Star Wars: Clone Wars (Tv Series) Information
Star Wars: Clone Wars is an Annie Award Winning American animated television series set in the Star Wars galaxy. The series chronicles the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic under Chancellor Palpatine, and the Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS) under Count Dooku.
Chronologically, the series takes place during the three-year time period between the films Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The original television series was produced by Cartoon Network Studios in association with Lucasfilm Ltd., and aired in 25 chapters from 2003 to 2005. A 3D CGI series called Star Wars: The Clone Wars debuted in 2008.[1]
It was ranked 21 on IGN's Top 100 Animated Series list.[2]
Contents |
Summary
The original series consists of 20 three-minute installments for seasons 1 and 2 (later collectively known as Volume 1), and five 12-to-15 minute installments for Season 3 (later called Volume 2). The series follows the Jedi in their exploits fighting the Separatist movement against the Galactic Republic. The 25 episodes are mostly energetic set-piece battles. Many characters from the films are featured prominently, while other episodes feature minor characters from the films and/or those from the Expanded Universe. Since much emphasis is placed on action, the story and plot is less developed than in the films.
Season One and Season Two/DVD Volume One
The main storyline features Obi-Wan Kenobi being assigned to lead an assault on the planet Muunilist, with his apprentice Anakin Skywalker leading the battle in space above. Meanwhile, Separatist leader Count Dooku takes in the Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress as his apprentice and sends her off to assassinate Anakin. Anakin diverts his attention in the middle of battle to pursue Ventress to Yavin 4, where he manages to defeat her in a lightsaber duel, though only through the means of fear and anger, the path to the dark side of the Force. Surrounding this storyline are various different battles focusing on other Jedi and their clone troops, including:
- Obi-Wan Kenobi confronting the Gen'Dai bounty hunter Durge on Muunilinst
- Kit Fisto leading an underwater assault on Mon Calamari
- Mace Windu single-handedly destroying a seismic tank on Dantooine
- Yoda and Padmé Amidala rescuing Luminara Unduli and her apprentice Barris Offee on Ilum
- Ki-Adi-Mundi, Shaak Ti, K'Kruhk and Aayla Secura ambushed by droid commander General Grievous on Hypori
Season Three/DVD Volume Two
The story picks up directly from Anakin's defeat of Ventress and Obi-Wan's victory on Muunilist. With General Grievous emerging to claim victories for the Separatists, the Republic needs more Jedi Knights. After much consideration, the Jedi Council decides to promote Anakin to a Knight. Three years later, Anakin and Obi-Wan are assigned to find General Grievous on the planet Nelvaan, but end up liberating a group of Nelvaanians enslaved and mutated by the Techno Union instead. Meanwhile, General Grievous leads an assault on Coruscant and, despite the best efforts of Yoda, Mace Windu, Shaak Ti and others, kidnaps Supreme Chancellor Palpatine for his master Count Dooku. Anakin manages to rescue the Nelvaan warriors, though he once again draws upon his anger, then sets out with Obi-Wan to rescue the Chancellor over Coruscant (as seen in the opening minutes of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith).
