THE MOVIE PAGES presents STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS SWTheCloneWars.htm

What Do The Critics Say?

"Young audiences will lap it up like ice cream, and its good humor and faith in the Force will put adults in a Saturday morning frame of mind even at midnight showings."
Michael Sragow BALTIMORE SUN
"Call me crazy, but I liked Clone Wars more than any of the recent live-action films. It's funnier, leaner and more playful."
Chris Hewitt ST PAUL PIONEER PRESS
"If the live action movies were the main course, The CLONE WARS are like chocolate truffles. They are short, quick and satisfying."
Austin Kennedy SIN MAGAZINE
"Aimed at the serious Star Wars fan who is interested in exploring some new corners of the Star Wars universe."
Robert Roten LARAMIE MOVIE SCOPE
"Star Wars: The Clone Wars may be a glorified pilot for the upcoming TV series, but as Episode 2.5 it brings back a certain amount of balance to the Force."
ob Daniel SKY MOVIES
"In its own way THE CLONE WARS is quite an achievement: it almost perfectly synthesizes everything that has been wrong with the films since, oh, well - Return of the Jedi."
Steve Biodrowski ESPLATTER

"Set between Episodes II and III, this new 'Star Wars' saga completes the franchise’s divorce from photography-based cinema, as well as from any relationship to credible human feeling. Star Wars: The Clone Wars comes as something of a surprise: it isn’t the most painful movie of the year!"
Nathan Lee NEW YORK TIMES
"So long as you don't approach it expecting a traditional Star Wars movie, you'll stand a better chance of enjoying it."
Jim Hall CHANNEL 4 FILM
"More exciting than The Phantom Menace and makes more sense than Attack of the Clones."
Fred Topel CAN MAGAZINE
"The occasional sexually-ambiguous Hutt or sassmouthed, premenstrual Jedi aside, it's an exciting picture and a tempting commencement for the television series."
Brian Orndorf SCI-FI MOVIE PAGE
'A worthy addition to the original six-film cycle, staying true to the spirit of the series while overhauling it in a number of important ways."
Jurgen Fauth ABOUT.COM
"An enjoyable escapade and a great introduction to the forthcoming series -- just not the seventh Star Wars film fans were hoping for."
James Dyer EMPIRE MAGAZINE

The Inside Story In 2005, "Star Wars: EPISODE III Revenge of the Sith" brought the live-action, cinematic "Star Wars" saga to a close. But creator George Lucas and the storytellers at Lucasfilm Animation had more stories to tell about the "galaxy far, far away." On-screen, the expansive, galaxy-changing Clone Wars was only fleetingly glimpsed in "Revenge of the Sith" and at the end of Episode II "Attack of the Clones". But its importance to the "Star Wars" galaxy is enormous; causing the Republic to become an Empire, leading to the "period of civil war" famously mentioned at the opening of Episode IV "A New Hope." Since its first reference in a passing remark by Luke Skywalker to Obi-Wan Kenobi more than 30 years ago in the very first "Star Wars" movie, the subject has ignited the imaginations of moviegoers: LUKE: You fought in the Clone Wars? OBI-WAN: Yes. I was once a Jedi Knight, the same as your father. LUKE: I wish I’d known him. OBI-WAN: He was the best star pilot in the galaxy, and a cunning warrior. I understand that you've become quite a good pilot yourself. And he was a good friend." "For years and years, people have wondered what the Clone Wars were, based solely on this quick mention," says Clone Wars director Dave Filoni. "The live-action movies were really centered on the Skywalker family, and we’ve never gotten to see the full breadth of the conflict." The backdrop of the Clone Wars, Filoni says, offers a chance to tell the tale of a struggle that turned a Republic into an Empire and paved the way for a civil war that ultimately resulted in freedom for the galaxy. "We may be dealing with a small window of time, but the scope of war; particularly a galactic war, is pretty expansive," he said. "There’s a lot going on: heroes, villains, intrigue, adventure. It’s all part of the story we know, but it’s always been in the background. Until now." One of the first steps in bringing "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" to the screen was finding the right entry point. The previous films had been confined to the Skywalker saga, but The Clone Wars" offered nearly limitless options. "A war, by nature, is a patchwork of untold stories," says 1992 Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award" recipient and Star Wars" creator George Lucas. "What’s fascinating to me is that there are people motivating these far-reaching events, and that those individuals are so often overshadowed by the big picture, by the events themselves. We know what happens to the galaxy, but we don’t know exactly how it all came to pass. These are the stories behind the story." For "Star Wars; The Clone Wars", Lucas sought to create a distinct visual style that would evoke the spirit of the films, while at the same time bring a unique, distinctive look to the first animated "Star Wars" movie. "We didn’t want it to look photo-realistic," Lucas explained. "We were working with animation, and we wanted to really utilize the format. That meant shifting our thinking a bit. It’s a whole different way of telling stories, and it gives us the freedom to do things that just aren’t possible in live action." Director Dave Filonia, who has a deep-rooted fandom and an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the "Star Wars" universe, proved the perfect choice to take the reinsof George Lucas's latest project. "I’ve been dreaming about "Star Wars" since I was a kid, playing with the toys in the backyard with my brother," Filoni notes. "Actually working on a "Star Wars" movie is beyond anything I could have imagined. It’s great to work in this world that I love so much, and to do it with George Lucas. Coming from a fan perspective, I also realize how important it is to do it right."

