Latest Updates: Wednesday, August 20, 2008
I have more information on the new McDonald's toy promotion. Including pictures, a new online portion and more.As I mentioned in the last article the new McDonald's Happy Meal toy promotion will last until September 11th. It has begun as of August 15th. Those who go to McDonald's and buy a Happy Meal will receive one of 18 Star Wars bobble heads, some that have special features such as lightsaber's that light up. These toys are not just from the Clone wars, their are also several toys from the original Star wars trilogy. The new information is quite interesting though. Usually a toy promotion at a fast food restaurant is simply that, you get a toy and that's it.
However, McDonald's has something special planned for young Star Wars fans this time around. Rather than just give kids a toy, they have created a unique online experience for kids. This involves a virtual world that kids design and play in. It was created in July and the Star Wars portion of it will be open through September 10th. The kids can reach this site by going to www.happymeal.com, where they will meet Yoda who arrives on a Gunship (like on the toy) and takes them from the space station locale they entered on a Jedi Quest. Using six secret codes they find on Happy Meal packaging, kids can go on even more Jedi Quests. This is a very interesting move, mainly because it gives the kids to continue the experience even after they are done playing with the toy. I wouldn't be at all surprised if other fast food companies follow suit in similar ways in the future.
Even more cool in my mind though, are the toys. Since I was a kid I loved playing with and collecting Star Wars action figures. I know many never grew out of it. Their are plenty of adults who enjoy collecting Star Wars toys as a hobby, and get much fulfillment out of it. It's also good of course, if you have any kids who loves Star Wars. I recently received a set of Toys to share with you, and I took pictures. I will be showing you pictures of all the new toys, as well as their features. Enjoy. 
The Darth Vader bobble-head features movable-removable wings and makes two noises: the firing of lasers and Vader's famous breathing. 
The Boba Fett figure is pretty straight forward. He is riding atop his Slave I and he can roll forward on wheels. 
The Ahsoka figure is perched atop the Twilight Freighter and her lightsaber lights up.
The Chewbacca bobble-head is sitting on top of the AT-ST or chicken walker, that he stole from the Empire in Return of the Jedi with a little help from the Ewok's. The AT-ST winds up and then moves, it is pretty cool, it moves almost like the clumsy chicken walker from the movies. 
The Stormtrooper bobble is on top of an AT-AT. It also has a wind up handle like the AT-ST does and moves around. 
General Grievous is onboard his starfighter, he has two green lightsabers that light up. 
Yoda is riding on a Republic Gunship and says: "May the force be with you". 
Han Solo is of course in his signature ship the Millenium Falcon. You can pull the ship backward to wind up the wheels. 
C-3PO, often called things such as "the professor" or "Goldenrod" looks surprised in this bobble-head, where he is riding on a landspeeder. There are wheels on the bottom.
The dark acolyte and personal assassin of Count Dooku, Asaaj Ventres looks just as hideous and bitter as usual in her bobble-head, which for some strange reason is perched atop a Droid Starfighter. Her lightsaber lights up.
The picture I took really doesn't properly capture the way this figure represents Anakin's face. The Anakin Skywalker bobble-head really captures how troubles he is in a way that you would be surprised a bobble-head would be capable of doing. He is riding on a customized Jedi Starfigher with windup wheels. 
Luke Skywalker appears to be riding in his signature X-wing, it features windup wheels. 
RD-D2 is riding in the socket of an N-1 Starfighter, such as the one Anakin Skywalker used in Episode 1 to destroy the Droid Control ship and turn the tide of the battle. He beeps and makes noises much like the real R2. 
Captain Rex rides in his Republic gunship, the ship features windup wheels. Personally this is one of my favorites. He probably has the biggest head of all the bobble-heads. 
The intrepid Ewok scout Wicket W. Warrick is featured on a stolen Imperial speeder bike. The speeder has windup wheels. Up close Wicket has that Ewok face that we all know and love. 
Princess Leia Organa is running from the Imperials in the Tantive IV, her ship has wheels. 
I really think this figure of Obi-Wan Kenobi on his Jedi Starfighter does a good job of capturing his sardonic, almost smug expression. His starfighter features windup wheels. 
The final figure, that of Padme Amidala, rides on board her Naboo Royal Cruiser. The craft has wheels.
That is all the different toys from the promotion. I think they are pretty cool. Just thought you guys might want to check these out.
