So, in order to put some of you more tepid robots at ease, I’m extremely happy to report that the writer of the first ever Jar Jar episode of Clone Wars is comic genius Kevin Rubio.

I don’t know if many of you know Kevin Rubio, but he’s the bad-ass who directed Troops, he worked on The Simpsons and he wrote Tag and Bink are Dead, one of the coolest Star Wars comics ever.

Rubio had this to say:

Writer Kevin Rubio (creator of Dark Horse’s “Tag & Bink”) says he had fun crafting the first episode of the series that is driven by humor, and feels Jar Jar was the perfect character to anchor the episode.

“I wanted to find a middle ground between the funny side of Jar Jar and heroic redemption,” Rubio says. “He is a fish out of water, and, yeah, he can be goofy and stupid, but in context, it works.

“There’s a phrase that I think applies to almost every episode that I’ve seen, and I know it influenced me on this episode. It appears in the prologue to the original Star Wars novelization: ‘They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes.’ I think that says it all for Jar Jar.”

And to put you further at ease, here’s the rest of the release sent out by Lucasfilm:

When Separatist forces mistake Jar Jar Binks for a Jedi Knight, humor and action come together in a new episode of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS. “Bombad Jedi” premieres at 9 p.m. ET/PT Friday, Nov. 21, on Cartoon Network.

Jar Jar Binks and C-3PO team up to save Padmé Amidala from doom at the hands of evil Viceroy Nute Gunray. But the task becomes infinitely more complicated when the Separatists assume that the Gungan is a Jedi.

Director Jesse Yeh says Jar Jar’s overstated mannerisms and physicality make him a natural for THE CLONE WARS’ animated format.

“Jar Jar’s looks, expressions and his characteristic personality allow us to animate him to levels of exaggeration that really stand out from the other human characters or two-legged creatures,” Yeh says.

“To me, his character is almost right out of the classic Disney or Warner Bros. cartoons. He is not always completely ‘there,’ he is clumsy and he seems to have a talent for making mistakes that really matter – sometimes in a constructive way, sometimes in a destructive way. I think it’s easy to be attracted by his innocent, childlike, naive side. He’s like a loveable, well-meaning friend – one you don’t want around when it’s a matter of life and death. But once you’ve lived through the crisis, you definitely want to invite him to the celebration party.”

Yeh directs action and comedy with equal skill, but he says it’s easier to find inspiration for the latter in his daily activities.

“If you pay more attention to the people around you, you will realize there’s a funny side to everyone – no matter who that person normally appears to be,” Yeh says. “I actually did put in a lot of ‘everyday’ gags into the episode, and some of the reactions Jar Jar has were actual reflections of people whom I know in real life. But I am not telling who they are, of course.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m twice as excited for this episode as I was last week…

It’s getting a little ridiculous for me to say this every week, but I think this is my favorite episode so far. There’s a number of reasons for it, but allow me to get to that after I bring you up to speed about what happened first.

This episode, Duel of the Droids, is a continuation of last weeks episode where Artoo had been captured by a Trandoshan scavenger after Anakin lost both Artoo and his ship in a battle with General Grievous. This episode starts with Obi-wan ordering Anakin to NOT go after Artoo (much to his disappointment) and find the Separatist listening post that is causing them problems. Predictably, when they intercept a scattered transmission from Artoo, Anakin disobeys orders and goes after his droid.

That’s basically when all the kick-ass stuff happens. Artoo leads them right to the listening post right before he is taken apart by the Trandoshan. Before they arrive, Obi-wan once again informs Anakin that he is, under no circumstance, to concern himself with rescuing Artoo. His only mission is to destroy the listening post. Even more predictably, Anakin tells Ahsoka to take care of the mission by herself with the aid of Rex and a handful of clones.

This led to all of my favorite parts of this episode and they all kick-ass. Basically, Anakin instills into Ahsoka the trust he wanted from Obi-wan and the Jedi Council and sends her on a suicide mission. He’s reckless in a way that makes so much sense for his character in his forbidden attachment to things, in this case Artoo. He’s willing to risk his men, his mission, and his padawan for something that has even the most tenuous of connections to Padme and it’s fascinating to watch. You can even see in his fighting style and hear in his voice a tinge of anger and hatred when he down’s Grievous’ Magna Droids when he takes Artoo back.

