Star Wars Animated Film Collection — Page 2

EddieDean said:

That sounds extremely solid; well done! I’d love a link. I’m especially curious about your second movie - I think Cloak and Malevolence are both important to Ahsoka’s early journey. I’m interested to see how you handled Ryloth too, I did a lot of merging of plotlines there and really changed the narrative.

The only major elements that are notably missing from this, off the top of my head, are Zygerria, Umbara, Onderon, and the Order 66 arcs. Arguably Scipio too, but that’s weaker. Any thoughts on those?

Oh, and how did you handle the later Ahsoka-Mandalore content which also includes Lux Bonteri, without his introduction in the ‘Heroes on Both Sides’ arc?

If you’re curious to review some optional alternative approaches which could add value, I’ve got a few episodes that you might be interested in:

• My Ryloth arc, which intercuts Ahsoka in the air with Mace on the ground for a tighter plot.
• My Lair of Grievous/Massacre mix, which uses AI dialogue to frame the Lair of Grievous events as directed by Ventress for revenge against the Sith (rather than related directly to Cloak of Darkness), which then triggers the retaliatory massacre, giving her greater grief about her actions.
• My Corruption on Mandalore arc, which removes the poisoned kids plotline but reshapes the rest into a single Ahsoka-Padmé narrative.
• My Heroes on Both Sides arc, which removes the awful murder subplot and completely restructures the whole into a new narrative tht gives Padmé some real depth and a good bittersweet victory.

Thank you. Yeah, Umbara, Onderon, Heroes on Both Sides and the Younglings arc are my favourites that aren’t included. I considered another film to weave in some of that, but I felt 9 was the right length. And I’m sure those arcs would have felt like padding to me. I’ve included NumeralJoker’s hybrids of the episodes for those and the Order 66 arc in my personal collection to revisit when I want to.

Your edits sound deeply creative. Huge respect for the effort there. I really enjoyed the Lux Bonteri arc, and Padme deserves more love, so I’d be keen to see that. Likewise using AI to tie lair of grievous to massacre sounds excellent.

I’m eagerly waiting for the day voice cloning tools are more accessible and up to my standard for cloning a few of these voices. It’s going to unlock so many possibilities for restructuring the narratives here. My first cuts of these films years ago I tried re-dubbing a few little things to better connect some arcs, constructing dialogue from other sources etc, but was never fully happy with the results. The fourth film in this collection for instance, when the second arc is introduced all it would take is a line of dialogue acknowledging the ongoing conflict from the other arc to make its introduction feel more natural. But alas. One day, soon I think. Ai has already got so good.

Does your the clone wars edit change the siege of mandalore in the last movie

Rebels 1 Feedback:
It works better than I thought as a single movie. A few little things caught my attention:

An Audio transition when Ezra is on roof right in the beginning is a bit rough

Ezras first Hyperspace jump could get a second or two more to breath.

When Ezra meets his contact with the Empire, his fake name is a strong hint that material was cut. Getting rid of that would make it feel more smooth.

When Kanan decides to actually train Ezra you could go directly into the jedi temple journey. The lightsaber practice feels distinctly end of episode like.

When the crew escapes into the sewers they are suddenly split up without explanation. That feels weird.

Beil Organa mentioning a previous meeting with Kanan makes the missing content more obvious. Maybe it is possible to cut around that?

Really really good job though. Condensing this whole season into a movie is impressive.

Rebels 1 Feedback:
It works better than I thought as a single movie. A few little things caught my attention:

An Audio transition when Ezra is on roof right in the beginning is a bit rough

Ezras first Hyperspace jump could get a second or two more to breath.

When Ezra meets his contact with the Empire, his fake name is a strong hint that material was cut. Getting rid of that would make it feel more smooth.

When Kanan decides to actually train Ezra you could go directly into the jedi temple journey. The lightsaber practice feels distinctly end of episode like.

When the crew escapes into the sewers they are suddenly split up without explanation. That feels weird.

Beil Organa mentioning a previous meeting with Kanan makes the missing content more obvious. Maybe it is possible to cut around that?

