Begun the microseries has...

November 10, 2003 5:03 AM

Begun the microseries has...in a very interesting format. Star Wars: Clone Wars will be shown in two sets of ten installments, each three minutes long, which can be viewed on the Cartoon Network's website the day after they are aired. Director Genndy Tartakovsky (of Samurai Jack fame) seems to be doing a good job, based on my impressions of the first episode. Can this series help redeem the Star Wars franchise for the thousands (millions?) who feel cheated by the shoddy prequels?
posted by UKnowForKids (18 comments total)

The site looks fairly interesting... However, for some reason, when I tried to watch episode one, it said that the website's contents were only available to people in the United States.... And here, I thought they'd put it on the Internet for everyone to enjoy...
posted by Caffine_Fiend at 6:15 AM on November 10, 2003

That's really annoying.

Anyone have a mirror or work around?
posted by will at 6:30 AM on November 10, 2003

"it said that the website's contents were only available to people in the United States"

Maybe its their way of saving $$ by only reaching the potential market for their product... interesting.
posted by insomnia_lj at 6:30 AM on November 10, 2003

Well so much for that New World Order they keep talking about... I think the games over at the Cartoon Network's blatant marketing ploy for Star Wars are kinda fun. Particularly the one where you're playing demolition derby with one of Dooku's henchmen or whatever. Getting up to ramming speed and broadsiding the bad guy. Senseless violence is always an attention getter. Actually come to think of it, the other games were lame and stupid but that one was lame and stupid in a more enjoyable way.
posted by ZachsMind at 6:45 AM on November 10, 2003

Maybe I'm doing something stupid, but when I clicked to watch "chapter 1" and the little Star Wars box popped up, a quicktime of some Anime called "Tri-gun" started playing. The graphics of the player are Clone Wars graphics and the IE box says Clone Wars so . . .?
posted by dgaicun at 7:26 AM on November 10, 2003

Cheated? I love the prequels. No redemption necessary.
posted by muckster at 7:42 AM on November 10, 2003

Can this series help redeem the Star Wars franchise for the thousands (millions?) who feel cheated by the shoddy prequels?

no.
posted by 40 Watt at 8:01 AM on November 10, 2003

>Anyone have a mirror or work around?

There's Kazaa's network. Its truly international and a high-quality 38 megabyte version is being shared as I type this.

I saw it the night it came out and its really neat, but the whole gimmick aspect turns me off. I'd much rather see Genndy try his hand at a few half-hour episodes of Clone Wars. Genndy is incredibly talented and its almost silly to get 3 minutes worth of his stuff at a time.
posted by skallas at 8:03 AM on November 10, 2003

Trigun does rock, but Star Wars it is not.

I think Vash the Stampede could take the Sith.
posted by ilsa at 8:07 AM on November 10, 2003

I'm also suffering from the outside-the-United-States problem. So much for the "World Wide" web...

Could anyone advise:
a. a good proxy which will enable a UK resident to view streaming media which has been limited to US connections
and
b. the file name of the video so I can search on KaZaA?

many thanks
posted by skylar at 8:10 AM on November 10, 2003

skylar, just search for 'Clone wars'

The author will be cartoon network.
posted by skallas at 8:26 AM on November 10, 2003

I hadn't heard about this before I saw the first episode. I was certain it was some kind of parody and laughed all the way through it. Yoda and Anakin looked really silly and the dialogue and facial expressions in the Jedi planning meeting was so over the top, and the action scenes were so exaggerated and silly looking.

Maybe no one told the animators it wasn't a parody? Next you'll tell me Space Ghost Coast to Coast is supposed to be a serious interview show.
posted by straight at 8:40 AM on November 10, 2003

You know, I graded on a steep curve with this thing being pretty easily amused and a fan of both the prequels and Samurai Jack, and I still felt like I was watching little more than a pointless commercial.
posted by dong_resin at 8:49 AM on November 10, 2003

...cheated by the shoddy prequels?

I love this. Like the original SW was an art house classic rather than good ol' family ennertainment with cool FX...
posted by i_cola at 9:54 AM on November 10, 2003

It was weak. The first five minutes of any Samurai Jack episode is usually enough to make you plant your ass and watch the rest.

This one? Not so much.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:41 AM on November 10, 2003

For all the hype surrounding this, I was hoping for so much more. You really don't get a sense of just how incredibly short 3 minutes are until you see a 20 second scene of Anakin taking off and waving goodbye to his gurlfriend. Jesus how contrived.

And can we please stop with the "he's too young to be doing (insert dangerous mission here)" followed up by angry teenage narrowed-eyebrows and a "I can do anything you can do better!" retort of somesort. Didn't Anakin already take out some really big, bad Jedi? Didn't Anakin win that pod-race thing at age -- what, like, 5? This deliberate and obvious "setup" for his angst (while at the same time garnering favor from the pre-adolescents watching who think their parents are similarly unfair) is getting very, very tiring.

Oh, and the drawing sucked, too. There's artisitic style, and there's artistic bastardization. This was the latter. Anakin looked like a 6'5" hulking 30-year old with a head as angled and large as some national monuments. And do you think with all the money invested they could have upped the framerate to something greater than a frame or two every second? This isn't Pokemon.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 2:31 PM on November 10, 2003

The second episode was excellent and fell into traditional animation pacing. The first one was very much the quick intro. Can't wait for 3.
posted by skallas at 7:19 AM on November 11, 2003

While the "he's too young thing" does get old, I thought it was important here because 1.) Obi Wan was right, no matter what accomplishments he has, he needs more mental control... just being a great fighter/pilot/etc. isn't enough for the sort of spiritual battles they undergo 2.) In this case, Anakin is sent because the Jedis still haven't caught on that the head of the "Republic" is actually the Sith Lord who aims to corrupt him.

Sure, it's typical adolescent behavior, but I can't see it really reinforcing any but the most thick-headed adolescents, since they have to realize the consequences of this behavior in Anakin's case...
posted by dagnyscott at 2:36 PM on November 11, 2003