That said, 'Maori cosplay boy band' makes me do the LOL. Well-played.

Maybe it's not exactly racist to name a character that, but it's a weird way to 'pay homage' to the Kurosawa films that inspired the whole series to begin with. (...i'm betting dollars to donuts that's how Lucas would explain it, if confronted.)

If you guys want to see something really funny and revolting, read whoooop's comments in the Harry review TB.

That's right, kids -- two!

Another Clone Wars talkback and... an Indy 4 talkback. Pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

I come from a third world African country. :P

*Reminder: Pay 5 bucks to Michael Bay for copyright use of word... awesome.

If Jar-Jar hadn't been voiced by Ahmed Best to sound like a fucking high-pitched cartoon animal, and if his delivery of the lines had been different, he would have been a much more tolerable character.

Don't believe me?

Imagine if Jar-Jar had Patrick Warburton's voice, with his Brock Samson delivery. Picture that voice saying the following lines:

"Weesa in big trouble."

"Gungans no likin' outsiders."

See? Instantly better. I'm not saying his is the best voice for it, but that the voice makes a huge difference in how an animated character is taken by the crowd.

It's the Scrappy-Doo principle. Scrappy's voice made everyone cringe, but his behavior wasn't all that different from half the cast of Scooby-Doo or the other Saturday morning cartoons. The voice actor's delivery was just TERRIBLE and made you HATE Scrappy.

Here's another test, again with Patrick Warburton's voice as done for Brock Samson. Picture Scrappy's lines below said in Patrick's voice:

"Yeah. Puppy power."

"We'll get `em uncle Scooby. We'll rough `em up."

"Shaggy! Scooby! Over here!"

See? Again, you change the voice and the words are suddenly not as annoying.

Think of Jar-Jar with different voices. How about if he had Casey Kasem's Shaggy voice? What if they got Nathan Lane to play him? Would he sound better if his voice were provided by Billy West (Fry, Stimpy)?

Jar-Jar was a decent enough character, and he was necessary to the story at certain points (they needed an innocent, naive fool to "do what he thought Padme would" in the Senate.) -- I believe that 90% of the hate for Jar-Jar comes from the voice-over work being so terrible.

One more experiment:

Picture if they had Christopher Lee do the voice of Jar-Jar, and had Ahmed Best do the voice of Dooku.

Don't you think you'd fucking HATE Dooku?

That series made me sick of reading Star Wars novels, that's for sure. I know I'll never read a series involving Karen Traviss again, anyway.

I thought exactly the same thing when I was watching this earlier today: wtf? happened to the title crawl followed by...are they doing this STARSHIP TROOPERS style or are they serious?

for the record, I'm fine with this. it's exactly what it is: a saturday morning cartoon thrown on the big screen, and frankly, it IS more watchable than TPM or AotC, if for no other reason than you can get away with a whole lot less scripting polish with a cartoon than you can in live action. although the SAMURI JACK style series remains the best thing to come out of the prequels BY FAR.

As the Cannon of Star Wars goes, both TV shows are wrong. Asajj was "killed" by Anakin on Coruscant after she found out about Padme but was later secretly healed by the Separatists and managed to escape both the Republic and the CIS and should be now living out her life elsewhere. That's the actual cannon.

No, I don't like furries, nor do I get into Simpsons orgies.

You're thinking of Buffy fans and Whedonites, I think. Or maybe those weirdos who read manga.

Oh god, did they ever make me cringe. But now I find they get better and better. The best review is when the writer makes a reference of some sort . . . and you totally get what they mean.

Because you demanded it, Lucas shovels out loads of all-new slapstick comedy with those "Roger Roger " droids.

Alexandra, I know what your 'e talking about.

It's the sheer amount of inventive imagination that was flung onto the screen and the prequels simply didn't have it.

But for all that I didn't loathe them just thought "what a shame" and moved on.

This Clone Wars seems to be a triumph of cereal advertising filmmaking with "kooky" characters and messy, noisy artless storytelling.

Saying "but it's for Kids" is a kneejerk response that excuses any old rubbish if you stick a low enough age recommendation on it. Plenty of Kids shows and films manage to be good. Quality doesn't have an age limit.

On the plus side since this crap will make money regardless of how bad it is perhaps other studios will try to create some more science fiction that might actually be worth watching.

On the minus of course as has been said ad-nauseum because this will make money Lucasfilm will carry on oblivious and keep churning this kind of tedious shit out.

