"Clone Wars" Cartoon Shorts on Cartoon Network

snilloc writes "Starwars.com announces that Cartoon Network will carry "Star Wars: Clone Wars" cartoon shorts in order to bridge the gap between Episodes 2 and 3. I guess this means we won't be seeing the Clone Wars in Ep3, as many of us had hoped. On the bright side, we get our SW fix in twenty 2-3 minute shorts. We can only hope against hope that they won't suck."

cop out

[madhippy]

sounds like they didn't get enough of the story told in ep1 and ep2, with ep4 a known entity they were either going to have a really long and sprawling ep3 or miss a huge amount of what happened between ep2 and ep3 or ep3 and ep4....

Lucas just wants money

[papasui]

He figure's it millions of dollars cheaper to have the cartoons show the clone wars rather than to film it all. That way he can make ep3 for a lot less and continue to milk all the money from Star Wars geeks with his crappy movies.

Re:This is horribly stupid

[MoTec]

Nonsence, I'm sure Lucas will simply do both. In III he'll still allude to the events that happen in this micro-series. This just gives him an opportunity to milk a bit more from the cash cow that is StarWars.

Translation: Episode 3 will suck, too.

[nate.sammons]

So I guess the moral of the story is that Episode 3, which I had hoped would be dark and actually good, with no shouts of "Yippee!" or "Yousa gonna...", will actually suck just like Episodes 1 and 2.

At least we have The Matrix 2 and 3 the look forward to.

-nate

Hmm...

[neurojab]

You're holding your breath for a Lucasfilm "Star Wars" cartoon that doesn't suck? Let's see where there's precedent. You've got the short in the Holiday Special, which actually seems good (even though it isn't) next to the wretched filth of the rest of the special. Then you've got "Ewoks" and "Droids", both of which that despite being based on the immensely popular star wars world and characters, failed miserably due to general suckage.

Now, after "Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the clones", you expect these new shorts to be good? Sorry, the writing is on the wall, and that's not what it says. I'm not going to bother.

Keep holding your breath though... it saves oxygen.

Re:Obscure???

[JaxGator75]

I would hardly call Cartoon Network obscure. Everyone with basic cable has heard of them, and those of us with non-food-stamp cable get it without exception. . . I still can't believe that people are continued to be shocked and appalled by Lucas' next moves. He's gonna do what he wants with his legacy, and we're stuck with the choice of watching or ignoring. My PERSONAL philosophy is that it's pretty cool if you don't try to take it so very literally (and dissect it with an electron microscope). E.G. Go get Ep 1 and Ep2, smoke a HUGE fatty and tell me it wasn't cool... They have LIGHTSABERS! C'mon. . . (PS - I'm an adult, not a 12-yr-old fanboy)

People actually care about Episode 3?

[SystematicPsycho]

After George Lucas single handedly ruined episode 1 & 2 from poor directing and producing, not taking any advice from anyone as he was forced to do in 4,5 & 6 - I'm certainly not going to be lining up when 3 comes out. I'll go see it in order to say the line "and now his failure is complete". I recently caught episode 1 on tv, with the exception of roughly 10 scenes, every scene in the movie is poorly directed, the dialogue is horrible and does not pack the punch 4,5 & 6 half did.

I certainly do think that the Lucas franchise has exploited viewers beyond any other films in history. This even beats the 10 versions of Blade Runner and Jurassic Park merchandise. A cartoon series to bridge the gap between numbers 2 & 3 shows they are aiming for a new generation of fans.

I heard that he will be redoing 4,5 & 6 too, is this true?

Re:Cartoons?????

[SystematicPsycho]

This is about reaching a _new audience, since most of the old audience have given up on Star Wars anyway, like me.

Re:Hmm...

[ryepup]

the thing is, Lucas isn't doing these. The animators behind Samuri Jack are in creative control. That means it will be Good. I think Lucas came up with some great ideas, but he lacks on the execution. Which was the best original movie? Which one did he have the least involvement in?

Episode 3: $tar Wars $alvage operation

[SystematicPsycho]

All episode 3 can do is salvage what is left of the Star Wars name.

Re:This is horribly stupid

[los furtive]

How many commercials can you stick in a 2-3 minute cartoon?

The answer is anywhere from 3 to 6. I will use Hockey Night in Canada's Coach's Corner as an example:

• Commericals 1 and 2: At end of first period, anouncer says: stay tuned for Coach's Corner. Then they play one or two commercials.
• Commercial 3: Intro/theme to Coach's Corner is played, and they will announce that Coach's Corner is brought to you by Ford of Canada.
• Commercials 4 and 5: After the theme, one or two more commercials are played before we actually get to the Coach's Corner segment.
• Commercial 6: At the end of the segment, theme music is played again and at the end Ford of Canada get's its logo printed on the screen.

Actually, even after the closing theme and display of Ford logo, they show a (you guessed it) Ford commercial, so you could count that as a seventh commercial, but if you're like me by then you've already changed the channel. It's not much of a stretch to apply the same methodology to a 3 minute cartoon.

Don't watch them if you're going to complain

[SlashdotLemming]

Its easy to be greedy if people are so willing to give you money. If I could make a few million by selling out, you don't think I would? Would you?

Look at the Joe Millionare crap. Fox sneaks an extra episode in, people bitch and moan about being ripped off, yet they still keep watching, and Fox gets even more $$$. Lucas should do the same thing, milk it man. Everyone will scream and cry, but they'll still watch, and they'll still buy the cartoon DVDs, and the Special Edition cartoon DVDs with extra footage, and cartoon DVDs with the bonus episdoe bundled with the movies.

Lucas reads his bank statement, not /.

Re:This is horribly stupid

[joshsisk]

Lucas will make money off this by:

A. Cartoon network is probably paying for the rights to air these.

B. These will be compiled onto DVD and released a few weeks/months before Ep 3.

C. The compiled version will probably be played on TV right before Ep3 comes out.

Re:SW cartoons: a reaction to the Animatrix?

[Daniel Baumgarten]

I agree that the anime tie-in works for the Matrix. However, anime is targeted towards a more mature audience than the style of cartoon being presented by Lucas, here. Major break of protocol for Star Wars. They're making a big mistake by kiddifying it.

Re:I knew it!

[sgtsanity]

I just hope the transitions from film to cartoon and back to film are seamless.

Well, the movies are already pretty much computer-animated cartoons, so I don't think the transition will be too terribly hard.