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.

Arse-bot here, just wanted to share my favorite clip of all time from the Bruce Timm animated series Justice League Unlimited. I was/am a big fan of the DCAU and couldn’t even begin to count the hours I spent watching all of these series’ as a young bot.

Enjoy!

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.

With news that DC and the CW will be foisting “The Graysons” on unsuspecting audience, I decided to bring back a list of my ideas for what would be actually cool Batman shows.  In the past, I’ve come up with a number of ideas for Batman on television and you can read about that here.

I want to talk about one of the ideas I had in that article and expand on it, just a little bit.

I still think that “Gotham Central” is the strongest idea for a Batman television show that could cross demographics better than any other show on television.  Done right, it could certainly mop the floor with ill-conceived dreck like “The Graysons.”

What I wrote about it before:

It seems that just about every show on television is either Law and Order, a Law and Order spin-off or some type of Crime Scene Investigation. Well, Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka’s real-world take is that entire sort of thing only better and with the Bat. Imagine a show where cops are running down leads, and trying to get their job done and well, only to have the villains wrapped in a bow by Batman. This only serves to annoy and demoralize them. And really, who watches over the city during the day when Batman sleeps? This is that story and it would quickly become must-see TV. Killing Joke would be great to see from this perspective as well.

There is a rich tapestry of characters inside the department already in place, led by the always compelling Jim Gordon, so that’s one thing you have going for it.  You also have the interplay between the DA’s office and the cops and we all know about the DA’s office these days.

Set this in a Gotham plagued by mobsters (probably including a real-world version of the penguin, not the exploding umbrella version) and you’ve got a great set of standard, powerless villains.  Add Catwoman and the hookers on the east end into the mix, perhaps the Black Mask and a few other of the mob-centric villains and you’ve got an impressive slate of interconnected characters.

Then you’ve got the Batman.  Imagine how much the image of Batman could be elevated by seeing it through the eyes of the cops who begrudgingly work in his shadow day after day.  All you really have to do to imagine the show is think about how some of the Law and Order spin-offs work and throw a crazy but bad ass and well supplied vigilante into the mix.

Then occasionally, every five or six episodes, a major Bat universe villain enters the scene.  One of the best instances of this in the comics was the launching story of the Gotham Central book.  Cops are running down leads, knocking on doors and they happen to knock on the wrong door.  By coincidence, they come across Mr. Freeze in the waning hours of the night.  Freeze kills one of the cops and they know they have to take him down to get revenge for the murder of one of their own.

The problem is, they know that if they don’t catch him in that single day by night fall, Batman will finish the job for them and that’s simply unacceptable.

It’s a great concept for a show and I doubt anyone on Earth would argue that they would honestly rather see “The Graysons” than this.

So, there’s my advice to the CW and DC.  For what it’s worth.

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.

It would seem so.

According to IMDb, McG and the CW have teamed up for a show about Dick “DJ” Grayson’s pre-Robin days in the circus:

Batman’s sidekick Robin has landed his own TV show.

The Graysons will explore Robin’s alter-ego Dick ‘DJ’ Grayson before he paired up with the caped crusader.

The show is being made by Warner Bros. and director McG’s Wonderland Sound and Vision - and will appear on U.S. network The CW.

Knowing how unreliable Batman news on IMDb can be, I checked Variety.  Unfortunately the story’s solid.

They’re eyeing this as a replacement to Smallville, which I was never terribly interested in.  But, at least with a young Clark Kent, he’s exhibiting his powers and the like.  Dick’s (or “DJ” in this case) character really isn’t really there until his parents are killed.  How long can they spread it out before they have to bring Bruce into it?  Will a show about a kid acrobat in a travelling circus be that interesting?  Will it be interesting enough for comics fans?

I wonder.

Lucasfilm has given us another look at the second episode that will premiere on Friday night.  I don’t know about you guys, but this is probably the single coolest image I’ve seen from this series so far.  One thing I felt Revenge of the Sith was missing was more General Grievous and Friday it looks like I’ll be able to have my cake and it eat it too.

From the official press release:

The Jedi face a devastating new Separatist weapon that’s in  the hands of General Grievous in the second of two episodes that mark the season premiere of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, an all-new animated series debuting Friday, Oct. 3  on Cartoon Network.

In Rising Malevolence, which premieres at 9:30 p.m., an attack by an unimaginably destructive weapon aboard a mysterious warship leaves Jedi Master Plo Koon and his clone troopers struggling to survive until Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano can find them. They discover that the ship is piloted by Grievous himself.

Rising Malevolence follows the 9:00 p.m. debut of the episode Ambush. STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS will introduce new episodes at 9:00  p.m. Fridays on Cartoon Network.

