A deeper look at Star Wars Resistance, the new animated series by Lucasfilm and Dave Filoni, which will make us discover the cold war between Resistance and First Order.
That Lucasfilm was working on a new animated series is old history. However, too little is known - and talked about - Star Wars Resistance, especially if you think that it will be released in a little more than a month: the broadcast will, in fact, be the 6 October. Let's recap what we know a bit.
Plot and characters
The plot of the work is easily deduced from the title itself: before the events of The awakening of the Force, the First Order was a hidden threat, who acted in the shadows without ever discovering himself too much and without, therefore, arousing the suspicions of the New Republic. Only members of the Resistance, led by Leia Organa, had smelled the danger and moved to counter it.
This is the mission that Poe Dameron entrusts to the young pilot Kazuda Xiono: infiltrate the Colossus, an Outer Rim filling station, e find out who among the locals is in league with the First Order. As a cover, Kazuda is hired in the repair shop of an old friend of Poe's, Jarek Yaegerwho wants to have as little to do with the boy's spying mission as possible.
However, as can also be understood from the first poster released, whose slogan reads "Some heroes stick to the plan. Others just throw themselves away”, Kazuda's plans will probably be severely tested by Captain Phasma and his thugs, forcing the protagonist to improvise. This is where, presumably, the new characters presented in the trailer a few days ago will come into play, among which the mechanics Tam Ryvora and his alien colleague Neeku, the old droid Bucket and the pilot Torra Doza stand out.
For the rest, we only know that Poe Dameron and Captain Phasma will be voiced by respectively Oscar Isaac e Gwendoline Christie, that the BB-8 astrophoid will be a constant presence and that Leia will appear, voiced by Rachel Butera (TMI Hollywood, The Adventures of Rocky And Bullwinkle).
Animation: anime or non-anime?
But the things to say are anything but finished: at the center of the debate among fans of Star Wars we find just the animation style chosen for Resistance. As the co-creator of the series also announced, Dave Filoni, a few months ago, Lucasfilm is exploring the possibilities of a new animation style, putting aside the CGI in 3D for test a drawing inspired by anime.
As you can also see from the trailer, however, Star Wars Resistance it seems that it is little inspired by Japanese animation, since the drawing style and gestures shown so far do not reflect the typical stylistic features of souls. Rather, the trait is much more reminiscent of the series Avatar: The Last Airbender e Legend of Korra, in which the stylization of the drawing does not prevent recognition of the somatic traits of the different ethnic groups, unlike what happens in souls.
Definitely, the animation of Resistance recalls that of the two recent animated films about Godzilla, The planet of monsters e Threat to the city, And Knights of sidonia also because they were in turn produced by Polygon Pictures, the study that also gave birth to Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
However, the greatest similarity is not noticeable in the anime-style drawing - instantly recognizable in Godzilla e Knights of sidonia - but in the strong three-dimensional animation. Probably, the most similar animated series that we will see will be the acclaimed one Dragon Prince Netflix, which however, from what we have seen, seems to have a less fluid animation than Resistance.
The latter is in fact characterized by a great attention to the play of light and to the perspective, which create a three-dimensional feeling. A very positive result for a series focused on flight, in which the perception of space is fundamental. In fact, initially one of the biggest fears of the fans was that the 2D drawing flattened the sensation of movement in the fighting, a danger that now seems to have escaped.
2D and 3D: who will do better?
For sure, not having to rely on the big expenses required by 3D will allow Star Wars Resistance di take care of the details of the design much more. Indeed, though Star Wars Rebels it was a good product and had a good animation, its budget limits were felt in the infinite pilots with their faces covered by helmets and their hair as stiff as sticks. Ah, and in the brief presence of Darth Vader - whose fluttering cloak ate thousands of dollars per second.
In Resistanceinstead, we immediately notice not only a greater fluency in the movements, but also a greater presence of minute details and uncovered faces. Sure, people's hair still looks made of plastic, but at least one step has been taken.
In this sense, in recent times it seems that the ball of innovation and experimentation has gone back to 2D animation, while its three-dimensional counterpart has fixed itself on the tracks created by Pixar and Disney, tending to be less daring. And the difference is being noticed, thanks also to innovative works such as the unpublished anchor Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse.
PROJECTED IMPACT
In short, it is still early to draw satisfactory conclusions but, at least as far as I'm concerned, Star Wars Resistance it looks like an interesting product, which will be able to explain a lot to us of the distant galaxy far between Il ritorno dello Jedi e The awakening of the Force, going to fill those plot holes that for now were only covered by books and comics. Furthermore, the animation seems up to now and I think it will give us a lot of satisfaction in the future. Finally, Dave Filoni is a name that puts safety and it is hoped that he continues to create quality products for the universe of Star Wars.
So yes: Star Wars Resistance it could be Fantozziana "crazy shit", but I still want to hope for the best. Let me know your opinions, though, especially if you have the famous bad feeling!
