Clone Wars trailer

By
on

This trailer has been out for almost a year, but in case you missed it (or the newer, more action packed one leaked on Gizmodo) I thought I’d open it up here to comments. This Star Wars feature, compiled from episodes of the forthcoming Cartoon Network series, will open August 15th in movie theaters.

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  • erik

    cgi does not a great movie make

  • http://www.tjrmusic.com TJR

    I would have rather this had been in 2D animation.

  • http://www.saturdaymorningcentral.com Tommy Day

    I will probably be better than the prequel trilogy, but not as good as the Gendy Clone Wars from a few years ago. That’s my two cents.

  • http://www.videowatchdog.blogspot.com Tim Lucas

    It’s like the reverse of a usual STAR WARS picture: this time, the non-human characters look like live action in context, while everyone else is a trick shot!

  • Corrado (Anthony)

    I’m suprisingly not that enthused about it. The artwork didn’t look that appealing. And I fear this will be in the same vein of the weak prequels rather than Genndy’s great version of the Clone Wars.

    Some of it looks nice, and some of it looks freaky, but I don’t know about the script. It sounds very farfetched. Even by Star Wars Standards.

    So basically this will not hold a candle to Genndy’s Clone Wars.

  • Gary Pearson

    Tired am I, of the way Yoda speaks.

    Actually the trademarked Lucas style stilted fakey sounding dialogue will be better suited to the faces of computer characters than human actors. The computer generated characters are less likely to stop in the middle of the take and say, “Really? I’m supposed to say that?”

    As has been the situation with the 3 recent films, there is nothing wrong with the action or the visuals presented here, but I wonder if we will we care about the characters. Will once again the millions spent on eye candy will be negated by the shrug of disinterest in the characters’ problems?

  • http://jslipchinsky.blogspot.com Jessie

    it’s a shame that the facial animation is terrible, especially when there’s such a cool dynamic style to the design.

  • EatRune

    Meh . . . the CG doesn’t look so great. I wish Genndy was involved.

  • http://www.jessica-plummer.com Jessica Plummer

    Ugh. I haven’t really been keeping up with any of the Star Wars creations since the release of the junk-food-for-eyes newer movies, so this is the first I’ve seen this – and it just looks like nothing new. They’ve really been straining this whole franchise, and this feature just looks like rehashed material from Episode 3, with a dash of “design” thrown in. I had really enjoyed the 2D Clone Wars series…great design and animation…but it doesn’t translate well here. What a disappointment.

  • http://www.katiecropper.com Katie Cropper

    I’m with Plummer on this one. I really enjoyed Tartakovsky’s clone wars and only a few seconds into this trailer I was pretty dissapointed in its lifelessness.

  • http://www.andyupdates.blogspot.com/ Wolfboy

    Eh. Meh. Sigh. And too bad.

  • Pop-eyed

    The world’s most expensive video game demo screen.

  • Vincent

    Guy Pearson- “but I wonder if we will we care about the characters. Will once again the millions spent on eye candy will be negated by the shrug of disinterest in the characters’ problems?”

    Personally I really have very little interest with the characters because we already know what happens to the characters. So whatever life threating situations the characters get in it won’t be dramatic.

  • http://robcatview.blogspot.com robcat2075

    I imagine the photo-realism has been dialed way down to lessen the need for highly polished character animation. If the Flinstones could hold our attention, these visuals may also, but we won’t know until we see a whole episode and find out what their story sense is.

    If it’s like Eps 1-3, it may be intended for serious fans only.

  • Pedro Nakama

    This was animated in a new studio set up in Singapore. The people at ILM are very nervous because they feel that soon all of their effects work will be outsourced there a la Rhythm and Hues and Sony Imageworks going outsourcing to India.

  • Zekey

    Needs more tartakovsky.
    And more industrial light and magic.

  • http://www.mukpuddy.blogspot.com Mukpuddy

    This looks ok, but I’m really dumbfounded that they went with CG, when Genndy’s series was so awesome and popular… WHY NOT 2D!! And if CG is the route they wanted to take then why the hell did they design it to look like the 2D series. It makes my brain hurt to think about!! And it’d be interesting to hear what Genndy and the rest of the crew on that show think of it!?

