Slashdot Mirror
'Star Wars: Clone Wars' Premieres Tonight
securitas writes "The Cartoon Network is about to premiere a new series of animated shorts based on the Star Wars prequels. The series comes from Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Dexter's Lab) and debuts Friday Nov. 7 at 8PM Eastern Time. One correction: The USA Today article is incorrect in saying that 'Clone Wars marks the first animated series to involve any of the saga's leading characters.' That distinction goes to Nelvana's Droids, which followed the adventures of R2D2 and C3PO."
Does anyone know if YTV or any Canadian network is picking this up and showing it?
Thank goodness their posting the episodes online and releasing a DVD later. Because I hate manaually programming my replayTV.
George Lucas was spotted earlier this morning in the middle of Times Square clutching what appear to once have been Star Wars action figures, squeezing with all his might. When asked what he was doing, he replied, "I KNOW there's more money in here somewhere!!!"
OK enough starwars.. Isn't this getting old? Actually the older starwars was MUCH better, now they are just trying to make money off the name.
AcmeShells.com The cheapest Eggdrop
Now, we can only hope that this will eventually make it into the Adult Swim lineup so that we won't have to worry about being edited. *God bless Adult swim, semper fi and all that garb*
There was another Starwars cartoon featuring ewoks, i think.
Another movie article?
Could we have a SCO post please?
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
OK, i've been seeing posters for this on NJ transit trains for the past month. i'll be watching, esp since food network no longer runs iron chef on fridays.
20 3-minute episodes works out to 1 hour of content. and just think: too short for commercial breaks!
i'm curious to see just how long it takes cartoon network to air all 20 episodes. if they space 'em out from tonight all the way through until ep3 debuts, i'm gonna be cranky.
ed
I vaguely remember "Droids." I remember the Ewoks series much more clearly.
Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
buy the animated series and we'll show you how deep the jawa hole goes...
Technically, the Star Wars Christmas Special would be the first time any of the major characters were animated (Boba Fett), although it was just a one-time thing, not a series. Don't forget that Ewok Adventures also ran at the same time as Droids.
--- Where's my car, and why are these grass stains on my pants?
First debut until November 21st, last 10 debut in spring 2004.
Can anyone really say that when they heard about the Clone Wars in "A New Hope" they didnt have visions of some epic battle? Since most of the dogfights, etc were modelled after WWII film footage, I had always thought we would be in for something as grand and epic as WWII itself.
Instead, we get some whiney brat (who cant act), a love story which both doesnt seem likely and isnt interesting, and a completely cliched movie which only appeals to five-year-olds.
Anyway, [/rant] and [/preaching to chior].
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
All things considered, I'm really looking forward to Clone Wars as this will be the first piece of canonical (blessed by Lucas as "true") visual material that Lucas did not have a hand in. Perhaps that bodes well for the future...
...on a site?
Since we're taking about 20, 3-minute episodes, I'm guessing the first one will be available for download on fan sites and Usenet only minutes after it airs. I think I'll just wait for that.
Ruger
Actually, it's so old, that complaints like yours are really old. ;-)
And call me cynical, but I'm guessing Lucas was trying to make money when he released the very first Star Wars.
--- Ban humanity.
Oh yea gods!
The horror. Don't remind me about that!
Actually, the Bobba Fett story line was the best bit.
You win the geekiest award.
Lord Pixel - The cat who walks through walls
A little bigger on the inside than out
Well, mod this flamebait if you will...
I loved the original trilogy when I was a kid. I can still watch it, but it seems so 'thin' to me now.
I went to see SW:TPM with high hopes. 1)An extended pod race to advertise a video game. 2)Jar-jar - need I say more?
I went to see SW:AotC because my wife made me. Follow the bouncing Yoda!
I will NOT be seeing the next bit of crap to be extracted from a toilet and thrown up on the big screen, and I'm not going to make any effort to see these cartoons.
At least the first ten chapters are all airing this month. Link here click on schedule. They're also coming out on DVD next year.
It's not a series, but I consider the animated Boba Fett to be a major Star Wars Character ...
Let's admit one thing first.... While you wouldn't call any of Tartakovsky's works beautiful when compared to Disney, they do have a style that stays wonderfully consistent and someone eye-pleasing. Very easy to watch. Make no mistake about it, though... I expect to see cels and clones of cels re-used over and over throughout the entire series. While it probably won't be nearly as bad as your average Space Ghost or DragonBall Z, I'm sure it will wear us down.
Let's just hope the storytelling delivers... To be honest, I've not been too disappointed in the past.
