Star Wars: The Clone Wars – “Trespass” Preview

Anthony Daniels and his alter ego C-3PO play a pivotal role in “Trespass,” an all-new episode of the hit animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, premiering at 9 p.m. ET/PT Friday, Jan. 30, on Cartoon Network.

While investigating the disappearance of a clone security force on a fiercely inhospitable ice world, Anakin and Obi-Wan are caught in the middle of a conflict between the planet’s natives and the greedy representatives of a nearby moon. In an effort to broker a tentative peace, Anakin turns to C-3PO for help – and finds his fluency in more than 6 million forms of communication to be most useful.

Daniels has played C-3PO on screen in all six Star Wars movies, and has continued in the role since the inception of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. With the animated series, Daniels becomes the only actor to play the same role in every on-screen incarnation of the Saga. He has also become a spokesman and host for the popular Art and Science of Star Wars exhibition around the world, and has written extensively about his experiences as a part of the Star Wars phenomenon.

“I’ve never left the character or, rather, he’s never left me,” says Daniels. “I put him in the cupboard for a while, but people call and I take him out again. There was a time many years ago when I thought I should move on to other things, but then I thought that was stupid. I’m very fond of Threepio.”

Daniels says the voiceover performance of Threepio is a welcome respite from the rigors of bringing Threepio to the screen in live-action productions. He finds the animation process offers “quite a lot of freedom.”

“When you’re reading lines by yourself, it’s not always as easy to ad-lib,” Daniels says. “But what Dave (Filoni) and I do is to go over my lines before we start because, sadly, I am the world’s greatest expert. And I say that with a kind of wry fun, because Threepio is kind of like my best friend, and you know your best friend better than anyone.”

Filoni says, “It was important to have Anthony as Threepio because I wanted to learn as much from him as I could. Anthony has incredible insight into every word and phrase that he says. There’s rarely a line that he won’t adapt to Threepio’s cadence, so we’ve developed a good vocabulary. We’re both excited to do new things with Threepio, and hopefully in the future, viewers will see us expand our view of the character. After all, Threepio is as much an icon of Star Wars as Darth Vader.”

Filoni says, “It was important to have Anthony as Threepio because I wanted to learn as much from him as I could. Anthony has incredible insight into every word and phrase that he says. There’s rarely a line that he won’t adapt to Threepio’s cadence, so we’ve developed a good vocabulary. We’re both excited to do new things with Threepio, and hopefully in the future, viewers will see us expand our view of the character. After all, Threepio is as much an icon of Star Wars as Darth Vader.”

In “Trespass,” Threepio presents his most proper, most effective side – that of translator. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t provide a moment or two of levity, as is usually the case with the protocol droid.

“The thing I always liked about Threepio is that he wasn’t a hero – he was somebody who had no sense of humor and no sense of irony,” Daniels says. “He doesn’t know that he’s funny. We think he’s funny because he’s ridiculous, he’s uptight and a bit critical and it makes us laugh at him. But his saving grace and the reason that we like him is that he’s very thoughtful and very loyal. If he’s on your side, you would have a friend to the end of your existence. Or probably to the end of his existence, because he’s loyal to a fault, to his last nut and his last bolt.”

Daniels has a clear memory of the original reference to the Clone Wars, and the curious impression it had on the cast – though, he admits, nobody had any idea it would grow to the proportions it has achieved within the Star Wars universe.

“I was amused the other day to remember Mark Hamill going through his lines with me one day, and we both kind of looked at each other regarding this casual one-liner about ‘the Clone Wars,’” Daniels recalls. “And then of course, it got picked up in the prequels and now it’s its own TV series. Animation has grown up. It’s become very, very honorable, and I think Clone Wars has taken the next step.”

5 New Screens From Star Wars: The Old Republic

Developer BioWare has unveiled five new screenshots from its upcoming Star Wars-themed massively multiplayer online game Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Included in the images is the above Jedi versus Acklay faceoff, a couple pictures showing off the surprisingly well-detailed armor and blasters found in the game and a strikingly well-toned Mon Calamari gunfighter.

The firm has yet to reveal release date or pricing information for Star Wars: The Old Republic. With no impending movie release on the horizon, we hope BioWare has been granted the freedom to delay release until the game is completely finished.

Leaked Star Wars Battlefront III art shows Sith Obi-Wan

One of the more interesting aspects of Star Wars Battlefront III, one of the games left in limbo after the closing of Free Radical, was its “what if?” scenarios, which would retell some of the more important stories of the Star Wars mythos in different ways. Some new concept art unearthed by Kotaku has revealed just how awesome this concept had the potential to be, by asking one question: What if Obi-Wan Kenobi turned to the dark side?

