I know the Star Wars topic has been done repeatedly, but this is a new twist. A series of animated shorts are set for the Cartoon Network which will “bridge the gap” between Episodes 2 and 3. Details here.
Although I’m not a huge fan of the series, I find this rediculous. I grew up watching the original trilogy on video, I’ve actually had more fun with the various PC games than with the movies. I did not have high expectations for Eps. 1 & 2, but I assumed at least there would be an interesting plot line. Now we are told that the first meandering, plodding 5 hours are not sufficient to prepare for Ep.3.
It has been known all along that Lucas is stong in visuals and editing, not story telling. How the hell could he choose to put all that tedious “political intrigue” on the screen and leave the “Clone Wars” for the cartoon network? All that Trade Federation stuff could have been put into the title crawl which begins each movie.
I stand by my opinion that Lucas should have made Episodes 7-9. I want to see Leia and Han get married and have twins and a third child named Anakin, and I want to see Luke get married, name his kid after Ben, and build his own acadamy
Interesting note for anyone who read the spoiler: I originally typed “Luke and Han” in place of “Leia and Han.” The inner slasher emerges, I suppose!
i started a thread on this when it was first announced mpnths ago and no one respone. so i’m just gonna stand slighty to the left of this thread and glare.
I like the cartoons that have been made this century, and I think this could be done well or badly, so I’ll reserve judgment until I see it. However, I’m not going to argue with anyone who already knows it’s going to bite, because I realize that at this point, Lucas can do no right.
Even if George Lucas doesn’t know what he’s doing, at least Genndy Tartakovsky does. It’s probably going to be “Samurai Jack but with Star Wars,” which doesn’t sound too bad.
Considering how awful Episodes 1 and 2 were (yes, both have great moments, but ultimately are pretty boring films in the end) I can’t really see how this cartoon could be worse.
This really irks me. Since I was a kid I wanted to know what was up with the Clone Wars. When the prequels were announced, I thought, “Wow, now I’ll get to see the Clone Wars on the big screen”.
And what do we get? A cartoon. Fantastic. No big screen, no impressive effects, but a cartoon. I like cartoons as much as the next guy, but this is basically yet another “Screw You” from George to his fans.
Well since I can’t play all the nifty computer games and I watch Cartoon Network an awful lot, I think this is neat.
It’s like, “Hey, just so you can get your Star Wars fix before the film comes out and get a bit more action and plot, here are some little cartoons we did just for the hell of it.”
They’re only going to be a few minutes long, and with Tartakofsky doing them, I think it’s pretty damn cool.
Nobody’s mentioned an important point: This isn’t going to be a series with 1/2-hour episodes; these are going to be 3-minute filler material that they throw in at (presumably prescheduled) moments.
I don’t know how aware you are of Cartoon Network’s scheduling practices but they kind of funky. Show at the top of the hour, a long break ten minutes in, and then a really long break after the show and before the next one starts. That’s it for commercials. But what they do is they run some extended promos for the network in those really long commecial breaks. Three minutes is a bit long for the mid-show break, but it’ll fit in with the top and bottom of the hour breaks.
Someone might track when the shorts will be shown, though I doubt they’ll be able to after the first time. They’ll likely rerun them so often everyone will be sick of them by the end.
What Cartoon Network should do is run them after a block of Droids and Ewoks.
In one of the original “Fall Of The Republic” script treatments (from 1983 or thereabouts) Anakin becomes Vader after him and Obi-Wan get into a lightsaber fight and he accidentally falls into a pit of molten lava (or something similar). Obi-wan figures he’s dead and grieves before splitting, but the Emperor sends out some flunkies to retreive the half-dead Anakin from the lava…they reconstruct most of his body with robotic parts, give him a helmet, and volia…he helps the Emperor hunt down and wipe out the Jedi and there’s your setup for Star Wars.
(I didn’t post a spoiler tag because I seriously doubt that Lucas is going to follow this same sequence of events, not with this treatment making the rounds for 20 years)
I read a friend’s copy (he got it at a sci-fi convention) along with a earlier draft of the original Star Wars (where Han Solo was a one-armed pirate? or something) and I’m sure both are available online someplace.
