Interview With Gennedy Tartakovsky! (Spoilers)

Genndy Tartakovsky, producer of Star Wars: Clone Wars, was born and raised in Moscow, Russia, until his family moved to Chicago when he was seven years old. After high school, Tartakovsky studied film at Chicago's Columbia College before moving to Los Angeles to study animation at Cal Arts, where he wrote, directed, produced and animated two student films. One of his student films, which was selected for the Cal Arts Producers Show, was the basis for the hit seriesDexter?s Laboratory. Tartakovsky currently produces Samurai Jack and has served as producer and director on The Powerpuff Girls. In this network-provided interview, Tartakovsky describes the genesis of Star Wars: Clone Wars and what went into making it.

How was Star Wars: Clone Wars project initiated? Did Lucasfilm first contact Cartoon Network or vice-versa?

The project came together through joint conversations between Lucasfilm and Cartoon Network. Lucas wants to keep the Star Wars property robust and active between motion picture releases. So they approached me and asked if I would be interested in creating a one-minute program based on Star Wars. Well, of course I said ?yes,? but told them that I couldn?t really do anything significant with one-minute episodes?it?s simply too short a time to tell a story. Cartoon Network went back to Lucasfilm and told them that they would be working with the team behind Samurai Jack. And it turns out that George Lucas watches and really admires Samurai Jack, so they sent word that we now would be worthy of creating three-minute Star Wars episodes!

After working for years in half-hour formats, how did you go about preparing three-minute episodes?

When we got the greenlight from Lucasfilm, I still wasn?t really sure even three-minutes would work. So I took several existing 22-minute episodes of Samurai Jack and re-edited them into three-minute versions to see what I had. I wanted to know that in three minutes you could make sense, capture the viewer?s interest and still tell a compelling story. And I found that it actually worked, particularly if each installment worked to build upon the previous one, to offer an important piece to the overall story arc, then end with a cliff-hanger that would inspire the viewer to come back to see what happens next. I think you?ll see that each episode, despite being only three minutes long, has a beginning, middle and an end that pulls the viewer in and makes him or her want to know more.

What is Lucasfilm?s involvement with the creation of the series? Has the company told you what storyline to follow or have they given you a free hand?

They?ve been remarkably hands-off with us about Clone Wars. I think once George Lucas gave his overall blessing or ?seal of approval? because of what we?ve achieved to date with Samurai Jack, everyone felt they could trust us to handle the property with the appropriate care and concern it deserves. So we went away and developed our own storyline, a new perspective and approach, along with character designs and production elements?all of which really excited us?and we brought it back and pitched the new scenario to them. And fortunately, everyone really loved it.

So what is this new scenario, your particular angle, to the Star Wars story?

Because this project is composed of so many different short segments, I like compare it to HBO?s Band of Brothers, a project I really admired that takes a huge story like the European Allied campaign of World War II and presents it in a series of ?a day in the life of? stories. As I see it, this project mirrors that approach by showcasing several ?days in the life of the Clone Wars.? For instance, in the first few episodes, we?re presenting a singular, but extremely important campaign, The Battle of Muunilinst, an all-city planet under attack by the Separatist movement. We?re able to explain the goals and obstacles the old Republic and Jedi must face, reveal important internal conflicts between the main characters, and still have time to highlight the action of the

 

Cool! I like that one. (However, it might have been more prudent to stick up a link, and not the whole thing)

 

What difference would it have made ?

 

probably none, but some people have a thing with lots of copying and pasting. Copyright issues sometimes...
I don't mind... toonzone doesn't seem to want to work on my school computers.