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Lucas Returning to Digital Animation 261

Posted by CmdrTaco from the hire-me dept.
deadwood writes "It seems Lucas is creating a Digital Animation studio as a subsidiary of ILM, according to this Yahoo! article.
Lucasfilm Animation is created roughly 17 years after George Lucas sold Pixar to Steve Jobs. I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?"
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Lucas Returning to Digital Animation More

Lucas Returning to Digital Animation

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  • I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?

    Let me answer that for you... No.

    • Why not? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by NetDanzr ( 619387 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:34AM (#5944609)
      It can't be any worse than Episode I and II. And, after all, Lucas gives absolutely no freedom to his actors, so replacing them with animated characters wouldn't change a thing.

      • Lucas is just learning: (Score:5, Funny)

        by Thud457 ( 234763 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:46AM (#5944699) Homepage Journal
        What Gerry Anderson understood full well thirty years ago: Actors can be a real pain in the ass for director / producers.
      • It can't be any worse than Episode I and II. And, after all, Lucas gives absolutely no freedom to his actors, so replacing them with animated characters wouldn't change a thing.

        Sure it would - they would be, well, animated. As opposed to the plethora of wooden zombies in I and II, at least it would be *something*.

        So it seems he likes the delivery to be either deadpan or goofy. At least if they were all animated he would have to do less rework to turn them into a cartoon on Nickelodeon or whatever else

      • It would change a lot, all for the better. The wooden, expressionless faces of the main 'actors' would be a huge step up from the episode 2 'actors'. Just think, the 'Sound of Music with large pregnant space-water buffalo' scene would improve by.... errr ... lightyears with actors that are only so bad that they are 'wooden'. The dialog could be replaced by an atari 800 running SAM (look it up, I am to lazy to find a link) for more believable emotional tone. Digital animation can only be a win/win for Lucas

    • Further Episodes (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:38AM (#5944633) Homepage Journal
      I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?"

      Aside from, "No", IIRC George Lucas has dismissed doing the later episodes, as they have already been extensively explored in books. If you haven't noticed, the books on the Star Wars movie episodes follow the film to market, not precede it.

      Imagine George changing the ending, in typical shitty Hollywood-fashion, of one book to make it into a movie and *fanfare* leave the ending in suspense! *raspberry* (For my money, Hollywood should STOP doing that and focus on films true to the original story.)

      If To Kill a Mockingbird was filmed today, Atticus Finch would probably look like Rambo and be mowing the jury down with an AK47, a la Kill Mo' Mockingbird*, just because everyone (all those trapped in American Lit. classes or the three or four of us who liked the book and read it anway) already knows how it ended in the book.

      * Reference to Bloom County

    • Awww come on, don't you want to see The AniWars?

  • Text of Article (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:10AM (#5944396)
    Director Lucas Forms Digital Animation Unit
    Mon May 12, 6:21 PM ET

    LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following the path of Pixar Animation Studios, Dreamworks and other filmmakers, "Stars Wars" creator George Lucas (news) is forming a new group to make computer-animated films, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

    The unit, called Lucasfilm Animation, is an offshoot of his special effects company, Industrial Light & Magic, that has been a pioneer in the field of digital effects and works on Lucas' own "Star Wars" films.

    Lynne Hale, spokeswoman for his San Rafael, California-based Lucasfilm Ltd., said the new unit was "still in its beginning stages" and did not even have a project to talk about.

    As a result, details were limited. Hale confirmed that Lucasfilm Animation will be formed from a nine-person team housed with Industrial Light & Magic. The new division will be headed by senior vice president Patty Blau.

    Lucas is a vocal proponent of using digitally produced and computerized special effects in the movies. His companies have been active in designing new cameras for shooting digital films, and his most recent "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" was shot in the digital format.

    Until now, however, he has lacked a production company dedicated to making computerized animation movies such as "Shrek," "Monsters, Inc." or last year's "Ice Age."

    Those three films have been smash hits with combined global ticket sales of $1.36 billion. On its own, "Monsters, Inc.," which was produced by Pixar and The Walt Disney Co., raked in $529 million in global ticket sales.

    Lucas is no stranger to digital animation. Indeed, Pixar had been Lucasfilm's computer graphics division 17 years ago before Lucas sold it to Apple Computer's Steve Jobs (news - web sites) for $10 million.

