This week’s episode promised a high-adventure thriller with the Duchess Satine dodging assassins on every corner, but instead we were treated with a thrilling Hitchcock sort of the wrong man story.
In order to advance the Separatist agenda, Dooku lays plans to force the Republics hand into occupying Mandalore so the Death Watch, Separatist sympathizers, can take control of the planet. Satine heads to the Senate to insist that they respect Mandalorian neutrality. Unfortunately, her second in command has allegedly recorded a message to the senate saying that the Republic had to intervene and occupy the planet.
That’s when there’s a first attempt on Satine’s life, but is made to look like an accident and people think she’s crazy. Soon she’s on the run and wanted for murder and Obi-wan is the only one who believes her enough to help her.
The Mandalorian action was actually pretty yawn worthy, there wasn’t much of it at all. There was a great fist fight with Obi-wan and a Mando, but aside from that, the rest of the episode was all Hitchcockian suspense.
To be honest, I was pretty bored for the first third of the episode, but, like a Hitchcock film, it was building very carefully to a boiling point. Satine is essentially Cary Grant in North by Northwest, telling everyone in the world she didn’t kill that guy, but no one will listen. (Except Obi-wan, obviously.) They captured that desperate feeling of being called a liar when you’re telling the truth in situations that are life or death incredibly well and it was almost suffocating. The scenes with the Mandalorian assassin looking out over the fountain in the courtyard looking out for Satine while the police droids were doing the same and she and Obi-wan were trying to meet up with the secret information were straight out of an old school Hitchcock film and I was left clamoring for more.
Having said that, this episode was pretty much a giant tease for a conflict that was never going to happen. And for that, I am sad. I want to see more Mandalorian Death Watch on the show and I want to see the war they were aiming for. On the other hand, I’d also love to see more Hitchcock homages on Clone Wars as well.
I hope it doesn’t seem obnoxious that on most weeks I seem to find something that I love that Clone Wars is homaging in my reviews. I love Star Wars, and when I see it paying respect to other classic things that I love, it makes me incredibly giddy. From Kurosawa to Hitchcock, it seems like the crew writing and directing these episodes have impeccable taste and if ever I were to meet them, I would certainly owe them a beer.
The last thing I’d like to say is to reiterate something Anakin said to me while we were watching, “Where is Ahsoka?” Seriously. Where the hell is Ahsoka? I miss Snips, damn it.
And with that question, I’ll leave you until March, when Clone Wars returns.
In the meantime, I’ll be doing an interview with James Arnold Taylor (the voice of Obi-wan Kenobi) so you’ll have that to look forward to.
Lucasfilm has been kind enough once again to give us a taste of this weeks episode of Clone Wars. From the official press release, the clip follows below:
Duchess Satine Kryze tries to keep the Republic from interfering in Mandalorian affairs after attacks by the Death Watch, the splinter group advocating a return to the old warrior ways. But when Satine herself is attacked and framed, she sets off – against the better judgment of her Jedi protectors – to uncover the full breadth of the conspiracy and the faction’s true origins. No longer content to operate from the fringes, the mysterious Mandalorian Death Watch sets its sights on the “Duchess of Mandalore” in an all-new episode of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS airing at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, February 12 on Cartoon Network.
“Satine is struggling with many fires now, and trying to keep them from merging into one large inferno that can’t be put out,” says Anna Graves, the voice of Satine in The Clone Wars. “She wants peace above all else, and will shout it as loud as she can. Historical pacifists are often met with more hatred and violence, but that seems to push someone like Satine to fight for peace even harder. I think with any culture that idolizes war and violence, some people will naturally rebel against that traditional way of thinking and focus their efforts on peace and tranquility. I’m sure a lot of people agree with her views, but I’m sure there are just as many who don’t. Her neutrality in The Clone Wars is such a beautiful cry for love and peace, which throughout history has upset those who idolize power and control.”
