Tag: the padawan menace

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Out on DVD today: LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out

LEGO-SW-The Empire Strikes Out - promoOut today on DVD is the second LEGO Star Wars special, The Empire Strikes Out. Full of humor and voiced by some of our favorite Star Wars stars, like Anthony Daniels, Sam Witwer, and Brian Blessed, the story is set post-A New Hope, with Luke dealing with his newfound fame as a Rebel hero, Darth Vader dealing with a new rival (hint: see picture), and the Rebels taking a side trip to Naboo.

CraveOnline has a exclusive clip to help promote the release, Comingsoon.net has another exclusive clip, while From Bricks to Bothans has more of the marketing memes, and there’s a set of UK promotional shots of LEGO Vader out and about in London.

The program was originally aired on Cartoon Network last September, when we got a chance to chat with writer Michael Price about it and the first special, The Padawan Menace, and was nominated for an Annie Award for Best Animated Television Production for Children.

If you’re looking forward to more LEGO Star Wars animation, you’re in luck: three specials of The Yoda Chronicles, also by Michael Price, will be part of Cartoon Network’s 2013-2014 season. Recently on Twitter, Mike Price revealed the release date of the first special: May 29, as well as a guest star voice actor: Billy Dee Williams.

The DVD of The Empire Strikes Out comes with an exclusive Darth Vader with medal mini-figure. While the first special, The Padawan Menace, was released in a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, this release is DVD only. Huh? Maybe combo packs are too confusing for some consumers.

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Interview: Michael Price on LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out

With LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out premiering this Wednesday night on Cartoon Network, I checked in with the show’s writer, Michael Price, who also wrote last year’s LEGO Star Wars special, The Padawan Menace. That first animated show (reviewed last year), which had Yoda, C-3PO and a young Han Solo, ranks up as the best Star Wars based comedy I had seen in years, and one of my top Star Wars on screen for 2011. In this interview, Michael talks about the comedy of The Empire Strikes Out, and the challenges of solo writing Luke and Vader. Continue reading “Interview: Michael Price on LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out“

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LEGO Star Wars returns to Cartoon Network with The Empire Strikes Out on 9/26

According to writer Michael Price on Twitter, there’s a new LEGO Star Wars cartoon coming out: The Empire Strikes Out. From the same crew that brought us LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace in 2011, which was one of the top Star Wars on screen in 2011 for me, the story is not a sequel to The Padawan Menace, but instead is a new adventure in the original trilogy era. Contributing voices are Anthony Daniels and Sam Witwer among others (likely to include Tom Kane, who also lent his Yoda voice to the first LEGO Star Wars outing).

Coming up before the season 5 premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on September 29, LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out will be premiering on Cartoon Network on Wednesday, September 26, and re-running over Thursday and Friday. Zap2It has the brief synopsis: “Shortly after the Death Star explodes, the rebels learn of a new Imperial threat.” And if you missed The Padawan Menace the first time around, it will also be airing again on Thursday and Friday.

With the first LEGO Star Wars special being such a marvelously entertaining show, I am very excited for LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out. Setting the DVR now!

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Review: LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace

LEGO Star Wars -The Padawan Menace: Visiting Mos Eisley

Turning to Star Wars for comedy value is nothing new – in the past few years, three Family Guy parodies and three Robot Chicken specials have mined the saga for laughs. But LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace breaks some new ground for Star Wars entertainment: not only is it funny and full of jokes, it also tells a new adventure that builds on both the classic and prequel trilogies. It breaks from the style of the LEGO Star Wars video games by having the characters talk rather than just use gestures and non-word vocalizations, but it would be slow to tell a story if all the dialogue had to be pantomimed. The Padawan Menace in two words, stolen from one of the younglings: Totally Awesome! Continue reading “Review: LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace“

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EUbits: Zahn and Vader in the Insider, third Riptide excerpt, Padawan Menace on video

Star Wars Insider: Issue #127 hits the shelves this week, with Titan Magazines putting an overview online of its 100 pages. The cover article explains why Han Solo is still the man, and other features include a look at the new Star Tours attraction, an interview with Timothy Zahn, a look back at the radio dramas, and an extract from Drew Karpyshyn’s forthcoming The Old Republic: Revan novel.

Meanwhile, Del Rey announced on Facebook that a Darth Vader short story (not written by Haden Blackman) will be coming to an upcoming issue of the Insider.

Riptide: Just as Comic-con was getting going, Del Rey released a third mini excerpt from the upcoming novel Riptide by Paul S. Kemp.

LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace: After being broadcast over this past weekend on Cartoon Network, the animated LEGO Star Wars special will be coming to DVD and Blu-ray on September 16, coinciding with the Star Wars saga Blu-ray release. Also, Scholastic is putting out an adaptation for the kids of the show, sayeth Amazon. Stay tuned for our review of the hilarious adventure.

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LEGO Star Wars special premieres July 22

File this one under the ‘so not for me.’

Lucasfilm/LEGO/The Cartoon Network have a press release today detailing The Padawan Menace, a standalone TV special that will premiere Friday, July 22.

Tour guide Master Yoda leads a group of rambunctious Jedi younglings through Senate chambers when he senses a disturbance in the Force. Summoned to help save the Republic, he discovers that one of the younglings secretly boarded his ship…and has a taste for adventure! Meanwhile, C-3PO and R2-D2 are put in charge of the boisterous group and find themselves in over their heads. As the evil Sith prepare to wreak havoc, it’s up to Yoda and the droids to ensure that their young charges aren’t torn to bricks!

No doubt the kids will love it.