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S1E03: Dish on Animation with the Learning Geeks!
47 Plays1 year ago
Jake Gittleson and Dana Koch from The Learning Geeks (Bob's other podcast) join him in the kitchen to talk about Star Wars animation. Grab your droids and brooms!
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Transcript
Introduction to Star Wars Cleaning Crew
00:00:01
Speaker
We're cleaning with Jake Gittleson and Dana Koch from The Learning Geek, so grab your droids and brooms. It's the Star Wars Cleaning Crew. Welcome back to the Star Wars Cleaning Crew. We're going to dive right in because we're short on time.
Exploring Star Wars Animation
00:00:16
Speaker
This is my discussion with my friends from The Learning Geeks about animation. So watch and enjoy. This was recorded a couple of weeks ago, so news is a little old, but I think you'll have a good time.
00:00:27
Speaker
Hey, uh, we only have a few minutes left of cleaning the kitchen. So let's talk about what we're going to talk about, which is animation, Star Wars animation. And Dana, I want to start with you because I know Jake and I have pretty much kept up with it, but you're a little bit more of a newcomer to the Star Wars animation. So I'd love to get your reactions as somebody who is kind of just getting into clone wars and rebels and you know, what are your thoughts? What do you like? What do you don't like?
00:00:54
Speaker
Yeah.
Dana's Journey into Star Wars Animation
00:00:55
Speaker
So you guys kind of dragged me into it because I was, I considered myself a purist, right? I only liked the movies and even I didn't like all of the movies, but there were several of them. I like a lot. Um, but then as they started coming out with the, uh, animation or not the, the non-animation spin-offs, I started getting a little more interested in the characters, uh, like Ashoka is one of them in particular. And so, um,
00:01:19
Speaker
You guys said, well, if you really want to understand the backstory on these characters, you're going to need to dig into Clone Wars and Rebels. And, and frankly, when I first started watching Rebels, the first couple episodes were like, Oh, really? Uh, but then those were first season, right? Yeah. And then, and then the first, uh, you know, a couple of the characters are a little intriguing and I kept watching and kept watching before long. It's like, Hey, you know what? There's actually good storytelling.
00:01:47
Speaker
And it seemed like, I don't know if this is true, but it seemed like the quality of the animation improved over several seasons. Oh, it did. So I finally caught up on Rebels, and I started watching some of Bad Batch, and I need to go back and watch some of the others. So I'm not as advanced as you guys are on the stuff, but what's really been gripping me is the quality of the storytelling, how they link a lot of the storytelling to the
00:02:13
Speaker
you know, the mothership, if
Evolution of Star Wars Storytelling
00:02:16
Speaker
you will, right? The main stories. And then the quality of the animation, like I said, is starting to get really, really good.
00:02:24
Speaker
And we're seeing the interlinking even more as Dave Filoni becomes more and more responsible for the Star Wars universe. We're seeing what he came up with in the animated series and especially what he came with when he was collaborating with Lucas himself on those early Clone Wars. And now that's coming into the live action and now we're seeing the live action starting to come back into the animation. And it really is all becoming
00:02:53
Speaker
One big story. It doesn't really matter what the format is. If it's live action or animated, right? It's a tangled web. It is. So Jake, you and I have kept up on the animation pretty, pretty well. It took me a while to get all the way through Clone Wars. Same. And, and, and frankly, I, you know what?
00:03:10
Speaker
To be honest, I don't, I think there's a one or two seasons where I haven't seen all of them because there was a lot of skippable ones. Um, but rebels, I saw all the way through bad batch, you know, well, resistance was hard, but, um, but yeah, clone wars was one of those. Even at the very beginning, I remember having a hard time with it. Yeah.
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah, I remember going remember that first opened up as a movie like the first three episodes they made into a theatrical movie Yeah, and I was like we're going to a movie theater to see Star Wars It was so excited and oh it was awful. It's terrible then but then when the actual series started I remember the episode where it's Yoda with the clones and
00:03:56
Speaker
I think it's like the second episode, once it started on TV, and I was like, okay, wait, they've got something here. But I didn't stay with it. It took me, I actually, I watched most of Clone Wars on an elliptical machine at my gym pretty much every day. I would grab my iPad. It was perfect for an elliptical workout, right? So. I can't finish it until the episode's done. I can't finish till the episode's done. I can't finish till the episode's done. Exactly.