Really really good job though. Condensing this whole season into a movie is impressive.

Rengokuzan007 said:

Does your the clone wars edit change the siege of mandalore in the last movie

Nope, besides adding Sam Kim’s duel of the fates/Ahsoka theme epic duel remix to the lightsaber battle.
I know Smudger cut quite a lot in his edit, but I think those episodes were perfect.

TheDimitrios said:

Rebels 1 Feedback:
It works better than I thought as a single movie. A few little things caught my attention:

An Audio transition when Ezra is on roof right in the beginning is a bit rough

Ezras first Hyperspace jump could get a second or two more to breath.

When Ezra meets his contact with the Empire, his fake name is a strong hint that material was cut. Getting rid of that would make it feel more smooth.

When Kanan decides to actually train Ezra you could go directly into the jedi temple journey. The lightsaber practice feels distinctly end of episode like.

When the crew escapes into the sewers they are suddenly split up without explanation. That feels weird.

Beil Organa mentioning a previous meeting with Kanan makes the missing content more obvious. Maybe it is possible to cut around that?

Really really good job though. Condensing this whole season into a movie is impressive.

Hey thanks for your feedback. I’m happy with references to off screen content, like Ezra’s time with the Imperial Academy. To me it acknowledges that the characters have more going on for them than just what we see on screen, which grates me in some things. In the main saga there are a lot of small parts where the EU has added a lot of detail, and I imagine if we saw those movies having already known that stuff we’d feel like content was cut there too. So I think that is partially about what the audience brings to the experience.

The lightsaber training sequence does go straight to the temple narratively, but I see what you mean about the “end of episode feel”. I’d say take it as a sign of time passing, which you need to feel to believe the jumps in Ezra’s skills and rapport with the crew.

These sound interesting. There have been a bunch of takes on these, but there is always room for more!

So I’m mostly a clone wars newbie - I’ve seen a bit of the early stuff over the years and it’s just never grabbed me enough to watch the whole show - despite having it sitting started on Disney plus for whoever knows how long. So I thought this was a great opportunity to get a cliff notes version of some of the lore and characters, as it’s obviously going to be pretty foundational to the franchise going forward.

Me and my wife have been watching your edits over the last week or so, and I just wanted to offer my unfiltered thoughts and ramblings below. Overall, I want to say these are really fine edits and a great condensed way to watch the story - so please take any criticisms below as purely constructive - in the hopes of further refining what has obviously been a pretty intense labour of love.

We started in the middle (just couldn’t get around the early seasons stuff still), so apologies if we’ve missed anything important in the earlier films. Thoughts on what we’ve seen so far:

Mortis/witches - really strong. One minor nit-pick was the blade/thing that kills the daughter comes a little out of nowhere - maybe include an establishing scene for that? Otherwise very tightly done and the two gothic/otherworldly stories play off each other well.

Ventress/Maul and the Prison planet. Another strong follow up. Dark Side plot was really good, and kept me hooked through the whole ‘darkside’ trilogy. I did feel though Ventress’ turn was maybe a little sudden after the destruction of the nightsisters? Might have been nice to dwell on that for a bit longer, rather than skipping right into bounty hunting, though that might just be an issue with the source. On the other hand I felt the Anakin/obiwan etc plot dragged a little, with a few repetitive action sequences escaping and then being recaptured etc. It was still a very strong edit but could maybe be tightened up a little. The reintro of Savage late in the piece was likewise a little jarring - and there was a bit about dust being a clue to Maul’s location that didn’t seem to make sense in the new context - so that could either be cut or fleshed out in place of some of the Anakin/obiwan stuff?

Mando - a really good conclusion to the Maul/darkside arc. I thought the flashbacks worked well but they can sometimes be a little jarring, especially if you miss one of the captions or it doesn’t show up for a few seconds. Perhaps a transition or effect of some kind could be employed to give a bit of a visual cue to when we are in the past? I guess the easiest thing would be to make the flashbacks black and white or something but that might be going too far.