Got news or questions? E-mail us at contact@theclonewarz.net.
Discuss these stories at The
Galactic Senate.
We have another review of The Clone Wars, written by Andrew Liptak. A few spoilers involving the plot are contained within.
Review: The Clone Wars
The latest installment of the Star Wars franchise is an entertaining, but flawed film that adds to the Clone Wars saga by bringing Lucasfilm into the computer generated imagery realm.
Set shortly after Episode 2: Attack of the Clones, the story opens with the kidnapping of Jabba the Hutt’s son. From there, the story picks up with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, along with their Clone Troopers in a pitched battle. Following that, the heroes go off to secure a treaty with Jabba the Hutt and save his son.
I found the story to be very lacking, and very straight forward. Jabba’s son is kidnapped, in a plot engineered by Count Dooku and Ziro the Hutt (a Truman Capote sounding gangster on Coruscant), designed to split the Jedi off from the outer rim.
The film was very fast, starting off with a monologue that probably would have been better with the traditional yellow scrolling text, and it picks up speed from there. This is one of the strengths of the film - the speed and action. If there’s anything that Star Wars is fantastic at, it’s epic space battles, and this film doesn’t disappoint with the various scenes in which this happens. The same can be said for the ground action with Obi-Wan and the Clone Troopers. The animators did a fantastic job putting everything together, and what we see is a very well animated series of scenes that are not only complex, but well put together.
The clones featured in the film are the highlight of the movie, and I think that the series that’s coming should be highlighting them, rather than the rest of the main characters. In the background, we can see that the animators took particular care with them, as we see them limping in the background, talking to one another. Despite the fact that they’re all cloned from Jango Fett, they’re individuals, particularly some of the ‘face characters’, such as Rex and Cody. Rex especially stood out, and I suspect that he’ll be on his way towards being a fan favorite, especially in the 501st. The scene that really grabbed me was when they were speaking with Ahsoka in the hanger.
According to the novelization, most of the troopers that we saw were 501st, and there were other references to the 501st Fan Legion, such as the pink astromech (R2-KT, named for Katie Johnson), which was a really cool thing to see.
Other parts of the movie just didn’t work, at least not to the level that I was hoping - This was a movie designed geared towards a younger generation. But to me, the dialogue was just painful at times, especially with the main characters such as Anakin. A number of reviews spoke to Ziro the Hutt, who sounded like Truman Capote, but I didn’t find him as annoying as others.
The bottom line for me was that this was an entertaining movie, but certainly not one that will rank with even the prequel trilogy, although there are aspects that do make it stand out among the others. If anything, it will be interesting to see where this goes when it reaches television.
End Review:
This review printed with permission from the blog of Andrew Liptak, a frequent contributor and friend of the site. To visit the original source go to: http://tk3220.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/review-the-clone-wars-2/ you can also visit the 501stcast by clicking on the banner on the left sidebar of the homepage.
Got news or questions? E-mail us at contact@theclonewarz.net.
Discuss these stories at The
Galactic Senate.
Latest Updates: Tuesday, August 19, 2008
We have added a new comment feature and we are working on further upgrades to the site.We have set up the comment feature for all news articles. At the bottom of the story there will be something that says the number of comments, simply click on this. It will take you to a page where you can add comments and share your opinions with other readers.
We are also working on further upgrades to the site. I cannot give a fixed date for when our next updates will be in place, but I hope to at least partially unveil them in a month or so, and have them completed in two months if possible. I will certainly keep you up to date on this. These updates include a new banner, a new skin and layout, among other things. We are also going to have weekly polls on the left sidebar on the main page. I will not get into anything else at the moment, but those are just some of the things to look forward to in the future.
We will of course also be updating the site regularly with any news relevant to the Clone Wars era of Star Wars, so stay tuned. I hope in the next couple months as well to expand a bit more on our other sections. As always, if you desire to contribute to the site please let us know through contact@theclonewarz.net and we will get back to you very quickly. Also, if you have any news on the Clone Wars era that has missed us please drop us a line and we will be glad to write a post on it, and credit you of course for bringing it to our attention.
Got news or questions? E-mail us at contact@theclonewarz.net.
Discuss these stories at The
Galactic Senate.
Latest Updates: Saturday, August 16, 2008
Last night I went to the opening of the new Star Wars The Clone Wars movie. I have written a review of the movie. This review will not include major spoilers. So you can read on without worry if you haven't seen it yet.