  • Mark Sonntag

    I think I’ll just enjoy this for what it is . . . eye candy. I agree that the 2D Clone Wars was really well done, in any case this can’t be any worse than half the junk being greenlit by networks these days.

  • http://www.meanwhilestudios.com Troy Little

    While I’m the furthest thing from a CGI fan I can’t help but get a little excited… With me, I watch Star Wars and I’m 10 again and I don’t care about the obvious flaws in the films.

  • FrankG

    Looks better than that cartoon network clone wars cartoon show. But still worse than the episodes 1 2 and 3. That cartoon network cartoon was insufferable.

  • http://www.animejump.com Mike Toole

    ahahahaha, wow this looks terrible.

    Seriously. I get nothing from that trailer besides “Playstation 2 Video Game Cutscene.”

    I wonder if it’s going to be any better than those unbelievably horrible Marvel Comics cartoon OVAs?

  • John

    Ugly this is… from a bad video game it appears to be.

  • http://www.goldenagecartoons.com Matthew Hunter

    At least it won’t suck as bad as “Episode II: Attack of the Clones”. Nothing can be that bad. MAN did # 2 suck. Maybe that’s why they’re doing the same story AGAIN.

  • Jamie B

    Wow; I guess acting has never been at the forefront of Lucas’s mind, but just how can anyone in their right mind justify releasing a feature film with such shoddy facial and physical animation? There’s no acting here!!! I can’t believe it’s possible for such an otherwise talented group of people not to be able to inject *some* life into the performances of these characters… I hope it’s better than it is, I really do, but a Star Wars movie without real actors bringing even the tiniest hint of humanity to the screen could be one of the biggest disasters in recent movie history!

  • Deems Taylor

    Know who could save this? Any hack film editor. Give him or her a tight budget and turn ‘em loose with the edict to “use the same four shots of Jar Jar Binks whenever it gets dull” and you’d have a program that would hold its own with the rest of the upcoming abysmal tv season. Sometimes not even an editing genius can turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse. But polishing feces to a high gloss is well within Hollywood’s grasp, if not Lucasfilm’s.

  • Jon Garaizar

    its CG becasue no one would watch the 2d one.

    i don’t think anyone will watch this either..

    anyone know how much it cost to make…this?

  • John

    This may be just me but this stuff just doesn’t feel like Star Wars to me. I guess I’m just an old fuddy duddy that enjoys the purity of the old films. Gendy’s stuff was great, in part, because the guys working on it seened to be fans. Gendy’s version of General Grevious is way more menacing than anything we’ve seen in the films, and now this production.

    I don’t mean to ramble on. I’ll probably watch this new Clone Wars series but I’m not in any hurry.

  • Fuzzy Dunlop

    Wow, this hasn’t come out yet and it already feels incredibly dated.

  • Annie-Mae

    Ew, I was under the impression it was going to be 2D. The style does not incorerate well in CGI at all.

  • John Tesco

    I really loved Terrorhawks. The big, inarticualate rubber heads were freaky, in a good way. Fair enough, their entire spectrum of emotion was dictated by how hard the puppeteer worked the mouth, but hey thats all part of the charm. Ok, so what happened here then? The cubes won this round me thinks (too vague?)

  • barney dillweed

    I don’t understand why Lucas is so caught up in the Clone Wars. I have an affection for the story of Luke and what happens next, But you guys are a bunch of snobs. I’d hate…. working on the projects you guys are on. as much bad TV animation that has come out over the years, you would be gnawing your own leg off if the opportunity to work on this came along. I certainly would.

  • Gobo

    “barney”, it doesn’t take a snob to look at this and see a bunch of emotionless action figures standing around. What hurts is that an animated Clone Wars has already been done… and it was one of the best Star Wars projects of the last ten years, bar none. Brilliant stuff.

  • Ira Owens

    “I watch Star Wars and I’m 10 again and I don’t care about the obvious flaws in the films.”

    Great quote and I agree completely.