And the best part of the episode? The horror-film bits. Since Anakin foolishly abandoned his mission to rescue his droid, Ahsoka needs to command the clones to complete the mission while she has to distract Grievous by herself. In a scene reminiscent of the one in Jurassic Park (you know, the one in the kitchen with kids and the raptors?) Ahsoka is in a darkened storage room, dodging Grievous back and forth. It’s scary and Grievous has her dead to rights. As a member of the audience, I was terrified that Ahsoka’s moments were numbered. She’s obviously not in Revenge of the Sith and Anakin loses her somehow between now and then. The thought that she can go at any moment is exhilarating in much the same way you are concerned by acrobats performing at a circus without a net.

But the more I see of “Snips” (as she’s called by Anakin) the more I think she’s the perfect foil for him. And the direction the animators and directors have taken her is great. She has started adapting some of the types of movements and lightsabers techniques that we’ve seen Anakin use. In fact, there’s a moment where Grievous is about to cut Rex down and she jumps in and intercedes with her lightsaber in exactly the same way Anakin does on Obi-Wan’s behalf against Count Dooku at the end of Attack of the Clones…

I guess I’ve gone on far too long about this episode, but the long and short of it is that this episode worked for me on a lot of levels and quite a few more than the others have. It felt like this episode (even more than the others) was directed by a person who has as much love for Star Wars as I do and with an attention to detail that I would insist on if I were in charge of an episode in any creative capacity.

So, until next week, May the Force Be With You.

(Also: Next week is a Jar Jar episode, so if you’re going to watch, make sure you do it with the kids.  That is, if you’re one of those jerks who can’t get behind Jar Jar.  Jerk…)

First off. Beginning this Saturday, Nov. 15, Cartoon Network will add an encore presentation of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS on Saturday mornings! All-new episodes of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS premiere at 9 p.m. Fridays. And now, at 9:30 a.m. each Saturday, Cartoon Network will re-air the previous evening’s 30-minute episode.

So, that’s good news.

Now, onto the episode news Lucasfilm provided me with:

What is R2-D2 made of? Audiences will find out, both literally and figuratively, in “Duel of the Droids,” an all-new episode of the hit animated series STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, premiering at 9 p.m. ET/PT Friday, Nov. 14, on Cartoon Network.

In the episode, Anakin, Ahsoka and replacement droid R3-S6 (aka “Goldie”) embark on a dual rescue/sabotage mission when they discover R2-D2 is being held at General Grievous’s secret enemy listening post.

Writer Kevin Campbell (”Disney’s House of Mouse,” “Jackie Chan Adventures”) created a little extra work for the Lucasfilm Animation crew when he used the unusually vivid word “splayed” to describe how R2-D2’s internal mechanisms would be removed and exhibited across an examining table. That gave the production team ample opportunity to delve into Artoos’s inner workings, as well as to have a little fun at director Rob Coleman’s expense.

“Dave (Filoni) and the designers – particularly Killian Plunkett – figured out what was actually inside Artoo,” Coleman says. “He’s the ultimate Swiss Army knife, and we all love the myriad things that come out of him, but having to build and animate all of that is another story. Lucasfilm Animation’s Gary Scheppke got a box full of ‘Artoo bits,’ and the modelers – basing it off the actual hardware – crammed it into the model inside the computer. There are definitely some recognizable pieces on that table from the films, as well as all the things that show up for the first time in this episode – a cutter wheel, suction cups, etc. Then they animated in a few things like a pea shooter and a boxing glove just to get my attention. They’re funny guys.”

Campbell says he took pride in the opportunity to add some history for Artoo and his capabilities, showing some aspects of the droid that audiences haven’t seen before.

“I love that we’re adding back story to the back story. We discover that when Princess Leia hides the Death Star plans inside Artoo in Episode IV, it’s not the first time he’s been entrusted with important information,” Campbell says. “I also like that we get to play with Anakin’s emotional side. The Jedi are saying he gets too attached, that he’s willing to risk everything to get Artoo back. He’s a Jedi, and yet he assigns sentimental value to an inanimate object. I can relate to that, because that’s real loyalty.”