Set against the backdrop of a sweeping conflict which threatens to consume the galaxy, Satine’s struggle is all the more personal, however, as she faces upheaval from within her own constituency. Using violence as their language of dissent, the Death Watch threatens to unravel all of Satine’s efforts, and to undermine the peace she has fought so hard to preserve. But the war itself is a battle of ideologies. Despite their extremism – or perhaps because of it – the radical faction represents a popular opinion among the re-emerging culture.
“I see Mandalore as an old world, full of history and tradition. After years of glimpses into Mandalorian lore, it’s exciting to get new facts and faces,” Graves says. “Every fan has their own reasons for loving Mandalore, but Boba Fett opened the door with his intriguing armor and history as a bounty hunter. I know fans will want to hear more about Death Watch – and those who oppose them. To be a small part of that history is so exciting. Add a little Mandalorian-Jedi romance, and that’s good stuff!”
Come back this weekend for my review of the episode!
Picking up from the events of the last episode, “Voyage of Temptation” follows Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker escorting the Mandalorian Duchess Satine to Coruscant to plead her case about remaining neutral during the war.
Things get complicated when it is learned that the Death Watch have subverted a Senator aboard the ship and have helped him smuggle assassin droids to kill the Jedi and the Duchess.
While that is the major plot developing in this episode, an interesting sub-plot involves Obi-Wan’s past involvement with Satine. It turns out that he and Qui-Gon had been tasked with protecting her while he was still a padawan. They kindled a romance that went nowhere, but Obi-Wan claims that he would have left the Jedi Order had she asked him to.
That whole subplot shades the conversation that Obi-Wan and Anakin had in Attack of the Clones in an incredibly interesting way. (”Be mindful of your thoughts, Anakin, they betray you. You’ve made a commitment to the Jedi Order, a commitment not easily broken.”, etc.) I’d always wondered why Obi-Wan hadn’t dealt with those feelings a little more sternly, but it seems as though, from past experience, that he knew it was something that Jedi struggle with.
In fact, that’s one thing I loved about the prequels that a lot of people had a hard time with, and that was Anakin’s struggle with his feelings for Padme. ”He’s just a big whiny baby,” people would say, but it’s a hard thing for a celibate monk to go through puberty and not have feelings for the opposite sex. How else was he supposed to act? Think back to how awkward you were when you were first trying to date, and then add to that the fact that you’d been placed in what was essentially an asexual environment and in a religion that forbids romantic contact with the opposite sex. It would have probably been too much for me to deal with. In any case, it’s was incredibly compelling drama and it was refreshing to see hints of that reinforced with Obi-Wan’s past experience.
There was nothing to complain about as far as the action sequences in the episode were concerned, Anakin and the Clones fighting the droids in the cargo hold and Obi-Wan and Satine holding them off in the dining area were very fun to watch. Perhaps the coolest part of the episode, action-wise anyway, was when the Death Watch sent in reinforcements and had a cadre of Super Battle Droids smash into the side of the ship and are unleashed, wreaking havoc for the Jedi. Why there weren’t Mandalorian Commando’s pouring out, I don’t know.
I my guess?
They’re saving that for the finale of the arc. Which looks pretty cool.
Again, at the end of the day though, there felt like something was missing from this episode. It was well written and well animated, the concept was fun… But there was something off about it. And the more I think about it, it feels like it might have been the pacing again.
And another question I have here: Does this take place before Ahsoka is Anakin’s padawan? Where the hell is she? I don’t mind being skipped around on the timeline, I’d just like to know where we stand. Is there any chance that they’ll come up with a list of the episodes if we wanted to watch them all in chronological order? I think that would be incredibly helpful.
Next week’s episode looks like it might be the coup de grace for the Mandalore Plot and I’m looking forward to it more than I could imagine.
Let’s see if it blows my hair back more than these last two entries have.
Reunited with a former flame while on a mission of vital importance to the war effort, Obi-Wan Kenobi must defend his convictions and fight for his beliefs – even though taking up arms drives him further from the woman he once loved. The Mandalorian saga takes a personal turn in “Voyage of Temptation,” an all-new episode of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS airing at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, February 5 on Cartoon Network.
