Secret Weapons is the first part of the D-Squad arc and I have to admit, it’s a wonderful setup and a great side-story to the heart of The Clone Wars. It follows a very James Bond-like storyline with a Dirty Dozen style of mission. Colonel Gascon (played quite wonderfully by Stephen Stanton) is assigned a team of droids of varying abilities and told to infiltrate the Separatist fleet to steal an encryption module so they can crack enemy cryptography. It’s the same sort of set up you saw repeatedly in James Bond films, starting with Sean Connery’s hunt for a Lektor in From Russia With Love.

Then, the team is taken to a Peter Lorre-like Doctor (played by Dee Bradley Baker) who gives them gadgets specific to their mission. Then, they’re left to carry out the assignment.

This episode is quite wisely played for laughs and charm, but it also has action and suspense elements to it that can’t help but be compelling.

Artoo, WAC (a wise-cracking screw up of a Pit Droid), and a few other astromechs (including an adorable and indispensable pink QT-KT droid) infiltrate the Seperatist fleet and go on their covert mission to steal the codes that will aid the Republic. It’s straightforward, fun, and incredibly well-lit and animated. It’s amazing how much personality can be infused into a group of faceless astromech droids and a Plankton-like colonel with a Napoleon complex when they’re arrayed against an entire army of Seperatist droids.

The lighting through the ships, on the display panels, and coming from the droids themselves is second-to-none. Even in what some might consider to be a series of throwaway episodes, the artistry on display is nothing short of jaw-dropping.

And more than anything? This episode just made me laugh. The whole way through. I’ve really enjoyed when the series gets silly now and again. Star Wars is fun. Bombad Jedi is still one of my favorite episodes. This is very much in that vain and it’s a good thing.

This episode put a smile on my face the whole way through, and that’s all you can ask for. It was good Star Wars and I’m excited to see the rest of this arc play out.

Because of my trip this last weekend, I still haven’t had a chance to watch the first episode of this arc, but from what I’ve seen of it in clips at Celebration VI, then I’m sad to hear we’re only getting half until next year.

This Saturday marks the last episode before the holidays for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. After a comet damages their shuttle, R2-D2, Colonel Gascon and the other droids crash on a desolate planet where they must make their way across a bewildering expanse of emptiness to carry out their mission in “A Sunny Day in the Void,” airing this Saturday, December 8th at 9:30am ET/PT on Cartoon Network.

The series will return with new episodes starting on January 5, 2013.

I’ve been dying to see this arc, though I’m equally dying to see Darth Maul come back… Perhaps we’ll be pleasantly surprised. But the arcs are building to something, and I think we’re going to end in a fiery explosion of a finish.

Here’s the episode breakdown from LFL:

This Saturday marks the beginning of a new story arc on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. R2-D2 is part of a team of Republic droids chosen for an important mission led by the diminutive Colonel Gascon (voiced by Stephen Stanton) to obtain an encryption module from a Separatist dreadnought. The droids must overcome numerous challenging obstacles to succeed in this crucial assignment in “Secret Weapons,” airing this Saturday, December 1st at 9:30am ET/PT on Cartoon Network.

Episode Trivia:

• The opening logo on the episodes of this arc is blue rather than the traditional yellow, as a tribute to R2-D2.
• The Jedi Knights seen accompanying their droids during the war room briefing are Anakin Skywalker (with R2-D2), Aayla Secura (with QT-KT), Thongla Jur (with U9-C4) and Tera Sinube (with M5-BZ).
• WAC-47’s master is Clone Commander Neyo, a trooper first seen on Saleucami in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.
• QT-KT is inspired by R2-KT, a pink astromech droid created by Star Wars fans in tribute to Katie Johnson, daughter of Albin Johnson, founder of the 501st Legion. The droid, who is now dedicated to the memory of the late Katie, makes appearances at children’s hospitals. Though R2-KT previously appeared in The Clone Wars movie, Qutee is a separate droid to avoid having two droids named “Artoo” on the same mission.
• The hazard labels on R2-D2’s enhanced booster rockets read: “WARNING: Supercharger boost must not exceed 150 percent” and “KEEP BACK.”
• Dr. Gubacher is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, who fans will recognize as the voice of all of the clones as well as numerous other series characters.