I swear there was an ewok cartoon when I was a kid (say mid 80s). And were any parts of the Star Wars Xmas Special animated?
This really became apparent to me after AotC. Now I'm waiting for Episode 3 to show how and why R2 lost his flying rockets, and when his holographic projector was downgraded.
--
E_NOSIG
They just happen to be in all the films.
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
Did you forget the adventures of Wicket
Has anybody thought of other animated episodes of a trilogy *cof*animatrix*cof* before?
Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
One correction: The USA Today article is incorrect in saying that 'Clone Wars marks the first animated series to involve any of the saga's leading characters.' That distinction goes to Nelvana's Droids, which followed the adventures of R2D2 and C3PO.
Uh... not point out your droid fetish but, uh... aren't those guys 'robots' and while I'll admit humorous and alternatively heroic and comic, not exactly "leading characters".
Oh man, I'm gonna get toasted over this one...
MORTAR COMBAT!
"...clones of cels re-used..."
not to mention cels of clones re-used
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
... to compare the comments for this article to the ones for the LotR article just below it.
Alas poor Lucas... he coulda been a contender.
They are posting the episodes on their website as well (right after they air hopefully)..
C'est la vie..
The Star Wars Christmas Special had the first appearance of Boba Fett in an animated short with him hunting Han Solo.
Test your net with Netalyzr
Don't forget the ewok adventures cartoons from the 80's. I lived for saturday morning cartoons back then.
Well, in climber slang, 'epic' generally means something long, arduous, and scary.
I think WW II definitely qualifies as that.
Grand???
...the Cartoon Network...
Don't you mean the Genndy Tartakovsky Network? It seems like he makes every single show on CN. Well, except for the good ones.
Spread the RC luvin'
. . . you've gotten older.
Star Wars was from the beginning nothing more than a clever working of sci-fi cliches -- Flash Gordon with a bigger budget.
It was fun -- not deep, nor life-changing. And it still is -- and isn't.
"We're the e/
:(
E/
E/
E/
E-woks/
From the forest grove/
(E-e-e-e-e-woks!)"
Yeah... I'm glad that's chewing up storage in my brain when I have trouble remembering my new cell number
What is music when you despise all sound?
I just hope that Samurai Jack would have a cameo as a Jedi :-)
Would be nice to see Dexter somewhere too...
Never attribute to stupidity what can be construed as a monopoly preservation tactic.
A major cog in the Star Wars revenue generation machine over the years, but Boba has the lowest screen time to action figure sales ratio in the history of merchandising.
Boba could be editted out of the original trilogy w/o imacting the story line any more than the Solo/Greedo cantina shootout re-write.
Does it bug anyone else that this moron Journalist says that It's the first time any leading characters have been animated? I meana quick google search reveals Droids, Ewoks, and even mentions the Christmas Special. I mean, how much research did this guy do? Did he just ASSUME that it would be the first? I mean most of us geeks knew about the older animation, but this guy is writing an article for a nationally published newpaper read by millions of people. At least take the time to get the facts straight. I know its just about Star Wars, and who really cares, but what does this say about other articles this guy's written, are they just as shoddily researched? What if he was wrting about 911, or the President, or Iraq? Before making any kind of blanket statement, he REALLY should make sure he's correct. I really fear that this is more common in modern journalism than we perceive and about things much more important than Star Wars..
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
Its great to hear that they will be both accessable on the web and then later on DVD. Personally I sometimes don't get home from work on fridays till after 7 and I don't want to miss these. I am a die hard Star Wars fan(yes Nerd and proud).
-Certified TechnoWeinie
Wait.... TWENTY five-minute shorts? Can anyone see a mass-marketed DVD in this cartoon's future? I'll just wait for that. How good can the storyline be if it is fragmented that much?
What, no "George Lucas raped my childhood" posts? Come on now... we can all do better than this... than just to rehash "he's just trying to make money off the franchise" arguments.
/. experience is being raped because of the lack of "childhood was [insert horrible thing here] by George Lucas" posts here today. Damn.
I feel my
What I think is funny and pathetic is that people who write that kind of shit allow someone to have that sort of power over them. Makes for some funny and sad reading.
So, lets get going here!
sad robot making broken music
Some of my friends thought I was crazy for complaining about R2's jets. I mean, hell, he's a repair droid -- if they were to break later, couldn't he just fix them?
[yeah, yeah, I know, it's hard to operate on yourself, but well, he also hangs out with other R2 units, so he could get one of them to fix him]
And don't try to tell me that he took them out to make room for the cupcake.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
I haven't seen the damn show in 15 years, yet the first thought I had was "you missed an E".
