And now for something completely different.
Early this past May, very early on in this blog's life, I shared some rare pieces of concept art for the 2003 Cartoon Network micro-series, Star Wars: Clone Wars. At the end of the post, I teased that I had something planned for the show's 20th anniversary in November. Now, that day has finally come! it was 20 years ago today that Genndy Tartakovsky and his team at Cartoon Network Studios brought us Star Wars: Clone Wars. Bridging the gap between the second and third prequel films, the show became an instant success, earning several Emmies and a third season of five additional chapters. As a little kid who loved cartoons and Star Wars, it was like a dream come true for me personally. To this day, I still consider it to be the best Star Wars media outside of the films themselves. So sit back as I share this newspaper article previewing the show. It's dated to the sixth of November, 2003, and appeared in the Nashua Telegraph. Before I share it, yes, I'm well aware this topic is a little outside of the focus for this blog, but hey, a lot of the crew that worked on this series started off at Hanna-Barbera. Beyond that, I've also got a nice piece of trivia to share with you at the end of this piece that connects the micro-series to one of HB's most famous characters.
Cartoon Network to air 'Clone Wars'
By Rob Owen
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
First 10 of 20 three-minute 'Star Wars' micro-episodes premiers on Friday.
Premiering at 9 p.m. EST Friday on Cartoon Network, the first 10 of an anticipated 20 three-minute "micro-episodes" fills in some gaps in the story between "Star Wars: Episode Two -- Attack of the Clones" and "Star Wars: Episode Three," due in theaters in 2005. (The second 10 "Clone Wars" shorts will air next year.) Cartoon Network did not make "Clone Wars" available for review.
Some fans may even breathe a sigh of relief knowing that although "Star Wars" creator George Lucas OK'd this animated adventure, he didn't write it. That task fell to 33-year-old Genndy Tartakovsky, who was a child when the original "Star Wars" films were released and went on to create Cartoon Network's
"Samurai Jack" and "Dexter's Laboratory."
"It's the mythology, the sincere science fiction of it," Tartakovsky said of the enduring "Star Wars" appeal. "With other science-fiction, it kind of feels fake, but because this universe is so old and we've grown up with it, it feels legitimate."
At first, Lucas just wanted one-minute stories that could keep the franchise alive in some form between films, but Tartakovsky couldn't imagine doing anything substantial in such a short cartoon clip/ Lucas ultimately agreed to three-minute shorts, but that was still cause for concern, so Tartakovsky took several episodes of "Samurai Jack" and cut them down to three minutes to see how they'd play.
"The more we got into it, the more we realized all we could do was give juicy, juicy bits without fat," he said. "Every shot had to be like a money shot. You couldn't waste any time. On first viewing, they definitely go by fast. If you watch it twice or three times over, it slows down and is really comfortable to watch."
The spine that the "Clone Wars" episodes cling to is a battle on the planet Muunilinst with the Republic forces led by Obi-Wan Kenobi. Anakin Skywalker leads the Clone Army in a space battle and ultimately disobeys Kenobi's orders, again foreshadowing Skywalker's turn to the dark side that will see him become Darth Vader. On the water planet Mon Calamari, the Jedi Kit Fisto - first seen in "Attack of the Clones" - gets into an underwater lightsaber battle. The insufferable Jar-Jar Binks is nowhere to be seen.
"He didn't have a place," Tartakovsky said generously.
In preparation for "Clone Wars," Tartakovsky watched episodes from the 1980s-era ABC Saturday morning cartoons "Droids" and "Ewoks," but he found them to be "kind of lackluster."
"I didn't want to do 'Star Wars: The Animated Series,' we wanted to do 'Star Wars' in animation," he said. "We wanted to have that same 'Star Wars feel."
"Clone Wars" uses the famous John Wiliams "Star Wars" score, but relies on different voice actors for the familiar characters with the exception of Anthony Daniels, who returns as fussbudget robot C-3PO.
Tartakovsky compared "Clone Wars" to HBO's World War II miniseries "Band of Brothers," whjch presented the Allied campaign in Europe as a series of day-in-the-life stories. And he said he thinks "Clone Wars" will fit nicely in the "Star Wars" canon.
As a "Star Wars" fan that grew up with the original trilogy, Tartakovsky said it was a dream to work on a project of this scope. He was also drawn to the idea of telling stories of Jedi, those knights of the "Star Wars" universe.
"I'm a big samurai fan, so the whole idea of the Jedi is similar to samurai having that code and honor and a higher force above guiding them. That's really appealing to me. But it all really boils down to a cool shot of a cool spaceship flying by."
Now, trivia time. Look at the character below, who appeared in the show's twentieth chapter. Looks familiar, doesn't he? Maybe like a certain member of Mystery Incorporated? Well, it wasn't unintentional! This Jedi is named "Sha'a Gi", and was intended to be an homage to Shaggy of Scooby-Doo fame. In the show's DVD commentary, Tartakovsky even stated he wanted him to have Shaggy's cowardly voice, but decided against it in the end, feeling it was "too goofy." Too bad we never got Jedi versions of the rest of the Scooby gang!
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