    Pixar now has a market capitalization of roughly $3.2 billion

    Lucas, too, has tried to mount efforts to make digitally animated movies, such as a version of "Frankenstein" that was scrapped by Universal Pictures in 1999.

  • Why digital? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:10AM (#5944397)
    Can't people just draw by hand anymore?

    What has this country come to?

    It's sad!

    • Re:Why digital? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ahector ( 656079 )
      Of course we can still draw by hand.

      In fact a lot of drawing by hand is involved in CG films (Pixar, etc.)-- they do all of the initial design (characters, environments) on paper-- and they storyboard the whole movie out (complete with rough voice overs, sound, etc.) just like they do for most traditionally animated and even live action movies.

      It's just another medium for artists to use.

    • Re:Why digital? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by uberdave ( 526529 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:29AM (#5944558) Homepage
      People can't do anything by hand anymore. Lego and Meccanno have both gone to pre-designed models (if you can even *find* Meccanno). Radio Shack doesn't sell Electronics Kits, or electronic components anymore. "Do-It-Yourself" somehow got left behind in the dim mists of the 20th century.
      • was Re: Why Digital? [slashdot.org]

        People can't do anything by hand anymore.

        I can think of at least one thing Slashdotters can , and have to, do by hand...
        • This is an aside (and not a criticism of your witticism), but have you noticed how many people who post on slashdot do so in a manner that suggests they are not slashdotters? Have you noticed that sometimes this is done by registered users?

      • What got left behind was ineffeciency. Nobody WANTS to do much by hand anymore when they toil and struggle to animate true depth, gravity and flow to things like cloth and hair. Even Disney had actors dancing for Cinderella over which they sketched.

        Computers can help with all that, but as any modern animation house knows, they don't make a good story or look on their own.

        If what you are missing is the concept of physical labor over computer tweaking, then so be it. But don't be fooled into thinking no l

    • Re:Why digital? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Kadagan AU ( 638260 )
      You know, it's also sad that you were modded to funny. Maybe you meant it as a joke, but there is some great truth in that statement. My college room mate was majoring in graphic design, and was very dissapointed at the strong emphasis on computers, and hardly any on hand drawing. I believe that both hand animation and cg are great mediums, but it seems that one is not used much anymore. I wish that they would both stay in heavy use. we need a hand animated MegaTokyo [megatokyo.com] movie dammit!

      ~Jon
    • Well, most animated series are still drawn by hand, many of them in South Korea. Others, like Futurama are mostly drawn by hand, but use CG for complex shots such as spaceships in flight. IIRC, there was some hype about Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" being the first animated feature film using this CG combined with hand drawn animations for the ballroom scenes.
      • Disney's "Oliver and Company" used cgi wire frames that got "painted over" by the animators to look more realistic. I also seem to remember the cartoon "Galaxy Rangers" combined CGI with animation.

        I don't have any direct evidence to back it up, but I'll be floored if the Japanese didn't do it first.
    • Read the title: 'digital' = by finger, not by hand.

      That's why it's four times faster to animate something digitally than it would be to do the same job by hand (five times faster if the animator uses their thumbs, too).
    • Can't people just draw by hand anymore?

      Well, I tried drawing this reply on my monitor with a pencil, but for some reason the computer wouldn't remember it and I had to type it instead.
  • "I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?"

    Hasn't he done enough to us already???

  • duh (Score:5, Funny)

    by JeffSh ( 71237 ) <jeffslashdot@m[ ].org ['0m0' in gap]> on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:10AM (#5944402)
    <obligatory jar jar joke>

    Atleast jar jar would be dead by Episode 7.

    <obligatory jar jar joke>
  • I have read several times of Lucas stating that he will not be making any more Star Wars films after episodes 1 - 6 are complete.

    I do hope he does though, or at least licences someone to.

  • I can just see it (Score:5, Funny)

    by Zoop ( 59907 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:11AM (#5944410)
    We find out that Ewoks and Jar-jar form a new, dark empire who crush the evil alliance of script-leakers and Kazaa users.
    • We find out that Ewoks and Jar-jar form a new, dark empire who crush the evil alliance of script-leakers and Kazaa users.

      I think Lucas is effectively taking care of this evil alliance simply by making more movies. You know your movies suck when nobody on Kazaa wants them.

