RJ Writing Ink

The Animation Studios Behind Star Wars Visions, Season 2

In September 2021, Star Wars and anime fans got the best of both worlds with Star Wars: Visions. Airing on Disney+, Visions is an anthology series consisting of shorts made by some of the best anime studios in Japan, and it showed. I was completely floored by how good the shorts were, allowing animators to share what they feel makes Star Wars great. I knew I wanted more, and when Disney announced a second season, I got hyped. Season two of Visions would see the series go international, giving studios from all over the world a chance to contribute to Star Wars. Now, we have this.

Earlier today, Star Wars dropped two big reveals about Visions on Twitter. Firstly, the new season comes out on May the Fourth, because of course it is. It’s Star Wars Day! Secondly, they revealed the studios who would animate each short, and the picks are hype! While I’m not familiar with every studio, the ones I do know inspire a lot of confidence in me. After all, I’ve seen many of their previous works in the past and loved many of them. To celebrate this announcement, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the studios’ resumes to give us an idea of what to look forward to.

Aardman, Home of Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, and Stop-Motion

From Great Britain, we have one of the big names in the world of stop-motion, Aardman. Aardman’s work, consisting mainly of stop-motion claymation, is recognizable worldwide. Most notably, they are the creator’s of stop-motion icons like Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep. In addition, they’ve also made several successful films like Chicken Run, Early Man, and films for Wallace and Gromit and Shaun, among other things. In other words, they’re up there regarding stop motion.

Having grown up watching Chicken Run on VHS, watched Shaun the Sheep shorts on Disney and Nintendo 3DS, and watch Wallace and Gromit: the Curse of the Were-Rabbit every Halloween, I’m a big fan of Aardman. When they make something, it’s going to be entertaining to watch. So to see them bring their brand of humor and animation to Star Wars will be interesting. 

Cartoon Saloon Representing Ireland

In late 2020, I saw a trailer for a new animated film on Apple TV+ called Wolfwalkers, the story of two girls in 17th century Ireland with the power to turn into wolves while asleep. While I have yet to get around to watching it, it’s a film that’s on my list. The animation’s fluid, the background’s breathtaking, and the whole thing gives off an otherworldly vibe. It’s amazing!

Hearing that Cartoon Saloon will get the chance to apply that same style to a Star Wars short, I’m over the moon. If it’s anything like Wolfwalkers, it will look amazing. Imagine seeing Star Wars these kinds of vivid backgrounds. Otherworldy, I tell you!

Studio La Cachette Can Bring the Grit

I’m not too familiar with the French Studio La Cachette. However, what I am familiar with is Genndy Tarakovksy’s anthology series, Primal. Airing on Adult Swim, Primal  is a critically acclaimed action horror series depicting the never-ending fight for survival that all living things go through. It’s incredibly violent, filled with blood and visceral deaths, and amazing. The stuff that I have seen is like a violent work of art in motion.

If the studio that animates Primal for Tarakovksy’s going to be doing a Star Wars short, then it’s going to be good. I daresay, it might give Star Wars the chance to tap into its more violent and gritty aspects; the stuff that Disney usually won’t allow them to do. Fingers crossed.

Studio Mir Brings An Impressive Portfolio from Legend of Korra and Kipo

I don’t talk about it often enough on here, but I’m a massive fan of Nickelodeon’s Avatar. I watched the original series from day one, and I’ve kept up with news on the franchise ever since. So when I heard that Studio Mir, the Korean animation studio that animated most of the sequel, The Legend of Korra, I was thrilled. Star Wars is bringing in the big guns in animation.

The Legend of Korra isn’t the only series I’ve watched that’s animated by Studio Mir. If you’ll recall, I was a big fan of Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts on Netflix, which they also animated. It was one of several animated shows that got me through the dumpster fire that was 2020, so I’m grateful for it. I’ve got high hopes for their short.