Traveling to Coruscant aboard the palatial royal vessel of the beautiful Duchess Satine Kryze of Mandalore, Obi-Wan and Anakin discover a plot to assassinate the powerful political figure before she reaches her destination. As the Jedi and their clones fight to protect the Duchess from a deadly cargo of assassin droids, Anakin discovers that his former Master has a history with the Mandalorian emissary – and that the elder Jedi is not without personal attachments of his own.
“I always wondered what would happen if Obi-Wan had been put in the same position as Anakin – specifically meeting and falling in love with a woman,” says series writer Henry Gilroy. “Would he be able to maintain his vow to the Jedi at the cost of true love? We know how Anakin dealt with this, but how would Obi-Wan fare against the same temptation? I think a lot of people have had relationships that never really got a chance to flourish, and there’s always that ‘what if…’ sort of feeling. Even people in healthy, happy relationships ponder their old flames and think about what might have been. I think it really broadens Obi-Wan as a character. He’s revealed as a man – someone we relate to because he has romantic feelings like the rest of us, even though he’s a Jedi.”
Of course, the vows of the Jedi Order are not taken lightly, and it takes a truly remarkable woman to turn the head and test the heart of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Resolute in her own pacifist ideologies, Satine provides a counterpoint to Obi-Wan’s notions of peace-keeping and conflict resolution.
“Satine’s a formidable woman in all regards – extremely intelligent, incorruptible, passionate and beautiful, with a great devotion to peace. She might come off as stuffy, but that is because she knows she’s in a den of wolves and must appear powerful and unshakable,” Gilroy says. “Throughout history, some of the most powerful figures – like Gandhi and Dr. King – were pacifists who literally changed the world by refusing to fight. There’s so much fighting in The Clone Wars; when someone is brave enough to speak up to try and stop it, that voice becomes like a light in the darkness, strong and memorable. Satine’s resolved to always use peaceful means to end conflicts. The Jedi are peacekeepers, but they carry swords; if they have to use violence to end conflict, they will. That’s unacceptable to Satine; she believes that if you bring a weapon to negotiations, you don’t want peace. So, she’s upset that the Jedi have allowed themselves to be drawn into the war, because it is everything that they are supposed to be against.”
Together, the two consistently challenge one another, each steadfast in their respective beliefs. It is this mutual respect which draws them together, even as their convictions keep them apart.
This episode is probably going to piss a lot of people off and excite a lot of others. I thought this was a good episode and had some great bits in it, but I’m certainly not angry and I’m not as excited as a lot of people probably are.
“Mandalore Plot” begins with Obi-Wan Kenobi sent to Mandalore to investigate claims that the Duchess Satine (whom he has some form of past with) is taking the council of neutral systems, which represents 1,500 neutral planets, in league with the Separatists. This frustrates her immensely, though she seems grateful to see her old friend, the Jedi Master. Obi-wan is concerned about a terrorist group called the Death Watch, but Satine insists they’re a bunch of hoodlums. Unfortunately, as they discuss this, one of those hooligans blows up a bomb in a public place, killing many civilians.
This leads them to the autonomous moon of Concordia and in the domain of Governer Pre Vizsla (voiced by Jon Favreau). Soon, Obi-wan is taken by a pair of Death Watch commandos and Satine needs to come to his rescue. Turns out Vizsla is in charge of the Death Watch and wants to kill some Jedi.
Seeing a dozen Mandalorian’s in action against a Jedi was very, very cool to see. But there are things in this episode that make it clear that a lot of preconceived notions that people had of characters in the movies (and their extensions in the expanded universe) are completely false. I thought that Jango Fett and Boba Fett were part of a proud Mandalorian tradition, but it turns out that they’re just a pair of dirty thugs and no one knows why they’d have Mandalorian armour or where they got it. My impression of Mandalore reading the Legacy of the Force series of Star Wars books was very different as well.
I can see why hardcore EU fans (and some of the writers *cough*Karen Travis*cough*) might have a problem with this, but at the end of the day, this is George Lucas’ sandbox and when you play in it in the Expanded Universe, you have to expect that things can still change while he’s working on stuff. I, for one, think that this Clone Wars cartoon series and the movies are the highest priority of what’s what in the Star Wars canon, and I could really care less about the rest of it, even though I may enjoy quite a bit of it.
