Clone Wars Cartoon Extended!

[Barada]

From starwars.com:

Following the immense success of the first 20 chapters of the animated Star Wars: Clone Wars micro-series, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Cartoon Network will continue the saga with five new expanded chapters beginning March 21, 2005.
Once again helmed by Genndy Tartakovsky, Star Wars: Clone Wars continues where Chapter 20 left off, but in a new format. Whereas previous installments were just three minutes long, each new chapter will be 12 minutes, promising viewers four times the excitement, adventures and intrigue as they lead into the long-awaited finale to the saga, Star Wars: Episode III.


Read the entire article here.

 

[Barada]

Following the immense success of the first 20 chapters of the animated Star Wars: Clone Wars micro-series, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Cartoon Network will continue the saga with five new expanded chapters beginning March 21, 2005.
Once again helmed by Genndy Tartakovsky, Star Wars: Clone Wars continues where Chapter 20 left off, but in a new format. Whereas previous installments were just three minutes long, each new chapter will be 12 minutes, promising viewers four times the excitement, adventures and intrigue as they lead into the long-awaited finale to the saga, Star Wars: Episode III.

Tartakovsky, the talent behind the critically acclaimed Samurai Jack and Dexter's Laboratory, will return as director, co-screenwriter and executive producer of the new Star Wars: Clone Wars animated mini-series. Cartoon Network will air the new chapters from March 21 to March 25 with limited commercial interruptions. These new installments are planned to appear online to members of Hyperspace: The Official Star Wars Fan Club.

The first twenty chapters -- still available for download to Hyperspace members -- featured such fabled characters as Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala, Mace Windu and Anakin Skywalker in the ongoing battle of the Army of the Republic against a vast uprising spearheaded by the Separatists and their massive droid armies. Chapter 20 introduced viewers to General Grievous, military leader of the Separatist armies, and a major character in next year's Star Wars: Episode III. The new mini-series will include an expanded role for Grievous.

"We were really impressed with the quality of the animation and the storytelling abilities that Cartoon Network and Genndy brought to the first Star Wars: Clone Wars episodes, and clearly viewers were, too, because the feedback we received about the micro-series was fantastic," said Howard Roffman, President of Lucas Licensing. "This new mini-series will bring even more depth and excitement to the story of the Clone Wars and will lead viewers right into the adventures of Star Wars: Episode III."

"It is a tremendous honor for Cartoon Network to have been selected by Lucasfilm to produce these new Star Wars stories, because the Star Wars saga is one of the most popular and successful entertainment properties in the world," said Jim Samples, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Cartoon Network Worldwide. "Genndy thoroughly enjoyed the collaborative relationship we built with Lucasfilm during the production of the first Clone Wars episodes, and is terribly excited now to be entrusted with furthering the storyline and working with such popular and enduring characters. This will truly be a 'must-see' for Star Wars fans and animation lovers."

 

[Jedi Daniel]

Excellent news Loved the first 2 seasons and it's good to see it will continue on.

 

[wookiee_cookiee]

"Star Wars" 'Toons Up Again

by Josh Grossberg
Jun 10, 2004, 10:30 AM PT

The Force is returning to the Cartoon Network in a really big way.

The cable channel is reteaming with Lucasfilm Ltd. to broadcast five brand-new 12-minute animated Star Wars adventures that will continue the storylines first set out in the 20-episode Star Wars: Clone Wars micro-series that debuted last fall on the Cartoon Network.


The new segments will once again be written, produced and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, the creator of Samurai Jack and Dexter's Laboratory and mastermind of the original Clone Wars installments.

Cartoon Network spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg says the new episodes will continue advancing the plot of the micro-series, which picked up the Star Wars story in the time after Episode II: Attack of the Clones. When last we left our heroes, it was at the start of civil war between the old Republic and the separatist movement.

The latest installments will introduce a new baddie, General Grievous, the military commander of the soulless droid armies who made an appearance in the 20th segment of the micro-series and is supposed to play a key role in Star Wars: Episode III, the final chapter in George Lucas' trilogy of prequels.

Unlike the first batch of shorts, which premiered last November and lasted about three minutes each, the new 'toons are more in depth and will go further in getting Jedi fans caught up with the story for Episode III.

"What you'll be reading in the scroll [for Episode III] is what you'll be seeing in the cartoon," said Goldberg.

The Clone Wars series is scheduled to bow on March 21, two months before Episode III hits theaters. One episode will air each weeknight (and be available for a limited time online); at the end of the week, the network plans to show the episodes as an hourlong movie.

With Episode III set to launch May 19, 2005, Lucas & Co. are finishing up postproduction work.

According to an update on the official starwars.com site, a second unit team is now shooting some backgrounds of Wookiees at Fox Studios in Sydney (word has it fans will get to see a young Chewbacca, as well as the world he comes from), while additional photography is planned for August. And Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic still needs to complete an whopping 2,000-plus computer effects shots by April 1 of next year.

Despite rampant rumors on the Web that the prequel will be named Star Wars: Episode III--Birth of the Empire, Lucasfilm has yet to reveal an official title. The movie's moniker, as well as a teaser trailer and poster, will be in circulation by year's end.


As for the Clone Wars cartoon shorts, the original 20 episodes are still available online but only to members of the Star Wars fan club (which costs $39.95 a year), although there are rumors of an eventual DVD release compiling all episodes. Lucasfilm and Dark Horse Comics are also teaming to release a Clones Wars Adventures comic book based on the 'toons next month.


Meanwhile, the original Star Wars trilogy will be released in a four-disc DVD box set on Sept. 21.

http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,14284,00.html?tnews

 

[Buzz Bumble]

I'm not sure of the original source for this (I got it from the Usenet Newsgroups) ...

Clone Tees Up Episode III
Animator Genndy Tartakovsky, who created Cartoon Network's cult animated
series Star Wars: Clone Wars, told Now Playing Magazine that a new season
of shorts will bring fans right to the beginning of next summer's Star
Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. "Basically, if you cut out the
scroll [from the beginning of Episode III], it would be completely seamless
where we end and the movie starts," Tartakovsky told the magazine.

Tartakovsky added: "We're doing five 12-minute episodes. [The original
episodes] were like three minutes. It's harder, but in a way it's easier,
because in the three-minute ones it's basically just piling in a bunch of
action. But in these new ones, we have a lot of character and still a lot
of action, but we were able to really do some more acting and
relationship-building. So it was much more fun to do, and that way it
didn‚t seem harder."

The new episodes will be darker as they lead in to the prequel about Anakin
Skywalker's descent into the Dark Side, Tartakovsky said. "I think the tone
is a little darker initially. We're kind of carrying all the ideas from
Episode II that were established: the secret marriage of Anakin and Padmé
and his relationship with Obi-Wan progressing beyond just bickering. That
was one of the main things that we tried to focus on. They maybe become
more friends than simply master and padawan. It's a little bit more [like]
a movie. It feels more like one story [than the first series did]. We have
one story building into the climax, and then there are a couple of side
stories, but they're all very interrelated."

The newest batch of Clone Wars episodes is set to debut on March 26.

 

[Darth Boru]

Haven't managed to see the first 20 yet. Did I hear a whisper they were out / about to be out on dvd?