RhondaWeasley.com

Felt like watching Star Wars, went back to Episode I, decided to look up Lloyd on the internet, as I wonder what he looked like now.
Apparently the poor kid hates Star Wars now and he didn’t grow ‘hollywood pretty’. He’s not ugly, just an average sort of guy. I kind of get his anger over it, but I also remember seeing the other Anakin finalist and compared to the others, Lloyd was the best choice of the auditioned children. He actually looked at Portman (the audition was the ‘are you an angel’ moment)  and seemed invested in the scene compared to the others. The script of Episode I is the weakest of the six, but I feel Lloyd is over criticized for a bad script. At least I can excuse him for being 8, but Portman is an excellent actress and she failed to be really impressive in the prequels. It’s as if she slept through the script knowing Star Wars would look good on the resume. However, it’s also more the actor’s chemistry and talent that made the original trilogy good than the script. Plis, the original trilogy in its original form was innovative for the magical world it created WITHOUT CGI enhanced effects. These two factors still outshine the ‘shiny’ special effects heavy prequel.

Oddly enough, I did like the theatrically released ‘Clone Wars’ movie, though I still haven’t watched the TV show it spawned. A TV show that I’ve read conflicts with the OTHER ‘Clone Wars’ micro series, which was also REALLY good. In fact, I hear the entire Star Wars Universe (who’s novel universe had already been shaken by the prequels) is being entirely reinvisioned thanks to the popular Cartoon Network series.

With as much of a Star wars Universe as their is (everything from the early Jedi years to the fall of the Empire and beyond) you’d think we’d stop visiting the darn Clone Wars. One thing animation would allow is revisiting the world after the original trilogy. And how about Anakin’s early Padawan years or Leia and Luke’s childhood? What about Padme’s rise to power on Naboo? I’m sure there’s political intrigue to be explored there. I think Lucas should explore the further possibilities of Animation in the Star Wars Universe and stop rehashing the Clone Wars. And as amazing the animation is in the Robot Chicken Star Wars specials, I think really looking at further possibilities through Stop Motion would be good. The thing about good Stop Motion, like Jim Henson’s Muppets, is the fact it’s REALLY there. It’s a beautiful bend of reality where something that you can see/hold/feel comes alive. It’s a special kind of magic completely computer designed CGI can’t do as well (Jar Jar Binks anyone?)

Avatar used Motion Capture, and even that (when used well in conjunction with live action) has the benefit of an actor really living in a character as opposed to voicing over a creature that clearly doesn’t actually interact with a world in anyway. This is not to say I don’t like traditional cell animation, I do. I also don’t mind a good computer generated animated movie (Toy Story for example). However, when it comes to blending the ‘real’ with the computer animated, Lord of the Rings got it right with Golum and Avatar got it right with the Na’vi.

And how I got on this tangent, I don’t know, lol.