A lot of people won’t feel this way.
Aside from the shockwaves this will have on the Expanded Universe, this episode was a solid action entry into the series. Watching Obi-wan get captured by a pair of Death Watch commandos was incredibly fun to watch and the animation during the lightsaber duel between Obi-wan and Vizsla was a cut above. I want to see more of the canon version of the Mandalorians. They were much cooler than I thought they would be.
I liked this episode, but felt the ending lacked a little bit, but the preview for the next episode made me think that this might be the weakest entry in the Mandalore Plot arc.
Lucasfilm has been kind enough once again to give us a look at two clips from this week’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Episode 12 is about the halfway point in the series and introduces us to the Mandalorians in “Mandalore Plot”.
Star Wars has always been influenced by Kurosawa. Since the beginning, Kurosawa’s samurai pictures, most notably The Hidden Fortress , have served as the inspiration for the entire Saga and all of it’s spinoffs. It was great to see that a Kurosawa noir, Stray Dog, found it’s way into being homaged in the Star Wars mythos.
Both in this episode of Clone Wars and in Stray Dog, the new kid on the force (Ahsoka Tano as a padawan in the slums of Coruscant and Toshiro Mifune as a young police detective in the slums of post-war Tokyo, respectively) loses their weapon to a pick-pocket who carries out a string of crimes with it, leaving the rookie to retrieve it. To aid in the search, this rookie turns to a veteran of the force (Tera Sinube, the aged Jedi Master and Takashi Shimura as the aged police detective, respectively) to help them get the weapon back. Murders are committed, the stakes get higher, the main character feels guilty about the crimes committed with their weapon, but at the end of the day, they finally get it back.
This episode followed the formula of the movie, albeit in an incredibly condensed format, and suffered a bit from it. I suppose that’s my problem with knowing and loving the source material being homaged, I’d have loved to see a full length feature remaking the film in the Star Wars universe in its entirety. Knowing that that wasn’t possible (or at least not what happened), I had to reevaluate the story for what it was. Sure it didn’t have all of the complexities of the source material, but for a kids show, it was really fun to watch.
The action and suspense in this show were particularly well done, and the Coruscant slums (last glimpsed in this level of detail in Attack of the Clones) were a very cool backdrop to get back to.
I also really enjoyed the two new villianous characters introduced, the criminals responsible for taking Ahsoka’s lightsaber, Ione Marcy and Cassie Cryar. Actually, Ione was okay, but Cassie had a very cool look about her and carried her half of the episode admirably.
All in all, this was a very fun episode. Again, not the best, but still excellent television and certainly much better than anything else on TV.
Lucasfilm has been kind enough to give us to give us a look at this Friday’s new episode of Clone Wars, this time called “Lightsaber Lost.” To me, it looks very much like an homage to one of my favorite Kurosawa films, “Stray Dog”. In it, a thief picks the gun out of a young detectives pocket and the detective (Toshiro Mifune) is left to retrieve his gun before the thief can commit any more crimes or murders with it. In order to track down the gun, he must employ the help of a wisened old police officer played by the always amazing Takashi Shimura. It’s very good Japanese noir. Star Wars has always been rife with Kurosawa homages, but it’s almost exclusively been for Samurai films. It’s good to see the Noir’s getting their just desserts now.
From the official press release:
When a wily pickpocket steals Ahsoka’s lightsaber during an otherwise routine mission, the desperate Togruta teen must enlist the help of an elderly Jedi Master to track down the slippery thief. The search takes the unlikely pair deep into the seedy underbelly of Coruscant’s seamy underworld…and pits the young Padawan against a new kind of threat, unlike anything she’s seen on the front lines. It’s a race to reclaim both her weapon and her honor in “Lightsaber Lost,” an all-new episode of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS airing at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, January 22 on Cartoon Network.
For Giancarlo Volpe – the episode’s director – “Lightsaber Lost” provided a welcome opportunity to draw back from the high intensity action of the front lines, exploring the characters against a different tonal backdrop altogether. While still boasting one of the series’ most memorable action sequences, the episode also focuses on an unlikely juxtaposition – and the quiet humor that results from Ahsoka’s new friendship.
