CG Television Clone Wars Trailer Released 201
Ant writes "The official Star Wars site has up the one minute and 50 second trailer for the upcoming computer rendered Clone Wars." I'm still not sold on the CG, but the models seem to be somewhat based on Genndy Tartakovsky's designs from the original Clone Wars series. Wikipedia offers a bevy of details on the series.
Too little, too late... (Score:5, Insightful)
The saddest thing is that despite my protest I'm sure I'll watch it, secretly hoarde some action figures from the series and own every reissue of the new Clone Wars boxset for the next twenty years.
Re:Too little, too late... (Score:5, Funny)
Really? Even from the trailer, the acting strikes me as less wooden...
Re:Too little, too late... (Score:4, Funny)
Ha! (Score:2)
Come on geeks (Score:3, Funny)
Luke, I am your programmer (Score:5, Funny)
or does it? (Score:2)
Or it used to...
just kidding. love you wiki
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Most likely, if a high activity page gets vandalized or made "radically different", it will be corrected in about 30 seconds. I suspect your concern is more of a theoretical one than a real world one.
Mod parent upz0rz (Score:2)
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Why is Lucas wasting our time? (Score:4, Funny)
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He looked pretty much the same just his diapers and mustache were smaller.
Genndy Tartakovsky is a genius ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Dexter's laboratory, Samurai Jack and Powerpuff Girls are enough to establish his genius [dotgnu.info]. But he managed to turn around my opinion [dotgnu.info] about Star Wars (as someone born in the eighties and having got a TV in the nineties) - while reinforcing my low opinion of George Lucas's later work. Samurai Jack is really another example of a long epic saga, minimalistically drawn, yet full of life, twists and curve balls.
Hopefully, they borrow the good parts from his work and not go all CG centric over the story telling part.
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Let's be honest with ourselves; the new series will be a much more 'genuine' extension of the prequels: corporate machinery capitalizing on a loyal fan base.
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Certainly Tartakovisky work had an huge influence on this new series, is just a matter of looking at the overall look and style of the characters. Some people complained that the CG didn't look impressive... well, it doesn't have to be!
Compare for example the Final Fantasy movie with the Incredibles... in which one the characters seems to be more alive, more real? Better, compare the Clone Wars animated series with the 3 latest films... Tartakovi
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Clone Wars is certainly just another in a line of creatively disastrous attempt to monetize the dry Star Wars franchise. In spite of this, if Lucas steps away and gives Tartakovs
What is this? (Score:2)
Some of it looks okay- but there's one spectacularly lame scene where the trooper yells 'get ready!' dramatically, and then the door slowly opens to reveal: 5 of those dorkbots from phantom menace going 'pew-pew'.
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And I thought it looked cool, CG isn't everyone's thing of course but I happen to like it and that looked good. The character models were a little cartoony but the ships and stuff looked awesome.
Well obviously... (Score:3, Interesting)
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Look at the bright side... (Score:2)
The lower our expectations are, the happier we'll be.
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No actor could have salvaged the Hayden Christensen character. The character was poorly conceived and the dialogue was atrocious - really, really bad.
But when it comes to CG characters, all we have is the dialogue and the story, unless you just want to go the stylized eye candy route.
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Really, the actors weren't the problem. It was the script. The actors had to dull their minds to utter it. A troupe of Oscar-winners couldn't have saved them.
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Lucas' insistence on casting relative unknowns for the leads bit him in the ass this time.... he got lucky with 60% of the actors in the original trilogy. (Mark Hamill was a whiner throughout that series...)
And Hayden wasn't exactly high-caliber talent either... his range of emotions went from stoic to whiny in 3 takes... His "best" work... his cat
Eating Disorders (Score:2, Funny)
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CG WTF? (Score:5, Interesting)
No, the CG doesn't look real... you really want it to? I'd prefer something with a little style, a little "not real". Have you watched Polar Express? The characters looked real, and moved realistically alright... but they also looked like propped up corpses because despite all the work of the artists they STILL couldn't quite get it real enough.
There's only so far you can go along the path of making CG realistic. At a certain point you have to start thinking about the look and the flow of the thing instead of whether or not you're rendering 1000 different pores on a human nose. I personally liked the trailer, I think it looked pretty good. The CG doesn't look realistic, and I for one am glad of it. It gives the CG animated series a certain flair.