If I were going to put together a list of my five favorite episodes, there’s a very strong possibility that “A Necessary Bond” would find its way up there. I liked this episode a lot. It had everything you’d want from classic Star Wars, it had echoes of older episodes of The Clone Wars, it was funny, suspenseful, thrilling, and pulled everything together in a package that brought a smile to my face and the face of my kids. In fact, my son turned to me just after the mid-point of the third act of the episode and said, “This is one of the best episodes ever.”

This episode sees the younglings escaping from the clutches of Hondo Ohnaka, only to find that Floruum has been taken over by Grievous and the Separatists. They’re compelled to join forces and fight off their common enemy.

I loved that there were so many bits of dialogue and situations that echoed the classic trilogy lines. Perhaps easily my favorite moment (and one that should provide David Tennant with untold amounts of joy) is when  Huyang gets knocked off the ship by Artoo, Return of the Jedi style. In fact, every single bit of chase and action sequence in this episode built higher and higher and higher until they truly reached a fevered pitch.

The comedy of the episode was great, too. I love the droids and their terror at the “miniature Jedi,” and I love that they sent Artoo in to bluff the droids. It was a great scene and it had my kids rolling in laughter and me chuckling.

And I love that the Slave I had a part to play in all of this. It makes me confident we’ll see Boba Fett on the show taking back possession of his father’s ship.

The younglings have been one of the single best additions to the show since it began. It’s almost a shame they’ve only lasted four episodes. Over the four episodes, each one was given a personality and a background that by the end of the arc you were rooting for them all individually and together. My two favorites were the Ithorian and the Wookiee. Though that’s not fair to the others, because I liked them, too.

Knowing now that the events of the season premiere happen AFTER this episode make Hondo’s actions over the course of this arc make so much more sense. Why they chose to air the episodes out of order is a bit perplexing because it would have really amped up the stakes through the season as a whole. But I guess bouncing around the chronology is how they do things on The Clone Wars.

The thing I hated most about this episode is that it sees the end of the younglings arc. I want to see all of these younglings in more adventures together, or in pairs, or a few at a time, or assigned to their Jedi masters. I’d love to see a show about Gungi and maybe a couple of these other kids trying to survive with their masters or together during the dark times after Order 66. It would be very cool.

Now that this arc is over though, I can’t wait to see the story started back at the premiere continued on.

I really can’t wait to see how this episode plays out, and knowing that it does, in fact, occur before the season premiere makes it all the more intriguing. And seeing Grievous back in action is always exciting. It also makes Hondo’s actions during the youngling arc that much more understandable.

Here’s the official synopsis:

In the conclusion to this four-part story arc, General Grievous launches a full-scale attack on the pirate base on Florrum in “A Necessary Bond,” airing this Saturday, November 24th at 9:30am ET/PT on Cartoon Network.

Episode Trivia:

• This episode answers what exactly happened to Hondo Ohnaka’s base, which was seen destroyed in “Revival,” the season opener. Originally, “Revival” was planned to air later in the season, in proper chronological order, but it was moved to the start in order to better showcase the Darth Maul storyline. In “Revival,” Hondo describes his base being overrun by General Grievous.

Episodes are always better when something is at stake and the heroes are on the run from a threat they can’t handle. Sending the younglings to rescue Ahsoka from Hondo as Obi-wan is forced to abandon ship after an ill-timed siege by General Grievous is a perfect recipe for “battles I do not think that we can win.”

It’s great to see General Grievous back on the show, I feel like he’s been underutilized since almost season 2 (though his business at the beginning of last season was fantastic, too). I would love to see him marauding the Jedi in a way that makes him lethal once again instead of almost a joke. This episode certainly went a long way in bolstering that reputation.

With the younglings and their rescue of Ahsoka there are a lot of classic cinema motifs present with the travelling circus. For one, it’s instantly reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman films, though this is presented in a much more lighthearted fashion than The Seventh Seal. My kids told me it felt like A Bug’s Life (itself a remake of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai), but I felt it was the most similar to Octopussy. In the 13th official EON Productions James Bond, both the bad guys and Bond have to infiltrate the circus to both enact and foil plans. And it’s funny, there are no less than three Star Wars alums in Octopussy, including General Riekan, Admiral Motti, and Boba Fett.

