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.

The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Book Review

Released July 1st, 2009

Page count: 272 pages

Size: 11 x 9

The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Films

(Text) By Frank Parisi and Gary Scheppke

Introduction By Dave Filoni

Foreword By George Lucas

Published By Chronicle Books, July 2009

Distributed by Raincoast Books in Canada

http://www.chroniclebooks.com/

http://www.raincoast.com/

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The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Book Review By John C.

Released in theatres a year ago this past month (August 15th), Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a film that I enjoyed. The animation was not as smooth as it could have been, but this companion book to the film makes you appreciate the character and set design, even if the final animation wasn’t as great as it could have been.

The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is written by Frank Parisi and Gary Sheppke with a forward by George Lucas and an introduction by Clone Wars director Dave Filoni. This is a must have for fans of the Clone Wars movie, TV series, or just fans of Star Wars in general.

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The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Book Review By Erin V.

The comic book style visuals of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, lends itself particularly well to a book like this one. While the movie got mixed reviews from critics, the television series has been fairly well received, (complete first season coming on DVD November 2nd of this year), and there is a fan base that would definitely want this book in their collection.

With a foreword by George Lucas and an introduction by Dave Filoni, this 272 page book is filled with hundreds of pictures of concept art from various stages of development - (including a few pieces from the original Star Wars films) - as well as loads of information just waiting to be memorized by fans. Because like all of these art books, it is the fans who will want to delve further into the world of the films they love.

All in all, from an art perspective, this book is worth having, and from a Star Wars fan perspective, this is an essential book for their collection.

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To find out more about The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, see here, (USA Amazon page). You can read our selective reviews of the film here, and an interview with the musical score composer here, and a review of the film's score here.

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.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

On DVD November 11th, 2008

Rated PG for sci-fi action violence throughout, brief language, and momentary smoking.

Dave Filoni (dir.)

Kevin Kiner (music)

Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker (voice)

Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano (voice)

James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi / 4-A7 / Medical Droid (voice)

Dee Bradley Baker as Clone Troopers / Captain Rex / Cody (voice)

Tom Kane as Yoda / Narrator / Admiral Yularen (voice)

Nika Futterman as Asajj Ventress / Tee-C-Seventy (voice)

Ian Abercrombie as Chancellor Palpatine / Darth Sidious (voice)

Corey Burton as General Loathsom / Ziro the Hutt / Kronos-327 (voice)

Catherine Taber as Padmé Amidala (voice)

Matthew Wood as Battle Droids (voice)

Kevin Michael Richardson as Jabba the Hutt (voice)

David Acord as Rotta the Huttlet (voice)

Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu (voice)

Anthony Daniels as C-3PO (voice)

Christopher Lee as Count Dooku (voice)

Our reviews below:

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars Review By John C.

**1/2 - (*** for it’s target audience) (out of four)

Clone Wars really isn’t that bad. While it doesn't even come close to the originals, it’s still enjoyable fun. A lot of the animation isn’t that good, it was made on a budget of about $8.5 million, which is a very small portion of what WALL•E cost. The backgrounds aren’t actually that bad in a lot of the scenes, but the people don’t exactly move realistically, and some of the shots don’t look like they were rendered quite right. But, it doesn't really matter. The story is entertaining, and the characters move it along well enough to make it work for what it is. For it’s audience, which would likely be the 8 to 12 crowd, it serves as an introductory to Star Wars, or just an opportunity to see some of their favorite characters on the big screen. It would be worth at least a rental on DVD, or worth getting just to complete you Star Wars collection.

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars Review By Erin V.

**1/2 (out of four)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It’s an animated Star Wars movie, that does not stand up to the originals, but for what it is... it’s worth watching. The target audience that will probably be watching this, is younger then for the original movies anyway. The story that the movie follows is - as the name suggests - a bridge between Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith taking place during the Clone Wars. I actually found that with the pace of this movie, it held my attention slightly more than Attack of the Clones did. The animation is nowhere near that of most major animated movies out there these days, but it had it’s own style, and a fraction of the budget. The movie seemed to be more of a launch for the series that is now playing on CTV. For it’s intended audience; borrow it from the library, or rent it.

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Consensus: While it doesn’t stand up to the other Star Wars movies, it’s worth a rental for it’s intended audience. **1/2 (out of four)

The Clone Wars debuts tonight at 7:00 PM (EST) on CTV

George Lucas’ animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series has its Canadian premiere tonight at 7:00 PM (EST) on CTV. It will be repeated at the same time on the Space channel this Friday. It is only 30 minutes, and should be worth checking out.

'Star Wars: Clone Wars' Series on CTV This Fall

CTV has acquired the rights to the "Clone Wars" series for the fall. It will air on both CTV and SPACE with air dates still to be announced.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080812/ENT_review_clone_wars_080812/20080812?hub=Entertainment