'Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back' 40th Anniversary: The Battle of Hoth gets animated treatment in new clip
It's the 40th anniversary of 'Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back' and some special treats for fans were dropped online to celebrate. A brand-new animated short re-envisions the beloved Battle of Hoth scene from the 1980 movie with a beautifully created art and animation style. The clip was shared on the Star Wars Twitter page and is also available on the Star Wars Kids YouTube channel.
The official Star Wars Twitter profile tweeted the video with the caption, "The Empire strikes back as Darth Vader leads an attack against the Rebel base on Hoth. Celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original Star Wars sequel film with an all-new #GalaxyOfAdventures short. Watch more animated shorts now on the Star Wars Kids YouTube channel!"
A number of fans have also chimed in with reactions and the video is so good it has got some fans asking to see the whole movie redone in this style. "Whole version of the movie in this style on Disney+ would be a dream," one fan tweeted while another wrote, "I might be crazy, but I'd love to see the original trilogy adapted into this animation style. Like, keep the dialogue audio but seeing how insane they can make the action scenes."
"Love the art style," another fan chimed in. Yet another fan wrote, "These little shorts are so well done! Love the animation style!" And that's just a sample of the support pouring in for the clip. There are also a number of fans who took the opportunity to take a dig at Kathleen Kennedy, the current president of LucasFilm.
"That was actually good," one fan tweeted. "Is Kathleen Kennedy finally out or did I miss something?" "Holy crap... when did George come back?" Another fan tweeted. "We’d have had a parade." In a recent interview published to celebrate the anniversary, George Lucas spoke about the difficulties involved in creating the movie, which was pretty cutting-edge for its time and suffered a number of delays.
"On the first one, the production crew on the set, except for the art department, just thought it was a joke. And they were not that interested in the movie or helping or doing anything except getting their paycheck. ILMers were always enthusiastic because they were very young. And young people are enthusiastic," Lucas says with a warm chuckle.
"They knew we were doing something that had never been done before and so that excited them and that kept their morale up. And even though we went through some very hard setbacks, I had to go up and be a parent and say, 'We can do this. We're not going to give up. We have to keep going.' You just have to say, even though everything looks like it's falling apart, trust me, it's actually not."
We can't help but wonder what Lucas and Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) might have managed to create for the movie if they had this kind of technology back in the day. But then again, it is still the greatest 'Star Wars' movie ever made even without it. 'Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back' was first released in American theaters on May 21, 1980.