They’ve also provided us with a really cool picture. Apparently, Ahsoka gets to show down with General Grievous, which I’m terribly excited to see:

Downfall of a Droid was the name of tonight’s episode and it was another solid entry into the series. It starts with Anakin and Ahsoka guarding a planet from Separatist attack when, of course, Grievous arrives. Hopelessly outgunned, Anakin conceives a tactic that’s really quite cool that he leads Grievous into. (I won’t spoil the actual trap since it’s pretty cool.) And although the trap Anakin springs is successful, Grievous escapes in his ship after disabling Anakin’s fighter.

Anakin wakes up on his flagship to be told that Rex had to rescue him, he was knocked unconscious and Artoo was left in the wreckage. Obi-wan tells Anakin that it’s not a big deal until Anakin lets him know that his memory hasn’t been wiped and Artoo has a complete readout of the Republics tactics and a list of bases. Which leads Anakin and Ahsoka to a Trandoshan salvage ship that’s trawling the wreckage of the battle. They board his ship looking for Artoo, but find themselves in a pretty bad-ass showdown with a trio of IG-Assasin droids.

Needing to get back to the battle to try to hunt Grievous down, they leave, confident Artoo isn’t aboard the Trandoshan’s ship, but they were wrong and he’s plotting to sell Artoo to Grievous. Some more action ensues and Anakin’s new droid, a brand spankin’ new R3 unit dubbed Goldie repeatedly tries to inadvertently kill him.

I was taken a little bit off-guard with this episode since I figured that they would retrieve Artoo by the end of the episode, but he’s not even close to being rescued. The episode ended with a cliffhanger and the tease for the next episode where we see the Trandoshan disassembling Artoo and learning his secrets. That’s intercut with footage of Anakin being a badass and looking extremely pissed that he doesn’t have his droid.

All in all, this episode was another good one. There was a great action sequence for every section of the episode. Before the first commercial break, we had the great capital ship combat sequence where Anakin outwits Grievous, the middle segment featured that kick-ass fight between Anakin and Ahsoka and the IG-droids and the third had Anakin single-handedly holding his own against both his defective droid and three Separatist capitol ships.

So, I’m eagerly looking forward to next week’s episode.

Until then, May the Force be with You.

(And in case you missed it, here’s a preview clip that Lucasfilm was gracious enough to provide us with of this episode.)

Lucasfilm and Cartoon Network have been kind enough to give us this clip of a scene from this Friday’s episode of Clone Wars.

I don’t care how jaded most of you are, I’m really loving this series.

Here’s the Quicktime Version…

Last night’s episode of Clone Wars was called Rookies and centered around a small group of “shiny” brand new clones on a remote listening post.  They have what is perhaps the most boring job in the Republic, or at least they believe.  But that all changes when a crack group of droid commandos (bad-ass droids we’ve never seen before) catches them unawares in the midst of a meteor shower.

Their seasoned seargent is killed and they’re all that’s left to protect Kamino from a full-blown assault by General Grievous.

This episode reminded me a lot of the most fun parts of the Republic Commando game, and when Commander Cody and Rex show up for an inspection all hell breaks loose.  This was a great action/adventure story and there weren’t any Jedi to get in the clones’ way.

I think this episode had a lot of the bad-ass kinds of moments people wanted in the movie that made them dislike it a little bit…  There was one great moment where Rex (maybe it was Cody) shot a droid disguised as a clone in the face at point blank range.   It was pretty bad-ass.

Where as episode 1.3 (Shadow of Malevolence, I think) was the World War II bomber-plane movie, this was more like the Dirty Dozen, minus all of the planning stages…  In fact, it ends with a cool explosion and sacrifice much the same way The Dirty Dozen did.

I would like to see more clones-only episodes like this in the series, as this one was great.

I want to say bad things about this show, just to prove that I’m not unbiased, but this show is really kicking ass and taking names and I can’t find anything bad to say about it.

Unfortunately, the next new episode isn’t for two weeks (predictably, they’re skipping Halloween), but here’s hoping it’s as good as the first five have been.  It looks great.  The preview explains that Anakin lost Artoo in a fire-fight and the enemy has captured him.  This is really bad news for the Republic since Artoo’s mind hasn’t been wiped.  I’m assuming they launch a rescue mission for Artoo.

As a reminder to catch up, the last two weeks of episodes are available for free at www.starwars.com and this episode will be available today on iTunes (though it’s also being re-run on Cartoon Network throughout the week.)

This weeks episode, Destroy Malevolence, was the end of this three part arc as well as the Clone Wars debut of Padme and Threepio.

