Star Wars: Clone Wars (TV Series)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Star Wars: Clone Wars

Star Wars Clone Wars opening screen
Format Serial
Created by Genndy Tartakovsky
Henry Gilroy
George Lucas (characters)
Voices of Mat Lucas
James Arnold Taylor
Tom Kane
TC Carson
Corey Burton
Richard McGonagle
John Di Maggio
Anthony Daniels
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes 25
Production
Executive
producer(s)
Claudia Katz
George Lucas
Rick McCallum
Brian A. Miller
Catherine Winder
Running time Volume I - approx. 3 min. per episode
Volume II - approx. 12 min. per episode
Whole series - approx. 127 min.
Broadcast
Original channel Cartoon Network
Original run November 7, 2003March 25, 2005
External links
IMDb profile

Star Wars: Clone Wars is an American animated television series set in the Star Wars galaxy. The series chronicles the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic under Chancellor Palpatine, and the Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS) under Count Dooku.

Chronologically, the series takes place during the three-year time period between the films Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The original television series was produced by Cartoon Network Studios, and aired in 25 chapters from 2003 to 2005. A 3D CGI series called Star Wars: The Clone Wars will be set in the same time period, will be produced by Lucasfilm Animation and debut in 2008.[1]

Contents

[edit] Summary

The original series consists of 20 three-minute installments for Seasons 1 (later known as Volume 1), and five 12-to-15 minute installments for Season 2 (later called Volume 2). The 25 episodes are mostly comprised of energetic set-piece battles. Since much emphasis is placed on action, the story and plot is less developed than in the films. Despite this, it can be argued that the second season focused more on Anakin Skywalker's story.

The series follows the Jedi on their exploits fighting Dooku's separatist confederation. Many characters from the films are also featured prominently in the series, such as Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Mace Windu, Chancellor Palpatine, Count Dooku, General Grievous, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Padmé Amidala. Other episodes feature minor players from the films, such as Kit Fisto, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Shaak Ti and Aayla Secura.

[edit] Seasons

  • Season One/DVD Volume One - This season features one major storyline surrounded by a series of many battles. Count Dooku holds auditions for a bounty hunter on the planet Rattatak by pitting them against each other in a battle arena. Asajj kills every one of the bounty hunters and is sent on a mission to assassinate Anakin Skywalker. She engages him in a space battle, through the streets of Muunilinst and eventually leading him into Yavin 4, where the two engage in a lightsaber duel. Anakin emerges the victor, despite it being through means of rage and fear (feelings of a Dark Jedi).
    Apart from the main storyline many battles ensue, including Mace Windu's fight on Dantooine, Obi-Wan fighting against bounty hunter Durge and the Banking Clan, Kit Fisto's battle against the Quarren on Mon Calamari, the adventures on Ilum and the Battle of Hypori in which General Grevious makes his first appearance in Star Wars media.
  • Season Two/DVD Volume Two - The second and last season of Star Wars: Clone Wars gives the audience a look at Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker's adventures in the Outer-Rim Territories as mentioned in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Anakin is made a Jedi Knight and Coruscant comes under attack by the Confederacy of Independent Systems, as a diversion for General Grevious to sneak in and capture Chancellor Palpatine.

[edit] Cast (voice talent)

The Republic

The Confederacy of Independent Systems

[edit] Crew

  • George Lucas .... Characters, story, and executive producer
  • Genndy Tartakovsky .... Director, character design, story, and producer
  • Paul Rudish .... Co-art director and story
  • Scott Wills ....Co-art director
  • Bryan Andrews .... story
  • Mark Andrews .... story
  • Darrick Bachman .... story
  • Claudia Katz .... executive producer
  • Rick McCallum .... executive producer
  • Brian A. Miller .... executive producer
  • Jennifer Pelphrey .... supervising producer
  • Geraldine Symon .... producer
  • Shareena Carlson .... producer

[edit] Release

(November 7, 2003 - March 25, 2005)

The pilot series, produced primarily with traditional animation, originally ran on Cartoon Network. In addition to being shown on television, the episodes were released online simultaneously at the Star Wars and Cartoon Network websites. The series was heavily advertised by Cartoon Network, and was originally shown immediately before their popular Friday night lineup. The show was also featured on kapow on teletoon.

[edit] Production

The series was produced by Genndy Tartakovsky and employs a similar animation style to Tartakovsky's Samurai Jack and Dexter's Laboratory and the The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Tartakovksy revealed in his Hyperspace commentary tracks on the official Star Wars website and on the Volume I DVD that he purposely animated C-3PO with eyes that sort of move around to pay homage to the animators of and the animation style of Nelvana, the production company behind the animated segment from The Star Wars Holiday Special and the 1980s Star Wars cartoon series.

[edit] Awards and acclaim

The series won an Emmy award for "Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour Or More)" in 2004. The series received strongly positive critical reviews, some reviewers believing the show to be better than the first two prequels of the film series.[citation needed]

[edit] DVD releases

Volume I

  • Chapters 1-20 of the series were released March 22, 2005, as "Star Wars Clone Wars: Volume I". The episodes were edited together into one continuous feature. The set featured English subtitles, and commentary tracks on all the episodes, as well as art galleries, behind the scenes information, and the featurette "Bridging the Saga: From Clone Wars to Revenge of the Sith", the Revenge of the Sith teaser tailer: with interviews of George Lucas, Genndy Tartakovsky, and the Clone Wars production crew. The disc also featured a glimpse of Star Wars: Clone Wars - Volume Two, an Episode III game trailer, and a playable level of the Xbox game Star Wars: Republic Commando.

Volume II

  • Chapters 21-25 of the micro-series were released on December 6, 2005. The release was an edited together compilation of the five chapters, similar to the Volume I release. The set featured English subtitles, and commentary tracks on all the episodes. Features included a Revenge of the Sith movie trailer, art galleries, trailers for the Star Wars games Battlefront II and Empire at War, an Xbox demo with two levels from Battlefront II, and the LEGO short film Revenge of the Brick. Also included was the featurette "Connecting the Dots", which highlighted the creative process that Genndy Tartakovsky and his team used to link Clone Wars to Revenge of the Sith.
  • The second volume of Clone Wars series was released significantly later than the DVD release of Revenge of the Sith. According to Van Ling, the producer of both DVDs, the Volume II disc was released at such a late date due to an extremely tight schedule in producing the DVDs. According to http://starwars.com, both DVDs were produced at exactly the same time, but the Clone Wars DVD could not be finished in time for the DVD release of Revenge of the Sith. Ling apologized to fans for this.

[edit] Spin-offs

[edit] 3D CGI series

[edit] References

[edit] External links