  • Nooo!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mccalli ( 323026 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:13AM (#5944421) Homepage
    Mr Lucas and I used to have an admirable arrangement. I gave him money, and he gave me good films.

    In recent years however, he's rather been letting down his side of the bargain. I still gave him money, but he gave dross in return. It seems that most of the reason he's given me dross is because of an obsession with digital filmaking - looks like he's much more interested in the technology behind the film than in the film itself these days.

    Bah. Bring back model-making and puppetry, and hire a decent set of writers...

    Cheers,
    Ian

    • Re:Nooo!!! (Score:5, Funny)

      by mattgarnsey ( 660568 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:20AM (#5944480)

      he's altering the deal. pray he doesn't alter it any further.

    • Re:Nooo!!! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by blinder ( 153117 )
      First... full disclosure: I am a supporter of George Lucas, and have enjoyed (completely) EP I and II and am eagerly awaiting EP III... and am old enough to remember the first time I saw EP IV (on opening weekend).

      Now, to my post.
      There's something folks need to understand about Mr. Lucas. He makes films to satisfy his own desire to tell the stories he wants to tell and do it the way he wants to do it.. and if that just so happens to be something you like, then great... if not... well... George isn't going
      • " He makes films to satisfy his own desire to tell the stories he wants to tell and do it the way he wants to do it.. and if that just so happens to be something you like, then great... if not... well... George isn't going to loose any sleep over it."

        Lotsa Pepsi endorsements brewing over a film created by a 'truely indpendent' director.
    • looks like he's much more interested in the technology behind the film than in the film itself these days

      I agree! And it's not too late to let him know either - everybody, take a look at this petition [originaltrilogy.com].

      He has stated that in his eyes the special editions of episodes IV to VI are the official versions. This is totally insane! Let's have the Original Trilogy as well, after all it's more $$$ for you, Mr. Lucas!

      z

    • Recent years he's been letting you down? Where were you for Howard the Duck or those two Ewok movies?

  • Good deal (Score:2, Interesting)

    by welthqa ( 111199 )
    10 million for ILM? i didn't realize how cheap they got it for. any of these digital movies are the real money makers. they're grossing as much as any tom cruise film and they don't have to dish out 25million to a single actor, i'm sure voice actors don't get this much, even if they are big names.
    Besides, you get to justify new computer stuff for your business. ;)
    • Well that was 1986, and no small change then. You have to remember that was also around the time Lucas got divorced from Marcia. The group (the Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Division) that formed Pixar was not composed of hundreds of people either, it was a small dedicated group maybe around 30 or 40 people (depends also how you count, like the people involved in EditDroid or SoundDroid which remained part of the Lucas empier for a few more years). Also back then CG animation for entertainment was ostly releg

  • Yoda? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:15AM (#5944440)
    Lucasfilm Animation is created roughly 17 years after

    Did Yoda write this post?

  • Dear God No! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FatRatBastard ( 7583 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:19AM (#5944471) Homepage
    I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?

    Dear god no! It wasn't the technology that was the problem with I, II (and, no-doubt, III), but piss-poor stories. It wouldn't have mattered if Lucas did I, II, III, VII, VIII, or IX as live action, animation, stick figures, a puppet show, or Kabuki theatre unless he has a plot that doesn't suck the sweat of a dead donkey's balls they'd still stink.

    • Re:Dear God No! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Tarindel ( 107177 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:34AM (#5944607)
      It wasn't the technology that was the problem with I, II (and, no-doubt, III), but piss-poor stories


      It's not even that the concepts behind the stories were so bad. It's that the screenplay adaptions of the stories were absolutely horrid and the casting was worse (with a couple notable exceptions). Then, to make matters worse, Lucas decided to aim Episode I at youngsters in an attempt to capture the imagination of a new generation (via devices such as Jar Jar and the overly-long video-game-influenced pod racing scenes). However, in reality he not only failed at this, he also managed to upset a fairly large portion of his ever-aging fanbase.

      The reason Pixar succeeds so well is simple. It's not because the stories are all that fabulous - because in reality they're pretty simple. It's because they're well written, have a great mix of humor/action/etc, and most of all, they have an awful lot of heart.