Of course, creating a new "Star Wars" adventure was fraught with danger. The production team knew there was much to achieve if it was to be successful. "There’s one thing we knew we had to deliver above all else: a "Star Wars" movie," Filoni says. And how did they hope to achieve that? "The characters are distinctly stylized, while their environments come to life in a much more realistic way, very much creating the kind of immersive worlds people expect to see in a "Star Wars" movie," Filoni revealed. Many may be thinking: What were "The Clone Wars"? Let me bring you up to speed. For a thousand years, the Old Republic prospered and grew under the wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the Jedi Knights. But as often happens when wealth and power grow too fast and too far, greed-fueled evil soon took root. Commercial interests became over-valued, the Senate had become corrupt, and an ambitious politician named Palpatine was voted Supreme Chancellor. Most disturbingly, after a thousand years of seeming absence, a dangerous legion reappeared: the Dark Lords of the Sith. Amid this turmoil, a Separatist movement was formed by Count Dooku, a charismatic former Jedi. He promised an alternative to the corruption and greed that were running rampant, and he persuaded thousands of worlds to secede from the Republic. Unbeknownst to most of his followers, Dooku was himself a Dark Lord of the Sith, acting in collusion with his mysterious master, Darth Sidious. Over the years, Sidious had struck an unholy alliance with the greater forces of commerce and their private droid armies, which were unstoppable simply due to their sheer numbers. Eventually, the evil Count Dooku would lure the unsuspecting Jedi into a trap on the desolate planet Geonosis. Little did the Separatists know, the Jedi had discovered their own secret weapon: a massive army of clones that the Republic had secretly commissioned years earlier. The Jedi won the battle of Geonosis, but the victory was short-lived. Instead of ensuring the Jedi’s power, Geonosis became the first battle in a massive war that spread like wildfire across the galaxy, engulfing thousands of different star systems. It was the start of The Clone Wars. Now, the Jedi fight to maintain freedom and restore peace to the galaxy, using their army of clones against the massive droid army. Across hundreds of planets, the Jedi and Separatists fight for the future of the galaxy. As this terrible conflict grows ever wider, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano and Padmé Amidala are swept into the turmoil of war; while Count Dooku, Darth Sidious and Asajj Ventress stop at nothing to ensure the fall of the Republic. To translate the "Star Wars" aesthetic to an all-new format for "The Clone Wars", the crews at Lucasfilm Animation faced a rare challenge. "Our goal was to produce a movie unlike anything else in animation," says the films director Dave Filoni. "But we also had to stay true to "Star Wars", to honor everything that George Lucas has created. That’s easier said than done, and it took us a long time to figure out exactly how to develop the look, style and feel of an animated "Star Wars"." It was Lucas himself who urged that "The Clone Wars" should forge its own distinctive visual style, separating itself from what had come before. Setting the story before Anakin’s descent into darkness, Lucas and Filoni felt animation could inject "The Clone Wars" with a rousing spirit of fun, highlighting the young Jedi’s heroism rather than his forbidding destiny.

