32 BBY: Jar Jar's Journey

The animated medium is where Star Wars belongs.  I talked about this in my post on Return – the animated cinematic from Bioware.  In that post I argued that Star Wars would be best served if it moved exclusively to the animated medium.  More could be done and more stories could be told.  I even went so far as to say that I think episodes 1-6 should be re-made into The Clone Wars style of animation, thereby creating a consistent visual story of the Skywalker saga.  Very wishful dreaming on my part, I know, but sometimes I like to think about the logistics of such an endeavour.  If this were to happen there would all sorts of hurdles to jump of course, like whose voicing would be used?  Would the films be best served if all the original voicing from the original actors were used, or – taking into consideration episodes 1-3 – would they be re-done using the voice actors from The Clone Wars series?  Fun questions to think about.

Though I’m excited about episode seven, I’d be more excited if it was going to be an animated feature like The Clone Wars.  Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher could reprise their roles as voice actors, and more importantly, the three stars could appear in the film looking like the older and still heroic versions we are familiar with from the EU book covers.  My greatest fear with episode 7 (among many) is that these three will look too real – too tired, too saggy, and too old.  It’s apparent the three have aged better on book covers than they have in real life.  With an animated feature, the reality of old age need not get in the way.  Whether we’d like to admit it or not, we want our mythological heroes to look young for as long as possible.  An animated film solves this problem.

Again, and in the same vein, the possibility of a live action show is exciting, but I’d rather have an animated show.  The Clone Wars proved that a consistent audience of young and old fans (and by old I mean myself and other 70’s and 80’s children who keep this IP alive) can sustain such programming.   I can’t be alone in my thinking here.  Does anyone else want to see Star Wars move to an exclusively animated medium?  Give me your thoughts.

I bring up the topic of an animated Star Wars because in the source before me, Jar Jar’s Journey, we are presented with The Phantom Menace in cartoon format – and putting aside what this is; namely, a computer learning program for kids – the effect is tremendously cool.  Though I haven’t engaged with the source directly (and I still might, the only thing holding me back is not knowing whether or not my computer will run it), there is a short YouTube video of it here, and the website www.starwarsmedia.com, has a page dedicated to it here. Take a look at these links and tell me The Phantom Menace didn’t just get a little bit better because it was a cartoon. I dare ya!

As it is, I still might pick up a copy.  There are all sorts available on eBay, and I can probably get away with spending 20 bucks or less for it, but even then, the price is little too steep.  I can perhaps justify my expenditure with idea that I may go through the game with my 5-year-old son, but like I said, I’m worried my computer won’t be able to run it.

Accordingly, I think the two links above did well in presenting the essence of the game. So, in the same spirit of Obi-Wan’s Adventures, I’m going to check off this source as ‘dealt with’. 

For my next post I’m going to take a quick look at Star Wars Episode 1 and R2-D2, both children's books by Margret Lansing.  Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.