Warner Bros has released the official trailer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which is attached to prints of Speed Racer. I’m actually kinda impressed at the animation, considering this is just a lead up to a television animated series. And I love the stylized looks of some of the classic characters like Jabba The Hutt (as seen above), although the big epic action sequences seem a bit clunky. I’m also quite impressed that some of the original stars like Samuel L Jackson came back to do voice work. What do you guys think? Comment below!
You can watch the new trailer in High Definition on Yahoo.
The official plot synopsis reads: Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Padmé Amidala, are on the front lines of an intergalactic struggle between good and evil, along with brand new heroes like Anakin’s padawan learner, Ahsoka. Sinister villains – led by Palpatine, Count Dooku and General Grievous – are poised to rule the galaxy. Stakes are high, and the fate of the Star Wars universe rests in the hands of the daring Jedi Knights. Their exploits lead to action-packed battles and astonishing new revelations.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars will hit theaters on August 15th 2008. The movie eads directly in to this fall’s premiere of a weekly computer-animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series on Cartoon Network.
Discuss: What do you think of the official Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie trailer?
May 9th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
It might be good if Lucas didnt have anything to do with writing it. The last three movies were pretty bad and I am a Big Star Wars fan!
May 9th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I’m not very big on Star Wars so I can pass on
this easily. Now, give me an animated Indiana
Jones and I might have to DVR it.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I really like the stylised design, even if the cartoon network show’s design was better. The story thou…sounds a little forced in to the rest of the story.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I mean, forced in between the other star wars movies
May 9th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
jesus! that looks better than all 3 prequels. anyone know what other stars returned to do voice work?
May 9th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I’m a Star Wars fan, this kind of looks like it’s balancing on “the see-saw of opportunity” it could be totally cool, it could blow as much as the prequels. We’ll see.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
meh.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Why do they keep focusing on the clone wars? It’s so absurdly boring because we all know the eventual outcome. They should be making movies about the stuff that occurs after Jedi.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
This should effing rock!
May 9th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I like the animation and the action sequences look good, but
I don’t know about the story. Rescuing Jabba’s son? Um. What
would be the point of kidnapping him in the first place and the
Jedi getting involved? I’ll have to wait to see reasons
and how it unfolds before I scream, “That’s dumb.”
May 9th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Rescuing Jabba’s son? Could we be more weak and contrived with our, “Who the f’ cares about plot, we need to work more characters people know into this!”? This has three major things working against it;
1) It will pale in comparison to the Cartoon Network’s Clone Wars series in writing and execution of story.
2) The art style looks like something South Korea was producing in the early 90’s and long since surpassed. Unique isn’t cool if it looks like a cut scene from a video game. Has no one at Lucas Films seen what can be done with animation these days? The work done with combination of 2-D & 3-D on Ghost in the Shell 2 and Appleseed, looks like someone has really put some effort into making a beautiful film. This looks like a unique art style for the sake of quick turn around from idea to screen.
3) George Lucas wrote the story for it…. well maybe that does explain the kidnapped Hut angle.
Poor us.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
“Prepare to see Star Wars like you’ve never seen it before”
I think we’ve all seen the completely CGI first 3 movies, this is no different?
I for one, think George should make a CGI movie of Shadows of The Empire. But alas, he’s stuck on the prequels :(
May 9th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
OH NO! George Lucas has something to do with the franchise he created!
*cuts wrists*
Yeah, the prequels weren’t as good as they could have been, but they weren’t the absolute travesty that most people make it out to seem. There were some really cool moments in the prequels and people tend to remember only teh bullshit. Why can’t we just enjoy the fact that we’re getting a new Star Wars movie that looks damn cool?
May 9th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I think it looks awesome…. and I will see it many many times in the theater.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
AshDraven’s #2 articulates a lot of what I was thinking. I don’t know what the budget on something like Ex Machina or Wonderful Days (Sky Blue) was, but I’d much rather see a Star Wars story with a similar approach. The character scenes in this trailer remind me of cut scenes from a video game. It’s just not an appealing style for me.
The action scenes (combined with the classic SFX) are much better. It strikes me that the light saber may be the most visual device (prop) ever invented.
Ultimately, nothing really matters when you have a property with the Star Wars name attached. People watch/buy/love so they can love it or hate it. It’s a fool proof business model..