"George wanted the characters to live on their own, separate from the recognizable actors who portrayed them in the previou films," says Filoni. "To do that, we really had to find the essence of the characters, and to bring them to life in a way that wasn’t just a reproduction of their live-action counterparts. We wanted to break free of any preconceived notions of what "Star Wars" should be." This meant eschewing photo-realism and embracing an entirely new look, different from almost anything else in cinematic animation. "Working in computer graphics, we incorporated those stylistic aspects into a world with an entirely different depth, physicality and scope. From there, it really began to grow and evolve into what’s on screen," says producer Catherine Winder (TV'S "Aeon Flux", "Spawn" & "Spicy City"). Drawing from a myriad of influences, Lucasfilm Animation experimented with an extreme shooting style, using aggressive lighting and framing to set the stage for the stylized new look of the characters themselves. "I’ve always been a big fan of the anime look; Japanese animation and manga tend to push the envelope with really innovative composition, so we followed that lead," says Filoni. "That said, animation is a vast field, and it’s too filled with possibilities for us to limit ourselves to one style. We also took inspiration from Gerry Anderson’s "Thunderbirds", which was shot in the 1960s using marionettes. So we really took these disparate influences and fused them into something pretty unique." So how did the idea of an animated "Star Wars" movie originally come about? "The idea of doing an animated version of the Clone Wars was intriguing to me because it really allows us to tell other stories, show other Jedi, introduce new characters and even tell stories about the clones themselves. Some of them have very interesting stories. It allows us to broaden the canvas of what "Star Wars" is about," says Lucas ("Kagemusha", "Raiders of the Lost Ark" & "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed"). Shooting in animation has some distinct advantages, too. "We can look at a scene in editorial, then go back and redo it completely differently the next day," says Filoni. "That would be impossible in live action. We have all of our sets, all of our actors at our disposal at all times. We can make things the way we’d like to see them, which is really exciting." And do Filoni and Lucas have favourite "Star Wars" characters? "I’ve always liked Duros," Lucas admits, "the blue aliens from the cantina scene in "A New Hope". They’re a derivation of Neimoidians: Neimoidians are greener. Wrinklier." Filoni says for him, "it’s the Jedi Council. I love the opportunity to explore these characters we saw so briefly, but who are in their time legendary: Kit Fisto, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Luminara, Plo Koon." So what characters can fans expect to see in the new adventure, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars"? Here's a background to just a few. Anakin Skywalker is a Jedi Knight whose exceptional Force abilities and rebellious nature will one day lead him down the dark path of the Sith. Skywalker is nonetheless, an idealistic leader and a heroic champion of the Galactic Republic. Guided by a self-assurance that borders on arrogance, he is bold and aggressive, but as he’s matured, he has also learned that sometimes strategy and temperance can prove more effective than a flashing lightsaber. His brash impulsiveness prompts Master Yoda to pair him with a new apprentice in an effort to help curb the young Jedi’s wild ways.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is deadly with a lightsaber and skilled in the art of war. But, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi is a peaceful soul, guided by an empathetic spirit even amidst the violence and devastation of the Clone Wars. He recognizes that there are often alternatives to fighting, and takes up arms only in an effort to defend the values and ideals of the Galactic Republic. In stark contrast to his volatile former Padawan, Obi-Wan remains calm and level-headed in even the most dangerous situations, relying on temperance, discipline and dry wit where Anakin would default to violence. Ahsoka Tano is a teenaged Togruta girl assigned by Yoda to serve under Anakin Skywalker as his Padawan apprentice. Discovered as an infant by Jedi Master Plo Koon and raised in the Jedi Temple, Ahsoka is a devoted student of the Jedi ways, eager to prove herself to Master Skywalker. Headstrong and enthusiastic with a bubbling abundance of innocent optimism she rarely hesitates to express her youthful exuberance. She has yet to learn the finer points of diplomacy and timing. A formidable swordswoman, budding tactician and shrewd critical thinker, she is nonetheless still a youngling; at the age of fourteen, she is still two years shy of the traditional graduation age. Asajj Ventress is the trusted assassin of the villainous Count Dooku, serving him from the shadows as he weaves his web of deception throughout the Clone Wars. Though she’s not officially a Sith apprentice, she has been well trained in the ways of the dark side, and can wield her twin lightsabers with surgical precision and deadly force. In addition, her serpentine grace and devious cunning make her a deadly foe for even the most seasoned Jedi Knights. A lifetime of enduring cruel hardships has purged any compassion from the lithe and lethal assassins evil heart; forged in the crucible of her bloody homeworld, her deep-seated rage and smoldering bitterness keep her on the dark path and bolster her dark side powers. The Clone Troopers were created from the formidable genetic template of Jango Fett: a bounty hunter feared throughout the galaxy for his deadly abilities. The clones are nonetheless a force for good in the galaxy. Bred and trained on the oceanic Outer World planet of Kamino, they are born to support their Jedi leaders and to protect the noble ideals of the Galactic Republic with unflinching loyalty. Despite shared genes and a shared mission, however, the clones are by no means mindless drones or mere copies of Fett. Each soldier takes great pride in his own unique personality, often going to great lengths to find ways to demonstrate individuality. It’s common for clones to give themselves names, and to distinguish themselves further through stylized haircuts and tattoos. While their intensive training conditions the clones not to question their role in the galactic conflict, they are also burdened with a humanity that sometimes causes doubt and remorse. Filoni believes the creative risks that Lucasfilm Animation has taken, encouraged by executive producer Lucas, will please longtime fans and excite new ones. Director Filoni says "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" has plenty to offer old and new fans. "We’ve got new characters, new planets, new vehicles, new battles and a new story, and it’s animated with a completely new style. It really is "Star Wars" like you’ve never seen it before: in every way possible." Fans can expect an entirely different soundtrack experience this time around, thanks to the stirring music created by Kevin Kiner. Synopsis