Overall, I felt this episode was very good. The lighting of the circus and their masks through the performance was so dynamic and, despite the colors, had the soft filters and lights you’d expect out of that Bergman sort film.

My one problem with this entire arc is Hondo. He’s acting completely out of character from every other time we’ve seen him, both in this season and in others. I don’t think he’d cross the Jedi so lightly, especially not Anakin Skywalker. I feel like the writers know it, too, otherwise they wouldn’t continue giving him lines explaining, “I change my mind a lot when profit is involved.”

There’s two explanations for this: one, this is how they’ve decided to shoehorn his involvement to fit the rest of the story, or two, there’s someone or something pulling his strings forcing him to act in this manor. I think the second is the much more compelling story, but we’ll see if that actually plays out.

This episode leaves us hanging in the middle of the rescue and there are still plenty of things that can go wrong before Ahsoka and the younglings are in the clear, and Hondo is certainly going to be forced to answer for what he’s done.

Until next week!

This is shaping up to be one of my favorite arcs of the show ever and I’m so sad I missed it in its entirety at Celebration VI. Here are two clips and the official notes of the episode:

The third episode in this four-part story arc finds Ahsoka captured by Hondo’s pirates and the younglings working together to infiltrate the pirates’ den, using their wits and courage to launch a daring rescue. This episode also marks Obi-Wan Kenobi’s reunion with an old adversary, General Grievous, in “Bound for Rescue,” airing this Saturday, November 17th at 9:30am ET/PT on Cartoon Network.

Trivia:

• The wide eyed Ithorian youngling named Byph is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, the voice of the clones.
• This arc is the first (and only) appearance of General Grievous this season.

Seriously, this episode looks EPIC.

Back for its third season “Dan Vs.” returns with a whole new season of adventures and grudge matches. In the premiere episode, Dan (Curtis Armstrong) is forced to attend anger management classes, where he meets like-minded yet very unstable spirit (played by Jenna Fischer)

“Dan Vs.” is a show geared towards a more mature viewer, remains appropriate and hilarious for all ages and features topical subjects and pop culture references galore. This year, Dan and his friend Chris (voiced by Dave Foley) and Chris’s wife Elise (Paget Brewster) will be joined by an amazing list of guest performers like Felicia Day (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), Kurtwood Smith (“That 70’s Show”), Rex Lee (“Entourage”), Maurice LaMarche (“Futurama,” “Pinky and the Brain”), Clancy Brown (Highlander), Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters), Seth Green (“Robot Chicken”) and Tom Kenny (“SpongeBob SquarePants”).

“Dan Vs.” premieres this Saturday, November 17th on Hub TV at 4pm EST. Check out the exclusive sneak peek below!

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“A Test of Strength” is the second part in Young Jedi arc, and sees one of the most fascinating aspects of Jedi mythology that we’ve never seen: the construction of a lightsaber. Through the classic films, Luke is either given a lightsaber or builds a new one off screen, and none of the prequels address the issue whatsoever. This episode brought much mysticism to the process of building the weapon of a Jedi knight and introduced a fascinating new character: Professor Huyang, voiced brilliantly by the tenth Doctor Who, David Tennant. Huyang is a droid whose been living on a  ship for a thousand years and has been helping young padawans build their lightsabers for longer than even Master Yoda has been alive. Can we presume he helped build Yoda’s saber?

Huyang is basically the Ollivander of lightsabers, helping the students tap into the force to tell them what materials and parts they need, much like  John Hurt in Harry Potter testing wands for each new student at Hogwarts.

This would have been an ordinary milk run, had Hondo Ohnaka not set his sights on stealing a number of Kyber crystals from the younglings since they’re priceless on the black market. The younglings, led by Ahsoka, must repel the pirates if they’re to get back home to Coruscant safely.

I do have one question about this episode, and maybe I missed it, but I thought Yoda was with them on Illum and presumably needed a ride back with them. Maybe he took off in his own ship? I don’t know. In any case, I’m glad he wasn’t there, because watching Ahsoka, Huyang, and Artoo lead the younglings was so much more rewarding. It followed the patterns of all the best swashbucklers when a ship of defenseless innocents are boarded by pirates, but with the added elements and dangers of being in deep space. It was funny, tense, and adventurous.