      The best thing that could happen to this unit is for Lucas not to have any control over it. At this point in his career, he should stick to what he's good at, which is the technical side of film-making.
      • It's that the screenplay adaptions of the stories were absolutely horrid and the casting was worse (with a couple notable exceptions).

        It wasn't the casting. ALL of the principle actors (with the exception of Jake Lloyd) have done some *very* good work in the past. Hence, for them all to suck as badly as they did, there really isn't any place to lay the blame other than the director.

        The imcompetence necessary to ruin the performances of that many good actors so consistently is utterly mind-boggling.

      • The reason Pixar succeeds so well is simple. It's not because the stories are all that fabulous - because in reality they're pretty simple.

        Three words: For the Birds.

    • I don't know why people assume that the projects will be Star Wars related. ILM has created many independent shorts (more or less the wayPixar started) over the years. There was Synchonicity at SIGGRAPH 2000, and Work in Progress and The Moving Pyramid at SIGGRAPH 2001. The artists there work from time to time in their own little projects, as shown in the ILMajan session at SIGGRAPH 96. Heck, in the article you can se that they were working on the ill-fated Frankenstein and tried to do Curious George.

      Yo

  • Lucas (Score:2, Informative)

    by mattboston ( 537016 )
    already stated that there is no episode 7, 8 or 9.
    • Correct me if I am wrong, and I very well might be, but if I remember correctly, absolutely NO ONE but Lucas was allowed to make any kind of post Ep 6 Star Wars add-ons until the series was liscensed to Timothy Zahn, who wrote the "official" sequels, in Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and "I cant remember the third book".

      From what the flaps of the book said, this was the official "lucas sanctioned" sequel to RotJ. For anyone that is interested in SW, these books are awesome, and the story is light y

      • Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command, followed by a bunch of CRAP from various people, such as the Jedi Search trilogy. Then, Zahn came back with Specter of the Past and Vision of the Future, where he attempted to FIX the entire run of novels. Then, they moved forward about ten years, went into the 'Expanded Universe' era with the Solo kids a bit more grown up, and a brand new menace from outside the Galaxy comes in.....

  • All the CG in the world... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Guano_Jim ( 157555 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:21AM (#5944489)
    ...won't help a bit if your script sucks. Films like Monsters, Inc. succeeded not because they show off the latest and greatest in rendering power, but because they have an engaging story and interesting characters.


    You could have done Monsters, Inc with sock puppets and it still would have been entertaining.


    Lucas hasn't recently shown that he can deliver the plots and characters that are necessary to make an animated film work.

  • Great - Just What We Need (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dark Paladin ( 116525 ) <jhummel&johnhummel,net> on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:22AM (#5944495) Homepage
    Star Wars VII: The Further Adventures of Star Wars

    Luke: Hey, everybody!
    New Republic Senate: Luke!

    (Luke walks up to the bar. Leia is standing behind it.)

    Leia: Hey, Luke. How was work today? (He pours him a cup of coffee and pulls 2 cinnamon buns from her hair.)

    Luke: Same old. Showed up, got tempted by the Dark Side, and my Dad kept going on about how when he was my age, he was already married with two unknown children out there.

    Leia: (Rolls her eyes to the laugh track.) I think he just wants to become a grandfather before the Glowing Blue Light fades away.

    (The bar door opens. The audience cheers as Han Solo walks into the room.)

    Han: Heyyyy! (He hits the jukebox with a fist, making a holo-projector of dancing aliens appear.) Has anybody seen my blaster? (He pulls out a walkie-talkie from his side pocket.) I woke up in the Millenium Falcon with this strapped to my side.

    Leia: I did that - you never call me when you're suppose to. I swear, you and that Wookie are having some weird love affair behind my back.

    Han: How did you know? I mean, that's just silly, even though his fur is as soft as silk, and.... (He clears his throat.) Anyway, I brought you a present.

    Leia: Another gold bikini?

    Han: No... (He opens the door. There stands the former Queen/Senator/Love Puppy to Darth Vader - Amidala!)

    Leia/Luke: Mom? We thought you were dead!

    Amidala: No, your father had me frozen in carbonite, hoping to come back to me someday when the Emporer was dead.

    Han: You could say she was naked and petrified.

    (Laugh track and the audience goes "ahhhh" as Luke/Leia/Amidala/Han hug.)

