Starting with a whimper, not with a bang

Since the announcement that Disney was going to buy Lucasfilm, Ltd., and all of the Star Wars movies, characters and other assorted ephemera contained within, I've been pretty upbeat about the future of the franchise. Here, at last, was the possibility of new (and canonical) Star Wars movies; a chance to see Luke, Leia (and, just maybe, Han) hand the Saga off to a new generation of Jedi. I had long thought that Saga wouldn't outlive George. Now, for the first time, and completely from left field, was the possibility that the Saga might outlive me. It is now entirely possible, and even likely, that R2-D2 will live on after George, just as Mickey Mouse has outlived Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. And since the Saga seemed to be in capable hands, I was very, very excited about the future. The Star Wars fan in me who went dormant between films need never die — starting now, there will always be a Star Wars, as long as there's an audience.

But judging from what aired on The Disney Channel Friday, I find myself agreeing with those that say this may not be such a good thing.

It has been several years since I've watched The Disney Channel, but I'm familiar with the types of programs it airs — upbeat, professionally produced fare, typically of a good, if forgettable, quality, starring attractive and ethnically diverse examples of the target age group, and often geared toward promoting other areas of the Disney brand. Often, it's not so bad, and is frequently entertaining — I survived both Hannah Montana and The Cheetah Girls with few, if any, scars, and my entire family genuinely enjoyed all three High School Musical movies. So I have no bias whatsoever against what the channel has to offer.

That said, I think that the first post-announcement collaboration between Lucasfilm and Disney that aired recently on the Disney Channel has all the earmarks of being exactly what everyone is afraid of.

The show in question is A.N.T. Farm — a sitcom about child prodigies that started airing on the DC last year. The Nov. 2 episode, "scavANTger hunt," has the main characters embarking on a scavenger hunt around San Francisco, and entering Skywalker Ranch in order to secure the autograph of one G. Lucas. Once there, they (naturally) meet R2-D2 and C-3PO (with the latter not voiced by Anthony Daniels). A brief sample of the horror can be found here — watch if you dare.

Bear in mind, I haven't actually seen the entire episode; I've only heard a 2 minute audio clip played by The Weekly ForceCast. But that was enough — it was exactly the kind of meaningless character prostitution that everybody fears will become the norm under the new regime.

Thing is, there's a long history of equally dopey stuff with George at the helm — and, in point of fact, he's still at the helm. The deal has to be cleared by regulators before it takes effect, and the episode was filmed before the Lucasfilm purchase was even announced. I'm hoping that no one involved in the writing and production of the episode in question had any clue about the Star Wars deal; or, at least, that they had no clue about the timing of when it was going air. Because what aired is exactly what fans are afraid a Disney Star Wars will become, and it would have been stupid in the extreme to deliberately show millions of nervous fans that episode as a first taste of the future.

Fears aside, I don't think this is the shape of things to come. I think the people now in charge of Star Wars will take every measure they can to make the best Star Wars they possibly can. I think the Mouse's marketing department will continue to pull stuff like we've just seen from time to time, but that it will be the exception, rather than the rule. I am still terribly excited, and optimistic, about the future of Star Wars — mainly because now, there actually is a future.

But my enthusiasm has been tempered ever-so-slightly by this misstep, intentional or not. The less I see of this sort of thing, the better.

Angry Jedi?

This post will be an experiment, with the question behind the experiment being "Can I write a quick here-and-gone blog post without spending three or four hours crafting an article?" And since I only have two pieces of information to talk about this week, I think we have a good chance of getting out of here in five paragraphs or less. Wish me luck!

Item 1 — Episode VII gets a writer: Michael Arndt has been confirmed by Lucasfilm as the screenwriter for Episode VII (I'm starting to get used to writing that). This surprised me a little bit — not that he had been picked, but that the media and fan reports about his being selected were not only confirmed, but had been confirmed so quickly. As someone with several years of waiting for new Star Wars movies under his belt, I'm finding the amount of confirmed information that's out there at this stage of the game refreshing.

Arndt is a bit of an unknown to me, but then again, most screenwriters currently working in Hollywood are unknown to me. A consummate industry watcher, I am not. But I have seen at least one of his movies (Toy Story 3), and I have heard tell of some of the lectures he's given on Star Wars and writing. I think he'll do nicely.

So the next bit of news is likely to be who is chosen for the director's chair. With that in mind, there's an interesting take on why Disney shouldn't choose a popular "geek mob" director like J.J. Abrams or Joss Whedon here.

Item 2 — Angry Birds: Star Wars: I've been equal parts cynical and fan-boyish about this one. I've held off on buying an Angry Birds title as long as I've had access to iOS devices. I don't dislike them, per se, but I seldom purchase apps since there's so much free stuff out there.

That said, I've been leaning toward buying an AB title for as long as I've had access to iOS devices, and now that I'm in "I must have everything to do so with Star Wars" mode, I find myself particularly vulnerable. There's lots of reasons not to buy it — chiefly that it's $2.99, with paid access to the next level at $2, and that's just for the iPad version. Sadly, this is not a universal app, and if I were to buy it, it would be for the iPad, since that's what I typically play games on the most.

Then again, it's Star Wars, and I pay more for a fish sandwich at McDonald's. So the jury's still out on that. Tune in next week for an update on that particular quandary. Also, I've been getting back up to speed on The Clone Wars series (which I hadn't watched for a long time), so I may have some observations on that as well.

Experiment results — Okay, that seems to have taken about an hour and fifteen minutes. In my defense, I was doing a lot of texting while I was trying to write. Surely, I can do better.

Update: I decided to take the plunge and got the iPad version of the game. I'll post a short review in a future post, but my initial impression is a good one.

A day long remembered

I honestly don't know where to start.