Series supervising director Dave Filoni helms the episode Rising Malevolence from a script by Steve Melching. George Lucas is the series’ creator and serves as executive producer, and Catherine Winder is producer.

Rising Malevolence features several prominent series debuts, most notably those of Jedi Master Plo Koon, General Grievous and his menacing warship, the Malevolence. Also appearing for their first time in the series are Anakin Skywalker and his padawan, Ahsoka.

Plo Koon’s presence was established in Star Wars: Episodes I, II and III, but his character was seen fleetingly in those films. Nevertheless, just as the seldom-seen Boba Fett became a fan favorite after The Empire Strikes Back, Filoni grew fascinated by Plo Koon. He chose the relatively unknown Jedi Master as his first project of character development.

“I liked the design of the Plo Koon character, and I also liked that he was a Jedi Master,” Filoni says of his initial attraction. “Like so many Star Wars fans, I had always wondered what other Jedi were like and The Clone Wars presented an opportunity to explore those characters”

Melching said he, Filoni and script supervisor Henry Gilroy worked hard to reveal Plo Koon’s character by example and, at the same time, offer greater perspective on the ways of the Jedi. Moreover, they reveal in Rising Malevolence an important connection between Plo Koon and Ahsoka Tano, Anakin’s Padawan learner.

“We were able to examine both Plo Koon’s personality and Ahsoka’s background by showing their bond and the extreme loyalty of Anakin and Ahsoka to their Jedi comrades,” Melching says. “They know he’s stranded and might not be alive, but if there’s even a chance, they’re going to find him. They have to deviate from their mission to try to rescue him, but they can’t endanger their larger mandate.”

The episode offers numerous scenes of Plo Koon and a small group of clones stranded in a disabled escape pod, which Melching says offered opportunities to expand on the thoughts, sensibilities and unique attributes of each clone trooper.

“The clones are really an army of one; they’re all the same guy. But their experiences in the war are all different, and that affects their relationships with other clones and their Jedi leaders,” Melching says. “They may all seem be the same guy, but they’re developing different personalities, and we work hard to show how they think, where they come from. That helps to define each episode. After all, the clones are ultimately the key to this war.”

I don’t know about you guys, but I like Plo Koon alot and am really excited to see these two new installments into the Star Wars saga.

Lucasfilm has given us another look at Clone Wars.

Those responsible for the episode had some things to say about their approach to Yoda in the series premiere:

In Ambush, the premiere of Lucasfilm Animation’s STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, episode director David Bullock (Justice League: The New Frontier) and writer Steve Melching (The Batman) recall the Yoda of The Empire Strikes Back. This first episode of the brand-new, CG-animated series airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT Friday, Oct. 3 on Cartoon Network.

In the episode, Jedi Master Yoda and three clone troopers must face off against Count Dooku’s dreaded assassin Asajj Ventress and her massive droid army to prove the Jedi are strong enough to protect a strategic planet and forge a treaty for the Republic.

“I wanted to bring back some of the impish fun of Yoda from Episode V (The Empire Strikes Back) and instill it into the Clone Wars era as he is leading these three clones in a desperate situation,” Melching says. “Yoda became a very serious character in Episodes I, II and III, and I thought this was a great opportunity to show his clever, fun side as well as his inspirational and warrior side.”

While Melching crafted the words, Bullock and supervising director Dave Filoni focused on elevating Yoda’s action and ensuring that his diminutive scale alongside the other characters didn’t interfere with his intense battle scenes. Bullock offered kudos to fellow director Rob Coleman, who offered tips on keeping Yoda consistent with his legacy. Coleman served as an animation director on Star Wars Episodes I, II and III, and was responsible for Yoda’s famous lightsaber duel with Count Dooku.

“When I was storyboarding Yoda’s big fight scene in Ambush, Rob (Coleman) told me that George (Lucas) liked to flip a switch so that Yoda would go from very reserved to “springy,”" Bullock says. “Overall, the episode is a good mix of the impish Yoda of The Empire Strikes Back, some serious, reflective moments, and Rob’s “ninja Yoda” for the action bits. And Yoda kicks some serious butt in this episode.”

The assignment to direct Ambush was taken with great reverence by Bullock.

“I’m really proud of the fact that this episode went to me to direct as I knew it was “the Yoda episode,”" Bullock says. “It wasn’t even titled Ambush until it was in layout; for months it was just called “The Yoda Episode.” Any chance to work with the main Star Wars characters is a thrill because we knew we were adding to their history, but it was also a bit unnerving because we knew that it had to be handled properly or the fans would not buy it.”

Color me excited.