    Big titles: In Episode VIII, watch as C3PO remembers that he was made by Anakin, and could have saved everybody a lot of time by telling Uncle Owen and Luke Skywalker where he came from!

    Now, imagine this animated. Scary, huh?
  • .. like .. a digital Mark Hammil ?

  • Howard The Duck (Score:5, Funny)

    by tjansen ( 2845 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:30AM (#5944567) Homepage
    Please make a Howard The Duck sequel. That would rock! But maybe Howard should rap, the times have changed...

  • A more in-depth article at LA Times. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Trunks ( 35615 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:31AM (#5944579)
    You can find a more in-depth article on the matter here [latimes.com], use nopass/nopass to get by the reg if you have to.

    While people are busy grousing about Star Wars, there's plenty of other material Lucas already has access to that would make a great movie. Anyone who has played the LucasArts adventure game Grim Fandango [lucasarts.com] would agree it would make a kickass feature film. Glottis > Shrek. ;)

    • Oh yeah, one last link [ilm.com] to an animated short from ILM. I'm not sure if this was done by the same group of people who split off to join Lucas Animation or not.
      • Well those shorts were done by an Animation division inside ILM. It's not like they spit off completely, though they did operate semi-independently, much like ILM Commercial Productions. It's very probable that some of the people involved will start forming the new division inside ILM. Patty Blau has been at ILM for ages, she is in the perfect position to head it. Tom Bertino, one of ILM's Animation Directors and director of Work in Progress, was slated to direct the first ILM animated feature. If you check

    • Ninja! (Score:3, Funny)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )
      "Please do not tip the Ninjas."

      The plural for Ninja is Ninja
      ex:
      Fish:Fish
      Lego:Lego
      Ninja:Ninja

      As punishment, you must sing the Ninja song!

  • Very slightly off-topic joke (Score:5, Funny)

    by Boss, Pointy Haired ( 537010 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:33AM (#5944604)
    What is the difference between Industrial Light and Magic and WorldCom?

    One is a business producing huge profits out of nothing but smoke and mirrors. The other is the world's leading cinematic special effects company.

  • Tired of the Ep 1/2 complaints. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Randolpho ( 628485 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @09:36AM (#5944621) Homepage Journal
    I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?
    Well, I for one, hope Lucas goes ahead with some post-Return of the Jedi movies.

    I'm also quite tired of the people who bitch about how great the first trilogy was and how boring/stupid the second trilogy is turning out to be. Look, Star Wars (the first one) was not that great a movie. But we loved it anyway, because it was cool. Empire was darker, and we loved it too. Jedi had Ewoks, and they were annoyingly cute, but we still loved the damn movie! Why? Because it was still really damn cool!

    Now I will grant you that Jar-Jar got a little anoying at times, but on the whole, Episode 1 and 2 were damn cool movies. So what if Anakin and Jar-Jar bumbled their way through to victories in Ep1? They were not the stars of movie, folks. The stars showed up to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and they found they were all out of bubble gum. Although Qui-Gon found a piece right there at the end, and that was a bit disappointing.

    So, to those who think Ep1 and Ep2 somehow sullied their memories of the original trilogy, I say go watch the trilogy again. I mean, really watch it. Watch all the bad acting and bumbled lines. Watch the melodrama and sap. Watch the forced and often unfunny humor given us through the C3PO/R2D2 banter. And then go enjoy Episodes 1 and 2 for what they are: damn cool action flicks.
    • No, they were bad movies.
      The acting is worse then the first three. Considering the first three had mark hamill, thats saying somthing.

      He changed the universe. Thats bad story telling. It's his universe to change, but that doesn't make it good story telling.

      The dialog. 4,5,6, all had quotable dialog. 1,2 did not.

      1,2 pail compared to other action flicks. I think this is very important. 4 was the action flick of its time. 5,6 some what so.
  • and less animation for any new star wars films. I feel like I'm watching a video game with silly characters when I watch the new episodes.
  • A 2 yr Television series....

    That follows the ups and downs of a tramp freighter captain and his crew...

    It'd be cool cause we'd see all the planets and homeworlds of the various races....

    The question would be "when" it should take place. Personally, I think immediately after ROTJ. When the galaxy is in chaos....
  • I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?