May 9th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Let me start by saying that I am a bigger fan of traditional animation, and find it disheartening that everything nowadays has to be CGI. I am not saying that the animation looks bad, I mean it is Lucas Films, but the fact that they are stealing the style from the previous traditionally animated clone wars series on Cartoon Network, it just seems a little forced. I am a fan of Genndy Tartakovsky and feel it is somewhat disrespectful that they took his 2-dimensional art style and haphazardly placed it in a 3-dimensional universe. Add on the fact that they add textures to the characters that make them look a little creepy, and the horrible lip-syncing done on Yoda, I just am not impressed.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
The only returning voice is C-3PO all others are recast un like the 2d shorts. I think grives also and yoda.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Its all a lead up to parts 7 8 and 9… Lucas is just biding his time for they day when we dont mind seeing a digital Han Solo, Luke, and Leia so he can go back and ruin that series too. He’s expressed a desire to do so already but his plans have largly been suppressed because he screwed up the prequels so badly.
Mark my words just before we reach middle age episode 7 will be released…
Anyway, this movie has a ton of shit to answer for. Eps 1 through 3 all blew massively on an interstellar level as we all know and this animated series can’t afford to be the least bit dry, slow, hollow, and mis-centered as those films. Im hoping since Lucas isnt directly fondling everything that goes on screen and writing bland shit shit on some yellow pad that these at the very least will not blow swinging bantha cock.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I think the original Clone Wars cartoon was seriously awesome.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
“shame on you if you fool me once, shame on me if you fool me twice, really shame on you if you fool me third time… now you want a 4th chance????”
May 9th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I liked what I saw and will definitely see this in the theater and catch the shows on TV. I’m a huge SW fan, so it’s hard for me to stay away from anything associated with it. Even if GL makes the characters talk like crap.
Only thing is that I’m not really interested in hearing more about the Clone Wars. Tell me about the days when Yoda was running around 900 years past, or take me to the times of the Solo jedi and animate the Legacy stories…or maybe, just maybe, the Thrawn trilogy. I can dream I suppose.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I’m a big StarWars fan. I mean, I even like the prequels a lot. But this shouldn’t have been made. I don’t know why Lucas continues to overwork this franchise. He really needs to move on and do other projects. Those other projects don’t include the Indiana Jones. I won’t be seeing this in theaters I’ll download on the net.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I’m with the Skeptics on this one. From a strictly film point of view, that trailer was kinda weak. Didn’t really draw you in, started really slow and never really gave you a great sense of what the crap was going on except some confused story about the Hutt clan and Jabba’s son.
And honestly, it makes me laugh because some of those scenes really looked like the prequels without the green screened in Actors. I think visually it will benefit from not forcing the two together and giving the cgi some art look to it.
Last thing, Yoda’s speech at the beginning Sounded really odd.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
“It will pale in comparison to the Cartoon Network’s Clone Wars series in writing and execution of story.”
So, you’ve already seen it and can judge both? But you’re saying “will” as if it hasn’t happened yet. So maybe you haven’t seen it. But wait, if you say it WILL pale in comparison, then that means you have already made up your mind. Way to give a movie a chance.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
@Charles
I’m also one of the few who actually liked.. No, okay..I’ll admit it.. I LOVED the prequels. Sure they had their problems, ( my main gripe is Lucas had a built in audience of millions…..who deserved a 2 hour+ film) but I loved every second of them while I watched them. I also admit to being one of the few…I think theres 3 of us. Who had no problem with Jar Jar…and thought he was hilarious.
But when the clone wars cartoons came out. I took a step back and said ” Oh my fucking GOD! This is how the prequels should have been from the start.” Episode ONE: the clone wars. The way they establish how awesome The Jedi Powers are.. ie: the Mace Windu episode.
So I gotta disagree with you Charles… These cartoons are necessary because they are the films we all wanted the prequels to be. ( just that scene in the trailer of the Jedi at the front of that AT AT deflecting laser blasts with their light saber… thats fucking bad ass man@!… That’s the Star Wars film I’ve been wanting to see for 20 years.) It will be easier to ignore Lucas’s Prequels if we have a bad ass stock of flicks that cover all the bases the way the cartoons do.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
GIVE ME A KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC MOVIE!!!!
