The 2008 'The Clone Wars' animated theatrical movie - a general discussion thread — Page 4

Ah my mistake. Tropic Thunder doesn't open here in Australia until next week.

I wasn't aware CW and TT were opening in the same week in the U.S. Thanks for the clarification.

...And yes I agree with you Tropic Thunder will probably beat Clone Wars.

I did also think about that too for a few seconds, the whole WB being the distributor of both CW and TDK.

Considering Clone Wars was not initially supposed to be a feature film any money WB and Lucasfilm make off it is a bonus. If Lucasfilm wants to complain that CW didn't get a big marketing push in favor of The Dark Knight (which we've seen no evidence of yet, the complaining that is) well all things considered from what has been written in the past I think they were lucky any major studio picked up their tv show at all.

^^ Like the fans expectations being too high?

see you auntie said:

^^ Like the fans expectations being too high?

 

I don't see that being the case, especially after the Prequels. If anything, expectations are pretty low, and maybe the film will be a pleasant surprise.....

.......or not:

The Force is not with 'Clone Wars'-msnbc.com

On a side note, is it true that Frank Oz isn't voicing Yoda this time?!

Yes it is true. Did he in the Gendy cartoon?

Thanks for the link to the review. The Australian media hasn't been kind either. I don't have links though, I'm talking about print press.

Also your sarcasm detector is a bit off ;) When it comes to critical review Lucas always seems to fall back on the fans expectations are too high. Whether it be the prequels or that 4th Indiana Jones movie that does not exist.

edit: it seems Oz did not. I would have surprised me if he had.

I was just re-reading zombie's Secret History of Star Wars, specifically the appendix about the sequel trilogy, and it made me wonder.  If Lucas had gone this exact same route only made it a CG feature based around the original trilogy, would any of us be more interested to see it?  I honestly think I probably would go out there opening night and check it out if that was the case, especially if he managed to get Mark Hamill to voice Luke (doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility at all).  Under normal circumstances, I would still roll my eyes that he was milking the cash cow, but lately it seems that all Star Wars is is about the Clone Wars era, so much so that it would be refreshing to see anything on the big screen with Luke and co, just to prove they still exist, and that we didn't just imagine those three other movies that happened a long time ago.

Any thoughts?

zombie84 said:

You see the odd subway poster and the odd commercial. But less than what is typical--the vast majority of the buzz is from LFL itself and from fans.

The first ad for CW I saw was last night.  I was actually watching The CW when the ad came on.  Other than that, I haven't seen a single ad for The Clone Wars at all.  I don't think I've even seen any posters or billboards around for it either.

It wouldn't surprise me if CW was able to dethrone TDK this weekend.  TDK's weekend gross has been falling pretty steadily.  It might drop to as low as 20 million this weekend (it was 26 mil last weekend).  All CW has to do is beat that.  Does that make it a winner though?  Not necessarily.  If it premieres at #1 and then drops quickly, that'll be a sure sign people didn't like it.

Just look at X-Files.  It premiered at #4 and then dropped to #9.  It's not even in the top 10 after its third week of release.  That's pretty sad for a movie with a $30 million budget.

Gaffer Tape said:

If Lucas had gone this exact same route only made it a CG feature based around the original trilogy, would any of us be more interested to see it?

I'd definitely be interested in that. Would never happen though, or at least not for another 5-10 years.

It is unfortunate that Lucas is a joke these days. Sad but true. Everything he touches turns to shit.

His Legacy will be his breakthroughs in technology and cgi, not in storytelling.

Not only is His legacy tainted but the original trilogy is buried and forgotten, for these films with flashy graphics and zero story.

The thing is kids and young people don't notice the lack of story, they only eat up the eye candy.

Almost all modern box office hits follow this sad and moronic trend.

Kids are not expected to be smart or intelligent, as we are getting generational stupider in america but have had huge advances in technology. Kids got their wii's their 360's and ps3's, ipods and iphone, cellphones and god knows what else gadgetry but never have ever picked up a book.

