I completely forgot that this was the week that Clone Wars was to premiere... so I missed it.
Actually, I would've missed it anyway because I don't have Cartoon Network, but I forgot about it, too... you understand what I'm getting at, I'm sure.
If you missed Clone Wars, too - you have a couple of options: 1. it's on i-tunes the next day (that's today!) 2. it'll be streaming on cartoonnetwork.com and starwars.com in a week.
I downloaded the first two episodes on i-tunes, but I haven't watched them yet. I also just got Iron Man on dvd, and haven't watched that either (it's theatrical run here in Germany was way too short, so I missed it).
I'm sitting at home, the day dying down, watching volume 1 of the Genndy Tartakovsky "Clone Wars" series that was made between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
Kit Fisto is currently underwater with his lightsaber on Mon Calamari leading the battle of one of the species (Admiral Ackbar's) against the other (the squid faced one from Jabba's Palace - Tessek's, I believe). How freaking cool is that?
I love seeing the aliens I'm familiar with get little showcases like this in different settings/situations that we know them from, particularly species that we don't see outside of like a "Cantina" type setting.
That's one of the reasons I'm excited that we'll be going to see the new theatrical "Clone Wars" release tomorrow, and why I'm excited about the followup series that will be premiering on Cartoon Network in the fall.
There's some more Hutts in this, and hopefully we may learn a new thing or two about them. Assajj Ventress is in it, too... she was in the previous Clone Wars miniseries...
Anyway, I'm pretty fucking tired of reading comments about George Lucas cashing in on Star Wars.
First of all, why is Star Wars not allowed to have an animated feature or cartoon, but Spider-Man and Batman are allowed to have new series after new series.
You could even argue that Lucas is now just making these things because he wants to continue making them... I mean, of course there's money involved and money wanted, but the companies that own Batman or Spider-Man or whatever don't have that sense of a public figure behind them - they're just companies... and so I would say those properties are even more money grabbing.
There hasn't been a single year without a superman or batman tv show or movie in 25 years, and even that was only a temporary glitch... not counting that, it goes back another 20 years. There's a new Batman comic every week, at least! They could stop making Batman product and we'd still have enough for the rest of our lives, but nobody's complaining that WB is just milking the Batman cash cow.
Why?
Seriously.
"Because Star Wars sucks" isn't really the answer I'm looking for, either.
And I'm not bashing Batman... I can't get enough Batman either.
In my opinion, thre's a droubt of Star Wars material and I'm very happy to see this rectified.
"But Andy, there are tons of Star Wars novels and comics books!"
I know, I know, but I don't care about Star Wars novels and comics books, at least not to the extent that I care about Star Wars in the medium of film and television. Star Wars is a visual experience for me. It is the images, and the hums of the lightsabers and R2's bleeps and John Williams' scores that my mind's eye, no matter how imaginative, just cannot deliver on. Whenever I read a really good Star Wars book (out of Star Wars starvation), I'm just left thinking "Man, I'd love to see this adapted."
I watch an embarrassingly large amount of movies and tv series, and I would love to watch Star Wars stories on a regular basis, but there's just not enough there at the moment to sustain any sense of routine with it, so I'm happy to see new Star Wars product coming on a regular basis.
I also enjoy experiencing entertainment with my wife or with my friends... and you can't really invite your friends over to "read" - trust me, I've tried it.
I hope once they're done with Clone Wars we see some original trilogy stuff too. I'd hate to see the balance that heavy on the prequel side. There's got to be a wealth of stories you could squeeze in between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back... just good rebels vs. Empire stuff. Or maybe some pre-New Hope, Han Solo and Chewbacca series or something.
Anyway...
Today's lesson is "Andy hates people who whine on the internet, and in retaliation does the same thing."
Number 1 species I want to see showcased in an episode of "Clone Wars": Max Rebo's species (whatever that is... hold on... Ortolon).
You know those montages in movies,usually taking place at the beginning of the third act, where the main character gets his ass together. He's pumping iron for the big climactic boxing match, he's reading all about different birdcalls for the big climactic bird slaughter... and its all set to some inspirational rock song.
Well, I have an important German language test next month and, though I'm doing alright, I'm not happy with where I am with it, particularly with impromptu conversation, and I have to live one of these montages first hand, studying, reading, speaking, listening to everything I can. Goodbye English language.
Unlike the actual movie sequences, which are usually fun to watch... mine will be all the raw footage unedited. It will be long, tedious, boring and a humongous two-month chore to get through it, but I must. Even if I do alright on the actual language stuff, I'm a dunce when it comes to history and politics, which I also must test on, so it is vitally important.
I plan on using my computer minimally during this time, so this is sort of a farewell message until October.
The Brave and the Bold was a comic book that originally started as a team-up comic, where each issue would feature two different Super Heroes teaming up. Eventually, because Batman is so awesome, he started appearing everymonth, so it became "Batman and..." essentially.
Well, Warner Bros. is bringing us a new Batman cartoon called Brave and the Bold, which, like the comic, will have Batman teaming up with another DC hero each week.
When they released the first promo images of this a while back I thought it look like garbage. Batman's outfit's color-scheme was gray/blue, which is old-school and I actually like that a lot, but the character design just looked like a toddler-toy version of Batman, just huge and round and ugly.
Comic-Con was/is this weekend, and they released the trailer for this thing, and... it looks... well... awesome, actually. Whoever drew that promo art just did a bad job. I kind of compare it to the artwork on the Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League dvd covers, which are pretty atrocious, but they DO still resemble the cartoons.
Here's the trailer.
For Batman/Star Wars geeks, this should be exciting, because this show is going to play back-to-back with "The Clone Wars" on Cartoon Network.
Damn. Hopefully I can find a legal way to watch these shows when they premiere.
At E3, Nintendo announced and showed off Wii Music (see yesterday's blog) and Animal Crossing Wii for this year, and Wii Sports 2 for spring 2009.
Wii Sports 2 will come with a device that hooks into the bottom of the wii-mote that'll make it more accurate and will allow for things such as a 1:1 sword-fighting experience (one of the Sports will be a sword duel). They call it the Wii MotionPlus (or something like that).
LucasArts is releasing a "Clone Wars" game that'll be heavy on the LightSabre action - unfortunately, however, this game will come out before the MotionPlus device, so it might not be cool... but if the three upcoming Star Wars games sell well (I'm counting the rumored Battlefront III) and Wii Sports 2 sells well, there'll probably be something down the line.
One third party game looks pretty awesome - it's called The Conduit. Just search for "Conduit E3" or some such thing at YuoTube.
I may make an in-depth blog later about what games we have to look forward to for the rest of the year. Nintendo's output is a downer, but there are some interesting titles coming out from third parties. Still nothing mega awesome though, really.