As the Clone Wars sweep through the galaxy, the heroic Jedi Knights struggle to maintain order and restore peace. More and more systems are falling prey to the forces of the dark side as the Galactic Republic slips further and further under the sway of the Separatists and their never-ending droid army. Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan learner Ahsoka Tano find themselves on a mission with far-reaching consequences, one that brings them face-to-face with crime lord Jabba the Hutt. His son has gone missing and Count Dooku has convinced Jabba that the Jedi's are to blame. Count Dooku and his sinister agents, including the nefarious Asajj Ventress, will stop at nothing to ensure that Anakin and Ahsoka fail at their quest. Meanwhile, on the front lines of the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Master Yoda lead the clone army in a valiant effort to resist the forces of the dark side.

The Verdict "The biggest problems most "Star Wars" fans will face is that this adventure is a massive shift away from what is 'the norm'. Older fans and those who grew up with the first three saga's, cherish the 'feeling', 'the spirit' and characters who they could bond with. When the last three sagas hit the screen, much of that was lost for them. I think most hoped that "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith", would finally put to rest a franchise that has well and truly lost its way. But no, George Lucas, like someone who can't break the nicotine cycle, has decided we all need more. We need the gaps filled in. But do we really? Is it just another money-grab? Is it just ego? Will fans, disgruntled or otherwise, take to an animated adventure? I am sure that, just as I did, many will want to experience "The Clone Wars". Hell, if you've gone through six adventures with the gang, you'd feel guilty not taking it in. There's a lot of good in this new adventure, which by the way has no hint of Hayden Christensen in it. The spirit of adventure is there, the battle scenes are well done and the soundtrack is sensational. There's new characters, Clones with personality, old friends and more. One thing Lucas had the sense to do was to keep it short and sharp. That's one aspect fans will appreciate, although I suspect much of the praise for that should go to the films editor, Jason Tucker. Yes, it is chaotic and cluttered at times, but it is after all, a war! Worth a look at! 3 STARS." Crew Bytes "STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS" was .......
directed by Dave Filoni ["Avatar: The Last Airbender"]; production supervised by Julie Peng ["Jimmy Neutron Adventures" and "The Simpsons Movie"]; edited by Jason Tucker ["Radio Free Steve", "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" and "A Monkey's Tale"]; original music by SEVEN TIME BMI TV Music Award winner Kevin Kiner ["The Other Side of Heaven", "Detonator" and "The Legend of Johnny Lingo"]. Who's Who?

Matt Lanter
Ashley Eckstein
James Arnold Taylor
Dee Bradley Baker
Tom Kane
Nika Futterman
Ian Abercrombie
Corey Burton
Catherine Taber
Matthew Wood
Kevin Michael Richardson
David Acord
Samuel L Jackson
Anthony Daniels
Christopher Lee

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Anakin Skywalker
Ahsoka Tano
Obi-Wan Kenobi/4-A7/Medical Droid
Clone Troopers/Captain Rex/Cody
Yoda / Narrator/Admiral Yularen
Asajj Ventress/Tee-C-Seventy
Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious
General Loathsom/Ziro the Hutt/Kronos-327
Padmé Amidala
Battle Droids
Jabba the Hutt
Rotta the Huttlet
Mace Windu
C-3PO
Count Dooku