With a little help from George Lucas and a new clip, the Cartoon Network presented their programing lineup today. The Clone Wars will air Friday nights and be the centerpiece of a new fantasy/adventure block.
Here’s what Lucas had to say about the new series, from USA Today:
“We wanted something more in the realm of anime, design-wise, than was currently on TV or movies outside Japan,” Lucas says. But “we wanted to give the look and feel of something that was past,” adding that Gerry Anderson’s 1960s British Thunderbirds series, featuring talking marionettes, “was an inspiration. We didn’t want it to look like Beowulf or The Incredibles.”
Lucas says that while the show can appeal to viewers ages 8 to 80, it’s primarily targeted at 12-year-olds. As a result, he’s added a new 11-year-old girl, Ahsoka, as a “padawan learner” for Anakin Skywalker to mentor, now that he and Obi-Wan Kenobi are “equal partners.”
The series will air again on TNT, but no specific dates or time yet. (TNT upfronts will be on May 15th.)
May 14th.
D’oh. Fixed. :)
Hm, subtly new logo. They also changed it–the ‘n’ in particular–between the original announcement and the movie announcement. It’ll be interesting to see how the branding works out. Will the movie have a subtitle or something to distinguish it?
And it’s going to bug me how we had the whole Clone Wars multimedia project a few years ago, and then the random stragglers who don’t quite fall under that umbrella (eg RC, LoE), and now a whole new multimedia project with its own distinct brand and what not. Oh well. I’m still really looking forward to it.
I thought this was going to be a “darker” cartoon?
11? 11? 11?
Please tell me that is a misprint. 14 was bad enough. *facepalm*
Well, it is George. He gets confused sometimes on the details.