Classics Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO

I believe Jann Tosh from the Pirates and the Price arc ends up with the Rebellion too, so for me that would be cool to see if we get anything about him, Jessica Meade, Mon Julpa and the others.

 

Great new article on Droids by Rich Handley and Abel G. Peña on the starwars.com blog! http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2013/06/13/the-droids-re-animated-part-1/

 

Great!

Thanks much for the head's-up. Looking forward two Part 2.

 

I definitely think the full seasons of the Droids and Ewoks cartoons should get DVD releases. Same with the Ewok movies.

 

You said it!

I'll take it a step further and say these productions should see a blu ray release, including whatever extra goodies can be unearthed, and frankly, I see no good reason for Disney not to do this. Though these productions don't carry with them the level of mass appeal seen with the feature films, they have grown, over the years, to the level of cult classics among the Star Wars fan base. Clearly, a market exists, so, why not? Would the costs to produce something nice really be all that prohibitive, that a profit would not be seen?

Maybe start with just Droids. By giving the original negatives a nice HD scan and digging up any unseen footage, concept art and the like from the archives, the core of a good, satisfying release would be there. See about interviewing some of those involved and use the resultant audio as a commentary track. Package it together, market it as never before seen on DVD/blu ray, "STAR WARS: Droids The complete series," and who knows?

Maybe, as a tie-in, Disney/Lucasfilm could talk with Hasbro about including some Droids characters in their line of modern action figures? I know from spending time on SW action figure forums that there's already a desire to see figures of these characters released.

How about taking advantage of the current climate by introducing some of the key Droids characters for use in Rebels? This is something I'd like to see happen, regardless of whether Droids ever sees a re-release, or not.

I'd even welcome a novel based on Droids characters/storylines. Perhaps a simple, free-to-play video game on starwars.com? There has to be a lot that could be considered, but if the preference is to keep the public's attention on Rebels and Episode VII, then just offer a quiet blu ray release, minus the multi-media push. Just advertise the release on the official site and get the word out to sites like this one, and the people who would be interested will know all about it.

If it sells, then maybe move on to Ewoks, and so on. Disney/Lucasfilm have the rights to the shows and their characters, so why not put them to good use by giving us what we want, and seeing a profit come of it? Win-win.

 

Those are great ideas. I would love to have a Droids action figure. You are right, they should be released not just on DVD, but on Blu-ray, too. But not only that, I think they should be available on media such as iTunes and the Google Play Store.

 

I, and probably everyone else who is keeping the market for the SWHS alive, would buy a proper copy of it if it was available.

 

there is an old Droids game, its called Escape from Aaron, maybe they can do somethin with that. It would be interesting to be able to play some forgotten oldies like that on starwars.com

 

Wondering if these shows will eventually come to Netflix. I would prefer DVD's or as viewable content on starwars.com, but it seems like sometime soon LFL would want to do something to put an end to all the unofficial DVD's and downloads that are always floating around.
On the topic of Escape from Aaron, was that a Commodore 64 game?

 

Glad to see this thread is going strong.

And, great link to the blog in one of the last posts - it was nice to see the "history" of the Droids, using both the cartoon & the Marvel comic series as reference.

I've written numerous times over the years that I want to see a DVD/Blu-ray set of the Droids/Ewoks cartoons. Since nothing appears to be in the works, I would be more than happy if the shows were cleaned up/remastered and available on the Star Wars website for viewing. It was heavily implied/stated that something like this would happen last August at the SW Celebration; however, it's been almost a year now, and no news. I'm guessing that they have their hands full getting ready for Rebels (Fall 2014). In any case, here's hoping that we at least hear some type of official announcement soon regarding these cartoons. After all, it's been almost 28 years since they originally aired, and we still haven't gotten a release in an acceptable format....

 

yes its from that era, commodore/zx spectrum/amstrad

 

The controls on that thing look absolutely maddening!

(But I still love it for what it is, though.)