Did anyone here watch TMNT at the theatres recently? I did with my 6-year-old son and loved it. The story was strong, the characters were well rendered... but realistic it wasn't. It was stylized, but in a way that to me and my son made the characters MORE believable. It's hard to accept an unreal world when there are real people up on the screen. Similarly, it's hard to accept the real world with unreal characters... we use what's called willing suspension of disbelief in order to take some aspects on faith.
Now, whether or not they can actually get some good stories in this is open to be seen. I won't make any quick judgments; sure Lucas has created some tripe like Episode 1... but mostly because it was more about him experimenting with what he could do with CG than writing a good story. Episodes 2 and 3 both improved on this formula but still didn't quite match Empire Strikes Back (though I still think Episode 3 was better (or at least equal) in almost every respect than Return of the Jedi). Since this is going to be all CG, there are no limits and nothing to prove. The only thing he CAN prove with a CG Star Wars is that he can still write. If he can't, the show will fail since there are million and one "also-rans" in this race.
I'll wait and see. The trailer gives is little to go on as far as whether or not the writing is better here than in the prequels. Lucas has written good stuff in his life; look at THX-1138. If he can do it again, this'll be good. If not, then maybe it'll get an audience with the current pre-teen crowd who enjoyed the prequels. However, without strong stories you'll lose them and there'll be no "rewatching" ability.
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Re:CG WTF? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, but that was before the Star Wars _franchise_. It's no longer about the story. It's about the money, and how many people will grit their teeth while paying for movie tickets because all of us 40 year olds want our childhood back. But that's because we're all suckers and figure "well he can't rape our childhoods THAT much, can he?"
Yes. Yes he can. Meesa givesa upsa after Episode Onesa...
As to how far he can sink, do you remember the Christmas Special? Did you gouge your eyes out?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asnVcbWQ2cg [youtube.com]
Bea...Arthur... BEA FREAKIN ARTHUR!
NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
--
BMO
Re:CG WTF? (Score:5, Funny)
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No wonder I can't remember anything from that Christmas!
Re:CG WTF? (Score:4, Insightful)
No matter what galaxy you're from that has to hurt (Score:2)
Agreed, but tragically the line of THX-1138 Robert Duvall Action Figures weren't big sellers. Ewoks, Pod Racer games and Pizza Hut tie-ins are so much more marketable. Well, that was the theory anyway.
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Well
If it's "about the stories" now, everything Lucas made after Return of the Jedi, is crap.
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Design sense (Score:2)
For two-dimensional design, all those angles and swoopy bits add drama and impact. They're shape and composition aids.
In 3-D, the characters just look like retarded monkeybots. It's perfectly possible to do stylized 3-D well (The Incredibles) but you have to focus on the nature of the medium. You need round characters that still look like themselves when
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If it were truly "about the stories, not the CG," there'd be no CG to begin with because the stories have already been published with (mostly) hand-drawn goodness.
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I disagree. Why must it be impossible to tell a good story and look good while you're at it? That CG looks like the Proud Family [wikipedia.org] or something. They're terrible.
I'd take the crappy ca. 1987 GI Joe/Transformers animation over this type of CG any day. At least I'm not
The treasure of The Star Wars Legacy (Score:2)
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Replacing all the dialogue with old "Bon
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He GAVE it to us
I may have only been 12, but I distinctly recall paying $6 for it.
Another Director & CG? (Score:2, Informative)
Looks like Penny Arcade (Score:2)
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Probably a cost issue (Score:2)
This kind of CG doesn't look expensive..
At least the animation seems ok: IMHO, it's more important to have a good animation that to have a nice CG.
Am I the only one who thinks this looks great? (Score:5, Insightful)
Music:
Hard to Handle (Otis Redding/Black Crowes)
Come Together (Beatles/Aerosmith)
Hurt (Nine Inch Nails/Johnny Cash)
Twist And Shout (Top Notes/Beatles)
Time is on my Side (Irma Thomas/Rolling Stones)
The Man Who Sold the World (David Bowie/Nirvana)
Mr. Tambourine Man (Bob Dylan/William Shatner) - just kidding
Movies:
Cape Fear
Dawn of the Dead
Oceans 11
The Thing (I'll argue it is a remake)
Scarface
So everyone just relax and reserve judgment until you actually see it. I know how hard that is, especially on the Internets, to not review a movie 8 months before it comes out based on 5 screenshots or something, but let's at least, um... try? If you didn't like the original, then you probably won't like this one. But if you did like Genndy's version and you're already reserving judgment, then right now you're just being close-minded (even if you do wind up disliking it later). Liking both isn't a mortal sin.
