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The Visual World of 'Samurai Jack'

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Re: The Visual World of 'Samurai Jack'

#71

Post by kklisura »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #11
duxup wrote: post #4

Samurai Jack is so beautiful and being able to portray things / have the confidence in the art really seems to cut back on unnecessary / clumsy dialogue that so many shows have today.

The episode with the three blind archers guarding the well that grants wishes is a master class in gesticulates at everything Whenever I think of Tartakovsky I also think of his clone wars micro series he did for Cartoon Network. The episode with the special forces clone troopers that has no dialogue after the first 30-60 seconds or show is just so unbelievably good. So much tension.

> The episode with the three blind archers...

Three Blind Archers is Tartakovsky's favorite episode. [1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uvlCjcT7oM&t=647s

Re: The Visual World of 'Samurai Jack'

#72

Post by GolfPopper »

TuringTourist wrote: post #10

I never watched Samurai Jack when it was coming out as a child. I have begun watching it recently and it is absolutely a breathtaking piece of work.

As an adult, I was fortunate enough to catch "Jack vs. the Ninja" on a hotel TV while on a trip. I was absolutely entranced, and tracked down the rest of the show. "Breathtaking" is a good description.

Re: The Visual World of 'Samurai Jack'

#73

Post by BearOso »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #70
k__ wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watched the whole series because of some clips from the new season. The new stuff felt more mature to me and the old stuff more like a kids show. Overall I liked both, but I get it, the new stuff felt a bit off.

It's worth noting that the original four seasons were on Cartoon Network prime time, while the revival season explicitly aired on Adult Swim. So yes, the target audience was older (or, more likely, the target audience was the group of kids who watched the original series that aged into adults while the show was off the air). You always got the sense from the original that SJ was held back by the censors (Jack has car…

You refer to it as Wolverine syndrome, but I also remember it with TMNT and Leonardo. With the cartoon version, they made all the foot clan robots to get around it. It's also quite the shock to read the original comics and find out the turtles love beer, and Leonardo stabs and kills the shredder (permanently) in something like the first issue.

Re: The Visual World of 'Samurai Jack'

#74

Post by h2zizzle »

Marazan wrote: post #63
Forgeties79 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The episode with the three blind archers guarding the well that grants wishes is a master class in gesticulates at everything Whenever I think of Tartakovsky I also think of his clone wars micro series he did for Cartoon Network. The episode with the special forces clone troopers that has no dialogue after the first 30-60 seconds or show is just so unbelievably good. So much tension.

That was the first episode I ever saw of Samurai Jack. I had never seen anything like it. I had tuned in after the initial exposition so I experienced zero dialogue until the very end. It was spellbinding. When he dons the blindfold and everything goes black and silent for what feels like eternity...

It's hard to understate what a revelation the relative thematic maturity of Cartoon Network's offerings was. Between shows like SJ and RAoJQ and Toonami-aired anime like SM and GW, you go from a period dominated by toy commercials to one filled with political and philosophical meditations masquerading as toy commercials. It's hard to imagine the popularity of today's prestige TV (which is probably the closest you're going to get to turning most Americans into creatures inclined towards the literary) without the generations that grew up watching (and creating) shows like "giant robot pilots argue the merits of pacificism" and "a samurai walks silently through many a beautiful and alien landscape for half the episode".

Re: The Visual World of 'Samurai Jack'

#75

Post by Forgeties79 »

kklisura wrote: post #71
Forgeties79 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The episode with the three blind archers guarding the well that grants wishes is a master class in gesticulates at everything Whenever I think of Tartakovsky I also think of his clone wars micro series he did for Cartoon Network. The episode with the special forces clone troopers that has no dialogue after the first 30-60 seconds or show is just so unbelievably good. So much tension.

> The episode with the three blind archers... Three Blind Archers is Tartakovsky's favorite episode. [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uvlCjcT7oM&t=647s

Wooo I have good taste maybe!

Re: The Visual World of 'Samurai Jack'

#76

Post by Forgeties79 »

usefulcat wrote: post #44
Forgeties79 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The episode with the three blind archers guarding the well that grants wishes is a master class in gesticulates at everything Whenever I think of Tartakovsky I also think of his clone wars micro series he did for Cartoon Network. The episode with the special forces clone troopers that has no dialogue after the first 30-60 seconds or show is just so unbelievably good. So much tension.

Yes, I was going to mention that exact episode. The distinctive visual style is perhaps more obvious, but the show also makes excellent use of sound.

The way they walked with their heads static and their ears moving. So creepy

Re: The Visual World of 'Samurai Jack'

#79

Post by aceazzameen »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #12
AtlasBarfed wrote: post #5

The star wars clone wars shorts are just amazing animation. The way he caught the essence of the characters in animation that was superior to the human portrayals was a testament to his talent. It made the cgi clone wars look so amateurish. The best sam jack imo is the light vs dark. My jaw dropped at that. He's definitely one of the few creators where I can feel him tickling my mind, overwhelming me with creativity.

Clone Wars was so fun. The episode with the special forces troopers that’s mostly silent immediately comes to mind, as well as the one where General grievous just goes to town on a group of surrounded Jedi. It was also pretty cool watching Mace force crush grievous‘s chest lol

Tartakovsky's Grievous was awesome. That character ended up being such a disappointment in the film. But I still liked how they tied that series straight into the final film.

I was at a talk with Tartakovsky a long time ago. I don't remember all the details, but he said when they first got their descriptions of Grievous from Lucasfilm, they didn't have much to go off of. Lucas said Grievous had a cough and that was it. Tartakovsky's team didn't know why he had a cough, so they created the Mace Windu scene.

Re: The Visual World of 'Samurai Jack'

#80

Post by DanielHB »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #12
AtlasBarfed wrote: post #5

The star wars clone wars shorts are just amazing animation. The way he caught the essence of the characters in animation that was superior to the human portrayals was a testament to his talent. It made the cgi clone wars look so amateurish. The best sam jack imo is the light vs dark. My jaw dropped at that. He's definitely one of the few creators where I can feel him tickling my mind, overwhelming me with creativity.

Clone Wars was so fun. The episode with the special forces troopers that’s mostly silent immediately comes to mind, as well as the one where General grievous just goes to town on a group of surrounded Jedi. It was also pretty cool watching Mace force crush grievous‘s chest lol

I really love that scene where Grievous starts monologuing while the Jedi ties his cloak to the train door with the force. When the train leaves he just looney toons out of there. Honestly the single best use of the force in the whole god-damn canon, cracks me up every time.

And Palpatine just raises his eyebrows while she is doing it, amazing. Was hugely disappointed when I saw Episode 3 and what they did to Grievous, that dude was scary in the shorts.

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