I’ve been saying it everytime I’ve seen a new episode, and it’s a good thing if I can go on saying it, but this episode was the best so far.  I know last weeks was good, and the two before that were good, but this has been the best.  If they can keep making them better on a rising curve, then we are in for some total bad-assery.

Last episode ended with Anakin and his squadron of clone pilots disabling the ion cannon on Grievious’ ship, The Malevolence, which is left in shambles and racing from a trio of capital ships led by General Kenobi.  Destroy Malevolence opens (essentially) with Count Dooku admonishing Grievous for his failure and reminding him that the Separatists require The Malevolence to reach the rendezvous point in one piece, which is why he’s organized some insurance.

He faked a situation that would put Padme on a diplomatic mission that left her hyperdrive path directly in the way of the crippled ship and then explains to Grievous that once on board, the Jedi will cease their attack and they’ll have a valuable hostage.

Predictably, Anakin insists on racing to her aid, sneaking aboard The Malevolence with Obi-Wan.

Basically, a whole bunch of cool shit goes down, including a great showdown between Obi-Wan and Grievous and some cool business between Anakin and Padme.  Threepio also gets into some trouble that’s somewhere between Attack of the Clones and Empire. (I laughed more than I wanted to, but not harder than the kids.)

I’m still really impressed by how much better the pacing of the episodes in a 2-commercial break format works than the scotch tape approach they took with the movie.  As much as I loved seeing Clone Wars on the big screen (repeatedly) I sort of wish that I had seen it on TV instead.  And, quite frankly, I think the Destroy Malevolence arc would have made a better movie.

I just hope you guys are actually keeping up with this series, because it’s been getting better and better.  As a reminder to catch up, the last two weeks of episodes are available for free at www.starwars.com and this episode will be available tomorrow on iTunes.

So, I’ll see you next week (which might be a little late since I’m traveling). And next week’s episode looks rad.  The preview was very “clone-commando” centric, which pleases me greatly.

So until then, May the Force Be With You.

Tonight’s episode, Shadow of Malevolence, was the second episode of a three epsiode cycle and involved a daring attack against General Grievous’ flagship, The Malevolence.

The Malevolence is such an important target because they’ve rigged a full-sized Ion Cannon to one side of the ship and are able to disable and destroy entire ships.   Led by Anakin Skywalker and Plo Koon, a group of Y-Wing bombers have to race against the clock to destroy the weapon, since Grievous has plotted a course for one of the Republics main medical facilities.

I have to say, the more I see this show, the better suited for television it is.  The commercial breaks always hit at exactly the right beats and the endings always leave me wanting more.  You can also tell that the writers watch as much Star Wars as I do, since it’s actually noticeable that they lift even the most innocuous dialogue from random parts of the movies, in this case, quite a bit of dialogue from the pilots echoed dialogue spoken by Red squadron in the battle of the first Death Star.

This episode was very much a classic World War II film story with the squadron of malcontents (in this case Shadow Squadron under Skywalkers command) sign up for what is essentially a suicide mission behind enemy lines and carry it out and it works well.  It’s also great to see General Grievous in action (even though he spent this entire episode on the bridge of The Malevolence barking orders at obnoxious battle droids) since we saw very little of him in Revenge of the Sith.

The scene that’s pictured above is really cool, too.  I won’t detail what it’s about too much, but it was a great moment and Anakin needs to look before he leaps.

This episode ends with Skywalker and what’s left of his squadron disabling Grievous’ weapon, but he’s on the run.  The next episode involves what appears to be the final destruction of The Malevolence.

All in all, this is another solid entry into this series.

For those of you who missed last week’s episodes, you can watch them in their entirety on the official Star Wars website.  Here’s Ambush, and Rising Malevolence.  It’s free, so you really don’t have an excuse not to.

Y-wing’s make their debut in Friday’s episode of Clone Wars:

I know a lot of you guys aren’t as into Clone Wars as I am, I get it.  But that doesn’t make me less excited for it, or less interested in posting what news I can.

Friday’s episode is the second part of a three-episode arc and I, for one, am anxious to see it.

From Lucasfilms press release:

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS puts a new shine on a very recognizable part of Star Wars lore as the Y-wing bombers make their debut in Shadow of Malevolence, an all-new episode of the hit animated series premiering at 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10, on Cartoon Network.