  • dan

    Man I used to just LOVE Star Wars but since Lucas COMPLETELY ruined the franchise with those last three movies, I couldn’t possibly care less about any of those characters. It’s so sad. :(

  • http://andrewatteberry.blogspot.com Andrew Lee

    There are a lot of nay sayers on here…..obviously they are entitled to their opinions, and i can respect that.

    But I just think it so f’n rad that this one time geek turned an idea into an empire and has the ability and still has the desire to develop it in different ways.

    Perhaps it’ll come off a little lame and lifeless and turn some folks off……but if it was my dime and my product, and I didn’t have to worry about it paying the rent….I would be less concerned about making others happy and more apt to do what I wanted.

    Just my 2 cents.

  • HH

    It’s just robots being blown up. That’s it. No captivating story line and we know everyone dies. It’s like a video game.

  • red pill junkie

    The hair and the beards… goddammit.

    This one seems to have a really low count of midichlorians, but I’ll probably give it the benefit of the doubt.

    Lucas should explore his Universe on different venues, like in the awesome game “Knights of the Old Republic”. I would definitely prefer to see stories spinning around Darth Revan than another Clone Wars tale.

  • brad Constantine

    My 8 year old is gonna love this!!
    all action and little dialogue. This was made for kids.
    I personally prefer acting and dialogue in tv shows….even during the action bits.

  • Matt Sullivan

    I have to agree with Dan. Star Wars used to be this amazing, inspiring thing. Now it’s…well…I hate to say it…fairly inconsequential.

  • Christina S.

    Seriously guys, stop comparing this to video game animation. It’s insulting. At least video games have an excuse to have bad textures and resolution, but even then I can think of tons of games that had better character animation than this.

    Anyways, in addition to the horrible facial expressions, the character designs are terrible. They feel more suited for 2D animation if anything else. As much as I love Star Wars, I’m definitely skipping out on this one…

  • The Obvious

    I’d like to float another idea out there. What I feel this animated incarnation of Star Wars is lacking is Ralph McQuarrie’s sense of design.

    The Ralph McQuarrie aesthetic is what makes something FEEL like Star Wars to me. Everything seems grey or muted pastel mud in the images we’ve seen for “Clone Wars” so far. I actually love the character styling, and when you view the maquettes that were sculpted by the designer (in making of videos) you can see how elegant they are.

    As far as their ability to act (or the animators ability to get them to act with the amount of time and budget they have) I can’t say, but I know Tatsuya Nakadai’s stiff Noh-like performance in “Ran” didn’t keep that film from being moving.

    I think that Gendy Tartakovsky’s series captured the feel of Star Wars well (and without sophisticated facial or hair movement), although I know a lot of people who found the style unapproachable or unappealing. These people aren’t likely to know who Eyvind Earle or Mary Blair are and they felt similarly dispassionate about Samurai Jack (which I also enjoyed)

    I am fortunate to own “The Art of Ralph McQuarrie” book, and looking at his concept paintings for the early Star Wars films (both used and unused) he articulates Star Wars at its most elemental level.

  • JasonM

    I don’t see why Lucas thinks we need another ‘Clone Wars’ series. The Tartakovsky series was great, but I don’t think most ‘Star Wars’ fanatics (such as myself) have a big emotional investment in the “prequel” characters. Why not do a post-’Return of the Jedi’ story? We love those characters! I doubt they could get the original actors to voice the characters, but it would still be better than another animated Anakin.

  • Mark

    HEAR HEAR! The best idea I’ve heard all day.
    BTW: One of my friends pointed out that the Yoda in these trailers looks more like a stiff rubber puppet than the real rubber puppet in “Empire Strikes Back”! I have to agree.

  • http://www.rocarts.com Meredith

    Just saw this movie…unfortunately, as awful as I thought it would be. Weak story. Unlikeable characters. Flat, uninspired animation. Poor lip synch. Really too bad. I wanted to like it. One hour into it I thought, “Is it over yet?” I predict a television flop as well, unless some amazing writing shows up from nowhere. Obviously Lucasfilm failed to understand WHY Genndy’s Clone Wars was successful, and just decided to “get into this animation thing” to sell more toys. Sad.