Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 TV series)

*Star Wars: The Clone Wars*
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
	File:TheCloneWars logo.png Series logo
Created by	George Lucas
Voices of	James Arnold Taylor; Matt Lanter; Ashley Eckstein; Tom Kane; Corey Burton; TC Carson; Nika Futterman; Dee Bradley Baker; Catherine Taber; Anthony Daniels; Ian Abercrombie; Matthew Wood; Tom Kenny
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	22 aired, 44 confirmed; (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	George Lucas; Catherine Winder
Running time	22 min. (per episode)
Production companies	Lucasfilm Animation ; Warner Bros. Television
Original release
Network	Cartoon Network
Release	October 3, 2008 –; present

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is an American 3D CGI animated television series created by Lucasfilm Animation, Lucasfilm Animation Singapore and CGCG Inc.^[3] The series debuted on the US-version of Cartoon Network on October 3, 2008.^[2] It is set in the fictional Star Wars galaxy, during the same time period as the previous 2003 Star Wars: Clone Wars series. The show itself takes place from 20 BBY to 19 BBY. Each episode will have a running time of 22 minutes, to fill a half-hour time slot. Star Wars creator George Lucas says "there will be at least 100 episodes produced."^[4] Dave Filoni is the supervising director of the series.^[5] Genndy Tartakovsky, director of the first Clone Wars series, is not involved with the production,^[6] but character designer Kilian Plunkett referred to the character designs from the 2D series when designing the characters for the 3D series.^[7] There is also an online comic,^[8] depicting story-snippets between the single episodes.

The first trailer for the series was released on the official Star Wars website on May 8, 2007.^[9] The series was launched with a feature film, which was released in theaters on August 15, 2008. It is one of only four series (along with Stoked, Total Drama Action and 6teen) to be broadcast on the main Cartoon Network (i.e., outside of Toonami or Adult Swim) with a TV-PG rating. An all new season of the show will premiere October 2, 2009, while the complete first season will be released on DVD and Blu-ray November 3, 2009 in the U.S.^[10]

Production

At April 2005's Star Wars Celebration III, Lucas stated that "we are working on a 3-D continuation of the pilot series that was on the Cartoon Network; we probably won't start that project for another year."^[6] In July 2005, pre-production had begun on the series, according to Steve Sansweet, head of Lucasfilm fan relations.^[11] Sansweet referred to the series as "the next generation of the Star Wars saga, a cutting edge 30-minute, 3-D computer-animation series based on the Clone Wars that take place between Episode II ... and Episode III." Sansweet described the look of the new series as "a melding of Asian anime with unique 3-D animation styling." Primary production will take place at the Lucasfilm Animation facility in Singapore.^[12]

According to another statement by Sansweet, "Lucasfilm Animation will be hiring a total of about 300 digital artists and others in both California and Singapore locations to produce not only the series, but animated feature films in the years ahead." He said about the series, "to get the series underway, Lucasfilm Animation has hired key production and creative talent to lead the development of its first animation project." Sansweet has said that "a large component of the future of Star Wars and Lucasfilm is CGI animation."

Lucasfilm Ltd. and Lucasfilm Animation used Autodesk software to animate both the film and the series. The Maya 3D modeling program was used to create the highly detailed worlds, characters and creatures.^[13] Animators also reviewed designs from the original 2003 Clone Wars series when creating the animation style for the film and the new series.^[14]

Anthony Daniels, who portrayed C-3PO in all six films as well as the Star Wars Holiday Special, Star Wars: Droids and Star Wars: Clone Wars, confirmed in June 2006 that he had been contracted for the series.^[15]

In a video interview with Rob Coleman from Imagina 2007 divulged that there were 15 episodes in production, one episode was complete, he was going to direct 5 of the first 22 episodes, reaction from licensees was very positive, and that final assembly of shows is done at Skywalker Ranch. this information:^[16]

At Lucas' March 3, 2007 appearance at the 2007 William S. Paley Television Festival,^[17] Lucas revealed the series is episodic, and as such will not focus on Anakin Skywalker's story; with episodes dedicated to clone troopers and Kit Fisto. Lucas revealed further information in a fan interview,^[4] a new character named Ahsoka Tano, over 100 episodes and a possible appearance by Boba Fett. In an interview in the September 24, 2007 issue of TV Guide, Lucas confirmed that 39 episodes of the series have been completed.^[18]

On April 8, 2007, Ain't It Cool News reported that musician Eric Rigler had recorded music for the series.^[19] Rigler disclosed that each planet in the Star Wars galaxy would have its own theme music, based on Bulgarian music and played on Irish pipes.