Wrong Jedi - probably the edit I had the most issues with - though I still enjoyed it for the most part. The opening with the Sifo dyas plot and the pykes interleaved with the bombing worked really well - I really enjoyed how you remixed the two briefing room scenes together? There was a little hiccup when ahsoka leaves the room but not enough to really throw it off. I did feel though that it was a bit unfortunate not to get the actual bombing of the temple on screen - it felt like we were missing something. The first part of Yoda communing with Quigon was quite effective, showing the growing cloud of the darkside within the Jedi council. I get the feeling though that this means we missed out on some council scenes from the Ahsoka plot line for continuity reasons - particularly her being expelled from the Jedi and feeling unsupported by the council. Her walking away from the Jedi at the end of the film (which is the emotional heart of the story) didn’t really feel earned without that sense of betrayal early on.
I felt the yoda plotline with his various trials could have been really cut down - it dragged on in the middle and I found the pseudo philosophising a bit disappointing and expository - this is the sources problem though, not yours. I would trim this to just what happens on dagobah and the sith planet if possible (the sith can be yodas real trial) - all we need to know is yoda entering a new world of the Force and confronting his demons that will eventually pay off during his exile. Keep the world of the Force a bit mysterious. There were some really jarring continuity issues/scene shifts in the final act - with palpatine in Asokas trial, on coruscant with Dooku and then also on the sith planet in yoda’s vision - and then back to the trial again? Anakin also flipped in and out of Yodas vision and hunting ventress/Bariss in real life - I know this technically works in terms of continuity but I found it a bit hard to keep track of honestly. I felt the Yoda plot should maybe have concluded earlier and then the final act is just Asoka?

Anyway - thanks for reading! Overall I’ve really enjoyed your edits and I’m looking forward to checking out your seige of mandalore and rebels edits next!

lerenor said:

So I’m mostly a clone wars newbie - I’ve seen a bit of the early stuff over the years and it’s just never grabbed me enough to watch the whole show - despite having it sitting started on Disney plus for whoever knows how long. So I thought this was a great opportunity to get a cliff notes version of some of the lore and characters, as it’s obviously going to be pretty foundational to the franchise going forward.

Me and my wife have been watching your edits over the last week or so, and I just wanted to offer my unfiltered thoughts and ramblings below. Overall, I want to say these are really fine edits and a great condensed way to watch the story - so please take any criticisms below as purely constructive - in the hopes of further refining what has obviously been a pretty intense labour of love.

We started in the middle (just couldn’t get around the early seasons stuff still), so apologies if we’ve missed anything important in the earlier films. Thoughts on what we’ve seen so far:

Mortis/witches - really strong. One minor nit-pick was the blade/thing that kills the daughter comes a little out of nowhere - maybe include an establishing scene for that? Otherwise very tightly done and the two gothic/otherworldly stories play off each other well.

Ventress/Maul and the Prison planet. Another strong follow up. Dark Side plot was really good, and kept me hooked through the whole ‘darkside’ trilogy. I did feel though Ventress’ turn was maybe a little sudden after the destruction of the nightsisters? Might have been nice to dwell on that for a bit longer, rather than skipping right into bounty hunting, though that might just be an issue with the source. On the other hand I felt the Anakin/obiwan etc plot dragged a little, with a few repetitive action sequences escaping and then being recaptured etc. It was still a very strong edit but could maybe be tightened up a little. The reintro of Savage late in the piece was likewise a little jarring - and there was a bit about dust being a clue to Maul’s location that didn’t seem to make sense in the new context - so that could either be cut or fleshed out in place of some of the Anakin/obiwan stuff?

Mando - a really good conclusion to the Maul/darkside arc. I thought the flashbacks worked well but they can sometimes be a little jarring, especially if you miss one of the captions or it doesn’t show up for a few seconds. Perhaps a transition or effect of some kind could be employed to give a bit of a visual cue to when we are in the past? I guess the easiest thing would be to make the flashbacks black and white or something but that might be going too far.

