build a coalition government on Tattooine. Longstanding animosities among the planets various ethnic groups, including the Jawas, Tusken Raiders and scattered human settlers, have been an impediment to the peace process. The Empire continues to maintain a small peace keeping force until a provisional government is finally in place.
Much of the difficulty in fighting the Rebel forces stems from their lack of a central organizing structure. "They don't play by the traditional rules of war," complained one spokesman. "They come in all shapes and sizes, united only by their single-minded desire to destroy the Empire before it destroys them."
The Emperor closed his comments today by stating that "the cowardly attack n the Death Star left a deep scar on the Empire. However, we will not stop fighting until every last evildoer has been brought to justice." He paused for several moments, wiping away a tear and then added with determination, "We will never forget."
"I wish we could all just get along," said one of the mourners. "But it's hard to offer an olive branch to a cult of religious fanatics whose main tool is violence and who insist on calling us the Dark Side."
Nightmares of the Christmas Special!
V
Tartakovsky definately has a passion for action (yep, that's what the VH1 show said [repeatedly]). My best example is this: just listen to an episode of Samurai Jack and hear how much of it is dialogue, and how much is noises (slash, grunt) and music? (I think the split's around 25/75). Tartakovsky's action is not only constant, but it's fun to watch -- it's beautiful eye candy. Colorful, animated, comedic at times. (so don't just listen to that episode, watch it, too!).
However, I'm an English major; when I notice a weak plot or a missing link, I get the subconscious "yellow flag." Jack's weak on plotline. Episodes are usually strung together with lots of action revolving around a weak premise. It's fun to watch, but not fun to get involved in.
But Star Wars, on the other hand, is. ;) The animation itself should be good, but the storyline is going to need some good writers. I think here is where we'll see whether this is just a Marketing-schemed Animatrix-clone, or a quality investment.
(Oh, and PLEASE resist the temptation to spinoff Clone Wars:2021)
Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
I saw the commercial for this... And it reminded me of South Park... but with Lightsabers...
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Please mod parent up. That is fantastic.
Funny, Instightful. Either way, please mod this through the roof.
Good show buddy.
wbs.
Huh?
Well, I wouldn't say the whole universe collapsed. There are still all those books. I have no faith in Lucas' ability to make a decent movie anymore, however. It's amazing that I, formerly a Star Wars superfreak, no longer cares about the movies. And really don't read the books or basically do anything besides play the video games. Lucas has destroyed one of the core elements of my being.
I wish I had mod points.
.sig? No.
If that was spur-of-the-moment, I'm in awe of the poster.
Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
Sounds like you've been reading The Case for the Empire.
:)
Gave me a chuckle
I can really relate to that. I saw Star Wars 77 times when it came out when I was 15; I waited in line for The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi; over the years I've hosted several Star Wars parties, showing all 3 movies.
Even beginning to compare this drivel to the other movies is insane.
Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
It's not mine, read it a year or so back and found it floating arround usenet
Ack! We aren't going to see the Clone Wars on the big screen?! I have to say, Lucas did have a choice: He could have chosen NOT to make these awful movies. Back when they were left to our imagination they were so much better. I always thought that was the purpose of NOT making them! It gave the originals a depth that is now erased.
Sigh... Maybe Speilberg can convince him to let him make a Clone Wars movie...
Honestly, back when I was 7 yrs old and watched Obi Wan tell Luke about his father being the greatest Star Fighter Pilot in the Galaxy during the Clone wars, that was all I could think about wanting to see. CLONE WARS CLONE WARS CLONE WARS CLONE WARS !! Gosh Darnit! I want my CLONE WARS CLONE WARS CLONE WARS CLONE WARS CLONE WARS !!!
Yes, I feel like throwing a hissy fit now that I have discovered Lucas is yet again going to soil his own series. Somehow I had been holding out hope that Episode III would save the series, now i have had that hope dashed... Which is why I try not to pay attention to any of this stuff.
Oh well... back to real life...
The Jedi are kind of on the clueless side, after all. Their tactical decisions suck.
Here are links to the quicktime trailer that's been out for awhile:
Large - 320 x 240 Small - 240 x 180
I've just gotta chime in that 2 to 3 minute toons are definately not enough, when I first heard of this I thought it was going to be a real cartoon not just filler. Too bad they didn't take the opportunity to use the savings from making cartoons instead of live action in order to actually flesh out the Star Wars universe. For the price of Ep1&2 they could probably turn every book ever written about SW into a damn cartoon. (Except "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" by Alan Dean Foster of course) Just wonderful, it'll probably be shoved in-between other cartoons during Toonami, meaning I won't see it until someone puts it up on one of the bittorrent or emule sites. Cartoon Yoda looks great tho!
