Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Clone Wars
I missed a lot of The Clone Wars when they were originally aired on the Cartoon Network and only recently broke down and bought the DVD. I loved them. I thought that the voice talent was outstanding. I thought the story was well done. The lack of dialogue is understandable, since they were aired in three-minute segments, they really didn't have time to spend chatting. I liked the little details, such as the lightsaber and the rain. The choreography of the fight scenes was like watching a ballet. All of it was excellent.
I only had one problem, though. It's my own hang-up, I guess, because I've wanted an animated Star Wars series ever since Timothy Zahn wrote Heir to the Empire. I figured that since the actors from the original series were getting a bit long in the tooth, I wanted them to adapt the novels into an animated series or a series of movies. Now, this was the early to mid nineties, and I had recently seen Akira, and I had a new understanding of what the possibilities were with animation. Prior to that, animation to me was Bugs Bunny, G.I. Joe and the crap that Disney made. I saw that not only could animation be for adults, but I was amazed at the detail, the way people's clothing moved, the way they used light and shadow, and so on.
Since then, the animation coming out of Japan has just gotten better and better. Sure, there's the crap like Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon. But there's also been Ghost in the Shell, Blood: The Last Vampire and even a few American attempts like The Animatrix.
Anyway, back to my problem. My problem is with the style of the animation. I didn't care for the way it was drawn. I have tremendous respect for Genndy Tartakovsky. I liked Samurai Jack and I like his style. It just wasn't right for Star Wars. It was, for lack of a better term, too cartoony.
For me, the visual approach for Star Wars has always been to make it look as real as humanly possible. In 1977, George Lucas could have employed existing technologies to make Star Wars. It could have gotten the job done, but it would have looked pretty bad. It wasn't good enough. It had to look so real that everyone would believe what they saw.
So, that's what I wanted from a Star Wars cartoon. I wanted the detail that you find in Ghost in the Shell 2. It didn't have to be in the traditional anime style, with the big eyes and so on. (If you see Ghost in the Shell 2, they don't use that either and opt for a more realistic look.) But if you think that the details in The Clone Wars were impressive, think about what Mamoru Oshii could have done with it.
I only had one problem, though. It's my own hang-up, I guess, because I've wanted an animated Star Wars series ever since Timothy Zahn wrote Heir to the Empire. I figured that since the actors from the original series were getting a bit long in the tooth, I wanted them to adapt the novels into an animated series or a series of movies. Now, this was the early to mid nineties, and I had recently seen Akira, and I had a new understanding of what the possibilities were with animation. Prior to that, animation to me was Bugs Bunny, G.I. Joe and the crap that Disney made. I saw that not only could animation be for adults, but I was amazed at the detail, the way people's clothing moved, the way they used light and shadow, and so on.
Since then, the animation coming out of Japan has just gotten better and better. Sure, there's the crap like Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon. But there's also been Ghost in the Shell, Blood: The Last Vampire and even a few American attempts like The Animatrix.
Anyway, back to my problem. My problem is with the style of the animation. I didn't care for the way it was drawn. I have tremendous respect for Genndy Tartakovsky. I liked Samurai Jack and I like his style. It just wasn't right for Star Wars. It was, for lack of a better term, too cartoony.
For me, the visual approach for Star Wars has always been to make it look as real as humanly possible. In 1977, George Lucas could have employed existing technologies to make Star Wars. It could have gotten the job done, but it would have looked pretty bad. It wasn't good enough. It had to look so real that everyone would believe what they saw.
So, that's what I wanted from a Star Wars cartoon. I wanted the detail that you find in Ghost in the Shell 2. It didn't have to be in the traditional anime style, with the big eyes and so on. (If you see Ghost in the Shell 2, they don't use that either and opt for a more realistic look.) But if you think that the details in The Clone Wars were impressive, think about what Mamoru Oshii could have done with it.
