Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.
A look at Cartoon Networks mini-saga
Published on April 11, 2004 By Draginol In TV Shows

So the Cartoon Network has finished its animated Star Wars series of 5 minute shorts on The Clone Wars. I have to admit, it was really really good. The writing was very strong, the stories interesting, the animation effective, and the action oustanding.

It was Samurai Jack in the Star Wars universe basically. If anything, it makes the battles in the movies look lame. The advantage of animation is that you can do a lot more cool things on the cheap. The force powers shown by Obi Wan and Anakin and Mace Windu certainly blow away what we've seen so far in the movies.

Which of course, creates its own problems -- in these cartoons, one Jedi can take out dozens, if not hundreds of troops single handedly. But in the movies, they're not quite so powerful. But still, that aside, the point is taken - the Jedi are tough. And Anakin is becoming ever more powerful as time goes on.

It definitely makes the third movie looking to be more compelling than the first two prequels. But it also makes me sad. Sad that George Lucas squandered the first two movies with such poor directing and allowing such poor acting to spoil what were, otherwise, reasonably good stories. Whether that be Jar Jar wrecking the first movie in between Anakin's "Yippees" or in the second one with such wooden and artificial acting with Anakin's character that Anakin comes across as creepy rather than intense (the whole "love" story of the Clone Wars is incredibly artificial and lame).

I don't know if Lucas is directing the third one. I hope not. I fear that the inevitable and intense battle between Obi Wan and Anakin will be laughably compared to the battle with the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Only time will tell.

But in the meantime, definitely check out these shorts. They're well done.

 


Comments
on Apr 11, 2004
I was really impressed by the shorts also. I thought they did a fine job with the voice actors as well. I liked how powerful the bad guys were. They sure had some nasties to battle! I only wish that Cartoon Network would have cropped all of the episodes (1-20) into one seamless show instead of having the pain of seeing the whole chapter number and scenes from last time crap in between each one.
on Apr 11, 2004
I'm not a fan of the series, but I did see parts of the shorts, and I did like how powerful they made the Jedis. It makes them seem more significant. I also like how they use the "force" much more in the fights. The actual fights with the light sabers though remind me too much of the original Star Wars episodes though.
on Apr 11, 2004
After reading this, I just went and watched all 20 episodes, they were very well put together. They definately made the jedi look as powerful as they should be.
on Apr 12, 2004
You know, I don't really like Star Wars as much as I should (being a nerd and all), but I love me cartoons, and this is definitely a goodin'. I really enjoyed how if you miss the begining of each episode you miss the whole episode. I watched every episode from beginning to end (not exactly a long time each day, but i did anyways). The only drawback I have is that they only have cartoons for these few moments in time. I wish they could do something awesome like this for more awesome movies. I don't know about Indiana Jones, but I think it would be pretty cool to see what he can do in a cartoon. Maybe he'd be like Jackie Chan or Goku (from DragonBall, DragonballZ, and DragonBallGT). Who knows, I just think it would be awesome to see my hero in ink (or pixels, whatever)

Capt. over and out!
on Apr 12, 2004
It definitely makes the third movie looking to be more compelling than the first two prequels. But it also makes me sad. Sad that George Lucas squandered the first two movies with such poor directing and allowing such poor acting to spoil what were, otherwise, reasonably good stories. Whether that be Jar Jar wrecking the first movie in between Anakin's "Yippees" or in the second one with such wooden and artificial acting with Anakin's character that Anakin comes across as creepy rather than intense (the whole "love" story of the Clone Wars is incredibly artificial and lame).



I hate to say it, but I'm not betting much in favor for a good outcome in the 'last' movie. I find it hard to believe that Lucas would do much more to improve upon the dialogue or directing of actors in the next film. He has always had a great cast to work with in every film, yet never seemed to let the actors really do the job, instead he seemed to fall back on special effects, and uniqueness (in the beginning) of the storyline. What he did for the style of film though, can definitely not be overlooked... it was magical then, and for the following generations, magical to them as well. I was kind of hoping more 'Han and Leia' dynamics, the humor that went with their relationship, rather than what we were left with, with Anakin and Amidala.