“Comedy belongs in Star Wars as much as anything,” says Volpe. “Filmmaking actually plays a lot off of contrast – such as the contrast between a wicked villain and a benevolent hero, or between slow, emotional scenes and really fast-paced action. The more you emphasize one side, the more extreme the other becomes. They work hand in hand. I think if Clone Warsalways took itself too seriously, it would no longer feel like the movies.”
The very character dynamics of the episode itself are marked by distinct contrast, deliberately pairing the impulsive Ahsoka with Tera Sinube – a wizened old Jedi Master. Modeled after a seasoned, elderly samurai who improves – and mellows – with age, Sinube teaches patience, temperance and deliberation to the impetuous Padawan.
“He’s definitely a caricature of his own philosophy. He keeps telling Ahsoka she’s too frantic and moving too fast. She needs to slow down and really listen to her intuition, and trust her feelings. We played that up in everything from the way he moves to the way he talks,” says Volpe. “To me, it’s very much like Obi-Wan telling Luke to trust his feelings, and to use the Force during the attack on the Death Star. Ahsoka is so anxious about getting her lightsaber back, her own anxiety interferes with her ability to track it down. When she stops and calms herself, the truth is revealed. That’s great stuff! It’s just one of those classic spiritual aspects ofStar Wars that I can’t get enough of.”
Ultimately, these contrasts are the building blocks for the Star Wars universe – the tools that its creators use in crafting that timeless and intangible feeling of the iconic “galaxy far, far away.” Supervising Director Dave Filoni cites the episode as an essential departure from the frenetic intensity of the front lines, and an integral piece of the larger Saga.
“To a certain extent, audiences are coming to expect the combat storylines from the series, but there’s a lot more to Star Wars than the war itself; I think this episode really resonates because it captures a particularly nostalgic aspect. We got to focus on aspects that don’t get as much screen time when we’re in the middle of a battle,” says Filoni. “It’s also interesting to look at the various influences on Ahsoka from a different perspective. She’s being trained by Anakin, who eventually becomes Darth Vader. It’s an interesting dynamic, because we don’t necessarily know what happens to her – except for the fact that she doesn’t appear in Episode III. Because we see her in these high-intensity situations, it’s easy to forget that she’s still a child and that she’s impressionable. She’s definitely still learning – from Anakin, but also from her own experiences, from her mistakes, from those around her. She’s making her own choices, deciding her own values. How that will affect her ultimate destiny remains to be seen. When we screened this episode for the crew, almost everyone ranked it among their favorites for the season; I think it’s because it stirs up some of those questions, and in a way that has a distinctStar Wars feel.”
The first day of the new year brought us two new episodes of Clone Wars, both featuring General Grievous. The episodes interconnected, but each had a different feel.
The first episode, “Grievous Intrigue” detailed the exploits of Anakin and Obi-wan as they tried to split up and rescue Master Eeth Koth from the clutches of General Grievous and do their best to take Grievous into custody. By splitting their forces to save Master Eeth Koth instead of fighting Grievous with a full frontal assault, Grievous is allowed to escape to the nearby planet of Salucemai which brings us to the more interesting of the two episodes, “The Deserter.”
While Anakin officiates over the space battle, Obi-wan descends to the planet’s surface to capture Grievous with Captain Rex and Commander Cody in tow. During the battle, Rex is wounded and taken to a nearby farm to recuperate while the rest of his team is ordered back on the hunt for Grievous. By chance, the farm he’s left on is owned and operated by a clone who deserted from the Republic army shortly after the battle of Geonosis.
The first episode is almost all action with a bit of the philosophical push/pull from the Jedi that we’ve come to expect during this conflict. Eeth Koth, after being saved, scolds Anakin and Obi-Wan for saving him since they had to split up their forces and reduce their chance of capturing Grievous and it’s an interesting point. What is more benevolent? Rescue a captured comrade or leave him to die so that you can end the larger conflict more quickly? The Jedi seem to have a hard time struggling with those answers and it’s been fun to watch them grapple with them.