Jonah Hex
Horror & SciFi Erotic Nudes
I think Genndy Tartakovsky was a great choice to make these shorts because he has a great handle on stylish animated action. Watching "Samurai Jack" also reminds me of a lot of anime notably "Rurouni Kenshin" with the split screen action and cinematic framings.
In an interview Tartakovsky said that he made "Samurai Jack" largely because there weren't enough animated shows with enough action to satisfy his tastes. And thank god for that decision because the action scenes in "Samurai Jack" are enormously entertaining with their sense of pacing and their build ups.
Since the only really interesting things that happened in Episodes I and II were the action scenes anyway I think this is definitely a good thing. We really don't need a lot of plot because it's not like that's the strongest aspect of the prequels anyway.
Kick in the Head
Star Wars is not dead.....at least not to me. Deal with it.
[SIG] Remember Mattel handheld games?
...And George Lucas forgot in the years between: "Wars not make one great" --Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back
...if in the middle of a dramatic fight scene between a squad of clone troopers and "separatists" over the "cloning laboratory", Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory jumps out with his super robot and cries "Ohhh nooo, myy labbb!!", followed by his kid sister DeeDee screaming "Dexter is a cookie!". |D
Please don't speak for everyone and certainly don't speak for me. Have we, as a society, actually 'progressed' to the point where we blame Hollywood for all the world's ills? The leaders of Grenada, Nicaragua, Panama and certainly not Iraq, were NOT the defininitions of a 'benevolent legal order' pattern of thought. Why do certain people ALWAYS insist that an innocent science fiction movie, based on the old 'save the princess' premise, be the cause of all world conflict? I'm not ashamed of George and the entertainment he's provided to me. JMHO.
[SIG] Remember Mattel handheld games?
What about animated pants?
I can't believe that anyone would even mod this post. It's abhorrent that someone would equate the actual deaths in a real terrorist attack to that of a fictional movie. I'm sure the original author of the 'The Princess Bride' had bin Laden in mind when he wrote a classic. I know you were trying to funny but as a person who lost a friend in the WTC bombing I find your post offensive; not just to me but also the memory of a victim.
[SIG] Remember Mattel handheld games?
---
Lets face it, in "A New Hope" the Rebels were 'terrorists'.
---
Don't even joke about this. Rebels are not by themselves terrorists. Being the underdog doesn't make you a terrorist. Firebombing a restaurant in order to kill civilians in Israel is terrorism, regardless of the political intent.
The Rebels in Star Wars attacked only military targets.
If the Death Star were intended to be used as an instrument of collective punishment, then you could rationalize it in the same way we rationalized Hiroshima, as a tool to end wars, but the Empire destroyed an entire planet with no weapons on it for no apparent reason other than to terrorize the galaxy into subservience.
That would be like if North Korea decided to nuke the Swiss.
Look, I realize in the modern world that the rules of engagement are pretty much "anything that works" and that there isn't much you can do about that, but please, get off your moral relativism high-horse.
You mean like when those 'towel heads' start partying in the streets and shooting guns in the air (while wearing Chicago Cubs shirts, btw) because terrorists took down 2 skyscrapers and 3000+ people? On the other hand, you're right. I would not have wanted to be on the death star either.....I'd rather have been in the WTC on 9/11.
[SIG] Remember Mattel handheld games?
It doesn't have to be WTC. And is it not proper to compare Pentagon with DeathStar?
It will be Senator/Emperor Palpatine who finishes Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader's training. Since there can only be two Sith, a Master and an Apprentice, Darth Maul had to die. However, at the end of Episode 6: Return of the Jedi, both Sith die. And thus the Balance of the Force is re-righted.
Stupid Lucas and his lack of leet writing skillz. This all was telegraphed way back from Episode 1.
BTW the Clone Wars shorts kick ass. I saw the first one at Comic-Con this year.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
... can be found courtesey of David Brin, science fiction writer and one of the more unusual and thoughtful pundits out there. This series of articles began with an article in Salon following the release of TPM: beginning with the original article, "Star Wars Despots vs. Star Trek Populists" and its side article, an addendum in response to the emails, and a later AOTC update.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter.
