Continuing our review of the year that was, we have a glimpse back at how Star Wars has been lighting up the video screens – mostly our televisions in 2011, with an epic year for The Clone Wars, and the Blu-ray release of the Star Wars saga.
The Clone Wars, Star Tours up for Annie Awards
The International Animated Film Society released its list of nominations for the 2011 Annie Awards, and both Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the new Star Tours theme park attraction made the list. The Clone Wars earned a nomination for Best General Audience TV Production, competing against such shows as Archer, The Green Lantern: Animated Series, MAD, and The Simpsons. Two voice actors picked up nominations: Dee Bradley Baker, who plays Rex and all the other clones (although the Annie nomination list credits him as Obi-wan Kenobi!) and Nika Futterman, who earned her second nomination two years in a row for voicing Asajj Ventress.
Behind the scenes, Joel Aron of Lucasfilm Animation got nominated for an individual achievement in an animated production for his work on The Clone Wars, while ILM staff picked up individual nominations for their work on Rango, and swept the individual achievement nominations for animated effects in live action productions: Cowboys & Aliens, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. For his work editing a television production, Jason W. A. Tucker picked up a nomination for The Clone Wars.
Star Tours picked up a nomination for best animated special production, running against Adventure Time: Thank You, Batman: Year One, and Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas, among others.
The 39th annual Annie awards will be announced on February 4, 2012.
The Clone Wars goes undercover with ‘Slaves of the Republic’
Anakin, Obi-wan and Ahsoka go undercover on Zygerria in ‘Slaves of the Republic’, this tonight’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Will posing as a master and slave go well for the master and apprentice as they try to rescue to the people of Kiros? Here’s two clips from this second chapter in the three part story arc, adapted from The Clone Wars comics tale.
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Exclusive interview with Catherine Taber on The Clone Wars and The Old Republic
For Star Wars fans, Catherine Taber is best known as the voice of Senator Padmé Amidala on The Clone Wars, though she first got her start in voice acting working on different Star Wars video games. Taber provided the voice for a new character, Vette, for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic game, and recently was heard as a tactical droid in The Clone Wars episode ‘Shadow Warrior’. She was kind enough to answer our interview questions about her work on The Clone Wars and The Old Republic, as well as talk about her Games for Soldiers project.
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The Clone Wars review: ‘Darkness on Umbara’
New characters on The Clone Wars are a double-edged… uh, lightsaber, I suppose. On the one hand, they’re usually great additions to the cast. But on the other, more mechanical hand, they’re often gone after one episode. Several examples right off the top of my head: Mar Tuuk, Admiral Trench, and Master Sinube. They came, they ruled, then they left, never to be seen again. And each time, my fragile heart was shattered. Continue reading “The Clone Wars review: ‘Darkness on Umbara’”
The Clone Wars: Night falls on the clones with ‘Darkness on Umbara’
Star Wars: The Clone Wars returns tonight with ‘Darkness on Umbara’, the first in a four-part story taking place on the dark world of Umbara. As the clones face deadly orders from Jedi General Pong Krell, tensions starts to mount. As I mentioned when season four started, I’m intrigued and really looking forward to this story arc, especially since Dee Bradley Baker was “bothered” by what his characters had to go through in the Umbara story.
The Clone Wars review round-up: ‘Mercy Mission’ and ‘Nomad Droids’
This week’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a rerun of ‘Prisoners’, but next week, TCW is back with a new episode. My DVR has been rather slow all week – is the lack of first run episodes a lead up to the November sweeps or is it the World Series? Anyway, here’s what the interwebs has to say about the two most recent episodes, ‘Mercy Mission’ and ‘Nomad Droids’. How do R2-D2 and C-3PO do when holding down the show? Continue reading “The Clone Wars review round-up: ‘Mercy Mission’ and ‘Nomad Droids’”
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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Out this week: Clone Wars S3, The Complete Vader, Star Wars Art: Comics
Today is the official release date for The Clone Wars season 3 on DVD and Blu-Ray. On the book front, The Complete Vader by Ryder Windham and Peter Vilmur will finally be waiting on shelves after a production-related delay of two years; Check out reviews by EUCantina and Roqoo Depot.
Also out and about is the follow-up to last year’s Visions, Star Wars Art: Comics.
Meanwhile, Wednesday will bring Knight Errant: Deluge #3 to comic shops.
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.