Star Wars: The Disney+ Empire Strikes Again and Again and...

Yeah it can't beat Visions for sheer reinvention but it does a nice job of balancing out illustrative anecdotes to -- I think rather handily -- doing a bit of filling in corners for the prequels and Clone Wars (and Rebels, just) without having to commit to a full series or movie or anything (they should use that model more going forward). It is also definitely an example of just how continually better their animation studio and affiliate partners are getting in terms of visual detail and possibilities.

the art style of tales i just find really kinda.. ugly

this, on the other hand..

pic.twitter.com/RZ74q04w7J

— スタジオジブリ STUDIO GHIBLI (@JP_GHIBLI) November 10, 2022

Intriguing indeed.

Aw.

Discover Zen - Grogu and Dust Bunnies, a hand-drawn animation by Studio Ghibli, is streaming tomorrow on #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/ODqHrgIwnB

— Disney+ (@DisneyPlus) November 12, 2022

Aw indeed, that sounds terrible

Or at least the most unnecessary and inappropriate use of a big gun

That batch is still bad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R15uYFpeBG0

hey, it's that little wookiee padawan guy from The Clone Wars

Nice to see he wasn't slaughtered with all the other children, as we were so recently reminded in Obi-Wan

Should do some updates! So I've been enjoying The Bad Batch's second season, a little lower stakes for now but the third episode in particular was strong stuff. (And presumably sets up an eventual reunion of the team at some point.)

Meantime, more Visions incoming:

Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 starts streaming May 4 on Disney+ , featuring nine new animated shorts from nine studios from across the globe. https://t.co/41wgwbyqrO pic.twitter.com/WYsP4Eu3eA

— Star Wars | #TheBadBatch now streaming on Disney+ (@starwars) February 2, 2023

• Aardman, “I Am Your Mother”—Makers of the claymated Wallace & Gromit series

• Cartoon Saloon, “Screecher’s Reach”—An Irish studio responsible for The Secret of Kells, Wolfwalkers, and The Breadwinner

• D’Art Shtajio, “The Pit”—A Japanese anime studio who’ve helped out on many an anime series, but also created alt-country singer Sturgill Simpson’s absolutely wild Sound & Fury film (you can currently watch it on Netflix)

• 88 Pictures, “The Bands of Golak”—An Indian studio that made Guillermo del Toro’s kids series Trollhunters for Netflix

• El Guiri Studios, “Sith”—A Spanish studio led by Rodrigo Blaas, who worked on several Pixar films

• Punkrobot, “In the Stars”—A Chilean animation house responsible for many kids series I have not heard of, but look pretty neat

• Studio La Cachette, “The Spy Dancer”—A French studio that animated Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal series

• Studio Mir, “Journey to the Dark Head”—The excellent Korean studio behind The Legend of Korra, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, and DOTA: Dragon’s Blood

• Triggerfish, “Aau’s Song”—Makers of several BBC shorts, based in South Africa

(And per comments earlier, little Wookie padawan reappears in this week's episode.)

Aardman eh?

yeah, Aardman has me intrigued.

though, if we are going to be doing stop-motion star wars, I would love for Laika to do a star wars thing

Still unclear what & when the next movie will be: https://variety.com/2023/film/news/star-wars-kevin-feige-patty-jenkins-movies-shelved-1235545774/

Maybe Lucasfilm has figured out that their in-development projects typically end up exciting fans way more than the finished product, so they're not bothering with the second half. and on that note, that Lindelof SW movie look intersting

Star Wars romantic comedy based on When Harry Met Sally

As noted on the Clone Wars/Rebels thread, we got Ahsoka trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnzNZ0Mdx4I

Plus the overall news so far out of London:

* Footage from Skeleton Crew and season 2 Andor shown

https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-skeleton-crew-trailer-footage-description-1850298799

https://gizmodo.com/andor-season-2-first-look-star-wars-celebration-2023-1850310089

* Three new movies planned:

https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-new-film-announced-2025-live-action-1850308047

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy introduced thethree directors for the next three Star Wars movies: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold, Mandalorian and Clone Wars architect Dave Filoni, and Ms. Marvel’s Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. The three films will span across the entirety of the known Star Wars timeline, which will now include the Dawn of the Jedi, 25,000 years before the events of the Skywalker films, and the time of the New Jedi Order, 15 years after The Rise of Skywalker.

Mangold’s film, set during that earliest period of the timeline, will tell the tale of the first Jedi ever in what he described as a “biblical epic.” Dave Filoni will direct a new film set in the time period of The Mandalorian, culminating in the conflict between the Imperial Remnant and the New Republic. Lastly, Obaid-Chinoy reintroduced Jedi Master Rey Skywalker, Daisy Ridley herself, who will rebuild the Jedi Order in a new film.

Oh and there's only been scattered talk on here and a couple of other threads but second season of The Bad Batch was really pretty great! Ended on just the right cliffhanger.

Rebels is back... in live action form!

Zeb got intro'd the other week on Mandalorian, so here come the rest...

Forgot to mention -- Acolyte footage shown too:

https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-the-acolyte-trailer-footage-high-republic-1850307646

Pleased about the new movie news (including return of Rey). I've totally checked out on the TV stuff, but will check out new films for sure.

Mangold becoming their next in-house guy given this is after his Indiana Jones film.

I don't know much about him, but see he directed Logan, which is a thumbs-up from me

And based on the action sequences in Ford vs. Ferrari -- seriously, the Daytona sequence in the middle of the film was amazing -- I am all down for whatever action madness he can bring to this.

I'll be interested in seeing if the Filoni film is the crossover thing he's been regularly hinting at for the various TV series in that time period (of which there will now be four at least -- Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, Skeleton Crew).

if they can keep jj abrams extremely far away from Star Wars films* I feel better about their future prospects.

*and cinema in general

Chopper and the Rebels crew in live action is great to see

Abrams has really been keeping a low profile lately... he and Bad Robot were such a big thing for a while, but seem to have cooled off?

Sad Robot

Think he's got some new HBO show soon with Sawyer from Lost

Yeah I checked out the Wikipedia page, looks like lots of TV producing (plus some long-gestating film projects in development)

So Lars Mikkelsen will play Thrawn in Ahsoka, another Rebels reprise from a voice actor in question, plus...

Dave Filoni announces a second season of #TalesoftheJedi: https://t.co/jdc1IKZAhI #TheCloneWars #StarWarsCelebration pic.twitter.com/t5rjmqAcnL

— Star Wars (@starwars) April 8, 2023

Plus we've got the new Star Wars: Visions season shortly and Young Jedi Adventures for the kids. (Seen a short one of the latter they previewed on YouTube, perfectly fun.)

A making of look at the Aardman Visions short #StarWarsCelebration #StarWarsVisions pic.twitter.com/OMl3kg6wjn

— SFX magazine (@SFXmagazine) April 10, 2023

The overall trailer is a beaut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSXqU92cymY

Also per this report, one last Bad Batch season. I admit I was curious to know how long they were thinking of doing this; wouldn't've minded more seasons but given the setting and scope I did ponder what the endgame was going to be.

Those poor clones get one more season of avoiding getting tossed in a wood chipper by the Empire, I guess

Also, looks like a new Ghibli hypershort is on the cards:

This Is A New Day, A New Beginning. pic.twitter.com/3fq2VvW4FQ

— スタジオジブリ STUDIO GHIBLI (@JP_GHIBLI) April 10, 2023

that's part of the second iteration of Visions, innit?

oh nope, nevermind

So I've seen a couple of the Young Jedi Adventures episodes -- fun indulgences! -- but the second season of Visions absolutely knocked it out of the park. Hell of a brilliant range of studios, approaches and interpretations, and they were not afraid to go deep on an anticolonial (even anticapital) front more than once. I do recommend a watch and then when you have, read this profile of LeAndre Thomas, the creator of the short "The Pit," which in its own way is almost a SW riff on LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," but with different contexts and results.

https://www.lucasfilm.com/news/leandre-thomas-the-pit-star-wars-visions/

not sure the right thread for SW merch that is O_o

$400 Dollars for a statue that looks like a naked Nien Nunb getting into a hot tub.

https://regalrobot.com/shop/star-wars/starwars-busts-statues-collectibles/nien-nunb-concept-maquette-replica-dave-carson-signature-edition/

how did they know

what i liked

A-Choo -Ta!

Navigating through that slideshow of horrors, I see that the same studio (and artist?) issued a full-body nude Max Rebo with apples covering his genitals. Although it doesn't look quite as much like a geriatric's scrotum as that Nien Nunb bust does so its erotic value may be somewhat diminished in comparison.

Release date late August:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7-zia4oHuk

hell yeah, thrawn time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qz9Uqk55Jo