Here’s another clip from Friday’s episode. There’s no Darth Maul, but gives us a glimpse of Savage’s quest, and lets us know that Mother Talzin is still alive and kicking.

From the press release:

This week, in “Brothers,” the dark warrior Savage Opress is on a quest to find his long-lost brother. Could Darth Maul truly be alive, after more than a decade since his gruesome bisection at the blade of Obi-Wan Kenobi? Savage voyages into the depths of a twisted planet to find whatever became of the fallen Sith Lord.

“Brothers,” airs at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, March 9th on Cartoon Network.

First, I would like to comment that I never, ever want to watch this show on Cartoon Network again. Not for any other reason than my schedule forced me to download the iTunes HD version of the episode and the staggering quality of the animation and detail and lighting in HD caused me to rethink my need for cable completely.

Everything looked better, cleaner, crisper, I didn’t have to put up with commercial breaks and, in fact, they even took out the black spaces where commercials would go so it felt like a 22 minute movie.

There’s nothing against Cartoon Network, specifically, but this show is just too good to watch on TV, with all their stupid lower thirds running and the obnoxious commercial breaks, and in an inferior picture and sound quality. The $2.99 on iTunes is a small price to pay for the marked difference in quality.

Now if only they could sell it on iTunes to coincide with the first airing on US television.

On to the specific merits of Bounty, this was a very mature episode as far as the filmmaking was concerned. There were very specific story and character touches, particularly for Boba Fett and Ventress, that spoke volumes. But the filmmaking was mature in that it didn’t draw too much attention to them. Did anyone notice that Boba was using his father’s pistols on the job? Or the simple idea that he’s slowly taking on the traits of his father one bit at a time. He’s overcompensating with his bravado, but doesn’t feel man enough to take on the mantle of his father, but uses his pistols as the smallest act of remembrance. But that Boba is dead now, his head cut off with the helmet falling to the ground in just the same way Jango’s did in Attack of the Clones. He’s been humbled by this experience with Ventress.

Ventress on the other hand is confronted by her listlessness and her need for a goal and through this job she’s able to find herself. Will she be financing her quest for revenge? It’s anyone’s guess.

But as we move into the next episode and see the return of Darth Maul, we’ll see how involved she is.

Or maybe I’m just reading too deeply into all of this. Either way.

As for the rest of this episode, it was truly fantastic. The lighting effects, the costumes, the new creatures, the sets, everything. This was another episode that raised the bar on quality. Even the animation of background characters (that Jawa? the Eeopies? the denizens of the Cantina?) was beyond what I would have ever expected from this show as I sat in the theatre and watched the first movie all those years ago.

This animation universe has finally gotten to the point where it feels “lived in” and real. I truly believe they can do anything now. And they’re getting more and more ambitious to the point where every episode of season 6 may well make our heads explode.

Another thing I loved about this episode was the use of the sense of motion… From the space elevator to the platform (which reminded me of a level in Shadows of the Empire), this episode felt as though it was whizzing by at the speed of light.

And did I mention the space ninjas? This episode, more than any other, was a total homage to all of your favorite Kung Fu movies. The fight choreography was very, very sharp and had a lifelike quality to it that let you feel the body blows. When Dengar (Simon Pegg) hits guys and blows them up, you feel it. When Ventress executes people, there’s a visceral reaction.

This whole show is truly short format filmmaking at its best and it really needs to start winning some awards for the effort.

The people behind the show are truly cinematic storytellers and artists of the highest calibre.

Three new clips from The Clone Wars.

They’re pulling out all the stops as we get closer to the season finale and the return of Darth Maul. It seems like they’re pulling shorts right out of Seven Samurai in the beginning of that first clip.

The second clip has all the atmosphere of a western and it seems as though they’ve finally come close to replicating the look of the original Cantina. I know at Comic-Con last year, Joel Aron was excited to get his hands on the blueprints of the set to replicate it more faithfully. It looks like they’re getting there.

From the press release:

This week, in “Bounty,” an aimless Asajj Ventress joins a team of bounty hunters under the leadership of young Boba Fett. On an alien world, they undertake a dangerous but profitable mission that tests the limits of their skills, and the strength of Asajj’s character.

Dengar – one of the bounty hunters seen in the company of Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back – is coming to The Clone Wars, and actor Simon Pegg (Star Trek and Shaun of the Dead) is playing him in this week’s episode.

“Bounty,” airs at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, March 2nd on Cartoon Network.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Simon Pegg has been tapped to voice Dengar in this week’s episode of The Clone Wars.

“Dengar is one of the elite,” Pegg tells EW. “If you’re on Darth Vader’s bounty hunter speed dial, you are the best in the galaxy.”

It’s a little shocking to me, given his disdain for the prequels that he would agree to bring a classic era character into the prequel era, but stranger things have happened.

From his twitter feed:

Being Dengar doesn’t change the way I feel about the prequels but then the prequels couldn’t change the way I feel about the original three.