Stuart Snyder, who oversees Cartoon Network and other Turner Broadcasting System cable networks, said he became interested in the new Clone Wars series immediately upon starting the job in May 2007. Snyder flew out to San Francisco, California to screen several episodes, and told Lucas the only place he wanted to see the show was on Cartoon Network.^[20]

Along with weekly airings of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on the Cartoon Network, rebroadcasts started airing on TNT, February 14, 2009. With this, it would be the first time animation aired on that channel in over a decade.^[21]

Reception

On July 11, television critics were shown a completed episode of the series. The Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed blog called the footage "likely the most photo-realistic animated TV series ever produced."^[22] On August 31, 2008, a sneak peek of the new series was shown on Cartoon Network. IGN named it the 89th best animated series. They specifically praised the episodes "Rookies", "Cloak of Darkness", and "Lair of Grievous" saying that their storylines stood out as some of the best in the Star Wars George Lucas Universe.^[23]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars became most-watched series premiere in Cartoon Network history. The computer-animated series, from Lucasfilm Animation, averaged 4 million total viewers in its debut, according to Nielsen Media Research. Cartoon Network said the Star Wars spin off ranked as the number one channel among all major animated networks in the time slot among total viewers (the largest in the demographic for any premiere telecast of an original Cartoon series).^[24]

Episodes

Feature film

After viewing some of the completed footage of the early episodes on a big screen, Lucas decided to weave the first few planned episodes together to form a theatrical release.^[25]^[26] Christopher Lee and Samuel L. Jackson reprised their roles as Count Dooku and Mace Windu, respectively, from the live action films.

TV series

Each season consists of 22 episodes. Season 2 was ordered by Cartoon Network in February 2009. George Lucas has said he would like to make at least 100 episodes, regardless of the ratings. Episode 100 would be in the middle of Season 5, so the series is likely to go up to 110 episodes, whether the ratings continue to be good or not. Also, the series season one has aired "decoded" episodes which tells more detailed information about the characters and events in each episode during its airing in Season 1.^[27]

Season	Episodes	First air date	Last air date
Season 1	22	October 3, 2008	March 20, 2009
Season 2	22	October 2, 2009	2010

DVD releases

DVD Name	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
Season 1	November 3, 2009	November 2, 2009	Novenber 18, 2009
A Galaxy Divided or Volume 1	March 24, 2009	March 24, 2009	June 19, 2009
Clone Commandos	September 15, 2009	September 15, 2009	TBA
Volume 2	TBA	TBA	June 19, 2009
Volume 3	TBA	TBA	September 23, 2009
Volume 4	TBA	TBA	September 23, 2009

Cast and characters

Main characters

Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker
Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano
James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi (also; Plo Koon)
Dee Bradley Baker as the clone troopers including Captain Rex, Commander Cody, Commander Gree, Lieutenant Thire, Commander Bly, (also; Onaconda Farr, Pilf Mukmuk and Thi-Sen)
Tom Kane as Yoda, Wullf Yularen and Opening Narrator
R2-D2

Recurring characters

Galactic Republic

Terrence 'T.C.' Carson as Mace Windu
Catherine Taber as Padmé Amidala, Numa and Angel
Ian Abercrombie as Palpatine(Also Separatist leader Darth Sidious)
Anthony Daniels as C-3PO
Ahmed Best, BJ Hughes as Jar Jar Binks
Olivia d'Abo as Luminara Unduli
Phil LaMarr as Kit Fisto and Amit Noloff
Jennifer Hale as Aayla Secura and Senator Riyo Chuchi
James C. Mathis III as Gregar Typho
Jameelah McMillan as Queen Neeyutnee
Brian George as King Katuunko and Chairman Chi Cho
Robin Atkin Downes as Pantoran Representitive
Gwendoline Yeo as Nala Se, Bettie-Bot VJ and Peppi Bow
George Coe as Tee Watt Kaa
Alec Medlock as Wag Too
David Kaufman as Jaybo Hood
James Marsters as Captain Argyus