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DMB does a pretty good rendition too.
The Clones War was pretty bad (Score:2, Funny)
The units sent with the knights would usually all die, except them, than they would just wipe every enemy on sight. But depending on the episode they would stop for a quick drink.
To me, those series did not match with the movies at all, if the knights were so freaking amazing, how in the heck were they wiped out, except for 2 of them?
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Clone Wars was about that: Infiltration, stealth, supremacy. EPIII was about Anakin becoming Darth Vader and that's it. They totally wasted Mace Windu and the other cool Jedi knights that they fought so well during clone wars.
Clone Wars: Special Edition (Score:5, Funny)
Among the wonders to look forward to:
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Off-topic: Positively surprised (Score:2, Insightful)
http://starwars.com/noflash.html [starwars.com]
The 'Click here to get a modern browser'-link points to http://www.mozilla.org/ [mozilla.org].
I was kind of surprised.
I don't get it (Score:5, Interesting)
Is Darth Vader boring?
Re:I don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)
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The coolest thing in Star Wars is the light saber. When did the most light saber action take place? During the clone war when the Jedi lead squads of clones into battle. For an animated action show, this is the best time to set it in.
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I guess that by Ep III, you're supposed to feel like the empire has already won. You could have scenes of Yoda setting up his house on Degoba or Luke growing up, or maybe Vadar standing on his ship, flying around. You could have it focus on the rebellion, but then there's no Jedi/Sith action, which is probably what people want.
I do think continuing the clone wars is a bit of a dead horse. Even before the prequels were released, we knew Anakin would turn into Vadar, which I thought made the stories less
Why use CG actors? (Score:3, Insightful)
Mark Hamill was an unknown, very mediocre actor who only managed to pull off the part in spite of the horrible dialogue because his naivete played in his favor.
Hayden Christensen, also an unkown, in this case with horrible acting skills, couldn't salvage the atrocious dialogue because he was the villain and came off as a bratty prick, not as someone the audience identified with.
Further, having CG actors doesn't allow you to do anything you couldn't with human actors. Audiences fell in love with the original trilogy because they could identify with the heroes. Star Wars doesn't need flying green yodas and mortal combat robots. In the original trilogy the supernatural Force powers were natural-seeming extensions of ordinary people who rose to the occassion to accomplish extraordinary things because of their humanity, not in spite of it, and not by gimmicks or arcade fighting moves.
But then any ability to relate to the characters was pretty much ruined by Mr. Lucas explaining away everything in terms of bio-technological elitism.
The duel between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader in the original trilogy was 10x more compelling and emotional than anything in the new trilogy, eventhough it was slow paced and had no video game acrobatics.
You know, at this point: screw it. There's nothing redeeming left about the Star Wars universe. Have at it Mr. Lucas. I hope you make millions turning the franchise into a DragonBall Z ripoff. Jedis' hair volume and color should correlate to their Jedi rank and powers. That's really all that's left to do.
OVER 9000 (Re:Why use CG actors?) (Score:2)
Qui-Gon: "Obi Wan, run an analysis of this sample."
Obi Wan: "Anakin's Midichlorian count... It's OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAND!!!!!!!!! "
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Entrapment (Score:2)
In the first movies, with only 1 jedi at the time, we get all the stories about how great and powerful they were, but he didn't really have to deliver. Then in the GT cartoons, we see Mace Windu kill thousands of droids at one time. Then they toss in Grievous. So now we are supposed to see the bad-ass jedi being bad-ass....THEN Grievous is supposed to be slightly better, good enough to be able to kill several jedi. A
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He's still following his dream. (Score:2)
Of course if Lucus did this the first 500 or so that would show up on youTube would be "Die Jar Jar Die" or "How Lu
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Looks not bad. (Score:2)
It looks not bad. For a TV show.
To me the real question, would be any meat in the show? or just another jedi/force show off?