— Simon Pegg (@simonpegg) February 29, 2012

They also have a lengthy clip of Dengar in action on Friday’s episode.

Well, this is the arc we’ve all been waiting for, the episodes that begin to wrap up the last season finale and bring us one step closer to Darth Maul.

Dooku decides that now is the time to exact his revenge on the traitor, Ventress, who is hiding out on Dathomir with Mother Talzin and the rest of the Night Sisters. He sends General Grievous and a massive invasion fleet to Dathomir to exact his revenge.

This episode is all out war between the Separatists and the Night Sisters, with Asajj Ventress caught right in the middle.

And, as the title implies, the battle is a massacre, but not without a few surprises, the most notable being the creepy use of zombies.

Since this episode was battle scene after battle scene, it’s pretty easy to see that this is but the prelude to a much larger conflict and story that will unfold over the next three episodes. The story had some fascinating elements in it that felt very new for Star Wars, starting with the Haitian magic vibe from the Night Sisters. They’d always been a little bit non-traditional in their use of the force, but they’ve flat out risen the dead and created a voodoo doll that crippled a Sith lord across the galaxy. It was an incredibly new way of doing things and, since we’ve not seen that sort of power before, it really took me by surprise.

This episode also had some very Apocalypse Now moments to it. First off, the agent orange style weapon on the AAT, but for some reason (and I can’t quite put my finger on it) General Grievous reminded me so much of Robert Duvall in that movie it was crazy. Perhaps that was just subconscious because of the “smell of napalm” on Dathomir.

I was struck by the absolute brutality of the show this episode, too. It was refreshing. Things were at stake, lives were being lost, and it lived up to the title of the episode. It truly was a massacre.

I will be honest, this arc and the last she was in, has really made me come around to really liking Ventress as a character. She’s flawed and more than one dimensional. When I saw her on the micro-series originally, she was just a one trick pony playing a single emotion. And that’s sort of how she started this series. She was playing one note and now she’s utterly captivating as a character.

And as far as the zombies are concerned, I could very easily see very young, maybe pre-school age kids shocked by the imagery, but the only words out of the mouths of my children when the zombies began pouring down from their graves was, “Cooooool.”

From a technical level, the staging and animation of characters was top notch. This episode simply couldn’t have been accomplished in the first two seasons, and maybe not even last season. They keep adding element after element to their arsenal, soon they’ll be able to remake a Star Wars movie with everything they can do. Everything on that animation and model level was incredible, from General Grievous’ cape (and lightsaber dueling!) and the amount of characters on screen all the way down to the Super Battle Droids coming out of the troop carrier and the evil movement of the zombies. It was all just turned up to 11.

And the lighting effects in this episode were incredible. Everything with the green mist was stunning to watch. The effects of the boiling kettle over to torment Dooku (and even his voodoo doll) were almost tangible. I could almost feel the heat and the sweat bubble over on my forehead, too. And the lighting in Dooku’s chamber? Especially that first shot with Grievous walking up to it in the green shadows, it was just breathtaking.

This episode really worked for me. It was harsh and brutal, the craftsmanship behind the cinema and the storytelling was in top form. And the Separatists won. They didn’t just win, this was literally a scorched earth victory.

But I really don’t think we’ve seen anything yet. Maybe I’m getting my hopes up too high, but I really think March 9th is going to be a major turning point for this show, and it wouldn’t have been possible with this episode.

Wow.

This trailer really blew my hair back.

There’s really nothing else to it. It’s just… Wow.

From the press release:

Season Four of Star Wars: The Clone Wars concludes with a nail-biting, two-part finale arc beginning Friday, March 9 at 8 p.m. (ET/PT) on Cartoon Network with “Brothers.”

After being used as a weapon of vengeance by Count Dooku and Asajj Ventress, the dark warrior Savage Opress embarked on a galaxy-spanning quest to find his long-lost brother, the legendary Darth Maul. Maul lives in the depths of a ruined world as a shattered madman barely held together by dreams of vengeance. Savage conspires with the scheming witch Mother Talzin to heal Darth Maul’s body and mind, so that the brothers can begin a new crusade of vengeance against the Jedi.

The saga continues on Friday, March 16, in “Revenge,” as Obi-Wan Kenobi finds an unlikely ally when battling against the dreaded brothers.

Maul returns as you have never seen him before as the action-packed season culminates in a climactic finale that builds suspense until the very last moment.

Massacre is coming on the air tonight.

This scene of Grievous posted above is so epic that I almost lost my mind watching it. Tonight can’t come fast enough.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars returns with an epic four-episode arc that leads into the season finale, and return of the universe’s most notorious Sith.

This week, in “Massacre,” Count Dooku is determined to have revenge against the Nightsisters of Dathomir after their betrayal. General Grievous launches an all-out droid attack against the magic-wielding witches, and Mother Talzin and Asajj Ventress lead the defense with all the dark powers at their command.

