Rumor: George Lucas is planning another Star Wars trilogy

Telefrog · 2010-10-29T09:31:31.000Z

dermot:

For some reason though, I’m nearly finding the changes they made to the music at the start and end more annoying than anything they made a balls of in the prequel films.

Gods, yes! Why do they use such crap music in the intro of the series? They have the perfect music already. What made them think this sounded good?

Zylon · 2010-10-29T09:46:49.000Z

What made them think everybody looking like a wood carving would be good?

Gedd · 2010-10-29T12:37:15.000Z

dermot:

My son and I have been watching the Clone Wars cartoons (the CGI ones). I’m actually enjoying them

D’oh, thanks for the reminder. I completely forgot since we switched from DVR service on our cable to WMC that I needed to start watching Clone Wars online when the season started.

MattKeil · 2010-10-29T13:46:49.000Z

dermot:

<whisper>even Jar-Jar isn’t as annoying in the context of a cartoon.</whisper> Though I do wonder why they continue to let him get involved in things considering how much he costs the Republic in respect of accidentally destroyed space ships and so on.

I dunno, every time Anakin leaves the house he gets a cruiser or three blown to bits. Money doesn’t seem to be an issue for the Republic.

I remain surprised at how much the show gets away with that no other “kids” show would ever even attempt. Dead bodies onscreen, onscreen torture death, brain-controlling worms forcibly turning humans into zombies…there’s some nightmare fuel in here. It is awesome.

dermot · 2010-10-29T13:54:28.000Z

Tell me about it - thankfully my wife hasn’t noticed that myself and my 2 year-old are watching something this gruesome. Then again, he’s young enough that he doesn’t have any understanding of what’s going on.

Mordrak · 2010-10-30T00:56:24.000Z

MattKeil:

I remain surprised at how much the show gets away with that no other “kids” show would ever even attempt. Dead bodies onscreen, onscreen torture death, brain-controlling worms forcibly turning humans into zombies…there’s some nightmare fuel in here. It is awesome.

Eh, that’s all child’s play compared to Invader Zim’s Dark Harvest episode. Edit: And in Hamstergeddon, iirc, a bus load of people bite it, in addition to other collateral damage. And if Giganto-Baby isn’t nightmare inducing, I don’t know what is.

MattKeil · 2010-10-30T01:46:58.000Z

Well, you let me know when Invader Zim is Star Wars.

dermot · 2010-10-30T01:58:19.000Z

Zylon:

What made them think everybody looking like a wood carving would be good?

Eye of the beholder and all that but I actually like the art direction for the most part. Sometimes things are a bit too dark for some reason. I was watching a Grievous-heavy episode yesterday and the thought occurred to me that although the human and alien characters are quite stylised, the droid ones don’t seem to be (other than that ‘water-colour’ style of painting that they have).

Mordrak · 2010-10-30T11:37:45.000Z

MattKeil:

Well, you let me know when Invader Zim is Star Wars.

You said, the show gets away with stuff no other “kids” show would attempt and I’m just pointing out that’s not necessarily true.

You’re the one that broadened the conversation to shows beyond Star Wars and put your point in such absolute terms. I agree, it sounds like Star Wars does stuff that’s not as common in kids shows generally. Though, to give you a comparison, Clone Wars is rated TV-PG which means it’s meant for children (at least w/o parental guidance) over the age of 10. Over the age of 10, that stuff doesn’t seem nearly as bad (especially if it’s not particularly graphic). However, Invader Zim was rated for air TV-Y7 according to IMDB.

Of course Invader Zim is hardly a current show and its content was part of the reason (along with its creator) it had so much trouble on Nickelodeon. However, it did attempt things that are on par (or more so in some cases) than the examples you listed from Clone Wars.

The difference is the brand mostly. It’st he same reason the LotR movies could get away with stuff other films would have trouble doing without major studio support pushing it through the ratings agencies.

MattKeil · 2010-10-30T11:50:22.000Z

I guess I never really saw Invader Zim as much of a kid’s show. It’s a cartoon, but it’s clearly made for a more adult audience. Clone Wars, because it’s Star Wars, is by default going to be targeted at (or at least appealing to) children.

Mordrak · 2010-10-30T12:17:49.000Z

MattKeil:

I guess I never really saw Invader Zim as much of a kid’s show. It’s a cartoon, but it’s clearly made for a more adult audience. Clone Wars, because it’s Star Wars, is by default going to be targeted at (or at least appealing to) children.

Invader Zim did better in its test screening with children than any other Nick test pilot. It’s one of the only reasons it got greenlit and the producer Mary Harrington contacted Jhonen after reading SQUEE! because she felt he had an insight into the way kids see the world even if the material was very adult.

The show was definitely aimed at kids, even if it became kind of a cult show for teens and young adults. It wasn’t helped by the scheduling shenanigans at Nick, but the content*, Jhonen’s attitude with management, and 9/11**… no really, basically is what put it at odds with the network in general and eventually killed it.

I have a feeling the Clone Wars producers are dealing with a similar age crossover and that’s influencing their content as much or more so than Invader Zim, but they have the brand backing them up.

*What’s important to note here is how parents receive it, as much as kids. Kids could love it, but it has to pass muster with adult censors basically. Neil Gaiman joked about this in talking about writing and selling the Graveyard Book.

**IIRC, they were working on “Walk for your Lives” where an explosion slowly explodes and eventually destorys an entire city when 9/11 happened. After that, the show got a lot more heat and scrutiny from management.

Alan_Dunkin · 2010-10-30T12:37:13.000Z

MattKeil:

I dunno, every time Anakin leaves the house he gets a cruiser or three blown to bits. Money doesn’t seem to be an issue for the Republic.

I remain surprised at how much the show gets away with that no other “kids” show would ever even attempt. Dead bodies onscreen, onscreen torture death, brain-controlling worms forcibly turning humans into zombies…there’s some nightmare fuel in here. It is awesome.

I dunno I think I saw all of that happening in Animaniacs a while ago…

— Alan

MattKeil · 2010-10-30T14:29:22.000Z

Rimbo · 2010-10-30T23:16:59.000Z

MattKeil:

No, no, no… FINGER prints. FINGER prints.