Wrong Jedi - probably the edit I had the most issues with - though I still enjoyed it for the most part. The opening with the Sifo dyas plot and the pykes interleaved with the bombing worked really well - I really enjoyed how you remixed the two briefing room scenes together? There was a little hiccup when ahsoka leaves the room but not enough to really throw it off. I did feel though that it was a bit unfortunate not to get the actual bombing of the temple on screen - it felt like we were missing something. The first part of Yoda communing with Quigon was quite effective, showing the growing cloud of the darkside within the Jedi council. I get the feeling though that this means we missed out on some council scenes from the Ahsoka plot line for continuity reasons - particularly her being expelled from the Jedi and feeling unsupported by the council. Her walking away from the Jedi at the end of the film (which is the emotional heart of the story) didn’t really feel earned without that sense of betrayal early on.
I felt the yoda plotline with his various trials could have been really cut down - it dragged on in the middle and I found the pseudo philosophising a bit disappointing and expository - this is the sources problem though, not yours. I would trim this to just what happens on dagobah and the sith planet if possible (the sith can be yodas real trial) - all we need to know is yoda entering a new world of the Force and confronting his demons that will eventually pay off during his exile. Keep the world of the Force a bit mysterious. There were some really jarring continuity issues/scene shifts in the final act - with palpatine in Asokas trial, on coruscant with Dooku and then also on the sith planet in yoda’s vision - and then back to the trial again? Anakin also flipped in and out of Yodas vision and hunting ventress/Bariss in real life - I know this technically works in terms of continuity but I found it a bit hard to keep track of honestly. I felt the Yoda plot should maybe have concluded earlier and then the final act is just Asoka?

Anyway - thanks for reading! Overall I’ve really enjoyed your edits and I’m looking forward to checking out your seige of mandalore and rebels edits next!

Hey thanks for your thoughts!

Totally get you on the early seasons. I feel the same way.

Clone Wars 4-8 are actually my oldest edits. They were made in 2016 and have only been upscaled since. I’m pretty happy with 4-7. The flashback structure of 7 does still strike me as a bit experimental, but I think it works as is. I considered having no subtitle each time cos contextually I think it is clear but figured some people would need it.

Ep6 there’s no Ventress from the source missing. So sadly that’s what we’ve got to work with. I always want to stick with her POV more. She’s the best. As I’ve said, Dark Disciple not being animated is my biggest regret in CW. I actually already did cut a lot of the repetitive action and weaker humour in the Citadel arc. But it is very action focused with repetitive elements, yeah. It’s a good one though, and you get Tarkin for some depth while intercutting with Ventress. So I think it balances out.

Ep8… yeah I’ve dwelt on that a fair bit over the years. My biggest issue is Anakin being a bit too chill in some of his scenes with Yoda for someone grappling with Ahsoka being on the run. Palpatine in two simultaneous scenes at the end sounds like a weird oversight, as I cut several characters from that court scene for continuity. Will have to review that some point. There aren’t any cut council scenes I don’t think. And I cut the temple bombing episode for pacing. The film would have been near 3 hours. I don’t think it was needed.
And Yoda’s metaphysical journey is taste I think. Anything force lore stays with me. I loved it.

Hope you enjoy Rebels and Bad Batch. CW9 and Rebels are by far the ones I’m proudest of in this batch.

Galadantien said:

Hey thanks for your thoughts!

Totally get you on the early seasons. I feel the same way.

Clone Wars 4-8 are actually my oldest edits. They were made in 2016 and have only been upscaled since. I’m pretty happy with 4-7. The flashback structure of 7 does still strike me as a bit experimental, but I think it works as is. I considered having no subtitle each time cos contextually I think it is clear but figured some people would need it.

Ep6 there’s no Ventress from the source missing. So sadly that’s what we’ve got to work with. I always want to stick with her POV more. She’s the best. As I’ve said, Dark Disciple not being animated is my biggest regret in CW. I actually already did cut a lot of the repetitive action and weaker humour in the Citadel arc. But it is very action focused with repetitive elements, yeah. It’s a good one though, and you get Tarkin for some depth while intercutting with Ventress. So I think it balances out.

