Tag: the yoda chronicles

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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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Cartoon Network announces LEGO Star Wars specials… but nothing on The Clone Wars

LEGO Star Wars The Yoda ChroniclesCartoon Network has put out their lineup for the 2013-2014 season, using a multi-city road tour for the next few weeks to promote their new and returning shows. Most notably, they are hyping three quarterly specials for LEGO Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles, and saying nothing about the return of The Clone Wars. Does this mean that The Clone Wars is leaving Cartoon Network for the fall? Or just that it is still in negotiation (ie, they can’t announce anything yet)? They list their returning shows, and the adventures of Skyguy and Snips aren’t on it.

But here’s the description of The Yoda Chronicles:

LEGO Star Wars returns in epic style with THE YODA CHRONICLES, a thrilling, funny and action-packed new LEGO Star Wars story told in three animated TV specials! Set in the “Prequel” Star Wars timeline, THE YODA CHRONICLES stars the one and only Yoda—the Jedi Master who has seen it all, done it all, and taught generations of Jedi Knights—in an all-new adventure. With the help of a fresh class of Padawans, Yoda leads the Jedi in a desperate fight to stop Darth Sidious and his minions from creating a new super-weapon that could crush the Republic and win the war for the forces of Evil.

Some of those news articles are claiming that the Yoda Chronicles are set in the original trilogy timeframe – I think this definitively says “prequel era” with such keywords as Republic.

Back to The Clone Wars: Is this the end of the show, or will Disney XD (or another Disney channel) be picking it up? We know that they have been working on season six, and perhaps a network change has prevented them from talking about it much officially.

And also coming back: The Powerpuff Girls in a new special!

EDIT: While the list of returning shows (and new shows like Teen Titans Go! and Total Drama All Stars) is primarily for their prime-time lineup on weeknights, there is also the lack of their DC Nation block of cartoons (Green Lantern, Young Justice, etc.), which follows The Clone Wars on Saturday mornings. Is the Saturday morning crowd just not big enough to mention in their release? However, other shows which have been aired on Saturdays are listed in their returning shows: Beyblade: Metal Fury and Pokemon: Black and White – are they being bumped up to primetime, or are they anchoring the Saturday morning timeslot. What does this also mean for the DC Nation shows? Just like Clone Wars, are they not important enough to list, still in negotiation, or not coming back? It seems that most comic books sites are calling Green Lantern and Young Justice as cancelled.