The new images show a decidedly evil Kenobi, complete with yellow eyes, tattered black robes, and a red lightsaber in hand. Accompanying the art is this brief description of the new Obi-Wan: “An old man, gnarled by the corruption of the dark side. Mostly a hermit, he wanders searching for places and things with strong connections to the dark side. Any artifacts he finds (e.g. force crystals, talismans, bones) he keeps about his person in pouches or threaded through his clothes. Currently found in the swamps of Dagobah.”

Development of the game has now been shifted to Rebellion Developments, and we can only pray that they decide to include Dark Obi-Wan as a character. Seeing one of the most upstanding characters in the Star Wars universe turned bad is undeniably cool, and now that it’s been teased, to have not have it in the game will be extremely disappointing.

Game: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (N-Gage)

Been disappointed by Star Wars games in the past? We find your lack of faith in the force rather disturbing, because this one’s a cracker.

From the moment the theme music kicks and the titles roll slowly up screen, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is true to the real Star Wars – and by that we mean anything from Episode IV onwards. Sure, the music is a little tinny and the characters are poorly sketched but the atmosphere and action are superb.

As an apprentice to Darth Vadar at his most wicked, your mission starts with you slaughtering a Jedi Knight – plus a host of Imperial witnesses lest the Emperor get wind of Vadar’s machinations. The weapons at your disposal are your trusty light sabre (no skimping on the sound effects here, thankfully) plus some handy Force abilities. These include chucking stuff around, healing yourself and the ever-useful mind trick: apparently, this is THE mobile Star Wars game you’ve been waiting for.

The Force Unleashed uses an innovative system called CellWeaver that requires you to ‘weave’ patterns on a three-by-three grid using the control button or number keys. Successfully complete a pattern and you can deploy an offensive power or block an attack. It sounds complicated but you soon pick it up, with skimming your thumb around the control button feeling as close to waving a light sabre as you’re likely to get on a mobile phone.

If you don’t fancy the Story mode, you can revisit unlocked Chapters or just enjoy a kill fest in Survival Battle, where you’ll keep having baddies, er, we mean goodies, thrown against you until you die.
There’s plenty of enjoy in The Force Unleashed, from lovingly crafted cut scenes to some great battles in familiar (and not so familiar) locations. We’re happy to report that the Force is indeed strong in this one.

Details
Price: £8
Rating: 12+
Size: 22MB
Download: N-Gage

THE CLONE WARS: MIDSEASON RECAP

“Star Wars: The Clone Wars” is a unique and interesting beast, for many reasons.
For starters, it’s the biggest and most commercial attempt by creator George Lucas to bridge the gap between any two Star Wars films. Sure, there’ve been books and comics and video games written and designed to expand the scope of the series, but they’ve never been able to reach and reclaim that massive audience the films enjoy.
Not like “The Clone Wars.”

And, in some ways, that reach feels just a bit short.
The idea behind “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” was to lift the veil on the legendary war waged between the Galactic Republic and Confederacy of Separatists, chronicling the final days of the Jedi Order. But while each episode represents an unknown chapter in the Star Wars bible, most of the book has already been written and read.
The series focuses around characters like Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, General Grievous, Count Dooku, and other staples of the Prequel Trilogy. The problem is: these characters’ stories have already been told, thus, eliminating almost all tension, drama, or conflict. Almost every character meets their end or destiny in “Revenge of the Sith,” leaving many of the story arcs and battles feeling anticlimactic.
One would be hard pressed to find someone unaware of Anakin Skywalker’s fall from grace or the massacre of the Jedi or the totalitarian regime of the Galactic Empire. The only real question lingers around the fate of Anakin’s young apprentice, Asoka Tano, who never appears in the feature films.
Simply put, the show puts us on a path to a place we’ve already been.
But it’s a hell of a fun ride.
While the Prequel Trilogy only gave us a taste of what the Jedi can do, Master Yoda’s reputation as a great warrior, and the combat skills of the Clone Troopers, “The Clone Wars” makes it the main course. Each episode centers on a different threat, skirmish, or mission undertaken by the clone troops and their Jedi generals, from launching all out space battles against massive battleships to rescuing downed soldiers.
And though the series doesn’t change the course of the franchise, the action keeps you on the edge of your seat with its surprisingly brutal fight scenes and cinematic space battles in line with Lucas’ original vision.
Plus, having the room to take the camera off the main characters and put it on, say, a small group of rookie Clone Troopers trying to defend a strategic base against an invasion of droids not only shows that war wasn’t just a series of epic space battles and lightsaber duels, but gives the often faceless, nameless clones a touch of humanity, and enhances their roles in Star Wars universe.
In the end, “The Clone Wars” might not be redefining the Star Wars legacy, but does a good job of keeping the fun and adventure Star Wars brought to the silver screen going on the small screen.

Source: Sci-Fi

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