Look at any News footage of the time. It was a Phenomenon. Housewives went to see it. Grandparents took their grandkids. Blue collar workers stood in line with "sophistecated" Manhattanites. And it certainly wasn't because the public loves science fiction Movies. Now repeat that Worldwide and the idea that that Star Wars was only a smash because of droves of kids just doesn't hold water and never did.

But please don't let the facts get in the way of the same tired theory I have heard trying to excuse the prequels since BEFORE they appeared.

As for Imagination I'll let your complete absence of examples tell it's own story but would point out that of the Good in the prequels (and there was some just not much) despite the most advanced effects company in the World it simply didn'y have the "awe" the first series produced.

Imagination is obvious when you see it on screen and it's often startling. LOTR had it Pans Labyrinth & Hellboy 2 has it too.

It doesn't always ensure a smash of SW's proportions but when there's none there you can throw as much technology and decent actors as you like at a film and it simply won't work.

The prequels simply aren't in the same class as the originals.

Yeah it's a pretty redundant statement but it doesn't make it any less true because fanboys foam at the mouth over it.

The original Star Wars were a phenomenon and justly so.

No amount of retrospective attempting to belittle them will ever change that.

And No I'm not a fanboy. But nice try.

It's a cheap straw man attack that shows how confident you are of your argument. There are plenty of examples of Fanboys in this and all the other threads so if you still have trouble telling the difference perhaps you shouldn't put so much weight on anyone disagreeing with your trite assemsment being a fanboy.

Or did you fail to actually read my post ? I respect good filmmaking but simply ceased to care much about Lucas after the prequels. Fanboys can't and won't EVER let the prequels go.

This new Clone Wars film (which I watched Friday afternoon with my 8 year old son) is MADE specifically for small children...just like the two mid-80s Ewok films.

That might be your opinion, and you're welcome to it of course, but even the worst of PIXARS output outshines this sad little Movie.

I'm a University educated 37 year old who was a SW junkie as a child/teen during the late 70s/early 80s.
My opinion of the much maligned prequels? The Phantom Menace was a disappointing film with at least 5 truly great moments scattered across it's duration. I feel Attack of The Clones and Revenge of The Sith were significantly better although not perfect (how many film actually are?). The bottom line is they entertained me.

So no, SW isn't dead for me...I'm just sensible enough to realize that this Clone Wars films wasn't made with me in mind. My 8 year old loved the hell outta it and wants me to take him again. Mission accomplished, Mr Lucas!

But both of those films still resonated pretty damn strongly with kids.

Like it or not this Movie isn't getting savaged again and again and again because of all this supposed angst about the prequels or because the adults don't get kids films.

Many reviewers make a point of taking their Kids to a Movie of this type and most reviewers can review a Movie on it's own merits without too much effort.

The only things I disliked about the movie was the score and the abrupt ending. That teenage girl Padawan is actually a pretty neat character. Seriously,

We could of course give em the benefit of the doubt and believe the Series will be 1000 times better than this effort, however the suspicion will be that they are now pimping the series for all it's worth since the critical response to the Clone Wars Movie has been almost universally bad.

I do know that it seems a much to ask people and their kids to pay full ticket price to see a movie insiders think is one of the poorer examples of the new series.

But the new series might, just might, be worth catching if this isn't just more Lucasfilm P.R. and damage control.

Interesting info notheless.

So take all your money, all your intellectual properties, all your insultingly horrible decisions, all your fake Joseph Campbell rhetoric, and stuff it up you ass, you Hollywood sellout fuck.

You're dead to me, George.

You've been exposed as the fake talkbacker corporate spin controller that you are, Earthquake. Too bad "Clone Wars" sucks and only came in third this week, huh?

talk about losing touch...

"This is such a drag."

THIS. IS. SUCH. A .DRAG.????!!!!

C3P0 just said that. Really. For a cheap laugh. Nevermind that exactly 45 years ago, the whole planet of Earth STOPPED USING THAT PHRASE ENTIRELY. It reads like a discarded Wolfman Jack line from American Grafitti. *raspy voice* "HEEEEY KATS, THIS IS SUCH A DRAAAAG, MAN. YOU KNOW WHAT IM SAYIN? AWOOOOOOOOOooOoOo!"

At that very moment, I physically cringed for the first time while watching a Star Wars movie. CRINGED! As in, "im so embarrassed to be watching this right now."

Thats the moment - right there. I have not nor will I ever see Episode III. Star Wars is now in that sealed vault in my brain where I store movies I have viewed, but must never ever remember: SW Ep II sits on a shelf in that vault next to Highlander II and Willow.