If we do post a review that includes major spoilers warning will be give, this review, however, will not have any major spoilers. That is to say, none of the review will give away major plot points.
Review of Star Wars The Clone Wars:
I would like to start by saying that my expectations were not high. I love Star Wars, I have been a huge fan since I was about eight years old. However, after seeing the previews, hearing bits about the movie, seeing the animation and reading the less than enthusiastic reviews from almost all of the pre-screenings, I was not expecting much.I have to admit however, that I got more than I expected.
The movie did not start out as normal Star Wars movies do, it had the familiar yellow logo, but unlike normal, Clone Wars was included in the logo. There was no yellow scrolling writing explaining the beginning of the movie, which was rather dissapointing. Instead, there was a evening news-esque voice-over giving a very short explanation of the opening scene, was was hardly and explanation at all. I can only assume that the flanneled one did this to cater to the younger audiences. I will be frank, while all of the Star Wars movies are meant for kids, as George Lucas has said before, this one is more so that way than any of the others. I will not get into details but suffice it to say if you are not a Star Wars fanboy, fangirl, or a child, you probably will not like this movie.
I of course, being a huge fanboy, enjoyed it. There were a few times when I was taken out of the moment, and it was quite clear that I was watching a movie. In other words, the immersion wasn't amazing. It was pretty lighthearted over all, more so than the other movie. The only real issue was that, as I already mentioned, this hurt it in the aspect of immersion. You rarely feel like you are a part of the movie, you rarely forget you are in a theater. While I said it exceeded my expectations, this was only because my expectations were already dismal. It was not amazing. It was an enjoyable affair and the dialogue was not as bad in my opinion, as in some of the prequels. While it was a fair bit less intense, I don't remember any scenes that caused the painful awkardness of the love scenes from Attack of the Clones which can best be described as intense failures with poor chemistry. The dialogue was still not amazing, however, it could have been worse.
The animation was like none I have ever seen before. It was actually not bad, though sometimes the characters seemed to lack expression. If you wanted to know what they were feeling you had to pay attention to what they said, visual cues were largely non-existent. The voice acting was not all that bad. The Anakin did not sound much like Hayden Christiansen, however the Obi-Wan was fairly close. I still don't think it had the sardonic edge that Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan had, which was a shame. The Yoda and the Padme were not bad either, but they still were not the same.
Overall, the movie was not as bad as I expected. However, do not expect it to be up to par with GL's previous films, even the prequels. It was enjoyable to watch as a Star Wars fan, but as in exercise in good movie making it did not do incredibly well, and it is doubtful it will be winning any awards. At the very least, George Lucas gives us the first female jedi with a prominent role, which was refreshing. The hutt's, especially Jabba's uncle, are highly amusing. And in the end it was good enough not to completely dissapoint me. As a Star Wars fan, I would have liked something better, I am not going to lie. But it wasn't absolutely dreadful, just a few steps down from the quality we had come to expect. Which is saying a fair bit, considering that the prequels are not the best of the flanneled one's work.
I give it a B-. My advice: go and see it for yourself.
Labels: Movies, The Clone Wars
Got news or questions? E-mail us at contact@theclonewarz.net.
Discuss these stories at The
Galactic Senate.
McDonald's has unveiled a new Happy Meal toy line based on the new movie Star Wars The Clone Wars, so if you have a child, a niece or a nephew who loves Star Wars, this is an opportunity you don't want to miss.The promotion will go from August 15th to September 11th. It will include 18 different Star Wars Clone Wars bobbleheads. The different toys are Padme Amidala, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Ahsoka, Rd-D2, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, General Grievous, C-3PO, Wicket W. Warrick, Princess Leia, Storm Trooper, Asaaj Ventress, Boba Fett, Han Solo, Chewbacca and Clone Trooper. They are all featured atop a Star Wars vehicle, such as an AT-AT, or a TIE Fighter. The style of the toys is done in much the same way as the style of the Star Wars Clone Wars movie.
To view several of the toys and see more information about the promotion click here
There is another section of the site you can visit to get a look at the other eleven toys. At the first link you can only see seven of them. However, at this link if you look at the top left screen it will flash twice and show the other available Star Wars figures. It flashes pretty quickly though, so you may need to watch a few times to see all the different toys.
Whether you are an enthusiastic collector, or just have kids, nephews or nieces who love Star Wars, this is a great opportunity, don't miss it!