This is a Big Win for Animation as a Whole

What I’m most excited about regarding the upcoming season of Star Wars: Visions is what this means for animation as a whole. Recent years have not been…kind to the medium. Incredible animated works have gotten the rug pulled out from under them. Inifinity Train got canceled and dropped from HBO Max. Inside Job got canned by Netflix despite how popular it was. And need I say more about Disney’s failure to give The Owl House the respect it deserves? Fans of the medium are becoming discouraged by all the bad news.

The fact that Disney’s reaching out to animation studios around the world, giving them a chance to show what they can bring to the medium, is something we desperately needed to hear. Star Wars is one of the most globally recognized brands. If these studios do well enough, the sheer clout of Star Wars could help a lot of people’s careers. So, I’m very optimistic about season two.

What do you guys think, though? Are you a fan of any of the animation studios I didn’t cover? Please leave me your thoughts in the comments!

Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Season 7, Episode 1 Review

It feels like only yesterday when we learned about the cancellation of Star Wars: the Clone Wars. So many stories were left unfinished, and to be honest, that “Lost Episodes” season didn’t cut it for me. Six years later, and Dave Filoni gets to give his masterpiece the final season it deserves. After watching the first episode of the final season, I can only say one thing. It’s like we never left the Clone Army behind.

While Star Wars is often about the Jedi and their Sith enemies, longtime fans will remember that some of the best episodes of The Clone Wars focused on the actual soldiers. The long-awaited seventh season chooses to start off working with the latter perspective. When the Clone Army begins taking heavy losses on Anaxes, Rex begins to suspect that they’re using his own tactics against them. So, his friend Cody decides to call in an elite squad: Clone Squad 99, better known as the “Bad Batch“.

Firstly, I would like to acknowledge how this squad’s name pays tribute to CT-99, a deformed Clone Trooper that fans will remember died heroically protecting Kamino from a Separatist attack. It’s fitting, too, because the members of Bad Batch are all Clones with genetic defects. The difference here is that it’s for the better.

The Cavalry is Here!

From the moment they appeared on screen, I fell in love with Bad Batch. This quartet of misfit Clones is like GI Joe and the Ninja Turtles rolled into one, and each member is a super-soldier in and of themselves. There’s Wrecker, the muscle with superhuman strength who can lift a gunship. Tech, who I think has super-intelligence like Donatello. Crosshair, who’s a master sniper and man of few words. Finally, we have Hunter, the leader who possesses superhuman senses. Did I mention Hunter looks just like Rambo, because he does!

By far, seeing the Bad Batch squad in action was the highlight of the episode. I almost squealed when I saw them take down an entire platoon of droids on their own. However, high amounts of testosterone have a tendency to lead to tension. Squad 99 seems to look slightly down on other Clones, calling them all “Regs”, leading to them clashing with Rex and Cody’s group. Fortunately, the bond of camarederie between the Clone Army is too strong to break, and once the initial tension passes, the two groups work like a well-oiled machine.

Band of Brothers

A lot of praise for The Clone Wars has gone to the way they’ve humanized the Clone Troopers. Before, they were more or less generic soldiers. The show gave them all names, distinct personalities and bonds. The Clone Wars made the Clone Army human. Which only made it harder when we saw a Clone we got attached to die.

That loss is even greater for men like Rex and Cody. They’ve watched friends die in front of them. Of all those losses, though, I don’t any were as hard as that of the members of Domino Squad. Introduced all the way back in Season One, we had the pleasure of seeing this squad go from rookies to elite soldiers. Which only made it harder when they all died; or so we thought.

Rex realizes that the tactics the Droids are using were only known to him, Echo, and Fives, the two surviving members of Domino Squad. We thought Echo had died back in Season Three, but this episode changed all that. Not only is Echo alive, but the Separatists are using him to counter the Republic strategies. It’s not only a huge surprise to fans who didn’t know about this, but to Rex as well. One of his closest friends is alive, and he’s determined to bring him home.

So, in short, this was an explosive start to the final season of one of the best things Star Wars has ever seen. I loved it, and I only wish that the next episode was out already. If you need one reason to get Disney+, then do it so you can watch the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

I Give “Bad Batch” a 5/5. It’s like we never left

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