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The 2008 'The Clone Wars' animated theatrical movie - a general discussion thread

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 (Edited)

Has Lucas gone completely crazy??!!! You just don’t get it George, nobody wants to see your wet dreams. After 3 strikes of the PT and then Indy 4, nobody is going to be fooled this time. Face it, it’s over. The only way anyone will pay attention to this is if Jar Jar Binks dies a violent death! George, why don’t you use all those computers for something useful for a change, have that thing killed a gruesome death so the world can gasp a sigh of relief. Of course, that will contradict your super-duper special edition since you arguably put him in ROTJ, but who cares!!!

 

 
The 2008 ‘The Clone Wars’ animated theatrical movie - Wookieepedia Page : Lucasfilm Wiki Page : IMDB Page : Wikipedia Page

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Kids will see it. Its just summer candy for the kiddies, nothing new in Lucas-land and not necessarily a bad thing either; god knows Droids, Ewoks, and the two live-action movies aren't exactly pinnacles of the cinema. You just have to treat it with the bat of eye and move on. Unless you are under 10 years old--then, its probably something to get excited about.

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This new movie is how George should have done the PT.  Just a quickie cartoon, and then they are forgotten.

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Fairly obvious you dont have kids Janskeet.My eldest son is four and while this may not be Star Wars as it was when I was a kid it is still going to be a real blast going to see it with him as he is really excited about it and anything that gets him that excited about SW is fine with me.

Calm down man.It is what it is-an animated movie.Dont want to see it?Don't.Not like someone is holding a bloody gun to yer head!

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Yeah I guess you guys are right, I don't know what I was smoking when I typed that.

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i wonder why more people have watched the PT than the OT ???

 

was everybody fooled?

 

later

-1

[no GOUT in CED?-> GOUT CED]

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negative1 said:

i wonder why more people have watched the PT than the OT ???

 

i wonder where you just pulled that completely unsubstantiated 'fact' from?

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negative1 said:

i wonder why more people have watched the PT than the OT ???

 

was everybody fooled?

 

later

-1

more people didn't see the PT. Back when the OT was at the cinema you could buy a ticket for the first showing and stay in all day if you wanted to (which i did on a few occasions), yet it still make a shed load of cash. Now when the PT came out you were only allowed to sit in for the one showing. Check out all the available movie charts online that have ticket price adjusted figures and you'll see that the PT isn't even in the top 10.

as for the Clone wars movie, i can't believe that its less than 2 weeks away and that it will be the fist Star Wars movie that i won't be going to the cinema to see and that i'd almost forgot that it was even coming out. Many people i have spoke to here were shocked to hear there was another movie that was going to be at the cinema this month. I think that says hell of a lot as to what Star Wars has become. There is just no interest in it here at all from anyone above school age.

It does remind me of the 2 Ewok movies that were made for TV but were only shown here at the cinema. Just a way to squeeze even more money out of the fans for something that was originally made for TV.

 

ANH:REVISITED
ESB:REVISITED

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 (Edited)

I think it is fairly obvious that Lucas is REALLY targeting this cartoon to kids, and I honestly don't have a problem with it.  I could care less about it, but if it works for kids under the age of 10, that's cool with me.

I was bothered when Lucas states that the OT movies were always made for kids, and continued saying that for the PT movies, even though Episode III was PG-13.  You can't have it both ways, as you can make a movie made for teenagers/adults that kids can enjoy like the OT, but don't say they were always made for kids, cause we all know that isn't true by the tone of ESB.

I really havent' thought of the Clone War movie as I have no interest in it at all, but as I said, I think kids will enjoy, and it will be forgotten in a couple years like most summer movies.

And Negative1, what the heck are you talking about more people saw the PT then the OT, did you ever hear of inflation?  When I saw ROTJ in 1983, a ticket was about $3.00, and when I saw ROTS in 2005, a ticket was about $10.00.   I am starting to wonder whether you are just a troll who is coming here to stir things up.....