Well, based on the insane size of the Death Star, I'd guess it would probably be closer to hundreds of thousands, if not millions - remember how huge the trench the X-Wings and Y-Wings flew down was? And you couldn't see that at all in the full model...
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
Coz Samurai Jack reminds me a lot of that old PC game, "Another World", published by French Infogrames: angulous lines with a dark, somber background. Main character is essentially lone, just as of that game. Minimalistic background sound & music.
You got modded up anyway dude. Enjoy!
Huh?
Interestingly, I think in the expanded universe there was a big memorial service held on Coruscant for the occupants of the Death Star.
So many loyal soldiers lost, fighing for the goodness of the empire.... that sort of thing.
I haven't read this myself but have seen references to it on the SW official site.
It's kind of cool when you think about it... seeing the movie, you wouldn't immediately think that something as horrendus as the Death Star would be mourned. However, if you start to think about that the non-clones on the DS had families, and that the Empire was capable of spinning the defeat into a propaganda event, a huge memorial actually kind of makes sense.
wbs.
Huh?
Was the fact that the climactic portions were told in eps iv-vi.
Filling in the backstory is usually not quite as exciting, is it?
These shorts are further proof of the stupidity of George Lucas. Cartoons are for kids. Star Wars is for jaded, nit-picky former kids who squashed all sense of adventure, imagination and wonder the day they decided they were cooler than everyone else.
When will you learn, George?!
does anyone remember the star trek cartoon based on the original series? they should brign that back. do they show that anymore?
I know what you mean. I was a die-hard Star Wars fan as a kid. I bought the figures, the light sabers, everything. I bought the books (well, the first few, until they became a breeding ground for third rate plotlines by third rate writers). When I saw The Phantom Menace I was extremely disappointed. Jar-Jar, Darth Maul (when is a bad-guy not a bad guy?), continuity errors. In fact, the best thing about the whole movie for me was that the guy that did Sebulba (the voice) was an old friend of mine.
Attack of the Clowns was a disaster. There was no continuity with the 'cannon', Yoda stopped being a master of knowledge and power and became a squirrel on speed. Lucas has killed his own creation with a mish mash of porr ideas and the desire to make as much cas as possible. I no longer care about the movies. I know I will not go and see the next one. I don't care about these cartoons as they can not make up for the shoddy work of Ep 1 & 2.
You call me a pedant? I prefer the term "correct"
If Cartoon Network want to spend some money, why not make some more episodes of Futurama?
I don't care about the Star Wars universe anymore.
"Kittens give Morbo gas!"
Was that ever funny? :/
Posting with out proof reading since 2001.
Mind you, I'd much rather have a live action Knights of the Old Republic series.
Return of the Jedi was the worst of the original three. I mean, Ewoks? Why not just have Teddy Ruxbin beating on the Storm Troopers? Bad azz troopers impose the will of the Emperor across the galaxy, but get the crap kicked out of them by midgets with pointy sticks.
Give me sliced open Tauntauns and Ugnaughts any day.
I doubt it.
I didn't even exist in 1976. Despite that, I did know that palipitane becomes the emperor, anikin becomes vader, etc.
What I didn't know was the chain of events that led up to it. And now I pretty much know the outline. Thanks.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Samurai Jack has some of the best artistic styles going. Action, story, passion, oh, did I say action? I mean to say, AACCCCKKKKKKKKK-SHUN!
*Yes I read what appeared to be an extremley early version of the Episode III script (circa 1983) and that was stated, that Anakin Skywalker falls into a pit of lava while fighting Obi Wan Kenobi. He is then rescued by a cult of crazed Sith idiots and made into Darth Vader.
Yep, it is actually Bobba Fett and his crew, according to this script that I read, that do most of the Jedi hunting/slaughtering. Bobba Fett is obviously a far superior warrior than his father was!*
Good points, but that script (actually, a treatment) is bogus. You are referring to "Fall of the Republic." Many fans have been sucked into purchasing it at many different fan conventions over the years. The lava pit imagery predates the bogus script by several years. There's actually an early draft of JEDI where the Emperor's throne room is surrounded by magma and Luke confronts Vader and the Emperor. Obi-Wan returns in the flesh (ala in Gandalf style) and Yoda also joins in the battle royale. Vader has a change of heart at the end, and leaps toward the Emperor and they both plunge into the magma. Quite interesting. Anyways, back to Fall of the Republic. Its completely bogus; the only thing the author got right was that the Storm Troopers are clones...
Do a Google search for the treatment; I'm sure you'll find it on the web somewhere.
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*