It went
"We are the E E E E E E Ewoks!"
I think I'll go shoot myself now.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Instead, we get some whiney brat (who cant act), a love story which both doesnt seem likely and isnt interesting, and a completely cliched movie which only appeals to five-year-olds.
The funny thing about this statement is that I'm not sure whether you're talking about the original movies or the new ones. That's what cracks me up about the Star Wars nerds who hate the new movies... last time I checked, the original definitely had a whiney brat and an unlikely and uninteresting love story. Which I thought was cool when I was five.
Star wars is a pure marketing exercise; the whole product is nothing more than an exercise in marketing, they basically sell marketing, it sucks. The movie is made to sell merchandise and a video game, the video game to sell merchandise and the movie, the merchandise blah blah... etc etc
I have seen the two recent star wars movies and there's no real story; each occasion i was with a different girl who's never seen a star wars movie before and both commented on each movie "this movie is such a video game"... and they were right... there's the pods racing scene, there's that idiotic scene in the last movie where the whole thing become just a platform game with one of the characters running through a conveyor belt and trying to avoid some dropping sledges or something... the battle scene... it's all so stupid... unless you're a 10 year old boy i see no reason why anyone should care about star wars... hopefully i'll make sure my kids don't buy into such stupid lame marketing
10 Episodes every weeknight (I believe) now, then 10 more in the spring leading to the premiere.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
Will rock for 2 seasons then go down hill until there is NO story or point just useless sylistic anime.. much like Jack is now. Dexter is crap these days as well sadly. I really hope this is good and plan on watching but it won't last.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I keep hearing about all these other Star Wars films/cartoons, but have never seen them, personally I have heard of:
Holiday Special (Wookies)
Battle for Endor (Ewoks) and apparently a sequel
Phantom Edit (unofficial Ep1 with Jar Jar removed)
#include <sig.h>
It can't possibly suck as badly as the last 3 movies. Might be worth a watch just to see if there's *any* integrity left in the storyline and writers. I saw "Star Wars" in theaters when it came out in 77 (several times ;) and the last one was the first one in the series I didn't even watch to the end. What a piece of garbage.
The heat from below can burn your eyes out
"Could we have a SCO post please?"
Yeah, let's drive around the block a few more times.
"Derp de derp."
It's showing on Toonami, starting on Monday the 10th.
It's on at 16:00, 17:00, 18:00 and 19:00
The next episode is on Tuesday at
07:00, 08:00, 16:00, 17:00, 18:00 and 19:00
and it seems to continue like that every weekday after that.
Of course, to be a complete spaz about details, Droids wasn't the first either. Droids was the first half-hour-length cartoon to feature Star Wars characters as recurring characters, but various characters made cameos and parody cameos previous to droids, and they had all been in animated commercials.
StoneCypher is Full of BS
"Stating the Obvious" should be there with "Redundant" and "Troll". "Dumbass" would be a nice addition as well.
They made exactly the same mistake as USA Today (of course, USA Today probably rehashed the same press release as Wired to write their article). DROIDS was the first Star Wars cartoon, not this new one. When I read it in Wired, it just reinforced my feelings that Wired is just a "Poser-Geek/Nerd" mag. What self-respecting Star Wars/LOTR/The Matrix-Laptop/PDA-Carrying-Nerd wouldn't know that? When I discussed this with my wife, she suggested I send a "Letter to the Editor" to Wired pointing out their mistake - but I replied that I didn't want to be "The Comic Book Guy" from the Simpsons. Her reply..."Too late..."
Well, I don't know if webcomics count, but what about Boa Yvette?!
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Clearly you have not have had the pleasure of viewing Ewoks: The Battle For Endor !!
How ever could I have forgotten The Ewok Adventure !!
I've seen the episodes already.
We find out that Ghyslain is the love child of slick and suave space-pimp Lando Calrissian and Mrs. Jabba the Slut.
I think Ewoks and Droids were part of a 1-hour block on Saturday mornings long ago.
His other series are no slouch either.
Take heed:
That pretty much says it all. Maybe someone should post some good link about Post-Traumatic Strees Syndrome for those of use who have seen it.
Madness takes its toll. Exact change please.
have a new winner and can officially declare Star Wars no longer worthy of its own logo. Let's shoot that horse already and put it out of its misery, its got two broken legs and aint' going to get any better.
development.lombardi.com
all you had to do was watch that one. IIRC, Carrie Fisher was on Bennies. Not sure what the other actors were on. The scriptwriters were probably just drunk.