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ok, lets take a look:

 

Star Wars franchise:

Rank Title (click to view) Studio Gross / Theaters Opening / Theaters Date
1 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace Fox $431,088,301 3,126 $64,820,970 2,970 5/19/1999
2 Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Fox $380,270,577 3,663 $108,435,841 3,661 5/19/2005
3 Star Wars Fox $307,263,857 1,750 $1,554,475 43 #####
4 Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones Fox $302,191,252 3,161 $80,027,814 3,161 5/16/2002
5 Return of the Jedi Fox $252,583,617 1,764 $23,019,618 1,002 5/25/1983
6 The Empire Strikes Back Fox $209,398,025 1,278 $4,910,483 126 #####
7 Star Wars (Special Edition) Fox $138,257,865 2,375 $35,906,661 2,104 1/31/1997
(Re-release)
8 The Empire Strikes Back (Special Edition) Fox $67,597,694 2,322 $21,975,993 2,111 2/21/1997
(Re-release)
9 Return of the Jedi (Special Edition) Fox $45,470,437 2,111 $16,293,531 2,111 3/14/1997
(Re-release)
10 Star Wars (Re-issue) Fox $15,476,285 1,070 $3,766,803 1,070 8/13/1982
(Re-release)
11 The Empire Strikes Back (Re-issue) Fox $13,276,241 1,006 $3,949,478 992 ########
(Re-release)
12 Return of the Jedi (Re-issue) Fox $11,252,123 894 $3,209,056 849 3/29/1985
(Re-release)
13 Attack of the Clones: The IMAX Experience (IMAX) Fox $8,485,488 58 $1,435,259 58 11/1/2002
(Re-release)


Lifetime Gross Total (6): $2,182,611,762
Average: $363,768,627
Opening Gross Average (10): $36,140,577 (Wide Releases Only)

Box office performance

Film Release date Box office revenue Box office ranking
United States Foreign Worldwide All-time domestic All-time worldwide
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope[68] May 25, 1977 $460,935,665 $337,000,000 $797,900,000 #2 #19
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back[69] May 21, 1980 $290,158,751 $243,700,000 $533,800,000 #30 #48
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi[70] May 25, 1983 $309,125,409 $263,700,000 $572,700,000 #24 #42
Original Star Wars trilogy $1,060,219,825 $844,400,000 $1,904,400,000
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace[71] May 19, 1999 $431,065,444 $491,314,983 $922,379,000 #5 #7
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones[72] May 16, 2002 $310,675,583 $337,600,000 $648,200,000 #22 #32
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith[73] May 19, 2005 $380,262,555 $468,200,000 $848,462,555 #8 #16
Prequel Star Wars trilogy $1,122,003,582 $1,298,114,983 $2,419,041,555
Complete Star Wars film series $2,182,223,407 $2,141,514,983 $4,323,441,555

 

 

i'll be using the figures from the adjusted table at box office mojo also..

 

[to be completed later]

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

 

don't you guys EVER do your homework?

 

later

-1

[no GOUT in CED?-> GOUT CED]

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 (Edited)

Did you bother to add up your own numbers?  With the reissue and SE alone, Star Wars beats out TPM.  Not that that matters.  The only important numbers are the adjusted ones.  Star Wars comes in at 1.2 Billion.  TPM has about half that.

Take your made up facts elsewhere.

Besides, you can't easily use Box Office numbers (for either series) to figure out how many times those movies have been seen.  I personally watched Star Wars (the original) everyday throughout summer when I was 10, so that's about 90 views right there that aren't going to show up in your list.  I haven't ever done that for any of the PT.

F Scale score - 3.3333333333333335

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Pissing off Rob since August 2007.
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-1, I am not quite sure what you are trying to prove, or why it matters to you so much. Even if more people really did watch the PT than the OT, so what? Is it suppose to change the way we feel about the PT? Prove it is the better series? I don't see how.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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Negative-1,

 

what you are forgetting is that in 1977 a ticket cost $2. In 1999, a ticket cost $10. So when TPM makes $100, that means 10 people saw it. When Star Wars makes $100, that means 50 people saw it.

