By Pete Vilmur
With The Clone Wars returning fans once again to the animated Star Wars universe, it's time for a brief look back at the history and early memorabilia associated with our favorite faraway galaxy's animated past.
Back in the days when the Clone Wars was nothing more than a vague reference made in A New Hope, animation was taking its first step into the Star Wars universe. A small Canadian start-up company named Nelvana, which has since become one of the world's leading independent animation studios, first caught the attention of George Lucas back in December of 1977 with a 30-minute special entitled A Cosmic Christmas. Impressed, he contracted the small studio to produce an animated short that would air during the two-hour Star Wars Holiday Special a year later in November 1978. Though the special itself is admittedly silly by today's standards, the 12-minute animated sequence, which introduced the world to the galactic mercenary Boba Fett, is considered a cult classic.
The short's bold use of bright colors and Moebius-style design distinguished the piece from the proliferation of garden-variety animation that mired Saturday morning programming during the '70s. What's more, voice-over dialog was performed by members of the original cast, including Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, and James Earl Jones. These factors, paired with the fact that the special and animation have never officially been re-broadcast, have elevated the 12-minute short to mythic status among many Star Wars fans.
Nelvana would resurrect the fresh design style established by the 1978 animated special seven years later with the premiere of Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO. For the fall, 1985 Saturday morning line-up, Droids would share an hour with its Star Wars neighbor the Ewoks, making for a visually diverse 60 minutes of programming. While the Droids series drew from the high-tech, more angular styling of the earlier '78 piece, Ewoks exuded a more romantic, organic feel, with lush watercolor backgrounds and softer character designs. Each seemed designed to attract a separate demographic -- Droids for boys and Ewoks for girls -- although elements appealing to both were incorporated into each.
Both series were set in timeframes preceding their cinematic escapades -- Droids before A New Hope and Ewoks before Return of the Jedi -- so as not to conflict with established storylines. As laudable as the productions were, the fact that they arrived two years after Jedi left theaters with no assurances of future installments left many youngsters ultimately seeking other Saturday morning fare. Droids would sadly last only a single season, counting out at 13 episodes in 1986. Ewoks underwent some storyline and format modifications in order to return for a second season, but unfortunately wouldn't be renewed past its 26th episode.