I personally have seen enough of it. New story set in Star Wars world would be definitely more interesting then reiteration of all the stuff we all read/seen/watched before many times.
So it's just a question: would Lucas manage to find a good writers for the show? If story line would be good, I frankly can tolerate crappy graphics. But if it would be great graphics and thousa
Mixed Feelings (Score:2)
It started to go downhill when Lucas started "Disney-fying" it. At first, it was with Ewoks and then it turned into Jar-Jar. I was putting up with that until the "midichlorians" came. That ruined it for me--why couldn't the force just be "the force?" Midifuckingchlorians? Bugs in the blood? WTF, George? Sorry I digress...
The computer animated series looks pretty
Problems in Tinseltown (Score:2)
This summer's movies so far don't look good. Right now, we have two #3 sequels, and two zombie movies. One of which is a #3 sequel. Last week we had a #3 sequel. On the "serious" movie side, we have two movies about pregnancy and abortion. Coming up next week is a a #3 sequel to a remake of a heist movie.
Compared to that, another all-CG Star [Wars|Trek|Gate] TV show sounds good. But that's relative.
Just wait. In a few months, the MPAA will be screaming again that DVD sales are down because of pi
Looks awesome (Score:2)
Also, I am greatly looking forward to seeing Grevious being the ass kicking half-robot we knew he could be from the Clone Wars series, but never lived up to in the movie...
For those that have not seen all the Clone Wars cartoons, you need to - they were a whole other Star W
Someone else make a movie PLEASE! (Score:4, Insightful)
These days, we've all got ridiculously high-powered PCs, and many people have one or move of 3DSMAX/BLENDER(free)/VUE/POSER/DAZ-STUDIO(free)/C
These days, anyone can make a science fiction movie. The concept has already been proven by Star Warz Fan Boys who have made their own Star Wars rip offs, on the cheap but with great SFX and decent production quality. Sadly the Fan Boys used Lucas' old material instead of getting an original idea in their head. Lucas' prequels have taught us how *not* to make a movie. Now lets put that to practice.
Some come on people, get together! We don't need to wait for Lucas to dream up next years line of would-be Christmas presents and cheesy merchandising. Do your own damned movies! Instead of another Star Wars rehash, how about something new? Indy bands can now put out music without signing away to the RIAA cartel. We can do the same.
I'll watch every episode and buy the DVDs... (Score:2)
Natalie Portman doesn't look hot (Score:2)
Also, haven't we got further in 3D tech today? I mean, with ILM or LucasFilm or whoever's server farm that's backing this project up. Yoda look weird. Others supposedly-humans don't look human nearly as much like the now (in computer tech-age) old Final Fantasy movie. But maybe the intention was to make them resemble cartoon characters more than real actors to avoid the uncanny valley or something.
Anyway, I personally thought the Cl
"Modern browser", eh? (Score:2)
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Just because it is 3d doesn't mean it has to be photorealistic.
Re:Production quality? (Score:4, Funny)
Even Yoda's got to be saying, "A cartoon I am in. Soon, the end of the franchise it will be."
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Basically what I got from these episodes is how cool Jedi
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Re:Eh, CG... (Score:4, Insightful)
Personally, I'd rather see South Park, Terrance & Phillip, Clerks, etc style animation instead of CG. Something similar to Batman Beyond would be pretty cool for this.
I like animation, hell, most of what I watch is animated (South Park, Family Guy, Simpsons, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, etc). CG just really annoys me.
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Personally, I'd rather see South Park, Terrance & Phillip, Clerks, etc style animation instead of CG. Something similar to Batman Beyond would be pretty cool for this.
I know what you mean, it's the uncanny valley. [slate.com] They DO seem to be trying to avoid that, from what I can see here. Note especially Kenobi's(?) beard. Threre's not enough to tell if they're sucessful, unfortunately.
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Motion capture helps a lot with 3-D stuff, but it's probably still too expensive to do for a TV show that's got to do a couple dozen episodes a year. Movement in the new Clone Wars series looked acceptable to me, but I'd agree that it's less than perfect--some movements too quick, some too exagg
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Not that care, I
Is that you, Yoda?
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I see what you did there... (Score:2)
*grin*
DO NOT WANT
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It's a Stylistic Design choice, it's got nothing to do with technical capability.