Having said that, this first episode was almost all action (and preposterously well animated action at that) and was very fun to watch. I’m in love with the Commando droids and am almost sad that I didn’t get to see any of them in one of the films proper.
The second episode was almost the opposite, though. It had much more morality tale than action to it, though I think the action was better in some ways than the last episode. Rex and the clone deserter have a great conversation about loyalty and individuality and whether family or duty are more important. Soon, the deserters’ half-Twi’lek children find an escape pod full of Commando droids and a battle ensues for the safety of the family. Rex sees what’s important here and decides to help the deserter defend his farm and his family.
Though I love lightsaber duels (particularly with General Grievous) I felt like this fight, which was very reminiscent visually of the final showdown in L.A. Confidential, was by far the most interesting of this pair of episodes. There was more at stake here. I knew that Obi-Wan wasn’t going to be able to disable Grievous and if he did capture him, it would be short lived. But I have no idea about this Clone and what is going to happen to him or his family and the philosophical debate behind the episode made it feel like there was more at stake here.
That and the commando droids are radical.
I also want to point out that this is another great episode that’s held up on the back of Dee Bradley Baker. As the voice of all the clones, he played a lot of parts in this episode and they were all different. Though the differences were small, Rex and the Deserter sounded very much alike and I think this was on purpose. The Deserter says a lot that he’s as close to Rex as any other life-form can be and he points things out like he’s in Rex’s head and so I thought that it was a very deliberate choice to have them be so similar in the voice with only the barest of differences. It made Dee Bradley Baker’s job a lot harder, but I think the effect was worth it.
Overall, I think this was a great pair of episodes, though not the best in the season to date. There was solid action, great philosophical questions and ever-improving animation.
Lucasfilm has been kind enough once again to give us an advanced look at this week’s episode of Clone Wars.
General Grievous returns and I couldn’t be more excited.
From Lucasfilm’s press release:
Kicking off the New Year with a special double-dose of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, General Grievous emerges from the shadows to stir up trouble for the Jedi heroes, ensnaring them in a trap that threatens their mission and their lives. It’s a deadly game – and the scheming Separatist cyborg doesn’t plan on playing by the rules! It’s a full hour of all-new CLONE WARS thrills, beginning with “Grievous Intrigue,” at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, January 1 on Cartoon Network. And the intergalactic action continues with a clone showdown in “The Deserter,” pitting brother against brother in a battle of ideologies.
Working from a secret message transmitted by a Jedi held prisoner by General Grievous, Obi-Wan and Anakin use the information to set a trap for their bitter enemy. But their plan backfires when Grievous springs a trap of his own. With their mission on the verge of disaster, Obi-Wan must battle Grievous while Anakin struggles to enact their escape.
For Matthew Wood – voice of General Grievous in the series and the live-action Saga, as well as supervising sound editor for THE CLONE WARS – the episode offers a welcome return for the series’ quintessential bad guy, providing an opportunity for the cybernetic antagonist to gain a long-awaited advantage over his Jedi adversaries.
“I see Grievous’ hatred of the Jedi stemming from intense jealousy; the Jedi have a skill that has been unattainable by Grievous,” says Wood. “Even though the technical skill of the lightsaber has been taught to him by Count Dooku, Grievous still lacks the Force sensitivity to grasp the true nature of the Jedi. So many things seem just out of reach to Grievous, intensifying his jealousy and frustration.”
To make matters worse for the General’s consistently thwarted ambitions, Grievous is saddled with an ineffectual army of comically inept battle droids – all of whom are also voiced by Wood. The dichotomy allows Wood to inject a bit of aggravated humor into his performance.
“Grievous is put in command of a massive droid army, yet the droids lack the skills to overtake the Jedi. The absurdity of the juxtaposition of those characters enhances my ability to portray them, especially because I record both Grievous and the battle droids continuously,” he says. “The droids are so limited by their mass-produced, low-cost processors and will never see the bigger picture of the war; their comedic navel-gazing will always be their undoing. While the General wants to be more of a leader and game-changer in the war, he has so far only been good at stalling our heroes. Personally, I like all of the moments of Grievous destroying battle droids, the ultimate manifestation of his frustrations. I play the droids and Grievous as a twisted Abbot and Costello routine.”