Also, most people under the age of 30 today never saw it in theaters; they were born too late. Star Wars was a huge film on video--it was the first VHS to make a million dollars in rentals. It was also one of the top rated films when it came to HBO. In 1995, the VHS "faces" set sold nine million units in its first week; many of the people buying them (ie kids under 18 years old) were not alive when the film was theatrically released. And since then, the SE grossed $138 million theatrically, made almost as much on video, and then the SE DVD set was one of the best selling DVDs of all time when it came out.

So, please don't pull numbers out of your ass without keeping them in context. Very few people actually saw the prequels--it was mostly kids and fanboys. Everyone saw Star Wars; it was like when Titanic came out. Grandmas and children were going to the theater. But Star Wars is also the greatest film in terms of historical survival because so many young people from the second generation saw it that when it was released in 1997 it still to this day holds the record for biggest January opening.

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As another thought I wanted to add this.Regardless of the merits of releasing this Clone Wars movie to the cinema,which as has been said is nothing new-LFL have been doing this kind of thing since we were kids too,and disregarding the fact that it is not (to an older fan such as myself) in my view a proper Star Wars film I am really very excited about the prospect of seeing this.

Why?

Very simple.When I came home after ROTS (which as some of you know I really love but that is neither here nor there and just my own opinion) I felt a genuine sadness at the thought that I would never be able to share a Star Wars movie-going experience with my son.I now have two boys,one four and one two,and they are both being introduced to Star Wars through my OOT discs.However my heart just lifted when I heard that this was getting a theatrical release.I dont care whether it is good or not.This one isn't for me it is for him.My father HATED Star Wars yet took me over and over and over to the cinema to see it.My son has the same enthusiasm for Star Wars now as I did when I was a kid and to see and share his excitement in the cinema with this will be just priceless.

Well anyway I was just thinking about this and thought I would add this.Bring on Clone Wars!!!!!

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bigbaddaddyvader said:

Regardless of the merits of releasing this Clone Wars movie to the cinema,which as has been said is nothing new-LFL have been doing this kind of thing since we were kids too...

Keep in mind, this is something new for us in the US, the Ewok films were made for TV movies here in the states. A lot of shows made for TV here in America make it to theaters on your side of the pond. This is the first SW related movie to be released theatrically outside of the actual movies for us.

But I agree, alot of us need to just settle down and get over this. It is for kids, kids will enjoy it.

A lot of us just feel like the SW name is really being drug through the mud and over sold, which is damaging the integrity of the series. But this has really been the case for a long time. Back in the early 80s it was way over marketed, probably more than any film had been marketed before. And it managed to survive and be remembered with fondness.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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Well, I'll admit it was interesting to hear that same announcer voice guy from the prequel commercials on the tv spot for this new Clone Wars movie. Also, the trailers and commercials all saying "coming to your galaxy" is an interesting throwback.

But I think this is exactly why a lot of people are so turned off by it. LFL is treating this as another feature film (check the thread on the new encyclopedia, they actually say there've been four new feature films since '98) and I think fans are bitter because instead of getting a PT that was mostly about the clone wars, we're getting a movie of it after the fact and not in live-action to boot.

The problem I've had with it since the very beginning (when was this new animated series first announced, like three years ago at C3?) is that it's EVEN MORE CLONE WARS for some reason. It kinda sours those three years they used to tell the story in "real time" back between 2002 and 2005. Granted, it was supposed to be the biggest conflict in the history of that galaxy far, far away, so it's not totally unfounded. It's just that it's seemed odd to me from the outset.

I can easily understand why George wanted to do it. This was always described as a new experiment in animation. Until I saw the trailer last year, I was wondering what it was gonna be like (my best guess was something like the most recent animated Spider-Man series that was on mtv a few years ago). Then I saw the trailer and went "huh, so it's like TMNT (which I still haven't seen btw)." I think if they hadn't decided to release it on the big screen, we wouldn't be making such a big deal about it. I had dismissed the show from the very first announcement as "huh, EVEN MORE CLONE WARS? Ah, that's ok, I guess George just wants an actual weekly series as opposed to what Genndy did."