Labels: Clone Wars, Collecting, Toys
Got news or questions? E-mail us at contact@theclonewarz.net.
Discuss these stories at The
Galactic Senate.
Andrew Liptak of the 501st has reviewed the new Star Wars The Clone Wars movie soundtrack. Sample's of the new music are included. Continue on to read the review. 
Album Review: The Clone Wars (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
I'm a Star Wars geek. Regular readers will note that I'm a regular member of the 501st Legion, a group that does Star Wars costuming (I'm a storm trooper), and I've seen each movie numerous times already. So it goes to show that I'm a bit excited for the upcoming Clone Wars movie that's coming out at the end of the week. (Yes, I'll be in armor for it.) Depending on where you are, you'll likely see a couple of our troopers out in force for the movie, especially in the big cities.
With every Star Wars movie comes a Star Wars soundtrack. They're big, bombastic, exciting to listen to and it fits with the entire epic space saga quite nicely. For the Clone Wars, John Williams isn't doing the work, but Kevin Kiner, who's done work for CSI Miami, Enterprise, Stargate SG-1, and a number of other television episodes. The result is mixed. While there are some tracks that absolutely blew me away, such as the B'omarr Monastary, Landing On Teth, there are some that really don't fit with the rest of the soundtrack, such as Obi-Wan to the Rescue, which uses heavy guitars, which just doesn't fit.
What is kind of neat is the branching out of sounds. There's a bit of an eastern sound to some of the tracks, and it's nice to see that Kiner doesn't feel too constrained by the original soundtracks by putting out something that's essentially a repackaged soundtrack. There's some fairly good, creative work here. While that's the case, this soundtrack isn't up to the same level as the soundtracks from A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi. There's no grand themes on the level of The Imperial March or the Main Theme. The tracks support the film (I suspect, I haven't seen it yet) and maintain much of the same environmental feel that reminds you that you are in a Star Wars movie - which is the entire point. The sound here moves the action along, and does so in a timely and precise fashion, and one that's not bad at all.
Overall, it's a fun listen, and if you're a Star Wars fan, you'll like it, but don't be expecting any sort of audio breakthrough when it comes to the sound.
Star Wars Main Title & A Galaxy Divided - Kevin Kiner
Landing on Teth - Kevin Kiner
B'omarr Monastary - Kevin Kiner
End Review.
This review has been published with permission from Andrew's blog, he is a frequent contributor to the site. If you want to read the original source you can find his blog at carryyouaway.blogspot.com, you can also visit the 501st podcast by clicking on the 501st banner on the homepage.
Labels: Soundtrack
Got news or questions? E-mail us at contact@theclonewarz.net.
Discuss these stories at The
Galactic Senate.
Latest Updates: Monday, August 4, 2008
Grant Gould has announced via his Starwars.com blog that there will be a weekly online comic coming to accompany the TV series.
This is going to be different from the comic strip version, but will be a full color, 5 page comic every week. Here's Grant's blogpost:Lucasfilm announced some exciting news at Comic-Con regarding a weekly Clone Wars online comic that will accompany the TV series. There will be four artists switching off each week -- Grant Gould (me), Tom Hodges, Katie Cook, and Jeff Carlisle -- and I'm really excited about it. I think it's gonna set a new standard in webcomics and blow everyone away.
Full Article
Hodges chimed in on Theforce.net's forums:“This has been a few months in the making and I’m relieved to be giving out details. Pablo Hildago at Lucas Online approached me earlier this year and asked me to give him a few names of people I would be comfortable working with. Right off the top of my head I suggested Katie and Grant. the 3rd was difficult as I have many a lot of friends who I would have liked to have on this, it just seemed like some were too busy. Pablo suggested Jeff and I agreed.
The quick version is each week, we’ll be given a story leading into that weeks episode. Now it could be a direct tie-in or peripherally connected from a distance because some episodes have story arcs not connected to each and every episode. Keep in mind, the series will not always be about Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme. It will flesh out characters we’ve only seen bits and pieces of.
This will also NOT be “web-strip” format. It will be full color, comic format and each story will be 5 pages in length.
I’ve been really excited about this (and one other project I have with them that i should be able to talk about soon). I’m really excited for Katie, Jeff and Grant as well.”
Source
Labels: Clone Wars, Comics
Got news or questions? E-mail us at contact@theclonewarz.net.
Discuss these stories at The
Galactic Senate.