 

I think it would be fun to learn more of the back stories for some of the Droids characters. For most of them we know nothing. Take LIN-D for instance:

This entertainment/comedian droid was in the episode Across the Roon Sea, and in my opinion is about the most annoying Star Wars character ever. The fact that he's so unbearable to C-3PO makes him kind of fun too. But how did he get to be a slave rowing aboard a galley on Roon? We don't know, but I was thinking that a good back story for him would have him connected to the most famous annoying character Jar Jar Binks. Do most senators have droids? Probably a lot of them do. So my story for LIN-D would be that when it came time for Senator Binks to pick out his own protocol droid, he took a liking to this guy, not realizing that LIN-D had no protocol abilities at all. LIN-D's constant wisecracks would have added to Jar Jar's bumbling nature to ensure that any senatorial mission of Jar Jar's was a disaster. Perhaps LIN-D could have been lost or stolen on Roon during a visit by Jar Jar, and spent the following years rowing as a slave.
Anyway, it sure would be nice to have some kind of an essential guide or character encyclopaedia to Droids that could delve a little deeper into some of these characters.

 

When I read that you had said you find LIN-D so annoying, my first thought was "well, just imagine pairing him with the likes of Jar Jar Binks!"

And then, of course, that's exactly what you went on to suggest.

Anyway, I'd love an essential guide to these characters, and to be honest, I'm a bit surprised to learn that they have not already had entries included in any of the prior publications. Between DVD/blu ray releases, action figures, video games, novels/essential guides, and everything else we've mentioned (to say nothing of the nearly limitless other merchandising opportunities which exist with SW), there's just so much that could be done with these assets, to put them at a level, not even front-and-center of the franchise, but just to catch them up with some of the other lesser Star Wars players.

With just a little bit of a push (let's say, a modest Droids blu ray release and a new action figure, maybe an appearance or two in Rebels), there's no reason that, for example, Thall Joben couldn't be as well known among the general public as, I don't know, let's say Plo Koon. Kea Moll is a character just primed and ready to be a force in Rebels. She's the perfect age during the 'Dark Times,' and what backstory we have for her, as a member of the fledgling, anti-Imperial, Annoo resistance, already makes her the perfect candidate for a starring role in the series.

It seems like, without much extra work, these characters have the built-in means to turn a profit for the franchise. Some of the groundwork has already been laid. I don't know, I just really hope Disney/Lucasfilm will see fit to start the ball rolling on some of these possibilities.

 

That's awesome.

 

Yeah it is! I remember hearing once that "Tony" could be difficult, but hey, he went way above and beyond with the awesome-sauce for TigerCraneFist there.

 

I would like something like this.

Droid Season 1 Set:
The 13 Episodes
The Great Heep

Ewoks Season 1:
All the episodes
Return of the Ewok

Ewoks Season 2:
All of the Episodes

Ewok TV movies:
The two movies
A Commentary
The Documentary on the films.

TCW Season 5:
Episodes + other stuff on regular DVD
Detours Season 1

TCW "Season 6":
Remaining Episodes
Detours Season 2
The Holiday Special

Those would be fun ways to find things in the special features.

 

I got both Ewoks movies on one DVD at Wal-Mart for like ten bucks. So it's out there.

 

Wondering how the rumors of a reworked canon could affect these shows? Specifically, what's going to become of R2-D2 and C-3PO's adventures between the prequel and original trilogies? Maybe with the new canon their wanderings will have never happened.

 

The new canon stuff that's affected is most likely just post-RotJ. Anything before that that's not contradicted in Rebels and The Clone Wars will be fine.

 

I hope this isn't the case. Filoni has demonstrated that he is knowledgeable of a lot of non-film SW lore (some of it much less widely known than Droids), and given his enthusiasm for these kind of things, I could see Dave making the effort to slip in some hint or nod to the show at some point during Rebels.

That said, it really might not take all that much to toss a wrench into the works, either. A simple one-off line from Threepio to Artoo about "[this being] our first adventure together since the end of the Clone War," or the droids being "the exclusive property of Captain Antilles over the last fourteen years" would seem to bring the whole house of cards crashing down, yes?