But it's already been said in this thread: this thing is for the kids. Plus, we all have to remember that this wasn't even going to be on the big screen until, what, just before C4? It raises the question (for me, anyways) of whether or not it's just the first several episodes of the tv show, and if so then what ended up happening with the wider aspect ratio (in other words, did they plan to make it a movie before they made it or did they have to recompose the first several episodes in order to make it cinemascope?)

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They may have made it with a wider aspect ratio in mind.  A lot of sci-fi tv shows have been doing that in the last few years.  I know the last season of Buffy was shot, at least somewhat, in a wider ratio and all last season of Smallville was shot in a wider ratio.

With widescreen tvs proliferating, it's not to much of a stretch to think that they filmed it in widescreen already.

I was thinking about why they made it a movie instead of going directly to TV the other day.  The only reason I could come up with is because they couldn't find a home for it initially.  I remember Lucas said in a recent interview that nobody wanted it.  That seems like a perfect reason for putting it in theaters instead.

I believe it's only the first couple of episodes that are tied together into a movie.  After that, the rest is suppose to be on TV.

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Pissing off Rob since August 2007.
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Yea, but the movie is in 2.35:1, which is the really wide aspect ratio. Widescreen tv is 1.78:1, which is what the show will probably be broadcast in when it airs in October. The new movie is widescreen, but it's even wider than what it would be shown in on tv. That's what I'm wondering about.

In regards to why they made the decision to put it in theaters, it's actually the other way around. Once they made the deal with TimeWarner/Turner, the people at Warner Brothers liked what they saw so much that they decided it would be a good idea to distribute a movie theatrically in advance of the actual show.

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The movie's origins are somewhat arbitrary. Lucas screens all the footage in a private theater and said "this looks nice on the big screen, everyone should see it this way." So they initially took a multi-episode storyline and strung the episodes together. But as the project went along they expanded sections and added scenes to make it cohere a little better as a "feature film." Seeing as each episode has a pricetag of a million dollars or so, this thing probably costs less than ten million. There are at least forty or fifty million dollars worth of kids and fanboys out there, so from Warner brothers' point-of-view that means "cha-ching!"

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Hmm, not that I plan to see this, but reading the discussion made me remember that it's not 20th Century Fox releasing this picture!  In that case, how is the movie going to open?  Presumably it will still open with the Star Wars/Luke's Theme fanfare, but won't it sound so strange without the 20th Century Fox theme immediately preceding it?

Small potatoes, I know, but it's still something I felt I needed to put out there.

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I read somewhere in an early review that they came up with some clever way to start the soundtrack in lieu of the 20th Century Fox Fanfare. There's also no opening crawl, apparently.

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I like it [the music], I like that it sounds different.

I thought you guys would be pleased since it seems to help it stand apart as a seperate film and not try to slyly fit into the existing saga.

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Gaffer Tape said:

Hmm, not that I plan to see this, but reading the discussion made me remember that it's not 20th Century Fox releasing this picture!  In that case, how is the movie going to open?  Presumably it will still open with the Star Wars/Luke's Theme fanfare, but won't it sound so strange without the 20th Century Fox theme immediately preceding it?

I think it will, yes.  Everytime I hear the 20th Century Fox fanfare, I immediately expect the Star Wars theme to follow.

Fang Zei said:

I read somewhere in an early review that they came up with some clever way to start the soundtrack in lieu of the 20th Century Fox Fanfare. There's also no opening crawl, apparently.

No opening crawl?  WTH?!

adywan said:

they have samples of the soundtrack here:

Clone Wars Soundtrack

The main tilte sounds like its paying at half speed. It just sounds so strange. I don't like it at all. So i guess that there is no opening crawl by the sounds of things. Also, to me, its sounds more like the soundtrack from one of The Mummy movies than a Star Wars one.

It sounds like it's got a sort of jungle style to it with the big beating drums in the background.  I almost expect to see troops or a battle being waged in a jungle.  I'll have to listen to them all later, but they don't sound to bad to me.  I think I do like that they mixed it up a bit.  They do the same thing, to an extent, for most of the games.

F Scale score - 3.3333333333333335

You are disciplined but tolerant; a true American.

Pissing off Rob since August 2007.