Star Wars To Air As Animated Sitcom 268
The Bastard writes "As if the Star Wars Holiday Special and Jar-Jar weren't insulting enough to fans, George Lucas has decided to turn the franchise into an animated sitcom. I have a bad feeling about this." The article says that Seth Green is involved, which either sets off your late April Fool's Day alarm, immeasurable dread, or excitement.
I Guess That's About All That's Left (Score:5, Insightful)
After Robot Chicken and Family Guy's parodies of Star Wars, I guess Lucas knows what the fans want: humor. And let's face it, they were funny. At least for me anyway. Star Wars used to be a religion to me until Phantom Menace. I distanced myself and have since had plenty of time to recover. Even though I had read all the expanded universe material in my youth and could recite from memory more about an Aqualish than even Wikipedia would tolerate (hooray for retroactive continuity!), I found Robot Chicken's sketch of Ponda Baba's Bad Day [adultswim.com] hilarious. Laugh for ten minutes hilarious. Re-enact for my friends hilarious.
And it saddens me that all he has left is humor. I mean, I'd rather see both serious material and humor. Futurama had a great way of making fun of itself but also baking in really serious themes that made me love it. I hope Star Wars manages to maintain some sort of integrity through all this. I agree with what the quotes said about this being a large intricate universe with a lot to work with. And I had always been hoping for a TV show similar to the Tales from
Yeah. (Score:3, Insightful)
The article says that Seth Green is involved,
I'm going to go with "immeasurable dread."
Re:Penny-arcade already covered this. (Score:4, Insightful)
In fact, they covered it in more general terms some five and half years ago. [penny-arcade.com]
Re:I Guess That's About All That's Left (Score:4, Insightful)
The comic books Star Wars Tales are pretty good; for example, one did a spoof of Judge Judy with the Emperor in the judge's seat, Darth Vader as the bailiff, and Hans Solo on trial for shooting Greedo. If they went that way, I could see it as being good.
That being said, the chances of them doing comedy in a way different than, say, Jar Jar are slim to none. That's not comedy as much as really bad slapstick, and given recent history, that's what they'll go for. Pity.
"isn't going to suck as much as you think it is?" (Score:5, Insightful)
"Let us assure you this isn't going to suck as much as you think it is."
It couldn't possibly.
But it could still suck a great deal without reaching that level.
Re:See... (Score:5, Insightful)
While Indiana Jones may be REMEMBERED, I don't think it's too often associated with George Lucas. As a matter of fact if you told 20 people on the street that he was even involved with that franchise at all I'd bet that 18 of them would be incredibly surprised to find that bit of info out.
The reality is when people think George Lucas they think Star Wars, and not much else.
Re:I Guess That's About All That's Left (Score:5, Insightful)
What the fans want is the prequels rewritten and refilmed with good actors, compelling storylines, characters you can give a shit about, and most importantly, no Jar-Jar or midichlorians. As well, to reverse the pathetic attempt to rewrite Han as a total good guy be reinstitating the wanton and totally justified murder of Greedo (if anyone short of Jesus Christ was in Han's shoes, they would have shot first too).
Star Wars was an incredible space opera-fantasy mashup universe that has always had a serious flaw, and that's Lucas himself. As a sort of idea man, he's pretty good, but he's always had this knack for soiling his own bed, and the prequels are by far the best example of how Lucas just screwed the pooch. The latest animated series is bad on every level. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he was completely selling out now.
What Star Wars really needs is for Lucas to give up control, let someone else take over, and maybe bring out a new trilogy that returns the movies to the feel of the original trilogy.
Re:I Guess That's About All That's Left (Score:4, Insightful)
I suspect Star Wars during the Republic years would make a good Star Trek-style TV show, however television execs seem to have turned against science fiction. Ever since Star Trek was canceled they act as if audiences are sick of scifi, and now the only people producing new stuff is Syfy(lis) Channel.
Re:The Fonz may have been the first... (Score:4, Insightful)
It hit rock bottom with the souped-up 1990s rereleases of the first three films. The alteration of the Han Solo-Greedo sequence was a clear shot across the bow that Lucas was going to supremely fuck things up, and he certainly didn't disappoint. Episode I is a trainwreck, Episode II... fuck, I have to think for a minute to even remember what Episode II was about, and Episode III managed to find a way to make Anakin's fall from grace both boring and unbelievable. Capped with probably the most stullifingly dull saber duel in the entire series.
Lucas sucks, plain and simple.
Re:I Guess That's About All That's Left (Score:3, Insightful)
Uh yeah, good luck with that.
Don't get me wrong, I was as annoyed at the prequels as anyone else who had an actual social life, but shit, man, let's move on. The prequels sucked. It was almost a decade ago. Let it go.
