The Clone Wars review: ‘Nomad Droids’

“It’s a big universe out there beyond the few million planets you know,” Padmé tells Threepio at the start of ‘Nomad Droids’, last week’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. And we got treated to a few of those strange new worlds as R2-D2 and C-3PO take an unintentional detour from the war. Although it feels like they passed through more of a bookshelf of classic children’s literature, only with some odd comments on politics thrown in.
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The Clone Wars: Sam Witwer to voice Darth Maul?

NukeTheFridge.com reports that Sam Witwer, who portrayed Starkiller in The Force Unleashed series and voiced Son in the Mortis arc of The Clone Wars, is returning to the show to voice Darth Maul. The first reports of the Being Human‘s star coming back to the show came from an interview at Dragon*Con by Star Wars Report, where Witwer confirmed that he will be doing a character new to him, and recounts:

Dave Filoni calls me up, gets me on the phone, and he says, “Listen, so we want you to come back to work and we need you to play…” and he tells me the character’s name. And I almost had a car accident. And he says, “Can you do it?” And I’m like yes. And then I worried about later whether I could do it or not. But I was like yes, yes, I will do that. So it is a tremendous opportunity and I can’t wait for you guys to find out about it.

Until we get official word, it’s just a rumor that he’ll play Darth Maul, (who was previously announced as returning next spring) – but an exciting one at that.

Meanwhile, Slate has done an article for parents on how to sound intelligent when you talk to your kids about The Clone Wars. Basically, it sorts out that everything you know about Star Wars from the original trilogy has been turned on its head: Clonetroopers and the Republic are good, while the rebellious Separatists are evil. Not a whole lot on knowing who the show’s original characters are – Ahsoka barely gets mentioned, and I think Rex doesn’t even get mentioned. If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably well ahead of the people who need to refer to the Slate article for help.

Always feel bummed about contests that are for US residents only? Well, here are two different chances to win Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season Three DVD and Blu-ray sets: SFX is giving away the Blu-rays and Entertainment Focus is giving away the DVDs – for people in the United Kingdom.

The Clone Wars: ‘Nomad Droids’ takes Threepio and Artoo on an excellent adventure

Tonight’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars sends C-3PO and R2-D2 from one crazy adventure into another with ‘Nomad Droids’. Does the Force favor these two as they survive an assault by General Grievous on their craft, only to escape from the attack and end up on their own fantastic voyage — or is it Gulliver’s Travels? Check out the clip above for Threepio and Artoo passing through the battle around them (homage to the opening of A New Hope,) and the clip below for their own lesson in “Size matters not.”

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Darth Maul finally coming to Clone Wars; Phantom Menace 3-D trailer with The Three Musketeers

The Clone Wars will be cashing the check it wrote in season 3’s Savage Opress arc this spring: Darth Maul is back, and Entertainment Weekly has video.

UPDATE: USA Today has another image of Maul that shows more detail. They also reveal that we can expect a trailer for The Phantom Menace attached to Paul W.S. Anderson’s crazy steampunk-looking The Three Musketeers on Oct. 21. (via) Meanwhile, StarWars.com has a glimpse of the TPM 3-D poster.

It’s “an amazing storytelling opportunity,” they say. Personally, I find a resurrected Maul less facepalm-worthy than some of the other stuff they came up with last year, so, hey: Bring it on.

Go on a ‘Mercy Mission’ with The Clone Wars

“Welcome to our disaster!” Tonight’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars features C-3PO and R2-D2 as they accompany Clone Commander Wolffe’s battalion of clones on a relief mission on quake-hit Aleen. Judging from the preview clip of ‘Mercy Mission’, it looks like Threepio and Artoo have their work cut out for them.

The Clone Wars review round-up: shadowing ‘Shadow Warrior’

If someone tries to kill you, kill them right back.

Time to see what the rest of the galaxy thought of last week’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars: ‘Shadow Warrior’. You probably already know how much I liked it from my review here on Club Jade. But what did other people think of the Grievous-skewering, Gungan-possessing, Anakin-zapping, something-spoilery-happens episode? Continue readingThe Clone Wars review round-up: shadowing ‘Shadow Warrior’”

The Clone Wars review: ‘Shadow Warrior’

Who's the Boss?

‘Shadow Warrior’ is a fantastic episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars – while only a half hour long, the story covered so much ground, and really captured the feel of Star Wars. It makes me wish that this storyline was spread out across two episodes, with the first half of the story (the Gungan plot) separate from the capture of Anakin and the prisoner exchange.

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The Clone Wars returns to Naboo and Kurosawa with ‘Shadow Warrior’

The main heroes and villains of the prequels collide in ‘Shadow Warrior’, this week’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. As shown in the clip, Anakin and Dooku square off, meanwhile Padme discovers that Grievous and his droid armies are going to invade Theed, but the Gungans are also marching on the capital of Naboo. As Bryan Young points out, this episode is likely a homage to the 1980 Akira Kurosawa film Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior), whose international edition lists George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola as executive producers. This is not the first time The Clone Wars has been inspired by Kurosawa: season two’s episode ‘Bounty Hunters’ was a tribute to the classic Seven Samurai.

The Clone Wars review round-up: going deep or all wet?

Hail to the King!

With the first story arc done, it’s time to see what the reviewers are saying about the start of Star Wars: The Clone Wars season four. Did people think that this story arc jumped the shark? Indeed not – It looks like most reviewers were swimmingly pleased with the Mon Cala war storyline.

Meanwhile, The HD Room checks in with Dave Filoni about what to expect this season.

And if you missed it, here’s our reviews of the individual episodes: ‘Water War’‘Gungan Attack’‘Prisoners’.