Printable View
What did you think of the 80s star wars cartoons droids and ewoks? Did you like them? Hate them? Did you watch them as kids? Read the marvel comic?
Droids intro by the police!
[video=youtube;riIOiNq0RHk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riIOiNq0RHk[/video]
Ewoks.
[video=youtube;r8bqcoqfYds]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8bqcoqfYds[/video]
I think I rented a VHS copy that I'd rent that had two episodes of the show when I was a kid. I remember enjoying it.
As a kid I loved Ewoks, but never really got into Droids.
I think George Lucas might've been fond of "Droids" at least, as the prequels have multiple references to the cartoon.
There's also a character in droids called "Kybo Ren" which sounds a bit familiar....
been a long time since I've seen Ewoks, but Droids is one of my favs, even if it's horribly dated and their various masters feel like star wars main character/planet analog #22.
The theme song was used in my was c3p0 a hero post, and sometimes feels a little too close to real life.
I've always liked the Roon system.
Gaff I liked for a villain and loved to see a Kobok in the Star wars Universe proper. Make them part of the resistance, rebellion so we can finally have an insectoid race to root for.
[url]https://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kobok/Legends[/url]
Plus they had a few cool robot designs, probably the best appearance of Boba Fett, and a giant trash robot that ate astromechs.
There's stuff to work with.
Going to run it with my kids after the clone wars but before the original trilogy.
Good thread. I was in my early teens when the [I]Droids/Ewoks[/I] cartoons made their debut in Fall '85, on Saturday mornings. At that time, SW fandom was dying. 1985 was the last year that SW Kenner figures were released (POTF, and they were not easy to find), and other than these cartoons & the Marvel comic (which was also on it's last legs) there was very little new SW material out there. So, these cartoons were like a breath of fresh air to hardcore SW fans like me.
I can't speak much for the Ewoks cartoon because I haven't seen that since it was originally shown - I know it's much more childish than Droids, but I would still like to see this again.
One of the many reasons the Ewoks & Droids cartoons resonate for me 30 years later is that these shows used old-skool cel animation, as opposed to the IMHO inferior CGI-ish animation that the regular Clone Wars series, Rebels, and many other more modern cartoons feature. My strong preference is cel animation from the '60's - '90's, and the company (Nelvana?!) that produced Droids/Ewoks did a superb job with these shows. Very well-done & detailed, especially Droids. Old-skool animation allows for more nuanced facial expressions, body movements, etc. than CGI - which, to me, in many cases looks like a bland video game.
I think the optimum time for the complete release of Droids/Ewoks on home video was in the 200X's. I still don't understand why Lflm. produced sub-par, P.O.S. DVD sets for both shows back in 2004; each tele-movie was basically an edited version of two episodes of the series. Truly awful, and the great theme songs were changed for both of these DVD's releases.
Both series need to be released to DVD/Blu-ray, with all of the original music intact. Or, if that's not possible/feasible, the shows can easily be cleaned up/re-mastered & streamed - apparently Lflm. had been originally planning to do this back in 2012, but plans fell through & this never happened.
Here's an interesting article on the Ewoks cartoon:
[url]https://www.starwars.com/news/from-wicket-to-the-duloks-revisiting-the-star-wars-ewoks-animated-series[/url]
To add to my last post, here's a review of the entire Droids cartoon series I wrote up after watching it in it's entirety (for the first time) about 6 years ago:
This show is fantastic. It really stands up to the test of time, despite being almost 30 years old at this point:
The opening theme song [I]Trouble Again[/I] is an essential part of the show, and I had really missed this when watching the execrable 2004 DVD release. The song really sets the tone for the series, i.e. the hapless droids getting in scrapes through no real fault of their own. The song also really reminds me of something The Police (one of my all time favorite bands) would have come out with back in the day; makes perfect sense, since the drummer from The Police (S. Copeland) composed the song.
The animation rocks! Really nice how there is almost always something in the background to look for. Though I know this has been mentioned before, the animation reminds me quite a bit of the comic books drawn by the superb French artist Moebius, which makes sense since it was apparently inspired by Moebieus' work.