Re:I Guess That's About All That's Left (Score:5, Insightful)
Well if you took off the nostalgia blinders you can see that episodes 4,5,6 were bad too. Campy acting and a basic storyline... Heck I would credit the fall of the empire not to Luke Skywalker but to Admiral Ackbar for his keen military leadership.
Part of the problem is after people became nostalgic to Star Wars the new stuff just didn't seem up to par. Jar-Jar wouldn't be so bad if R2D2 and C3PO wasn't there. Also I think if Anakin Skywalker was more like Kirk in the new Star Trek movie, (where you can sence a dark side but you still root for him)
Re:I Guess That's About All That's Left (Score:4, Insightful)
I think it was David Brin who tore Lucas a new one over the (lack of) plotting in Episode VI. Episode IV, if approached as a campy 70s film with awesome special effects and a kick-ass space battle, is pretty good. Episode V, if for no other reason than the whole "I'm your father" aspect is still the dramatic high point of the series, though on rewatching, I find the first half of the film really drags and my temptation to fast forward through the whole Hoth sequence is very great. Still, it's a lot more even an affort than any of the other films.
Re:I Guess That's About All That's Left (Score:3, Insightful)
Except the old Star Wars was not nearly as bad.
Plus, as George freely admitted to 40 years ago the middle trilogy represented a "simpler and more commercial storyline".
Thus the fall of the Republic requires a more Kazdan and less Lucas.
Many of us were expecting this.
Re:See... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Nope, all wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
This has long been Lucas's problem. The best of all the films, Episode V, was the best in large part because Lucas was relatively uninvolved. Kershner had a lot more independence, and thus could mute the Lucasisms. As well, there was some outside writing talent on that film which allowed for better dialog and tighter plotting. You get to Episode VI, and all of sudden we're seeing the worst Lucasisms creeping back in; the Ewoks, the crappy plotting which means when you actually see who did what, Luke had dick-all to do with the second Death Star's destruction (I recall the novel tried to explain this by making Palpatine into a Sauron-like figure who dominated and controlled his servants, and his death released that control).
In fact, look at Episode VI, it has a second Death Star. Lucas has such a famine of ideas that he tends to repeat the same Macguffins; Episode IV - Death Star, Episode V - Super Star Destroyer (which really played no meaningful part other than giving Vader the biggest ship), and then another Death Star for Episode VI.
His theme worlds are another big gripe. Frozen world, forest world, gas world, metal/city world, fire world. Lucas is like of those pre-Renaissance painters who could do faces okay, but couldn't do hands and screwed up body proportions. He only knows how to paint in broad strokes, which means that the more involved he is in the writing and directing aspects, the more caricaturistic it all becomes. The plots became pointless, the characters one-dimensional, even the worlds lack any kind of depth. The prequels suffer the most because he was basically running the whole show. Star Wars was better when other folks had some say and could moderate him.
Another aspect of the differences between the two trilogies is the gap. The George Lucas who created the first three films wasn't the same guy who made the last three. The first three had a more mythical quality, the good father turned to evil, the Arthurian son who seeks to reclaim the sword. You could put up with Ewoks and the goofy comedy interludes involving the droids, because there was some sense of a great story unfolding. The prequels were hamfisted attempts at political analysis. The mysticism is mythic qualities are largely sacrificed, and the characters and the story line lose their depth. There's nothing wrong with using SciFi to make comments about politics, Gene Roddenberry did and often did it with great success. But Star Wars wasn't that way in the beginning, and there is a profound thematic break between the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy.
Re:Oh Boy! Comedy! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:If wishes came true... (Score:3, Insightful)
Joss Wheedon's Star Wars is NOT something I'd want to see. Have you never noticed how all the characters with lady parts are awesome, and all them with man parts are tragically flawed? In every single Joss production? Skywalker would be a total train wreck, Amidala would end the Clone Wars single-handedly, and Yoda would be an impotent clown.
Joss's work can be great, don't get me wrong, but he selects the stories he does for a reason. There's also a reason why his stuff gets canceled. It simply strains disbelief for too long for general consumption that the genders would be so lopsided and the characters so one-dimensional.
If he does go on a gender-bending spree, it would easily make his version of the Star Wars prequels WORSE than Lucas's, and that's saying a lot.
Don't blame the actors (Score:3, Insightful)
Everything you said is spot on, except that the actors aren't bad: their performances were. All the leads in the prequel trilogy have proven in other films that they are in fact quite talented. I've posted a couple times in defense of Hayden Christensen, who showed off his acting chops in "Life as a House" and "Shattered Glass", and it's a shame that he turned in a crappy performance in such a high-profile film. I also posted about the fact that Lucas is not an actor's director. Blame him for their performances as well.
The best actors in the world couldn't have saved those turkeys. The story, script, and direction were insulting, laughable, and incompetent, in that order.