Voice cast
Volume One
- San Hill / Count Dooku / Warrior #2 ... Corey Burton
- C-3PO ... Anthony Daniels
- Asajj Ventress / Padmé Amidala / Shaak Ti ... Grey DeLisle
- General Grievous / Padawan ... John DiMaggio
- Supreme Chancellor Palpatine / Darth Sidious ... Nick Jameson
- Yoda ... Tom Kane
- Anakin Skywalker ... Mat Lucas
- Durge / Aide #2 / Henchman / Warrior #3 / Ki-Adi-Mundi / Master Barrek ... Daran Norris
- K'Kruhk / Human Male Jedi Master ... Kevin Michael Richardson
- ARC Captain / Battle Droid / Clone Trooper / ARC Trooper / Captain Typho ... Andre Sogliuzzo
- Luminara Unduli ... Cree Summer
- Obi-Wan Kenobi / Aide #1 / Aide #3 ... James Arnold Taylor
- Barriss Offee ... Tatyana Yassukovich
Volume Two
- Anakin Skywalker ... Mat Lucas
- Obi-Wan Kenobi / Agen Kolar / Turnstile Computer / Techno Union Scientist #2 / Mutated Warrior #1 ... James Arnold Taylor
- Yoda ... Tom Kane
- Padmé Amidala / Shaak Ti / Stass Allie / Nelvaanian Boy / Nelvaanian Woman / Nelvaanian Child ... Grey DeLisle
- C-3PO ... Anthony Daniels
- Mace Windu / Saesee Tiin / Alien General ... T.C. Carson
- ARC Trooper / ARC Captain / Battle Droid / Clone Commander Cody / Clone Trooper / Captain Typho / Clone Pilot / Captain Fordo ... Andre Sogliuzzo
- Ki-Adi-Mundi / Even Piell ... Daran Norris
- General Grievous / Kit Fisto / Nelvaanian Shaman / Nelvaanian Warrior ... Richard McGonagle
- Young Anakin Skywalker ... Frankie Ryan Manriquez
- Qui-Gon Jinn / Oppo Rancisis ... Fred Tatasciore
- Count Dooku ... Corey Burton
- Darth Sidious / Supreme Chancellor Palpatine / Main Techno union scientist
Production
The series was produced by Genndy Tartakovsky and employs a similar animation style to Tartakovsky's Samurai Jack and Dexter's Laboratory. Tartakovsky revealed in his Hyperspace commentary tracks on the official Star Wars website and on the Volume I DVD that he purposely animated C-3PO with moveable expressive eyes to pay homage to the animators of and the animation style of Nelvana, the production company behind the animated segment from The Star Wars Holiday Special and the 1980s Droids cartoon series.
Release
The pilot series, produced primarily with traditional animation, originally ran on Cartoon Network. In addition to being shown on television, the episodes were released online simultaneously at the Star Wars and Cartoon Network websites. The series was heavily advertised by Cartoon Network, and was originally shown immediately before their popular Friday night lineup. The show was also featured on kapow on teletoon.
DVD releases
Volume I/Season 1 & 2
- Chapters 1-20 of the series were released March 22, 2005, as "Star Wars Clone Wars: Volume I". The episodes were edited together into one continuous feature. The set featured English subtitles, and commentary tracks on all the episodes, as well as art galleries, behind the scenes information, and the featurette "Bridging the Saga: From Clone Wars to Revenge of the Sith", the Revenge of the Sith teaser trailer: with interviews of George Lucas, Genndy Tartakovsky, and the Clone Wars production crew. The disc also featured a glimpse of Star Wars: Clone Wars - Volume Two, an Episode III game trailer, and a playable level of the Xbox game Star Wars: Republic Commando.
Volume II/Season 3
- Chapters 21-25 of the micro-series were released on December 6, 2005. The release was an edited together compilation of the five chapters, similar to the Volume I release. The set featured English subtitles, and commentary tracks on all the episodes. Features included a Revenge of the Sith movie trailer, art galleries, trailers for the Star Wars games Battlefront II and Empire at War, an Xbox demo with two levels from Battlefront II, and the LEGO short film Revenge of the Brick. Also included was the featurette "Connecting the Dots", which highlighted the creative process that Genndy Tartakovsky and his team used to link Clone Wars to Revenge of the Sith. The second volume of Clone Wars series was released significantly later than the DVD release of Revenge of the Sith. According to Van Ling, the producer of both DVDs, the Volume II disc was released at such a late date due to an extremely tight schedule in producing the DVDs. According to http://starwars.com, both DVDs were produced at exactly the same time, but the Clone Wars DVD could not be finished in time for the DVD release of Revenge of the Sith. Ling apologized to fans for this.
References
- ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20070223052357/http://wizarduniverse.com/_images_/003443/IMG_9163.jpg
- ^ [1]
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External links
| Star Wars portal | |
| Cartoon Network portal | |
| Animation portal | |
| United States portal | |
| Television portal |
| Book: Star Wars | |
| Wikipedia Books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
- Star Wars: Clone Wars at the Internet Movie Database
- Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003 TV series) at TV.com
- Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003 TV series) at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- Steve Sansweet Talks About the Upcoming Star Wars TV Shows
Categories: 2003 American television series debuts | 2005 American television series endings | 2000s American animated television series | Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network Studios series and characters | Internet television series | Star Wars animated television series | American television miniseries | American science fiction television series | Star Wars television series | Space adventure series
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