Friday, February 5, 2016

Star Wars: Clone Wars vs. Rebels

I've been a fan of The Clone Wars since it came out. We own the series on DVD. I was less than pleased when Disney announced, shortly after acquiring Lucasfilm, that they were cancelling production on it. Season six was in mid-production and season seven was in  the early stages of production and, while it wasn't a raging, everybody-must-watch-it-show success, it seemed to be doing fine. But, then, it was just over.

And, you know, I get it. From a business perspective, what they did made good sense. That doesn't mean I have to like it, though.

See, the thing is, The Clone Wars had a problem. It couldn't figure out its demographic. It wasn't a cartoon -- excuse me, animated television show -- made for kids. That is, they, the kids, were not the specific target audience. Clone Wars was launched for the Cartoon Network's prime time, adult viewing time slot. Clearly, it was an animated show that wanted an adult audience. It featured adult characters and dealt with a lot of mature themes. Sure, all of that was then presented in half hour blocks in such a way that kids could also digest the material and Ahsoka was included to allow the younger viewing audience a character they could identify with. But it wasn't a show for kids and, so, it also wasn't a show for adults. It just grabbed people like me who wanted to know more about the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith and all the kids who just like the excellent Star Wars action.

Rebels, however, is a show solidly targeting kids.You can tell because the protagonist is a kid. And, well, from what I can tell so far (only having watched the first couple of episodes), the overall action is going to revolve around the Empire's search for the "children of the Force" in its quest to exterminate the Jedi. So, still, maybe, dealing with some mature themes but, I'm going to assume, handled in a child-appropriate way. After all, we are quite used to things like dinosaurs and killer robots and gangsters chasing kids with the intent to kill.

And, well, Disney wanted to bring Star Wars to the Disney Channel, not Cartoon Network, so allowing Clone Wars to slip away allowed Disney to launch Rebels on its own network.

I'm glad to see that some of the characters from Clone Wars will carry over.

So, yeah, I'll be reviewing Rebels as I watch it, but it won't be on a weekly basis like we're doing with The Clone Wars. It will be interesting to see how it compares.

10 comments:

  1. I totally never knew this existed. Am I a bad person? A bad mom? I mean we have all the regular movies. I think the kids could only handle one of my obsessions (it was Harry Potter). Son was very into Dragon Ball Z for a while...

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    1. Hart: Right now, I'd say go back and watch Clone Wars.

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  2. That's an interesting problem regarding the demographic, and yeah, it's probably true. I was never much of a Star Wars fan, but I would sit and watch stuff that drew me in. When Clone Wars came out, I was watching mecha anime, stuff that should have made Clone Wars appealing, but at that time, I was a mid-teen and Clone Wars just -looked- like a kid's show to me, so I never even gave it the chance it probably deserved. Probably. :P

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    1. Alex: I think Clone Wars was a pretty mature show and well done. It's too bad that Disney turned it off just as it began to handle some of the really deep stuff.

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  3. I have a huge problem keeping straight what each show is. I have only seen a few of them, so the names confuse me. Brain problem.
    I know you and squid are watching Clone Wars and I think I have just started watching that one. (I hope)

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. parsnip: You should definitely watch Clone Wars, first, because some of the characters carry over, and you want the background.

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  4. I haven't touched Rebels at all yet. Maybe someday.

    Star Trek suffered from similar targeting issues with its animated series.

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    1. TAS: Well, it is halfway through the second season already, and I am only just now getting to it.

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