The new animated series Star Wars Rebels has been wowing us recently with some most impressive Star Wars storytelling. But, as the title implies, that series is focused on the Rebel Alliance. What if there was another series that explored the Empire's point of view, and also was done in the animated style of 1980's Anime? Well, thanks to a new fan made short film, we now have a taste of what that might look like. Filmmaker Paul Johnson has created just that in the form of a more than seven minute long short film featuring a space battle between the Rebellion and the Empire. The brief but incredibly detailed animation primarily focuses on TIE Fighter pilots as they engage X-Wings and Y-Wings near an Asteroid field. There is no dialogue, rather a limited amount of sound effects, and a lot of rock music, are used to compliment the animation, In the video's description, Johnson explains that it took him "over 4 years' worth of weekends" to complete it, along with help from Zak Rahman, who provided the music, and Joseph Leyv, who did the sound effects. You can check out the full film below:
If you're thinking you've seen this before, you'd be right, but only partially. Johnson previously uploaded a 2 minute long version of the video which has been going viral over the past few years. It has only now become apparent that that video was simply a preview for what was to come. The full version has garnered(as of writing this) approximately 1.5 million views since being uploaded yesterday.
And they are well deserved, I must say! Bravo to Paul Johnson and his team for creating this magnificent piece of animation! The creativity of Star Wars fans never ceases to amaze.
Source: YouTube
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