Christmas Gift Ideas: The Clone Wars Season 1

Last month, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Canada released the complete first season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on DVD.

Each disc in the four disc set, includes 5 (discs 1, 2), or 6 (discs 3, 4), episodes for a total of 22, as well as a behind-the-scenes featurette on each of those episodes. The set also includes a 64 page art-of book, which ties in nicely to the full book, The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which we had reviewed here. But the thing that really stood out to me on this set is the packaging itself.

More than you would say that this is four discs with a bonus book, it almost seems like a 64 page book with four discs. Rather than a DVD case, the case is like a hard cover book, with two discs inside each side of it. When you open it up, the book is in the middle, (permanently attached), making for it to be read easily. Very nice design.

For fans of the show, this will be a must-have on their Christmas list. Seven of the episodes include extended director's cuts, including the episode Rising Malevolence, which garnered an Annie Award nom for composer Kevin Kiner last year. (He is nominated again this year for another episode of the show, Weapons Factory, from season 2 - not included here.)

It's been in stores since November 3rd, so see if you can pick it up for a fan of the show before Christmas.

-Erin V.

First Four ‘Clone Wars’ Episodes Now on DVD+Review of Soundtrack

The first four episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, (‘Ambush’, ‘Rising Malevolence’, ‘Shadow of Malevolence’, and ‘Destroy Malevolence’), are now available on DVD. The disc is called Star Wars: The Clone Wars - A Galaxy Divided. A full season one box set with extras should be available later on. To coincide with the DVD release, here is my review of the soundtrack from the movie below:

Review of Kevin Kiner’s Score for Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

By E. Corrado

Kevin Kiner’s score for Star Wars: The Clone Wars manages to keep the feel of the music by John Williams of the original Star Wars movies, yet all the music still has a new unique stamp on things.

John Williams’ Star Wars Main Theme is woven into this well put together tapestry of adventure, modern rock styles and world music. As Kevin Kiner said in our interview with him back in November, (here), George Lucas had wanted every planet to have it’s own feel, e.g. an African sounding planet, or an Egyptian sounding planet, etc.. His research into the different kinds of world music is evident here.

In track five of the Official Movie Soundtrack, ‘Obi-Wan To The Rescue’, you can here the electric guitar rock sounds, yet they still allow the orchestra to keep in charge of things. Contrast this with track seven, ‘Jabba’s Palace’, and you can clearly hear the musical contrasts in the score. Many of the battle sequences sound very classically action/suspense/sci-fi, all the while fitting in seamlessly with the rest of the score. Track 21, ‘Scaling The Cliff’ reminded me of Back To The Future - just the notes at the beginning of the track...

Kevin Kiner was nominated at the 36th annual Annie Awards for his score for the second episode of the TV show, ‘Star Wars The Clone Wars: Rising Malevolence’. While he did not win this nomination, he was up against very strong competition in Henry Jackman, Hans Zimmer & John Powell’s score for The Secrets of the Furious Five, which took home the award.

I think this score, for both the movie and TV series, has succeeded in keeping with the original Star Wars styles, yet bringing in new flavours of sounds. Whether or not you like this animated version of the Star Wars world, this CD is worth picking up if you see it. The music is very good and entertaining. Also, the tracks all flow together quite nicely, considering that this has a very large amount of the score from the movie. The movie is approximately 1 hour, 38 minutes long, and this CD has a running time of 1 hour, 7 minutes, and 23 seconds. Some of the tracks seem to flow right from one to the next, as though they were together in the movie, but just divided into two seperate tracks here. It’s a nice action score that’s fun and easy to listen to.

The Star Wars: The Clone Wars soundtrack was released August 12th, 2008 in stores, and August 16th, 2008 on iTunes.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars; an Interview with the Music Composer Kevin Kiner

Written By E. Corrado

When did you find out you were going to be working on ‘Clone Wars’? Two years ago in November or December of 2006. After I did an audition for it, I ended up getting the job.

What was it like working on ‘Clone Wars’? First of all it was very intimidating and daunting. John Williams did a fantastic job with the Star Wars movies and Star Wars definitely has some of the most memorable themes. I got support, input, and honest opinions from the people who were working on the project about what what they liked and didn’t like.

What were the challenges, if any, that you faced while working on ‘Clone Wars’? Well, George Lucas wanted every planet to have it’s own theme. It’s like there would be a Bulgarian planet, an African planet, and an Egyptian planet musically, so I had to research different types of music, and all the little idiosyncrasies that their music has. For the orchestra, every week you’re bringing in a different combination of styles.

How do you think the ‘Clone Wars’ movie compares to the original ‘Star Wars’ movies? Star Wars: The Clone Wars did not start out as a movie. It was originally going to be a three part TV series. But George Lucas liked it so much that he wrote a beginning for it since it already had an ending. From the beginning I was working on a TV show, and when it became a movie, I rewrote it to have a more orchestral feel, since it was being recorded with a 90 piece orchestra. It’s also animation, so that’s different as well.

When did you know that you wanted to be a composer? Probably not until after college. I was on the road conducting for a band, and I would have to arrange pieces for different instruments. I also played guitar, but I realized that I was better at composing and arranging than guitar. Arranging is a very natural step in composing, since if you have a violin for example, but no part for violin, you have to write something new.

When composing music, what software do you use, before it goes to the orchestra? Logic Pro, and Logic Audio which are from Apple.

Are there any scores that you’ve done that you aren’t happy with, or think that you could have done better? I’m pretty happy with most of the stuff I’ve done. Part of the process of composing, is thinking ‘should it go like this, or like that’, but you end up figuring it out and you kind of like what you’re doing. If I could change anything I’ve done, I would probably do the first few episodes of Superboy over again. At first, the music was written in the style of Miami Vice. Looking back, this was not a very good idea, but that was only for the first 6 episodes or so.

What was your favorite movie, or TV show to write music for, and why? Well that’s kind of hard, since it’s like trying to choose who’s your favorite child, but if I had to pick a few, I would have to say, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, CSI Miami, Stargate, and The Visitor.

What was your favorite part of doing the music for ‘Clone Wars’? Getting to be in that world. I grew up being a huge fan of it, and I really liked exploring that since it’s so sophisticated. The first time I saw Star Wars in 1977, I had never heard anything like that music.

The Star Wars: The Clone Wars soundtrack was released August 12th, 2008 in stores, and August 16th, 2008 on iTunes.