The younglings are adorable and I want more episodes with them. Hell, they could do an entire show of youngling training and them getting chosen by their masters in a time that’s not during The Clone Wars.

This episode leaves off on a hell of a cliffhanger. In order to save the younglings, Ahsoka accidentally finds herself trapped aboard Hondo’s ship while the Jedi take off into hyperspace. Since she cost Hondo his fortune in Kyber crystals, he’s content to make a fortune selling her to the highest bidder. My guess is that we’ll get to see the band of younglings (and hopefully Huyang) going back to rescue her for the next episode.

This is my favorite sort of mid-arc episode. It has enough going on to stand on its own two feet, it’s not overly plodding to pay service to the larger arc, and it ends with raised stakes to begin the next episode with.

This might easily be one of my favorite episodes of the season, and we’re only 2 parts into the arc. That’s always a good sign.

There comes a time in your life when you have to decipher nostalgia from reality. There was a long period in my adult life (I use that phrase loosely, FYI) when I would wake up to a do-nothing Saturday and decide to eat some cereal and watch cartoons. I was inevitably disappointed with what I found. There is a lot of arbitrary screaming in cartoons these days. I don’t like that.

And then one day I got fancy cable and decided to try again. While flipping through the guide, I stumbled upon a My Little Pony show. I was born in mumblegarbledysix, so I grew up a giant fan of the orignal and hit “select.” What a treat! My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, with its graffiti pallete of colors, sharp design and gleeful characters is a cross-generational cross-gender certifiable mega hit, and after chatting with the show’s story editor Meghan McCarthy, I’ve realized the show is as lovingly made as it is watched.

MLPFiM’s visit to NYCC solidified the show’s entry into pop culture stardom. “It was so cool seeing a Stormtrooper, and a Walking Dead zombie, and then like a Fluttershy sitting next to each other,” McCarthy beams. She is beyond appreciative of the show’s fans and mentioned several tributes and mash-ups of which she is especially fond. If you’ve not explored the world of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, a quick deviantart tag search will turn into hours of marvel.

McCarthy credits much of the show’s success to its optimism. “There are a lot of shows out there that are just so cynical,” she notes, and even postulates “maybe it was irony at first, like ‘oh, it’s OK to like this show'” but then turned into something else when viewers of all ages realized that the show is actually good. Themes of friendship, loyalty and acceptance? Hm, can you think of any other franchise that might have been a huge global success based on those three simple tenets? I digress. The point is that when stories are honest and encouraging, the public notices and responds with a matched enthusiasm. And then there’s the music. Daniel Ingram’s melodies in featured numbers are simple enough for a child to mimic, but so wildly catchy that adults will find themselves humming long after hearing them. Interestingly, the shows are not tailored for the musical numbers. “The songs occur very organically in the writing process,” McCarthy says. If it’s a good place for a song, one goes in, but story is never sacrificed to make room for a number, and ringers are never brought in – he who writes the episode also writes the lyrics.

But there really is no secret to the show’s widespread appeal; McCarthy simply credits the show’s quality. “If you are into animation or design, you’re going to enjoy the show no matter what.”  She gives high accolades to her staff and implies that the show is hard work, but always a labor of love. The show also has “a rich  mythology and constantly growing universe” – this season introduces the magical Crystal Empire in the show’s two part season premiere.

When asked about her future in animation, McCarthy says “a lot of people consider animation a stepping stone, like ‘I’ll do this for a while and maybe get a sitcom.’ I never thought this was where I would end up but if I spend the rest of my career in animation, that would be amazing.” She realizes the importance of Saturday morning cartoons and is reverent of her own contribution.

“My Little Pony Friendship is Magic” makes its eagerly-anticipated debut with Twilight Sparkle and her friends traveling to the magical Crystal Empire that has mysteriously reappeared after a 1,000 year-old curse caused it to vanish. In the two-part season opener, “The Crystal Empire,” Twilight Sparkle must find the Crystal Heart to restore the Empire to its full strength.

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“My Little Pony Friendship is Magic” premieres at 10 am ET this Saturday, November 10. Games, party packs and other downloadable content is available at hubworld.com. I will be watching, all snuggly in my jammies, eating a bowl of Apple Jacks. I recommend you do the same.