A second Animated Star Wars series? (George gives hints)

Us complaining about this Galactic Heroes cartoon, is like a collector complaining about the Galactic Heroes line. If you're a collector, there's plenty for you out there, 3 3/4 Hasbro figures, vehicle sets, Kotobukyia statues... Why would you get worked up about the fact that they are also releasing a ridiculous kiddie figure line like Galactic Heroes? Just don't buy it and stick to what you like. The same applies for us TV watchers. We have the CW series, and it's getting better all the time, plus the upcoming LAS and who knows what else? What is wrong with a new show being made, aimed for toddlers? Just don't watch it. If this Galactic Heroes show was the ONLY thing being produced by Lucasfilms, then we'd have a right to be upset, as it is, I find it childish.

 

While I understand people who are disappointed that this isn't something new and exciting to look forward to, it's certainly not anything to be upset over.

What's kinda funny to me is to read the posts from people acting like they can't at all understand the reason for this.

Kids are where the money is. You get the really young kids now, and you have a whole new generation of fans. I think SW fans have to accept that GL doesn't care that much about us older fans. If you're over the age of like 14, you're not a priority (and yes I'm well over 14). GL knows we're going to spend our money on SW stuff anyway. He already has us. His best bet from a business perspective is to go get the next generation.

Plus, I agree with the sentiment that the positive for us older fans in all this is that the Clone Wars can continue to lean even more mature. The series has slowly been creeping away from a series designed just for kids, and with this new show specifically geared towards kids, they can take the Clone Wars even further. I like that.

In the end, it's fine to be disappointed that we're not getting something new and great, but it's silly to be outraged. This is clearly a business strategy that makes sense for GL.

 

This. But I'm saying that aimed for children doesn't mean childish and no-depht. It still could have outlying philosophies and stuff like that. Something like CW but with not so much violence (or, thinking kid shows these days, twice as much).

 

I can understand the motive, but that doesn't make it any better for me. It makes it worse and shows that Star Wars is getting less and less about quality.

When Star Wars has gotten to the point of being for preschool, even separately, under the title of "Squishies" (seriously?) that just makes me embarrassed to be a Star Wars fan. Star Trek has gotten better while Star Wars keeps getting worse and worse.

Hopefully this does make TCW more adult-ish as others have said though.

 

I can't understand this if this is true. I would rather have a Galactic Civil War animated series or an Indy animated sereies, but this, man this is going to torch star wars. If this is true, this is not good. Heck Dark Horse cancelled the Clone War comic books becuase it was to childish and was cutting into their over all sales, and now this? Wow, how much more kiddie can we get.

 

How is this going to "torch" Star Wars, because the old timers aren't getting a show cater to them? Seriously, some of you guys need to ligthen up, and stop taking this so seriously.

 

You have no idea what the quality is going to be like. If it's a preschool show made for preschoolers, it's illogical, Captain, to assume the quality will be poor.

I also take exception to your ST comment. TOS films>TOS>TNG>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>New Film>>DS9>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>everything else

 

This is kind of ironic. Wasn't ANH's rating upped just because Lucas didn't want it to be seen as a G-rated movie?

I can't say I'm overjoyed, but SW has been having a much wider age demographic in its eye for quite some time. This isn't really surprising.

 

Agreed. It's so strange to me to read fans just venting mindlessly. It's no wonder GL can just disregard a lot of the criticism. I'm sure it gets nearly impossible to differentiate between reasonable fans who have legit gripes from the angry masses who just want to rant about anything and everything that doesn't satisfy their specific desires.

This is hardly the first time that something Star Wars related has been targeted for the younger kids and it certainly won't be the last. What exactly is the gripe here? It's not like they announced that they would be canceling TCW and replacing it with this kid's show. It's just something else completely for a different audience. How can that be a bad thing?

Do you people go to McDonald's and rant about their Happy Meals? "The Happy Meal is going to ruin my Big Mac combo!!! NOOOO!!!"

 

Yup, some fans have to realize that they are not the only targeted demographic.

 

Well there was a time way back when SW targeted all demos at the same time.

I actually thought this announcement was some kind of satire or early April Fool's joke.

Having said that, if I don't like it I don't have to watch it.

 

I'm not that overjoyed because while many companies can release many series of figures at the same time, Lucasfilm has a limited capacity to release animated series. Of all the options available to them, this is one that appeals the least to me, it's taking up resources that I would prefer to be spent on something that I'm more interested in. Clone Wars is already limited in the depth of storytelling that they can show given the format, and anything aimed at even younger children will be more limited in scope. Yes, it could be a high quality pre-schoolers show, but it's still going to be a pre-schoolers show.

 

I will be clear on this: I love The Clone Wars, and I will probably don't care if this new show is a kids show - I'll watch it anyway. And I'll probably enjoy it. After all, I like both Disney and Pokémon

But still... With The Clone Wars, we already got a show directed first and foremost towards a younger audience. I can live with that, but isn't one kids show enough at once? I really hope the LAS will be more for us older fans (IIRC, GL stated it would be similar to ANH, which would easily qualify). Because as much as I like to have some childish stories now and then, I want adult themes too.