Story what is that?

Movies are supposed to be video game cutscenes.

I love this quote from that article linked to here

"Legend has it that, on his deathbed, Orson Welles exhorted his loved ones to make sure that Ted Turner — who, at the time, was determined to colorize every black-and-white movie in his library — kept his “goddamn crayons” off of “Citizen Kane.”

But who will stop George Lucas from destroying the legacy of George Lucas? "

LOL

George Lucas on his deathbed "rosebud" or is it "jar jar"

The movie Citizen Kane might as well be about George Lucas.

Skywalker Ranch is just like kanes mansion.

I don't want Lucas to die only wanted to make a Joke using the story Of Citizen Kane because the article writer mentioned it.

sunday256 said:

Here's some interesting info from BoxofficeMojo.com

 Clone Wars initial grading...

I'd say the Lucas bashers are giving the F's and the Lucas worshippers are giving the A's. Some people are just way too invested in things. TDK on imdb is a great example.

If I had to quote ratings it would be from http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/clone_wars/ and I normally only pay attention to the top critics score which is at a shocking 14% (as opposed to the 25% general score)

or http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/clonewars?q=clone%20wars metacritic's calculation of the averages is said to be more reliable and the score is currently at 40%

Gaffer Tape said:

I was just re-reading zombie's Secret History of Star Wars, specifically the appendix about the sequel trilogy, and it made me wonder.  If Lucas had gone this exact same route only made it a CG feature based around the original trilogy, would any of us be more interested to see it?  I honestly think I probably would go out there opening night and check it out if that was the case, especially if he managed to get Mark Hamill to voice Luke (doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility at all).  Under normal circumstances, I would still roll my eyes that he was milking the cash cow, but lately it seems that all Star Wars is is about the Clone Wars era, so much so that it would be refreshing to see anything on the big screen with Luke and co, just to prove they still exist, and that we didn't just imagine those three other movies that happened a long time ago.

Any thoughts?

If George Lucas 25 years ago was heading up the project I'd be interested but George Lucas now... Yuck. Kick me while I'm down. It's really all in one man's hands but I'd like to see Lucas never touch those characters again, in fear of him fucking them up.

I'll give Lucas one thing, he might be keeping the OOT down, but least all this bullshit he keeps churning out is Prequel era and has to do with characters I don't care about at all.

Gaffer Tape said:

If Lucas had gone this exact same route only made it a CG feature based around the original trilogy, would any of us be more interested to see it?  I honestly think I probably would go out there opening night and check it out if that was the case, especially if he managed to get Mark Hamill to voice Luke (doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility at all). 

Someone at the Home Theater Forum mentioned the same thing.

I'd definitely be interested in seeing a cartoon with OT characters, voiced by the original actors.....even if they only got Mark Hamill and Tony Daniels to participate.

see you auntie said:

Also your sarcasm detector is a bit off ;)

Sorry, I guess it is. ;-)

I actually expect Lucas to one day do animation set in the OT time.  I think it's just a matter of time before he does... provided the Clone Wars doesn't tank so badly that he never wants to do any more after that.

I always wished that they would have done more cartoons in the exactly same way they did the original Nelvana cartoon in the Holiday Special, with the original actors voicing the characters where possible.  If Lucas did this now with current digital animation, it could be like a dream come true for me.  True, he could do some horrible things with the much-loved characters from the OT, but would it really be worse than what the comic books and novels have done?  I just ignore what I don't like.  Even the Marvel comics had some really bad tales... and some really good ones.

--SKot 

Bringing up the Nelvana Cartoons brings up another sour subject. That the actual cartoons have never been released except as poorly edited special edition versions.

I want to see the Original Boba Fett from the holiday special, the Great Heep and the entire ewoks and droids series remastered from their original film elements. With the film grain intact and no dvnr or fake recoloring or digital scrubbing.