Best Slashdot Co
It'd be better if it was Obi-wan Canblowme.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
The first movie rocked because it was something completely new at the time. Dystopian future, cool SFX, and sword fights in outer space instead of just silly zap guns. The dialog blew chunks but it was easily digestible for 7 year olds. The second one was cool because of one thing 'The Good Guys LOST!'
They got kicked out of their home, one of them got frozen, and the other lost a hand. The end scene was them all sitting there licking their wounds and hoping for a come back.
The third one sufferred from marketing issues. Ewoks were mainly annoying though the low tech ways they destroyed the scout walkers were fun (minus the flying wings routine). The main problem with three was that the good guys became way too competent and the bad guys too incompetent without any explanation after the end of 2 (err 5).
Personally, STTOS, Planet of the Apes, and the Space:1999 Eagle were the action sets I had while growing up. (Though I was jealous of my friend who had the big Millenium Falcon.)
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Another excuse for geeks to stay home on a Friday night.
TPM was indeed horrible. AotC, on the other hand, was only a disappointment - not an abomination. The trend is positive. I'll go see the 3rd one.
On the other hand, look at the trend going into the 3rd Matrix. Not good.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
I feel sorry for you. I struggled to sit through Episode 1. I didn't even bother reading reviews for Episode 2, I didn't even think about spending money to see it inside a concrete bunker, and I won't bother renting the video either. I'll admit that the original three were "thin", the best of which was 5 (Empire...) because it seemed to have the most human depth to it.
But come on, we can't compare with Episode 1. It was just terrible and pointless. It was a movie manufactured for people who like "mecha" and action figures. Sitting through the movie was like sitting through a stamp-collectors convention. I could just see the pasty-faced, bug-eyed dweebs mumbling to themselves as they memorized the names, demographics and likenesses of all the new CG/latex characters. An unsettling experience for me. The plot was this: A couple of Jedis travel to some planets, and lots of battle footage is then shown. I had a vague notion that there were some possibly interesting subplots in there, but it was presented like a legal disclaimer at the end of a television commercial, so without the ability to pause and rewind the film, I missed a whole lot.
But Lucas knows his crowd, and I admire his ability to extract money from their wallets. I'm not going anywhere near any of his future projects, and I'll leave it at that.
"Too short for commercial breaks"?
/var/spool/mail/cuervo right now.
Man, they're three bloody minutes long. The commercial breaks are the 7 days[0] between episodes. It works out to worse than the spam-to-signal ratio in
[0] I have no idea how long between episodes.
Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
Should fit nicely at the end of my Star Wars Holiday Special VHS tape...
Darth Maul, eh? I thought he was a potentially great character - but they didn't give him much to do. If he would have had some more screen time to establish himself, I think it would really have helped the movie.
Maybe his top half will return for Episode III.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
The Star Wars shorts are great...I saw the first one at San Diego Comic-Con. Genndy Tartakovsky has created the first good installment in the Star Wars franchise since "Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back." Although I did sorta, kinda like "Episode 6: Return of the Jedi" when I first saw it...I was young, the rebels prevailed, I had fun. It looked way worse than I remembered it when I saw it again when the deluxe VHS box set came out in 1995. :(
I can't get back the 3 hours I lost watching "Episode 1: The Phantom Menace." But those 6 minutes I saw at Comic-Con gave me reason to hope. These shorts, taken together, will do a great deal to salve the wounds suffered by old-school Star Wars fans, wounds inflicted by George Lucas himself.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
What a bunch of festering crap! It's another one of the 5 minute teaser series. Don't even bother.
- - - If the sun is a star, why can't I see it at night?
... or you'll miss it.
3 minutes long? WTF?!
My wife just said, "George Lucas is a 'tard!" I concur.
My kids were looking forward to this show all week! They were so dissapointed when after the "intro" it ended. What a crock of sh!t!
It was the most lame thing I believe I've ever seen for a toon. It looked like a really bad anime artist decided to get piss drunk and take another try at drawing.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
I guess the animation style was very similar or something ...
I kept expecting to hear `Snoochie Boochies' or something similar ...
I'll never get those three minutes back.
Time to remove the programmed recording schedule for these putrid things from my PVR... I'm just glad I didn't waste a CD-R on any of them yet. I can at least recover the bits from the HD.
Mind the gap...
Clones Wars is just a short. . . was two minutes long, max.
What crap.
-CR
"So is the BSD licence even more 'free' (than GPLv2)? Yes. Unquestionably." --Linus Torvalds (TinyURL.com/2vugzl)
I got mine from suprnova 1.5 hours after it aired. Not bad.