Seriously, there’s so much more interesting stories that could have been told but they insist on retreading over the same damn star wars time period.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Its worth going to just for the fact that few films are as fun to go see opening day as a Star Wars film. Where you know everyone in line is as huge a geek/dork/spaz/loser as you are.
All the prequels opening nights were a blast… Let’s face it…How many films do you go to where everyone in the theater is pumped as you are to see it?
Pay the ticket…. Its a geek ride.
They don’t come around as often as we think.
It’ll be fun…. seeing all the hardcore geeks in their cos-play jedi outfits battling each other in the parking lot with light sabers. The cheers at the Lucas film logo on the screen… The chills you get when you hear the star wars theme begin….
I cant wait. :)
( If anyone here is from Southern Ontario, Canada..
… We’re going to the meadowlands theater in Ancaster to see it.. Click my name and send us a flickr mail if you want to meet up. )
May 9th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
To krackajap. Do you remember that these movies are called “star wars”, of course they need to be set in the period where the Skywalkers lived, thats the whole point of the story.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Hector,
There is more to Star Wars that just that tiny period of time. There are much more interesting stories they could tell in the Star Wars Universe than just the Clone Wars period over and over again.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Love how they nail the wooden like nature of Anakin perfectly… it is Hayden Christensen but in an animated form.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Dooku looked pretty cool. I’ll definitely download it when the R5 torrent appears.
May 9th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
All I’m saying is if they can get some droid v. jedi action in there that was as good as clone wars, then this should be worth watching.
May 9th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
If I never see another lightsabre duel, I’ll die a happy man.
May 10th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
honestly, before the trailer I didn’t have nearly as much interest in this as the live action series. While that still holds true, I’m crazy exited now.
May 10th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
awful trailer. The deepest root of desire and magical affection in my heart, however. 2 horrendous prequels, 1 that to me felt like a Star Wars film, but not a great one. Folks, Lucas isn’t leaving his bread winner behind. Give me/us/someone a chance to help him make 7-9, and Grand Admiral Thrawn, Mara Jade, or the New Jedi Order will give you pause to reconsider everything that has been spewed in such a negative fashion before, including by me. There are great stories worth telling in this Universe, but Lucas has lost his audience.
This story surrounds the most vilified elements of Lucas’ storytelling thus far; he’s setting himself up for failure, and if it doesn’t suck, which is very possible still, he’ll be able to say “See, I still got it, gobble gobble”. Personally, the Hutt idea is really good to me; that gang is responsible, in many ways, for some of the more defining moments in the Saga thus far, and is a GREAT offset for the negativity surrounding the other familiar characters. Jabba’s Dancers, Jabba’s Dancers. Going to Nal Hutta: that’ll be fucking cool if it happens, although not enough redemption for turning Kashyyk into Endor. Animated? Been there, at least there’s no green screen and making good actors look like has beens.
It doesn’t steal Tartakosvky’s Animation style, I will disagree on that wholeheartedly. Much richer and detail attentive compared to the TV series. Reminiscent, sure; it’s got the same name, so there’s some brand awareness. Much improved stylistically. Not saying I don’t dig the original but Samurai Jack blew the Clone Wars back to another kind of feudal bantha farm in my book.
I hope it’s ok. We still have 100 episodes of television pending to dread/fret/become more apathetic over. No more apologies
May 12th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Stick to making console games! As per usual Lucas leaves me limp. I laugh everytime I think of him sitting back in his chair in the 80’s spouting off like, ” special effects without a story is a pretty boring thing”. Well you know what? Starwars is a pretty boring thing. Sure it was great to geek out on as a teen, but forever tarnished by Bam, Wiz, Bang & Pinochio’s seduction to the dark side. BTW, EP. 4 was on spike last night. How do you start there and go in that direction? TWO WORDS. Crass overmarketing.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:22 am
I might be the only one who is a big enough star wars fan, because i am really looking forward to this. And about the prequels, Episode 1 was good, Episode 2 was better and Episode 3 was awesome!! I really cant wait to watch this movie!
-The Dark Side will conquer all-
May 14th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Why do people diss star wars so much? If you don’t f’in like it then GTFA (Go the fuck away)