I really do quite enjoy Droids, so even if we're not lucky enough to see, for example, Kea Moll in action in the new series, I hope the stories in the new series are given a wide enough berth, that the canonicity of our old favorite doesn't have to come into question.

 

Here is an edited re-post of a review of the animated Droids I posted on another website a while back:

About 1 1/2 years ago, I watched the entire Droids cartoon series - i.e. all 13 episodes, as well as The Great Heep special. It was the first time I had seen the series unedited since it's original run in the '80's.

This show is truly incredible. It really stands up to the test of time, despite being almost 30 years old at this point:

The opening theme song Trouble Again is an essential part of the show, and I had really missed this when watching the execrable 2004 DVD release. The song really sets the tone for the series, i.e. the hapless droids getting in scrapes through no real fault of their own The song also really reminds me of something The Police (one of my all time favorite bands) would have come out with back in the day; makes perfect sense, since the drummer from The Police (S. Copeland) composed the song.

The animation rocks! Really nice how there is almost always something in the background to look for. Though I know this has been mentioned before, the animation reminds me quite a bit of the comic books drawn by the superb French artist Moebius, which makes sense since it was apparently inspired by Moebieus' work.

Enjoyed all of the nods/homages to the OT, i.e. the lightsaber that Thall Joben used, the Vehicles like the B-wing Fighter, X-wing Fighter (which was glimpsed briefly floating on water), Sy Snootles & the Rebo band in Doodnick’s café, IG-88, Boba Fett, etc.

The Stormtroopers' slightly different animated design here was great; it reminded me somewhat of their look in certain issues of the Marvel SW comic. And, I liked the laser-sticks. It would be great to see action figures based on this animated look.

The Vehicles/Tech were great! It was nice to see the aforementioned OT-vehicles, but also cool were the Desert Sail Skiff (a mini-rig from the Kenner SW toyline, that was never in the films), the Side Gunner (a toy in the short-lived 1985Droids toyline), and all of the various other ships/robots on the show . Also really liked the space-ship that Thall Joben rode in – it reminded me strongly of a modified Rebel Blockade Runner. And, of course the racing ship The White Witch was fantastic – a toy of this ship would be very nice.

IMHO, The Great Heep is the best episode in the series. Superb story & animation; I liked all of the different R2 & R5 units. Also cool to see Admiral Screed using the Interrogator droid, which was obviously inspired by the one DV used on Leia in ANH. The ending was very fitting, and it was interesting how The Great Heep ended up. In some ways, the story reminded me somewhat of the Marvel SW comic Droid World, one of my favorite EU stories from back in the day.

Though the show isn't necessarily immediately identifiable as an '80's-era cartoon, it was still amusing to see the pseudo-punk rock haircuts sported by Thall Joben & Jord Dusat, as well as the scene in the cantina when R2-D2 'break-dances' - LOL

Trivia:

"The Great Heep" was actually broadcast in the evening in June 1986, more than six months after the last episode of the show had aired (the show was on Saturday mornings). When viewing the series, it's unoffically considered "Episode 9.5".

When I first heard the song Trouble Again as a kid, I thought the first line was, "Repping softlinks, in a danger zone..." It's only now that I realize it's "Stepping softly, in a danger zone". Interesting, because I thought "repping" was a SW slang term for "repairing", and that "softlinks" was some kind of mechanical reference - LOL.

In closing, watching the series made me want this all the more in either a remastered online format or on DVD; in either case, the sound & picture quality need to be seriously cleaned up. A while back I also saw saw the short animated Holiday Special Boba Fett sequence on the SW Blu-rays, and the print was beautiful - despite being taken from a 30+ year old TV show. So, there's no question that they can give Droids & Ewoks the same quality treatment...

 

With today's Netflix announcement for The Clone Wars, I have a feeling that Netflix is the best hope for ever seeing the complete series of Droids or Ewoks.