Ep8… yeah I’ve dwelt on that a fair bit over the years. My biggest issue is Anakin being a bit too chill in some of his scenes with Yoda for someone grappling with Ahsoka being on the run. Palpatine in two simultaneous scenes at the end sounds like a weird oversight, as I cut several characters from that court scene for continuity. Will have to review that some point. There aren’t any cut council scenes I don’t think. And I cut the temple bombing episode for pacing. The film would have been near 3 hours. I don’t think it was needed.
And Yoda’s metaphysical journey is taste I think. Anything force lore stays with me. I loved it.

Hope you enjoy Rebels and Bad Batch. CW9 and Rebels are by far the ones I’m proudest of in this batch.

Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply! Like I said I think you’ve really done a great job overall condensing the show - I had a lot of fun overall and I’m not sure I would have stuck with it that far if I was just watching the show as-is.

I think the flashback structure of episode 7 worked really well for the most part! There were just one or two moments were I had to catch myself and think about which storyline I was in for a second.

I agree Ventress is a great character! Definitely found myself wishing there was more of her story - but you can only work with what you have I guess! And I enjoyed the Tarkin stuff and Ahsoka B plots as well in that arc.

Yeah, I think that tone shift might be the thing that’s throwing me off with episode 8. I just had a flick through the wookiepedia plot summaries and there were a couple scenes (which I don’t think you included, but apologies if I’m misremembering - I’ll have to double check when I’ve got it in front of me) that might be worth including. This was the first one: “At the Jedi Temple, the Jedi Council holds an emergency meeting to decide the best way to find Ahsoka. While most on the Council believe that she may be guilty of the crime, Anakin Skywalker and Jedi Master Plo Koon are doubtful of her guilt. Therefore, Yoda sends the two to find Ahsoka. While Mace Windu feels that Anakin should not go due to emotional attachment to his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi strongly supports Anakin being a part of this mission.”

And the other: “The Jedi Council negotiates with Admiral Tarkin on what type of trial Padawan Ahsoka Tano should have. The Council wishes to try Ahsoka in accordance with Jedi tradition, but Tarkin and the Galactic Senate request that Ahsoka be expelled from the Jedi Order so that she can be put to a Republic Military tribunal. Obi-Wan Kenobi urges the Council to refuse Tarkin’s demands, insisting they must stand with Ahsoka. Ki-Adi-Mundi and Saesee Tiin refuse, pointing out the strong circumstantial evidence against Ahsoka. Mace Windu adds that protecting Ahsoka could be seen as an act of opposition to the Senate. Accordingly, the Council decides to cast Ahsoka from the Order, removing her status as a Padawan and leaving her a civilian under the jurisdiction of the Senate. They strip her of her Padawan braid in a symbolic gesture.”

I feel these might help flesh out the emotional beats for Anakin and Ahsoka a bit better - but there is the continuity issue of working it in with the yoda plot. Looking at the summary now I also agree the first episode probably isn’t necessary.

On another note - we’ve just got through CW8 and the first rebels movie - I thought both were brilliant. The siege of mandalore was 5 stars, and I really enjoyed the integration of the Prologue and Epilogue sections.

Rebels was a lot of fun too - really felt like watching a proper spin off to the OT.

Does this incorporate any footage from the 2003 mini series or the 2008 clone wars film?

Jelloshooter848 said:

Does this incorporate any footage from the 2003 mini series or the 2008 clone wars film?

Hey there, yes the Christophsis arc of the 2008 film is part of CW episode 1, which is an upscaled and tightened up re-release of Smudger9’s film of the same name that he released around 2015. None of the other animated clone wars series. The animation would be a jarring mismatch.

lerenor said:

Galadantien said:

Hey thanks for your thoughts!

Totally get you on the early seasons. I feel the same way.

Clone Wars 4-8 are actually my oldest edits. They were made in 2016 and have only been upscaled since. I’m pretty happy with 4-7. The flashback structure of 7 does still strike me as a bit experimental, but I think it works as is. I considered having no subtitle each time cos contextually I think it is clear but figured some people would need it.