00:04:24
Speaker
But yeah, great stuff. It kept getting better and better all along. And then Rebels, it was the same way. Like that first season of Rebels was a little rough to get through the first few episodes. It was kind of like, oh, this is like Disney's Aladdin set in Star Wars. You know, they were really setting up Ezra as that street rat character. And as it continued to go, I remember, man, the last season of Rebels,
00:04:48
Speaker
uh Several episodes. I was wiped in a tear from my eye. It's so good. I I I honestly think the beginning was Ezra for me where it was hard Because yeah, they they didn't know what to do because again, he was he was essentially a kid and he was a kid And at the same time remember at that time that was disney xd So they had right so they had a balance between what they can actually do on it It was a mix between tweens and teens and
00:05:17
Speaker
And then you realize, oh, adults are watching it too. And so there was this balance between what kind of show do we want to make? And eventually they're just like, let's just make it a Star Wars show. And that's when it got good after that. Yeah. At the last celebration, I got to see the first episode of Tales of the Jedi.
Tales of the Jedi and Star Wars Connections
00:05:39
Speaker
The first episode of season one of Tales of the Jedi
00:05:42
Speaker
during the panel. Dave Filoni was there, and it was several months before it actually aired on TV. But we got to see the first one. We saw it was just spectacular. Was that the one with the Ahsoka? Was it Ahsoka, or did they do both one with Ahsoka and then a Count Dua? No, they just showed the one with Ahsoka as a baby. Which was really good. That was really, really good. And that went on further. We were just joking this last weekend. Somebody made a joke about Yaddle.
00:06:08
Speaker
like what a crazy character yaddle you know the female yoda jedi from episode two i think she's yeah episode two and i was like you better watch which was cool right like yeah you better watch tales of the jedi before you diss yaddle right amazing stuff now this episode we're gonna i'm gonna put this episode out on may 4th which means
00:06:32
Speaker
it will be the day that Tales of the Empire premieres. So people who are listening to this might watch all of that, but we just learned like in the last couple days that Tales of the Jedi season two actually is going to be Tales of the Empire. And it looks like it's going to bring the story of
00:06:53
Speaker
of Elspeth from The Mandalorian and from Ahsoka, together with Barris Offee, pull those stories together. So now we're starting to see the live action stuff come back to the animation. Yeah. Which I think is fascinating. Which is really cool. And what I like is as they start to interweave the different characters across the stories. Because if you just watch some of them, you might think, oh, this is a spin off and it's not really connected.
00:07:23
Speaker
But now they're starting to show how they are connected, which intrigues me because that makes for good storytelling.
Bad Batch and Character Development
00:07:30
Speaker
Like right now, right now I'm bad batch, which for those listening, we are what?
00:07:35
Speaker
episode 10 11 I think 10 or 11 10 11 I think it's what we're up to yeah I mean there's multiple characters in there but like with Fennec for example you know yeah you get to really know Fennec with the Mandalorian was it season two I think he got the end and then and then and Boa Fett series but yet now you have Fennec that's shows up in the in the show and then you know her background a little bit more about her background
00:08:05
Speaker
also she's I don't know I'm curious Bob what you think of Fennec as an animated character because it's the same voice actress I'm trying to blank on her name for some reason but it's the same voice actress Ming Na Wen yeah yeah well you know my first reaction was always
00:08:25
Speaker
Fennec would be way too young during the, you know, just post Clone Wars era. Yeah. That's what I'm trying to figure out her age. But you know, the thing is, is Ming Na Wen looks like she's 35 and she's like our age. She's actually closer to Dana's age, I think. So she's 32.
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. No, I'm joking. I want to say that Ming Na Wen is in her late 40s, if not in her 50s. I think she is in her 50s, actually. Yeah, so if you assume that Fennec Shand is that age in Ahsoka and Book of Boba Fett, then it works, mathematically. She's very young. She voiced Mulan. She did. And animated too. Yeah, the animated Mulan. Way back in the day. Right. But it's hard to tell age from a voice sometimes.
00:09:11
Speaker
It is. True. But I see Fennec in Bad Batch as just kind of being that immature, still kind of rough around the edge and a little bit more of a villain than we see her growth come in Book of Boba Fett. An already established, well-known bounty hunter that she's getting topless bounties, which is kind of cool. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
00:09:35
Speaker
Very cool. No, I've enjoyed Bad Batch. And again, it's the same type of thing. Like the first episode or two of Bad Batch, Omega really got on my nerves. I was like, Oh, here's the kid character. You got to have the kid character because it's a kid show, blah, blah, blah, blah. But then I really, really grew to appreciate her as a character. And it'll be very interesting to see where the rest of the season goes with that.