In the second of a three-episode arc, Shadow of Malevolence finds Anakin Skywalker, his Padawan Ahsoka Tano and Jedi Master Plo Koon utilizing long-range Y-wing bombers to lead a bold strike on General Grievous’ warship, the Malevolence, and its destructive ion cannon.

The Y-wing bombers were first seen among the Rebel Alliance’s primary starfighters in 1977’s Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. Episode director Brian Kalin O’Connell, writer Steve Melching and supervising director Dave Filoni were inspired by the concept of showing the Y-wings “fresh off the showroom floor.”

“We like to find ways to draw connections between The Clone Wars and the original trilogy,” Melching says. “In the original Star Wars, the X-wings and the Y-wings have truly been through the wars, and they’ve had the crap beaten out of them. We thought it would be fun to imagine that they were originally manufactured during the Clone Wars, so for us, they came off the assembly line and into battle.”

“Guys like (design/concept artists) Russell Chong and Killian Plunkett, along with Dave (Filoni) come from a classic Star Wars background, so they understand that Ralph McQuarrie feel of the 1970s, and they do it right,” O’Connell says. “We don’t want to change the lore, we want to add to it. By introducing the Y-wings, we get to add a new dimension, a little history.” Some people, he realizes, might think that it’s “just a vehicle.” Nevertheless, O’Connell says, “We know it’s a huge deal for the fans. We don’t let it distract from the story, but we still get to add the geek shot and when we do, we try to do it justice.”

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS airs at 9 p.m. Fridays on Cartoon Network. George Lucas is the series’ creator and serves as executive producer, and Catherine Winder is producer.

It sounds like the directors and writers get it.  And it makes me happy.

See you on Saturday with an episode recap.

Two episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars came out today and I have to say, I was pretty surprised.  Although I enjoyed the movie, it certainly was lacking a little bit, and I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that the stories were tailored for a 22-minute TV format and the movie was 3 episodes scotch taped together.

But in this 22-minute format, this show kicks a lot of ass.

The premiere episode, Ambush, centered around Yoda and his work trying to convince the Toydarians to join the Republic in the war against the Separatists.  Unfortunately for Yoda and his entourage of bad-ass clone troopers, Asajj Ventress crashes the party with an entire battalion of battle droids.

The episode does a great job of mixing the serious side of Yoda from the prequels and the more playful side of him that we see in Empire.  In fact, most of the musical cues in this episode were from Empire’s soundtrack.

Best moment in this episode?  When Yoda comes face to face with Ventress and pretty much laughs at her.  She was out of her league and Yoda made her realize it pretty quick.

As entertaining as I thought this episode was, it was the second episode, Rising Malevolence, that was the best the entire 3D Clone Wars series has had to offer to date.  The episode centers around a new weapon that General Grievous and Count Dooku have developed on a flagship that they’re trying to keep secret from the Republic.

It’s an Ion Cannon and using it, they tear Plo Koon and his entire fleet to shreds.

In order to keep the secret, Dooku and Grievous order a hunting party to destroy all of the escape pods that made it out of the capital ships before their destruction.  Most of this episode plays out in an escape pod with Plo Koon and a few of his Clone troopers waiting their eventual death, watching pod after pod around them get breached by the Seperatists.  Though the episode was pretty kid-friendly, it reminded me a lot of really cool episodes of The Outer Limits or some really cool Sci-Fi Channel original movies.

The other half of the episode is about Anakin and Ahsoka, working their hardest to find Master Plo and his men before they die.

This episode isn’t a one off and really kicks off the beginning of a larger story and that’s really what I’m hoping for for this series.  I’ve had enough of TV shows where there doesn’t have to be any specific order you watch them in, I like shows that raise the stakes just a little bit with each successive episode.  (Not that I watch a lot of shows, but you get the idea.) The promo’s for the next episode center around Anakin leading the charge to destroy this new weapon.

We’ll see how that turns out.

If you’re interested in checking this out and have no idea how to watch it any other way, the episodes will be available on iTunes the day after airing at $1.99 a pop.  If you can wait a week, you can stream them for free on www.starwars.com and www.cartoonnetwork.com, but only two episodes will ever be available at a time.

www.StarWars.com is also offering comics that lead into each weeks episode written by Pablo Hidalgo and a rotating slate of artists.  I checked out the first one and it was fairly interesting, we’ll see where it goes from here.