    Probably not as first projects, it's like handing an extremely important contract to the 17-year old trainee (who happens to be the son of the company's chairman).

    Regardless of if the last three episodes are to be made into films or not (I predict that they will... eventually at least). I remember reading books which purported to continue the films' plotline (there was a renegade Empire general, and a jedi training camp, and Leia had
    • You are referring to Timothy Zahn's excellent trilogy "Heir To The Empire", "Dark Force Rising", "The Last Command".

      They were excellent - easily THE best of all the post-Ep6 books written to date, and the only ones to come up with anything remotely interesting and new (his other pair of SW books toward the end of that timeline are also damned good - actually resolving the Empire thing and pointing things off in a new direction - sadly no other authors had the courage to work with this).

      The books are offic
  • Without reading the article -- a requirement for all /.ers -- I'll take it one step further and not read the posts because most, if not all, posts will bash Lucas for making crappy movies and Jar Jar.

  • But now... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Lester67 ( 218549 )
    He can make really crappy movies and not destroy an actors career with it.

  • Pixar does exactly what Lucas can't, right? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ianscot ( 591483 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @10:44AM (#5945287)
    The biggest strength Pixar has is that it really hones the personality of a character with tiny little well-considered style points. The writing's okay, it's not completely rote Disney crap, but it's the little stuff in a character like Woody that makes it work.

    Think of that first short with the lamp, way back -- who'd have thought they could make it so expressive? Or all those birds on the line; they all look alike, but the little character touches set each one apart.

    George Lucas, on the other hand, can have someone like Samuel L. Jackson in a movie and make him deeply boring -- even as a Jedi Freakin' Knight! Does anyone think Lucas improves his actors? Anyone? Does he direct for nice little character touches??

    What George wants this splinter company to do is make huge, distractingly detailed landscapes and gratuitously gigantic battle scenes. Take a look at the battle at the end of Episode II; that's what he thinks computer animation is about. He's as bad with character touches as any director out there.

  • Lucas=overrated (Score:3, Insightful)

    by wardk ( 3037 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @10:52AM (#5945378) Journal
    what has this guy DONE? so he created some cheesy but lovable episodes like two decades ago... everything he's done lately is absolutely horrendous. beyond horrendous.

    face it, he's embarrassing himself...

    I guess on the positive side, maybe he'll hire some animation people that can create something of actual worth. alas he'll probably produce blatant (and stupendously inferior)pixar ripoffs....

    yaaawwwwwwnnnnnnnnnn

    ok, flame away

    • Re:Lucas=overrated (Score:2, Insightful)

      by hcduvall ( 549304 )
      Oh sure, the parent post is flamebaity, but he's right. Most of Lucas' ideas are high production serials or genre pics. This isn't bad just 'cause (but neither is it holy writ, or indicative of our cultural heroic subconscious whatsists). Indiana Jones, Willow, even Howard the Duck, all of that are pretty simple stuff (which for the most part I like- don't like the duck).

      We love some of his work, you can argue he captured a zeigiest (sp) or something, but his track record is pretty skimpy the past decade o
    • ok...damn, I forgot he did the Indiana Jones things, I liked those....

      but holey smokes, the last two star wars were legacy killers....

  • "I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?"

    So now the additional 2 dimensions can be added to the characters, cool. Mee-sa likee.
  • Except for the fabulous CGI, the whole thing was made with wooden puppets, as far as I could tell.
  • This is just another example where Lucas lacked the vision to see where digital technologies were heading, selling off Pixar only to form a new animations studio two decades later.

  • why Lucas sold Pixar (Score:4, Informative)

    by peter303 ( 12292 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @03:29PM (#5948642)
    In the mid 1980s Pixar was basically a computer hardware company making nifty graphics accelerators for volume visualization. Since this was not the core business of LucasFilm either Pixar would would have to compete with the parent company for development capital and perhaps one or both would be shortchanged. So Lucus spun his computer divisions off hoping they could making money expanding to other markets like medical imaging, oil exploration, etc. However, in the mid-1980s UNIX graphics workstations like Apollo, HP and Sun were caught up to Pixar's hardware. The crucial insight of Job's purchase was that Pixar's graphics expertise was unparalleled, so the hardware was dumped and they never looked back.
  • I mean, we all know 7-of-9 was a Trekkie :)

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