Club Jade

There’s lots of buzz out there to celebrate Star Wars: The Clone Wars hitting the 100 episode milestone! Variety magazine has got a buffet of light articles on the show:

• AJ Marechal talks with Dave Filoni on balancing different generations of audience who grew up with different Star Wars – and what the Disney/Lucasfilm deal might mean for Clone Wars characters.
• Iain Blair chats with CG supervisor Joel Aron on the look and feel of the series, and what classic films have inspired the style of the show.
• Brain Lowry focuses on how the animated series brings more fun into Star Wars.
• And if you can’t read short articles, they have a slideshow of twelve celebrities who have provided voices for the show over the past five seasons.

Also, Channel Guide Magazine has a good interview with Dave Filoni on reaching the big one hundred mark, whether he would go back to special edition the original Clone Wars movie, and the change from Friday night to Saturday morning. StarWars.com has a big pile of quotes from the cast and crew on the occasion.

And, if you missed it, you really should check out the five minute trailer summing up the past 4.5 seasons with some peeks at what is to come (and who is noticeably missing)!

Clone Wars heavy-hitters Dave Filoni and Ashley Eckstein both have blog entries about Disney and Star Wars on the official site today.

Filoni writes about his history with Disney – he worked on Kim Possible, among others – Star WArs Weekends, and

When Revenge of the Sith was over, I found myself in the incredible position of carrying the torch forward. Now I can see the incredibly bright light that is the future of Star Wars. For those of you who are fans of The Clone Wars, do not worry. We have many stories left to tell, and every one of them came directly from George himself. Right down to the last one, where that thing with Ahsoka happens…

As the daughter of a Disney “cast member,” Ashley Eckstein has never made a secret of her Disney love, and she writes at length about the effects of “being immersed in the Disney culture at such a young age.”

I wanted to work for Disney SO badly that I turned in my application on my 16th birthday. After several auditions, I finally got my big break and I was cast as a cheerleader in the Hercules Parade. I got to dance down Hollywood Blvd. Thanks to Disney, I was able to perform in front of thousands of people on the weekends and it made my dream, again, feel tangible.

As of today, The Clone Wars now has its own official Twitter account, @TheCloneWars.

In other news on the show, season premiere ‘Revival’ is now online, and Dave Filoni wrote up a piece for the StarWars.com Blog reflecting on 100 episodes of the show. Leland Chee has addressed fan’s (spoilery) continuity concerns.

As for the fans, there are reviews of the episode at TFN, Tosche Station and Knights’ Archive.

Counting down for the first episode of The Clone Wars season five, ‘Revival’ coming out Saturday morning on Cartoon Network (9:30 am on PT/ET, 8:30 am Central). The official site has a preview of Darth Maul exerting his alpha dog status over his brother Savage Opress. But Savage isn’t happy about being relegated to apprentice again. After last week’s fan screening of the first two episodes at Lucasfilm, a Q&A with Dave Filoni, Joel Aron, and Ashley Eckstein focused on Ahsoka’s journey and the return of Darth Maul.

The Daily.com has an exclusive preview clip for the entire season, with Dave Filoni describing how this season is a great place to jump in and get caught up with the Star Wars adventure, and how far they’ve come since they started the show.

Here’s more to get you psyched for ‘Revival’ and the kickoff of the fifth season:

• Bryan Young at Big Shiny Robot uses some preview clips to show that it’s ok for adults to enjoy the cartoon
• Eric Goldman at IGN interviews Sam Witwer on playing Darth Maul, the Sith Lord’s relationship with his brother, and being typecast as a bad-ass.
• Newsarama has a handful of video interviews with cast and crew:
  Dave Filoni, on working with George Lucas, and his hat, Ashley Eckstein, on this season and James Arnold Taylor, on being Obi-Wan Kenobi in season five.
• Dave Filoni gets interviewed by TIME for Kids about the new season.
• And if you don’t know where to start in watching Clone Wars before Season five, Star Wars Report picks out the essential episodes to get you ready for this season, paring down 4 seasons of the show into just 17 that you should be familiar with. Get the background on the characters and relationships hinted in the preview trailers.

With something in the vicinity of 24 hours to go (YMMV) before The Clone Wars starts airing officially, here are the last Ask Dave’s. In #3, above, he answers “Will we see more of Lux and Ahsoka in the future?” and #4, below, about Darth Maul’s birth name.

UPDATE: And here’s #5: “Will we see Anakin’s ship the Twilight again in the series?”

Be sure to come back this afternoon for more Clone Wars links from James!

It’s Saturday morning, so let’s get cartoon-centric. First off, StarWars.com has debuted ‘Ask Dave,’ where Clone Wars head honcho Dave Filoni answers fan questions. Above, “Will we see more of our favorite Jedi return in the near future?”; Below, “Does Rex’s story have a happy ending or a sad ending?”

And head over to Big Shiny Robot for a clip from the season premiere, ‘Revival,’ and a look at the Red Carpet event held at Celebration VI. If you weren’t at CVI or last night’s screening in San Francisco, ‘Revival’ will make its official debut next Saturday (September 29) at 9:30 a.m. on Cartoon Network.

USA Today interviews Dave Filoni about the upcoming season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and he describes that season five is going to be bringing a lot of the war’s consequences. My favorite line:

“Black market, drug trafficking, these are all areas that Maul or someone like him can flourish,” Filoni says.

Darth Maul – half man, all drug lord. Yup. You heard it straight from Dave Filoni… from a certain point of view. And for those wanting to see more cameos from the original trilogy, there’s not a chance that Han Solo will appear (unless George comes up with the idea) but the article does mention the return of Tarkin and an appearance of blue Snaggletooth. More seriously, Filoni points out that we are going to see more of the impact of how the Jedi’s role in the war is being perceived. I’m pretty sure that if the Jedi were asked about their media strategy in the war, the Holonet News sound bite would go like this:

“We’re keepers of the peace, not spin doctors.” said Mace Windu, summing up the Jedi Order’s main media strategy as “one giant Jedi mind trick”. The briefing ended abruptly when General Kenobi appeared, waving his hands, saying “This isn’t the interview you’re looking for.”

This is the whole thing, clocking in at almost 43 minutes and cameos from Star Wars and The Clone Wars cast/crew, plus fans like Amy Ratcliffe, Bryan Young and even a few Jader cameos!

Hint: At about minute 27, Ashley and artist Cat Staggs talk abut the con’s exclusive Mara Jade shirt.

Wondering what happened to the TIE Fighter that displayed all the sweets you saw on Cupcake Wars the other night? Well, wonder no more: It’s headed to Steve Sansweet’s Rancho Obi-Wan, of course.

(On that note, Food Network has posted the recipe for the Spiced Black Pepper Cupcakes, if you want to try them yourself.)

In other CVI news, Dave Filoni posted about his own experience in Orlando.

So while a lot of focus was on George Lucas at The Clone Wars panel this morning at Star Wars Celebration VI, and the Friday night premiere of the season five opener, fans got another peek at something upcoming in The Clone Wars with Young Jedi. In the Calling All Kids panel, (where all adults had to be accompanied by a child under 11), Dave Filoni introduced Young Jedi, an eighty-four minute screening that is likely to be a four-part story arc on Star Wars: The Clone Wars this season. (Or at least it appears that it could be easily separated into several episodes) With fans getting popcorn and George Lucas sitting in the crowd watching the reactions of the kids and adults in the audience, we were taken on a thrill ride aimed at the children who are the core audience
of the show.

(more…)