Behind the scenes, Wood is thrilled to remain such a central part of the Star Wars universe, relishing the chance to explore and expose his character’s motivations, while at the same time marveling at the opportunity to work in a world that had been so integral in his own professional and creative development.
“I was five years old when A New Hope was released. Star Wars stimulated my imagination on both a technical and storytelling level,” he says. “The first time I was even aware of the role that a film director played in making a movie was when I saw an image of George Lucas sitting with Alec Guinness on the set in Tunisia. I remember thinking, ‘I know who Obi-Wan is, but who is that other guy sitting next to him?’ And now, I’m working with him. Even after nearly twenty years with the company, it still feels like a dream to be involved in the creation of this fantasy universe.”
Kicking off the New Year with a special double-dose of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, General Grievous emerges from the shadows to stir up trouble for the Jedi heroes, ensnaring them in a trap that threatens their mission and their lives. It’s a deadly game – and the scheming Separatist cyborg doesn’t plan on playing by the rules! It’s a full hour of all-new CLONE WARS thrills, beginning with “Grievous Intrigue,” at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, January 1 on Cartoon Network. And the intergalactic action continues with a clone showdown in “The Deserter,” pitting brother against brother in a battle of ideologies.
Working from a secret message transmitted by a Jedi held prisoner by General Grievous, Obi-Wan and Anakin use the information to set a trap for their bitter enemy. But their plan backfires when Grievous springs a trap of his own. With their mission on the verge of disaster, Obi-Wan must battle Grievous while Anakin struggles to enact their escape.
For Matthew Wood – voice of General Grievous in the series and the live-action Saga, as well as supervising sound editor for THE CLONE WARS – the episode offers a welcome return for the series’ quintessential bad guy, providing an opportunity for the cybernetic antagonist to gain a long-awaited advantage over his Jedi adversaries.
“I see Grievous’ hatred of the Jedi stemming from intense jealousy; the Jedi have a skill that has been unattainable by Grievous,” says Wood. “Even though the technical skill of the lightsaber has been taught to him by Count Dooku, Grievous still lacks the Force sensitivity to grasp the true nature of the Jedi. So many things seem just out of reach to Grievous, intensifying his jealousy and frustration.”
To make matters worse for the General’s consistently thwarted ambitions, Grievous is saddled with an ineffectual army of comically inept battle droids – all of whom are also voiced by Wood. The dichotomy allows Wood to inject a bit of aggravated humor into his performance.
“Grievous is put in command of a massive droid army, yet the droids lack the skills to overtake the Jedi. The absurdity of the juxtaposition of those characters enhances my ability to portray them, especially because I record both Grievous and the battle droids continuously,” he says. “The droids are so limited by their mass-produced, low-cost processors and will never see the bigger picture of the war; their comedic navel-gazing will always be their undoing. While the General wants to be more of a leader and game-changer in the war, he has so far only been good at stalling our heroes. Personally, I like all of the moments of Grievous destroying battle droids, the ultimate manifestation of his frustrations. I play the droids and Grievous as a twisted Abbot and Costello routine.”
Behind the scenes, Wood is thrilled to remain such a central part of the Star Wars universe, relishing the chance to explore and expose his character’s motivations, while at the same time marveling at the opportunity to work in a world that had been so integral in his own professional and creative development.
“I was five years old when A New Hope was released. Star Wars stimulated my imagination on both a technical and storytelling level,” he says. “The first time I was even aware of the role that a film director played in making a movie was when I saw an image of George Lucas sitting with Alec Guinness on the set in Tunisia. I remember thinking, ‘I know who Obi-Wan is, but who is that other guy sitting next to him?’ And now, I’m working with him. Even after nearly twenty years with the company, it still feels like a dream to be involved in the creation of this fantasy universe.”
And now for the clip. It’s a little wordy, but I like wordy lightsaber duels:
