New Star Wars animated show "Rebels" coming fall 2014

The premise of the new series is a little shakier and weaker than the premise of TCW, that's for sure. As you said, none of these lead characters are seen in the Original Trilogy (nor mentioned) and there won't be a special emotional attachment or connection between the viewer and Ezra, Kanan or the others in that respect. At least with Anakin - even though he would fall hard to the Dark Side, turn evil and massacre a lot of innocent beings as he helped the Emperor seize power - you knew his destiny and you were curious about the events leading up to Episode III and his ultimate downfall in that film.

We don't even know who will survive long enough to witness the full-blown Galactic Civil War of the OT (though this is Disney we're talking about and wiping out an entire animated cast isn't going to be their thing, so we can probably assume without much hesitation that at least some of these guys and gals will be alive during the time of the Original Trilogy) and we know none of them show up in the backgrounds of those films, so aside from being a bridge connecting the Prequel/Clone Wars era to the OT and containing visual nods it doesn't exactly provide many direct connections.

All that said: it can still be a great show if handled correctly.

 

Well, I've already heard that

Spoiler

Obi-Wan (in hologram message), Bail Organa, Lando Calrissian, Threepio, and Artoo

will all be appearing in Rebels.

 

I do really like the idea of the events of Rebels somehow tying into the new sequel trilogy (even in a very vague way), but I'm not sure how likely those rumors really are.

It would definitely give the show some added resonance though. And probably get a lot more people watching. Lol

 

In the end I imagine all the canonical chapters of the Star Wars universe will fit together in something approaching a halfway logical timeline of events, and with the previous EU now completely jettisoned or under reevaluation that should make the final picture (whenever that is given that the franchise was already closing in on the big 4-0 before the Disney buyout of Lucasfilm and the announcement of all the new films and other projects) a little less messy. We hope.

 

Pretty cool new statue coming out:

http://www.rebelscum.com/2014-SDCC/SDCC-2014-Gentle-Giant-Star-Wars-1/image32.asp

 

Gentle Giant rarely goes wrong with a Star Wars item. That looks really nice.

 

Wow, tons of great new stuff in this trailer. Especially love the interaction between a couple of familiar droids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYkXif5Q2mA

And holy crap, wasn't expecting this. Check out the protocol droid behind Chopper!!

 

No surprise the first thing I see in the video's comments section is an argument over canon regarding Luminara being alive still. It's depressing how predictable people can be at times...

Personally, my first thought was "if they caught her, why is she still alive?" I can see Palpatine rounding up stray padawans and potentials to re-educate as his personal assassins/operatives, but a full Jedi Master? The only reason I can think why they didn't execute her on sight is that she has information they want, or so they believe. The location of a Jedi sanctuary perhaps? Or some Sith reliquary the council had hidden away?

 

who is the droid behind Chopper...?

how come Artoo looks normal but Threepio looks extremely simplified and cheap?

 

I agree - their animated maquettes are great and this one looks slick.

 

The classic Kenner Hammerhead's in the background of Rebels.

Behold the classic, geeky goodness!

First the Kenner Walrus Man in classic colors makes a cameo in The Clone Wars, now this. Dave Filoni's a real Star Wars geek.

 

re: TIE fighter proportions.

So, are these TIE fighters (whose proportions seem to resemble preproduction art more than they resemble the OT film proportions) just an earlier model from the movie-era ships?

 

Part of me is thinking that the TIEs seen in Rebels are indeed an earlier model of the craft depicted in the Original Trilogy due to the discrepancies you and others have mentioned, but it's always possible that this is just Disney's take on the classic OT fighter and we're just supposed to interpret it a little loosely due to this being animation.

Much like the Stormtrooper's helmets and their "mouths." Maybe this is what they looked like in the years before A New Hope or maybe from Disney's perspective it's just a cartoon and they wanted to "cartoon up" all of these familiar designs.

 

Yeah. The stormtrooper helmets are definitely out of proportion too, so, yeah, both could be just the style. It bothers me a little.

 

I wonder if someone from on-high decided that if they use the Ralph McQuarrie designs for this and Episode VII that that'll somehow render them immune to criticism.

 

I'm hoping they refine the Stormtrooper helmets as time goes by so that they don't feel so awkwardly different from the classic OT helmet look, but if they don't I can live with them. It's just nice to have Imperial Stormtroopers back on the screen after all these years.

 

It's McQuarrie's concept version of 3PO to go along with the concept version of R2 they're using for Chopper.

I'm not really seeing the problem with the Stormtrooper design myself. The helmets are obviously a bit larger, but the design still looks pretty faithful to me (albeit more simplified). And it's not like TCW didn't greatly simplify a lot of prequel designs over the years as well.

And I don't get why people keep saying this is all Disney's doing, as if the producers had no creative input at all or something. It seems much more likely to me that the simpler designs are only a result of the budget, and not some order or directive from Disney to "cartoon things up" as much as possible.

 

One of the first shots in TPM is based on an old Mcquarrie painting (Of the Falcon landing back when it used a different design which eventually evolved into the Correlian Corvette/Blockade Runner as well as the EU Correlian gunship):

http://echostation57.files.wordpres...on_on_imperial_capital_planet_of_alderaan.jpg

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110217034917/headhuntersholosuite/images/4/42/Radiant_VII.jpg


And that's certainly not exempt from criticism.

Also,the Special Edition added SFX in Cloud City in ESB also borrowed a few Mcquarrie concepts such as the other mining station seen in the "Cloud City at day" shot, and you can also see one of the gas balloons when the Millenium Falcon approaches the city. Plus ROTS's Kashykk owes a few things to Mcquarrie's designs for the Holiday special (Although not to the EU, which had the Wookies live in giant trees with no sea).

 

I'll submit that the design of that ship/shot is beneath notice regarding criticism - certainly less so than any X-wing or stormtrooper redesign.

 

I agree. A quick survey of Disney's TV shows will handily disprove the notion that there's any kind of uniform "house style" imposed upon them. On the contrary, for the past two decades, thanks to the influence of animators like John Kricfalusi, Matt Groening, and Bruce Timm, the design styles of American TV animation have become increasingly diversified, and now it's standard for each show (or multi-series franchise) to have its own extremely distinctive design sensibility, so that you can instantly tell what show a character belongs to just by the art style. Disney has been as much a part of that as any studio; nobody would mistake a Phineas and Ferb character for a Gravity Falls character or a Replacements character. And nobody would confuse the look of Disney's last 3D-animated series, Tron: Uprising, for the look of Star Wars: Rebels. The look of Rebels isn't a "Disney" look, it's the look chosen by the art director and character designers of this particular series.