Enjoyed all of the nods/homages to the OT, i.e. the lightsaber that Thall Joben used, the Vehicles like the B-wing Fighter, X-wing Fighter (which was glimpsed briefly floating on water), Sy Snootles & the Rebo band in Doodnick’s café, IG-88, Boba Fett, etc.
The Stormtroopers' slightly different animated design here was great; it reminded me somewhat of their look in certain issues of the Marvel SW comic. And, I liked the laser-sticks. It would be great to see action figures based on this animated look.
The Vehicles/Tech were great! It was nice to see the aforementioned OT-vehicles, but also cool were the Desert Sail Skiff (a mini-rig from the Kenner SW toyline, that was never in the films), the Side Gunner (a toy in the short-lived 1985 Droids toyline), and all of the various other ships/robots on the show . Also really liked the space-ship that [I]Thall Joben[/I] rode in – it reminded me strongly of a modified Rebel Blockade Runner. And, of course the racing ship The White Witch was fantastic – a toy of this ship would be very nice.
IMHO, [I]The Great Heep[/I] is the best episode in the series. Superb story & animation; I liked all of the different R2 & R5 units. Also cool to see Admiral Screed using the Interrogator droid, which was obviously inspired by the one DV used on Leia in ANH. The ending was very fitting, and it was interesting how The Great Heep ended up. In some ways, the story reminded me somewhat of the Marvel SW comic [I]Droid World[/I], one of my favorite EU stories from back in the day.
Though the show isn't necessarily immediately identifiable as an '80's-era cartoon, it was still amusing to see the pseudo-punk rock haircuts sported by Thall Joben & Jord Dusat, as well as the scene in the cantina when R2-D2 'break-dances' - LOL
Trivia:
"The Great Heep" was actually broadcast in the evening in June 1986, more than six months after the last episode of the show had aired (the show was on Saturday mornings). When viewing the series, it's unoffically considered "Episode 9.5".
When I first heard the song [I]Trouble Again[/I] as a kid, I thought the first line was, "Repping softlinks, in a danger zone..." It's only now that I realize it's "Stepping softly, in a danger zone". Interesting, because I thought "repping" was a SW slang term for "repairing", and that "softlinks" was some kind of mechanical reference - LOL.
[video=youtube;qLAQPNF_goI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLAQPNF_goI[/video]
[video=youtube;c0hdr_HA_mA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0hdr_HA_mA[/video]
I think I was around 10 years old when both cartoons came out....I hated both of them.
As a child I was confused by the lack of Luke, Han and Leia on "Droids." I rewatched them when they started airing on the " Sci-Fi Channel. " It was ok, the episodes that actually had the Empire appear in them were decent. Otherwise, the show's biggest problem was that it was just... dull. I actually enjoyed the "Ewoks" series a bit more. Since the characters on that series were less developed in the movies they could go their own direction with the mythology and what not. It kind of reminded me of other kids shows like "Gummi Bears."
[QUOTE=Vegeta;4030463]As a child I was confused by the lack of Luke, Han and Leia on "Droids." I rewatched them when they started airing on the " Sci-Fi Channel. " It was ok, the episodes that actually had the Empire appear in them were decent. Otherwise, the show's biggest problem was that it was just... dull. I actually enjoyed the "Ewoks" series a bit more. Since the characters on that series were less developed in the movies they could go their own direction with the mythology and what not. It kind of reminded me of other kids shows like "Gummi Bears."[/QUOTE]
Gummi Bears was far superior to Ewoks......Until Wicket W Warrick drinks gummiberry juice and bounces around like he's on a combination of steroids & crack, my vaunted opinion stands.
[QUOTE=Ramsay Snow;4030997]Gummi Bears was far superior to Ewoks......Until Wicket W Warrick drinks gummiberry juice and bounces around like he's on a combination of steroids & crack, my vaunted opinion stands.[/QUOTE]
Where in the above post did I say it was [U]better[/U] than Gummi Bears?