00:09:58
Speaker
The same. And just kind of going back around, but the quality of that animation of Bad Batch. And Dana, where are you at in Bad Batch? I don't remember where you're at. So when you guys told me there was a new season and it was awesome, I thought, OK, I'm going to dive in. Because I tend to dive in middle seasons and then kind of work my way forward or backward. And so I went out and I thought I was launching the latest season.
00:10:28
Speaker
And as I'm watching, I'm thinking, I've seen this before. Why are they telling the same story again?
00:10:34
Speaker
Uh, yeah, well, I was watching the first episode of the first season. So I'm several episodes. I'm starting now from the beginning, several episodes for a season. Okay. But just to tie it back around with the quality of not only animation, the storytelling, and then even music, um, everything, I think the whole package right now, again, we're at season three, season three.
00:10:59
Speaker
I really do. Going back to what I said before, I think it's one of some of my favorite Star Wars stories that I've ever seen. And there, I mean, even episode one, I won't give any spoilers, but episode one of season three was a little dark.
00:11:16
Speaker
And then you started, it was almost terrifying to think what was actually happening in the background. I think that's what Andor felt like when you imagine those, the people in prison were really just workers for the empire, helping build the Death Star, different components. And then now you have another evil of his doing, of other humans and people on that planet.
00:11:45
Speaker
Tantix, right? Yeah. And Jake, you and I were just texting about that last week, particularly in the season, the episodes on Tantus, Mount Tantus with Dr. Hemlock and Emily. Great, by the way. Those seem very grown up. Those are kind of like dark sci-fi. The ones when it's back with the batch get a little more, you know, Clone Wars feel a little more kid oriented, but still solid. And it'll be interesting to see what happens when they all come together.
00:12:15
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. But again, I just think, I don't know what happens and the reason why this is across, now we're staying with all the three or four different shows, starts off a little slow. But again, it's like the character development. But then there's a lot of, I know other people would argue, but almost wasteful episodes. It's just kind of, you could skip them. And then all of a sudden there's a moment where nothing's skippable. You just got to keep, you're going to keep going in such good story throughout.
Future of Animated Characters in Live-Action
00:12:44
Speaker
But I guess that's a series. That's right. So a question for you two. How many of these animated characters do you think will show up in the new live action movie when they release it in umpteen years?
00:13:02
Speaker
I think that the one that Dave Filoni directs that is, is supposedly going to pull together all the storylines and kind of wrap up the whole mando verse and all that kind of stuff. I have a feeling we're going to see a lot of the animated characters in there. That's my gut reaction.
00:13:18
Speaker
Yeah, I know you can't tell the future, but I was curious about that. It'd be fun. We'll consult the force. Yeah. I do believe that under all of it, outside of Soka, I think Sabine is the one of the big characters out of him. Yeah. We're made to believe Ezra was, but I think from Soka, it's pretty clear where he feels or where Sabine is. And I mean, even in Rebels, but I think that she's going to have more of a stronger presence, too, as we go.
00:13:47
Speaker
at least maybe I'm hopeful for that because I love I love Sabine I love Sabine she's probably my favorite character and rebels probably in all of animation close between Sabine and Ahsoka yeah I love Sabine she would probably be my favorite yeah although I loved I loved Ahsoka as a animation character as a non-animation character
00:14:07
Speaker
She had to grow on it. Took a while. Took a while. Agreed. Agreed.
Reflection and Goodbye
00:14:12
Speaker
Well, hey, guys. Kitchen's almost clean. We better wrap it up. It's a great time for animation. Bad Batch is going to be coming to an end. Like I said, we've got Tales of the Empire coming. Then we don't know. But I can only imagine there's going to be more animation coming from Lucasfilm. And hopefully, it'll be stuff that we love. And I got a lot of catching up to do. You do. You got plenty of time. Well, thanks for joining us, guys. No, thanks. Thank you.
00:14:37
Speaker
Thank you. See you everybody. So that's my discussion about animation with my friends from the learning geeks. Just before you write me any letters, I would love to have you write me letters, but don't write me a letter talking about Ming Nao Wen's age. She's actually 60 and she looks amazing for 60. But hey, that's it for this episode of the Star Wars cleaning crew. Hope your kitchen is clean. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.
00:15:21
Speaker
Oh, yeah!