Separatists

Corey Burton as Count Dooku, Cad Bane, Ziro the Hutt, Captain Mar Tuuk and Senator Kharrus
Matthew Wood as General Grievous, Wat Tambor and the battle droids
Nika Futterman as Asajj Ventress
Tom Kenny as Nute Gunray, Nahdar Vebb and Silood
Jim Cummings as Hondo Ohnaka
Greg Ellis as Turk Falso

Special guest voices

David Kaufman as Jaybo
George Takei as Lok Durd
Greg Proops as Tal Merrick
Ron Perlman as Gha Nachkt
Michael York as Dr. Nuvo Vindi

Broadcast history

The Clone Wars premiered on October 3, 2008 at 9 p.m. on the Cartoon Network. It has been programmed by Stuart Snyder to create an action/adventure block of shows on Friday night in an attempt to rejuvenate Cartoon Network. Snyder expressed confidence that the shows would help boost ratings: “You catch me at a time where I have a smile on my face because of our internal results,” Snyder said. “I can say there’s a little bit of bragging on the third quarter for us.”^[20] The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network is shown in a 16:9 (1.78:1) aspect ratio, cropped from its original aspect ratio (OAR) of 2.35:1 (as seen in the UK Sky Premiere screenings). The show began airing on Adult Swim as of March 14, 2009, making the series the first Cartoon Network series to simultaneously air on both Cartoon Network and Adult Swim.

International release

Country	Network(s)	Series premiere
Australia	Network Ten	November 22, 2008^[28]
Australia	Cartoon Network	February 13, 2009^[29]
Brazil	Cartoon Network, WBTV, TNT Rede Globo(1080p)	February 13, 2009 (subtitled) May 2009 (subtitled) July 2009 (dubbed in Brazilian Portuguese) April 2009 (dubbed in Brazilian Portuguese)
Belgium	VT4	Maart 1, 2009 Maart 1, 2009 (dubbed in Dutch )
Bulgaria	Cartoon Network bTV	February 13, 2009 February 22, 2009 (dubbed in Bulgarian)
Canada	CTV Space Teletoon	October 5, 2008 October 10, 2008^[30] September 8, 2009
Croatia	Cartoon Network	January 17, 2009
Denmark	Cartoon Network	January 17, 2009
Finland	MTV3	January 17, 2009
Germany	ProSieben Cartoon Network	November 23, 2008 February 14, 2009
Hong Kong	TVB Pearl	February 1, 2009
India	Cartoon Network	February 13, 2009
Italy	Cartoon Network	February 13, 2009
Japan	NHK	March 31, 2009
Mexico	Canal 5	November 3, 2008
Mexico	Cartoon Network	February 13, 2009
Netherlands	RTL 5	February 14, 2009, Subbed in Dutch
Netherlands	Jetix	Fall 2009, Dubbed in Dutch
Norway	NRK Super	December 27, 2008
Pakistan	Cartoon Network	February 13, 2009
Philippines	Cartoon Network Super 40	February 13, 2009 August 10, 2009 (with Tagalog subs only/time 10:15AM)
Poland	TVP1 Cartoon Network	January 4, 2009 February 13, 2009
Portugal	SIC	December 21, 2008 (Dubbed in Portuguese)
Romania	Cartoon Network	February 13, 2009
Singapore	MediaCorp Channel 5	December 6, 2008
South Africa	Cartoon Network	February 13, 2009
Sweden	TV400	January 4, 2009^[31]
Turkey	Cartoon Network	February 14, 2009
United Kingdom	Sky Movies Premiere, Premiere HD, Family, Cartoon Network UK	October 25, 2008