Ep6 there’s no Ventress from the source missing. So sadly that’s what we’ve got to work with. I always want to stick with her POV more. She’s the best. As I’ve said, Dark Disciple not being animated is my biggest regret in CW. I actually already did cut a lot of the repetitive action and weaker humour in the Citadel arc. But it is very action focused with repetitive elements, yeah. It’s a good one though, and you get Tarkin for some depth while intercutting with Ventress. So I think it balances out.

Ep8… yeah I’ve dwelt on that a fair bit over the years. My biggest issue is Anakin being a bit too chill in some of his scenes with Yoda for someone grappling with Ahsoka being on the run. Palpatine in two simultaneous scenes at the end sounds like a weird oversight, as I cut several characters from that court scene for continuity. Will have to review that some point. There aren’t any cut council scenes I don’t think. And I cut the temple bombing episode for pacing. The film would have been near 3 hours. I don’t think it was needed.
And Yoda’s metaphysical journey is taste I think. Anything force lore stays with me. I loved it.

Hope you enjoy Rebels and Bad Batch. CW9 and Rebels are by far the ones I’m proudest of in this batch.

Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply! Like I said I think you’ve really done a great job overall condensing the show - I had a lot of fun overall and I’m not sure I would have stuck with it that far if I was just watching the show as-is.

I think the flashback structure of episode 7 worked really well for the most part! There were just one or two moments were I had to catch myself and think about which storyline I was in for a second.

I agree Ventress is a great character! Definitely found myself wishing there was more of her story - but you can only work with what you have I guess! And I enjoyed the Tarkin stuff and Ahsoka B plots as well in that arc.

Yeah, I think that tone shift might be the thing that’s throwing me off with episode 8. I just had a flick through the wookiepedia plot summaries and there were a couple scenes (which I don’t think you included, but apologies if I’m misremembering - I’ll have to double check when I’ve got it in front of me) that might be worth including. This was the first one: “At the Jedi Temple, the Jedi Council holds an emergency meeting to decide the best way to find Ahsoka. While most on the Council believe that she may be guilty of the crime, Anakin Skywalker and Jedi Master Plo Koon are doubtful of her guilt. Therefore, Yoda sends the two to find Ahsoka. While Mace Windu feels that Anakin should not go due to emotional attachment to his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi strongly supports Anakin being a part of this mission.”

And the other: “The Jedi Council negotiates with Admiral Tarkin on what type of trial Padawan Ahsoka Tano should have. The Council wishes to try Ahsoka in accordance with Jedi tradition, but Tarkin and the Galactic Senate request that Ahsoka be expelled from the Jedi Order so that she can be put to a Republic Military tribunal. Obi-Wan Kenobi urges the Council to refuse Tarkin’s demands, insisting they must stand with Ahsoka. Ki-Adi-Mundi and Saesee Tiin refuse, pointing out the strong circumstantial evidence against Ahsoka. Mace Windu adds that protecting Ahsoka could be seen as an act of opposition to the Senate. Accordingly, the Council decides to cast Ahsoka from the Order, removing her status as a Padawan and leaving her a civilian under the jurisdiction of the Senate. They strip her of her Padawan braid in a symbolic gesture.”

I feel these might help flesh out the emotional beats for Anakin and Ahsoka a bit better - but there is the continuity issue of working it in with the yoda plot. Looking at the summary now I also agree the first episode probably isn’t necessary.

On another note - we’ve just got through CW8 and the first rebels movie - I thought both were brilliant. The siege of mandalore was 5 stars, and I really enjoyed the integration of the Prologue and Epilogue sections.

Rebels was a lot of fun too - really felt like watching a proper spin off to the OT.

Ah yes, I presume I would have cut those scenes due to perceived issues with where Yoda is in those scenes versus his arc in the film. The first cut for that film was made years ago and only polished up with better footage more recently, so it’s not so fresh in my memory lol.

Glad you enjoyed rebels. Universally I find people like those films best. CW9 and Rebels 1-4 are special to me.