Light sabers, light tone in 'Clone Wars'

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - A tinge of Anakin Skywalker's going to dark side clearly is visible in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Yet the animated adventure mostly harks back to the fun, swashbuckling times of the original Star Wars trilogy.

Lucasfilm Animation has crafted a movie nicely tucked in to Anakin's early heroic days, before his transformation into the evil Darth Vader.

Along for the ride are noble-hearted clone soldiers with the camaraderie of Marine grunts, inept android warriors as idiotic as the Three Stooges and a young protege who rivals Anakin for cockiness and affectionately calls him "Sky Guy."

Dave Filoni, director of the movie that releases Aug. 15, and supervising director for The Clone Wars animated TV show debuting this fall on TNT and the Cartoon Network, said the idea was to return to the wisecracking tone of the original Star Wars in 1977, before the gloom of Anakin's fall.

"I wanted this to have the banter. I wanted this to be funny," Filoni said in an interview at Skywalker Ranch, home to Lucasfilm Animation, a division of Star Wars creator George Lucas' filmmaking empire. "Telling that dark story of Anakin Skywalker was important for George, but this was a chance to show Anakin before that. Anakin as a hero, Anakin as the good guy, Anakin more like his son," Luke Skywalker, of the original trilogy.

The Anakin in Clone Wars is a hybrid of Luke and his rascally ally, Han Solo, Filoni said.

"He's cocky like Han, he can do a lot of things like Han, he's clever with machines like Han. But he's naive like Luke. The whole galaxy is a bit overwhelming," Filoni said.

The movie presents all of the key characters from Anakin's world: Jedi masters Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu and Yoda; Anakin's future wife Padme Amidala; androids R2-D2 and C-3PO; gangster Jabba the Hutt; villain Count Dooku; and Palpatine, the galaxy's evil emperor in waiting.

The main newcomer is Ahsoka Tano, a teenage girl from an exotic alien species who's assigned as Anakin's Jedi apprentice. With mischievous wit, Ahsoka breaks down Anakin's stiff facade and reluctance to take on a student, the two establishing a flippant rapport as they slice up droids with their light sabers and scale a daunting summit on a rescue mission.

"She definitely brings a fun side out of Anakin. I think they have such a great relationship," said Ashley Eckstein, who provides Ahsoka's voice. "Ahsoka is very eager to prove herself, and I don't think she would allow Anakin not to accept her."

A few veteran Star Wars performers provide voices for the movie, including Samuel L. Jackson as Mace, Christopher Lee as Dooku and Anthony Daniels as C-3PO. Taking over from Hayden Christensen as the voice of Anakin is Matt Lanter, while James Arnold Taylor does Obi-Wan, who was played by Ewan McGregor in the prequel trilogy.

Related topic galleries: Networking, Christopher Lee, Ewan McGregor, Samuel L. Jackson, George Lucas, Hayden Christensen

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