The final weekend and a fun weekend with two great guests. Warren Fu, Concept Artist for the prequels got to talk spray bottles and the origin of General Grievous and Jake Lloyd got to exercise his excellent wry wit on the role of the young Anakin Skywalker and what he’s doing now.
You can hear some of Warren’s comments on how General Grievous was designed below, including his debunking of the “spray bottle” myth now floating around the Internet. Warren also does some excellent impressions, including several Star Wars characters and Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow from “Pirates of the Caribbean.” It’s fascinating to note that Warren actually has a degree in Economics, so although he has been drawing for many years, he got his dream job as a Star Wars artist by sheer perseverance and the pursuit of his dream. Now, if only I could draw….
Jake Lloyd is always a very funny interview, as at 16 he’s developed a very wry sense of humor. Jake actually thanked the Disney folks at the last interview show for keeping the anti-Annie fans out of the park. “No one has come up to me and said, ‘You suck, I hate you!’ during my signings, so you must be doing something.” Poor Jake, he and Wil Wheaton should hook up sometime.
Jake had a lot of things he couldn’t talk about in terms of what he’s doing now. He’s evidently working on an indie film about teenagers with some friends of his. But since certain ideas and concepts just plain don’t exist at Disney, he said he couldn’t say much about it other than, “We’ve spent about $100 on it so far, and that was just us going to dinner.” He also said Ewan McGregor was very good at getting him into trouble on the set, but wouldn’t own up to any specific incidents as he’s still living at home. We’ll be looking for “I Was A Nine-Year-Old Sith Lord” in the bookstores in about ten years, though.
All in all, this was another great year of Star Wars Weekends, and there’s a good possibility there will be one more year, next year. The fan response was tremendous, both from the really huge fans, who came in costume and partied with the characters, but also from the guests who came to the park not knowing it was happening it all. I saw quite a few folks, young and old, who said they were just amazed at how great the event was, and that they were extremely happy to have stumbled upon it. It was the will of the Force, I tell you.
Force points to all the characters, entertainment folks, and others who worked hard to make the event exciting. There are some great character pics in the gallery from this week, as I stumbled upon some of those great character moments you only get at Disney, and actually had my camera ready for once. Check out the “smallest clonetrooper” pic, for one. The squad of clonetroopers in that picture actually lead the little boy in the clonetrooper costume across the park, hand in hand with two of the troopers, and set up in front of the Naboo set where Amidala normally poses, so that his parents could get what has to be the awesomest picture ever. There were plenty of other folks who were just oohing and awwwing over that moment.
Special thanks have to go out to Arnie, Lisa, and the stormtrooper team that did the “Stars of the Saga” show each week. Their bad jokes and great performances were a highlight of the event each week. I hope to see them next year.
And without further ado, the video clip of the week….
GapPage 