 

Yea if you're talking about when ANH came out. But after that there were cartoons and such targeted towards children. Then a whole new set of movies clearly targeting a younger audience. Then more cartoons. This isn't anything new.

 

I agree with your sentiment. Like I said, I understand disappointment, just not outrage and claims that this will "ruin Star Wars" or anything like that. That's just silly.

But certainly I'm not thrilled with this news or excited about it. It is what it is. It's not for me and that's too bad. But a lot of things Star Wars aren't for me.

Honestly though, despite what many fans wanted, it wasn't realistic to expect another adult oriented cartoon. The focus right now is TCW. That's what we have. When the LAS comes out, we'll have another show that's different. But just like it would be unrealistic to expect two live action shows at the same time, they're not going to make two cartoons targeted toward the same or similar audiences.

I wouldn't be surprised at all though if AFTER TCW ends, they start another series.

 

I couldn't say with absolute certainty the quality will be bad for preschool standards, but I don't expect much effort to be put into it. This really seems more like something to sell toys, and I don't see that often.

I think you missed my point. I wasn't saying that the new film was better than every single Star Trek thing. What I was saying was that Star Trek was in terrible shape for a while, and the new film changed that. Currently I'd say that the new Star Trek is of better quality than the Star Wars content being released now, a turnaround from before.

Something as big as a TV series for Star Wars has never been targeted for such young ages as preschool.

Exactly, especially about taking up resources.

 

That's not really the point. The point is that many things Star Wars related has been targeted towards kids and that will continue to be the case. Your statement is meaningless. Before TCW, there was no on-going Star Wars TV series at all. So your statement would have equally been true then...and equally meaningless. You really didn't see this coming because no other TV series has been targeted for preschool? That's silly.

Yea if you want to unreasonably narrow the topic, of course you're right. If you want to completely ignore all of Star Wars history then I guess you can be blindsided by this. But if you actually use a logical approach and look at what GL has done with the Star Wars franchise over the last 30+ years, it's obvious that this is a logical step.

 

I'm all for supporting the most awesome film director ever and his fantastic franchise. I'm also against judging something before I even know what it really is.



That said, I find it hard to be neutral about something called "Squishies."

 

Although I'm OK with the whole "Galactic Heroes" premise, where the heck did they come up with "Squishies"? Why can't they just call it Galactic Heroes? I sure hope they change the title.

 

What this really reminds me of, most of all, is that ridiculously stupid show that's on Cartoon Network now-- the Marvel Superhero Squad. Based off a line of toys targetted at very young kids and featuring a toungue-in-cheek simplification of the Marvel Universe, it's at once every bit as bad as you'd imagine it to be, yet pretty much tolerable as long as you ignore it, and just focus on decent stuff like Nicktoon's "Wolverine and the X-Men".

The only possible benefit-- perhaps if "Squishies" brings in the pre-school demographic, it'll allow "Clone Wars" and other future "Star Wars" animated projects to really go darker, edgier and more mature. With a G-rated show, maybe Lucasfilm will push their PG program into PG-13 territory.

 

Reports say the 'Squishies' is the possible working title. So I would imagine that that is just what they are calling it internally for the sake of convenience, simplicity and secrecy. If the show is based on Galactic Heroes type characters then perhaps they chose the title simply because of the very cartoonish style of those toys. So everyone who needs to know just knows that this is the 'squishy' show. Beyond that the title may be meaningless and not at all the final one.


I also don't really see that a show for young kids is going to divert resources from anything else. I don't think that GL had to choose between this and doing something else. He probably just wanted to do it and never was going to do any other shows at present. So if he wasn't going to be making this new show he may well not be doing anything. So nothing is going to be lost because he's making this new show.

Since GL is currently involved with the continuing development of TCW he may have a desire to make a 'simpler' show for younger children. I recall that he has said that since the films have finished he sees the future of SW on television. So he may well want to develop a show for a new market not previously catered for greatly by SW.

TV shows take a lot of effort to plan and develop and since GL is already doing TCW, he may be taking the opportunity now to do such a kids' show because it may be simpler in some respects due to it possibly not being connected to coniuity in such a serious way. It may use the elements of SW in a looser context. And so GL is choosing to do something like this now in order to develop SW's presence on TV and the concept of animated Star Wars itself. So the way may be clear for other projects in the future, perhaps even directed at the same kids who will watch this new show, after they've grown up more.

So I agree with those who say not to be worried about such a show for kids. It is not the beginning of a new direction for SW, just one project that goes in its own direction, and intended for a specific audience. It will not trouble the rest of the SW universe or continuity. Nothing will be lost because GL has decided to make this show.

 

Altough Gry summed it up perfectly too.

 

According to this MTV article, this was Lucasfilm's response to IESB's article:

Some may at least be happy to hear that there are "many projects in development."

While I don't necessarily agree with all of the author's commentary, he does do a good job of putting this news in perspective:

 

Remember, if he doesn't aim to catch the younger crowd, then Star Wars will go the way of the dodo.

 

I've never understood this notion that SW needs to be kiddie-fied to hook kids.

Mostly because I remember being hooked as a kid by the OT.