Give me the hand drawn star wars any day. even if they were cheaply produced in canada.

Some of the hand drawn nelvana cells are truly works of art.

The genddy clone wars though drawn on a computer tried to look like the old hand drawn cells.

George did not like what genddy did apparently so the new animated movie is his version.

Cheaply produced animation cgi farmed out to singapore.

How much better would an anime star wars been if done in the same style as the eisner award winning manga of episode IV, and produced in Japan.

Or better Pixar made a star wars animation american animation style.

You know Pixar's John Carter of Mars when released sometime in the next few years will wipe the floor with this poorly produced pixar knockoff/ video game cutscene, known as clone wars.

You want a clone wars movie go watch adm's edit of genddy's series Episode 2.5.

As bad as this new movie is i can't wait for the fanedits that take out the more cringe worthy moments and add the real star wars music as well as the fox fanfare.

This clone wars movie to me is the same awful as those new transformers cartoons, which are supposedly up for emmys

You have to remember A Princess of Mars had a very high influence on the first star wars film in 1977.

Before Leia was Luke's sister.

Luke could have been John Carter and Leia Dejah Thoris the Princess.

Lucas even tried to get the illustrator of those books Frazetta to do a star wars poster.

And the poster by jung that was released is a direct ripoff of the cover Frazetta drew for A Princess Of mars.

twin suns replace the twin moons, and the characters wear more clothes but the characters heroic pose is much the same. Except the change of Leia being less a damsel in distress, and she carries a gun.

I hope the Pixar film updates the female character of Dejah Thoris to be a strong character and does away with the ideas at the time, the book was written in 1911 when woman did not even have the right to vote.

Some novelist already did an update where the male character is the useless in distress mode and the female character is the hero, LOL.  Id like it to be somewhere in the middle.   Imagine the characters are equals.  Star Wars was a step in the right direction but leia was hardly Luke or Hans equal.

CO said: 

 The problem is and I think the PT really spelled it out:  SW has lost its magic, and it will never regain the magic from the OOT. 

It happens with every movie series, somewhere along the line, the movies get stale, and if the quality decreases,  either the movie series turns average or just flat out sucks.  I don't care if this series had Luke, Leia and Han, it would still suck.

I understand Lucas can still make money off of SW, but for the sake of the series, just put a fork into it, as now it feels like the final seasons of some of those great sitcoms.  I remember watching the final seasons of Roseanne, All in the Family, Cheers, etc, and even though you still tuned in cause of the characters, the show lost its magic somewhere along the line, and when you watch them in reruns, you can usually see where the show jumped the shark.

This Clone War movie will be the first thing that has a SW name on it that I don't put money down for EVER!  Heck, I tuned into the frickin Holiday Special when I was 6 years old in November 1978, so I have been there through thick and thin with Lucas.

I love SW, I love the OOT, but I can't get up for anything new in the SW world anymore, it just wont be as good no matter what Lucas does.  I mean you have a character called 'Stinky the Hutt?'  how good could it be? 

 No, I totally agree with you on all points.  I agree that Star Wars should be over.  I agree that it's gotten stale, and it's better to cut the losses than to bury it in its own crap.  And I agree that, if my hypothetical scenario did ever happen, I'd be driving to the theatre shaking in my boots that what I was about to see would be a total disgrace to the original trilogy.  But my point is, I would be going to the theatre if it was based around the OT storyline and characters, and at least partly because of the fact that I would be so surprised due to the oversaturation of the PT in recent years. 

To elaborate... when I first saw the trailer for CW (not knowing prior to that that it even existed), my reaction was, "Whaaaa?!" followed by, "Oh..."  Had it been about Luke, etc., I still would have had that "Whaaaa?!" shock, but it would have followed by, "Oh!"

An OT-based movie would have elicited enough curiosity that I would go just for the sake of that.  But this doesn't even pique my curiosity.