I've been thinking about changing the name of this blog from The Padawan Pause to something more generic for months now. It's been more than a year since I wrote anything about Star Wars here. And it was probably going to be a long, long time before I felt enthusiastic enough about it to write something new. The state of Star Wars just didn't interest me anymore, and while I still loved the movies, there was nothing all that exciting about them anymore.

All that changed Tuesday afternoon.

While my friend Kenny and I were in Nashville enjoying the rare privilege of hearing Ian Anderson perform Thick as a Brick live, the world of Star Wars fandom was being turned completely upside-down.

For those who haven't heard (which I'm guessing is exactly none of you), George Lucas announced that day that he was selling Lucasfilm to the Walt Disney Company, putting Kathleen Kennedy into his role as head of the company, and, oh yeah, they're going to release Star Wars: Episode VII in 2015.

Typing that last part still feels a little surreal.

It will be weeks — months maybe — before I can fully wrap my head around this news. It's taken me this long to even figure out how I feel about. But after giving it some thought, and poking my head into some of the talk in the fan community (thank you Weekly ForceCast), I think I'm prepared to put forth a few preliminary opinions.

• I'm pretty sure that Kathleen Kennedy is a great choice to take over for George: I'm ashamed to say I barely knew who Kathleen Kennedy was before Tuesday's announcement, despite the fact that I've seen 32 of her movies over the past three decades. Since Tuesday, I've looked up C.V. on IMDB, and heard some other opinions (hats off, once again, to the Weekly ForceCast). She's not only produced some of the definitive action/adventure films (Jurassic Park, The Sixth Sense, Back to the Future), she's also made critically acclaimed character pieces (The Color Purple, Schindler's List) as well. She's also done some great comedy work, including Noises Off and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. With that kind of résumé, it's hard to argue that she can't find the range for Star Wars. At the very least, she deserves a chance.

• I'm absolutely sure that Disney is the perfect home for the Star Wars franchise: It was bound to happen eventually — George was going to step away from the company. I'd always thought in the back of my mind that when that happened, Star Wars was probably wind up dying a slow, lingering death, living on though its E.U. properties — novels, cartoons, games and the like — while the company itself turned to production work on films by other filmmakers. I must admit, I never could have imagined what actually happened — that George would sell Lucasfilm to the Disney company, and give that company license to the full range of the Star Wars brand — movies, TV show, games, novels, what have you. While this has the potential to be a nightmare scenario, particularly with a company like Disney — I'd really wouldn't want to see a Star Wars musical on Broadway, for example — I'm pretty sure that's not the way things are going to go. We've already seen three similar companies bought by Disney — Pixar, the Jim Henson Studios, and Marvel — and in each case, it's been good for all of the companies involved. Bob Iger, Disney's CEO, has wisely left the creative elements in each company fully in place and empowered do what they do best (Avengers movie, anyone?). I expect nothing less with Lucasfilm. There's already a strong, long-term relationship between Lucasfilm and Disney, including several successful theme park collaborations. Some of the areas that Lucasfilm wants to branch out into — live action television, for example — are areas where Disney already has a strong presence, and resources that Lucasfilm would have to work hard to line up. Plus, to me, it just feels right — I love both companies, and I think Star Wars belongs at Disney. No one can see the future, but I feel strongly that Disney is a much better home than, say, Warner Brothers.

• After giving it some thought, I'm really, really excited about the prospect of new Star Wars movies: People have been talking about new Star Wars movie since A New Hope (or, as we called it back in the day, Star Wars). First, it was twelve movies. Then, for a long time, it was nine. Then, we had George saying it had always been six. And, given George's level of enthusiasm for making new Star Wars movies (i.e., none), I pretty much took him at his word. Before Revenge of the Sith was released, I have always known that there weren't going to be any more Star Wars movies. Suddenly, I'm writing about Episode VII (man, that still sounds weird). And while it would be easy enough to look to the Dark Side for my opinions about how good that movie is going to be, as some are, I refuse to do that. The period leading up, and after, Episode I was one of the high points of my life as a Star Wars fan (in fact, I still like Phantom, unfashionable as that opinion is). So I'm really, really looking forward to the coming months, since I know that at least some of that old magic and excitement will surely be resurrected. Even if the movie is awful (it won't be, since there's too much riding on it, but let's say it is), the process of waiting should be supremely enjoyable. Even more, the fact that the movies are post-Jedi means that we could see Luke, Leia and maybe even Han, as returning characters. What I wouldn't give for that! I wouldn't like to see them as the primary characters — galavanting around the cosmos is a game for the young, to quote another beloved franchise. But I've always wanted to see what General Solo, Chancellor Organa-Solo, and, best of all, Master Skywalker, would look like. Suddenly, unexpectedly, I've now got that chance.

• Tuesday's news means nothing less than the resurrection of Star Wars: I know that there are lots of folks that enjoy The Clone Wars animated series, and that there are plenty who are looking forward to the live-action series. There are probably even those who are enthusiastic about the existing storyline in the E.U. novels, although I am certainly not among them. But the life blood of Star Wars has always been, and will always be, feature films. George said it himself once — the story, for him, are those six films. I quite agree. Star Wars means movies — anything else is merchandising. In order for Star Wars to remain vital and interesting, you've got to have movies as the tall poles that hold up the tent. So when George said there would be no more films, not so long ago, it was the death of the franchise. Tuesday's announcement of more movies meant a complete resurrection. The door has been kicked open, and for the first time in a long, long time, we don't know what the future holds. Uncertainty can be frightening, or it can be exciting. I am choosing to follow the latter path. Starting this week, it's a great time to be a Star Wars fan — maybe even the best time. That remains to be seen. All I know is that I can't wait to find out.