“Massacre,” airs at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, February 24th on Cartoon Network.

For me, DC/WB Animation’s direct-to-video series has been incredibly hit or miss. Even the ones I like tend to be compared to the original comic stories they were based on unfavorably. When I heard about Justice League: Doom, I was going in expecting another fair to middling comic adaptation. Boy, was I wrong. Let me just say that if you’re on the fence about grabbing this flick, GET IT! As to why I think this is an insta-buy, read on.

The premise of JL: Doom is that Batman, being the über-prepared guy he is, has a series of countermeasures to be used if his fellow Justice Leaguers ever go rogue just sitting on the Bat-Computer. Now, what do you think would happen if someone without the Dark Knight’s altruism got their hands on them? If you’re thinking a bad day for the JLA, you don’t know the half of it! JL: Doom is adapted from writer Mark Waid’s  JLA #43-46 Tower of Babel arc, originally published in the year 2000. Adapting the story for the screen is the late Dwayne McDuffie. The man knows how to bring superheroes to the screen, based on previous experience on the JLU animated show as well as past DC DTV’s. In fact, the biggest strengths JL: Doom has going for it is that while it takes the major story beats from Tower of Babel, it isn’t a slave to it. McDuffie throws stuff out that works on the printed page, but wouldn’t translate to the screen. Simultaneously even if you know nothing about the League, the film’s opening scene gives you a basic understanding of all of the characters.

The opening fight introduces you to the JLA nicely.

One of the most refreshing, yet possibly controversial changes in JL: Doom is that the villains are completely different from the source material. In the movie this works because each villain is the opposite number of a hero. It’s a kind of storytelling shorthand that lets the movie jump straight to the action in the limited time it has, rather than the months long story the original told. For those who remember the original story, Ra’s Al Ghul has been replaced by the immortal Vandal Savage. The motivation behind the plot remains the same, which is slightly irksome as it’s definitely a Ra’s plan. I forgave this, as it is changed enough to fit Savage as well.

Of course when you have a cast so large, it is a bit difficult to focus on all of the personalities present. McDuffie does manage to give everyone a shining moment, including the unexpected appearance of Cyborg, but since this is essentially a Batman story guest-starring the JLA, your mileage may vary in regards to if your favorite character gets enough screen time. That being said, besides Batman, the character I actually connected to the most in the film was Hal Jordan/Green Lantern, which surprised the heck out of me. In most incarnations, Hal is presented as a cocky jerk who has overconfidence that’s only matched my his willpower. In JL: Doom however, Hal’s attitude is clearly shown to be due to his absolute lack of fear. That makes his bat-planned takedown all the more poignant when he shows his nobility. I won’t go into spoilers, as it needs to be experienced first hand. I will say that it is just another reason why it’s so sad we lost McDuffie and his vast talents. This is a Green Lantern that I would gladly read/watch/pay 10 bucks at the theater for. It doesn’t hurt that this Hal actually uses his ring to make things other than guns.

"The cat's in its cradle, Star Sapphire!"

In the film, the JLA is of course triumphant, but it’s the journey here that is important, not the destination. In JL: Doom, the League feels like a team of true equals that play to each other’s strengths. It’s hard to explain in words, but the action just flows. One aspect that brings this story to legendary status is that once the threat is over, there are still things to resolve. Namely, Batman’s paranoia getting the League into this mess to begin with. Again, no spoilers here, but it’s handled very well, with the Leaguers and especially Batman discussing their viewpoints in a manner that doesn’t come off as preachy or forced at all. It may not sound very compelling, but trust me it’s one of the strongest moments in the film when Batman refuses to back down when faced by his accusers.

Don't look now, but I think Bats just got hit on the nose with a rolled up newspaper.

When it comes to the production side of things, the voice direction by Andrea Romano is top-notch as always. It helps that most of the cast have played these characters before. It was nice to hear Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy reprise their roles as the World’s Finest team. Michael Rosenbaum as the Flash is a nice touch as well, though it is a little jarring once you realize he’s playing Barry Allen rather than Wally West, but he adjusts his performance accordingly. Nathan Fillion is my favorite Green Lantern voice actor and his acting made the aforementioned scenes what they were. If he can bring half of the game he brings in this movie to the CGI GL animated series, it’ll be the best show on TV.

Animation wise, JL: Doom uses the same character designs as the previous Justice League film, Crisis on Two Earths. The villains are completely new designs however, and they work very well, although Star Sapphire has a softness to her at times that is very anime-esque. This isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, but I felt her in-costume look didn’t match up as well as the other baddies. Otheer than that, the visuals are beautiful, the color palette seems toned down a bit from the previous film. The tell-tale sign is the baby blue of Superman’s uniform. I think it’s works much better than the darker hues WB animation has used for Supes up to this point. The opening credits are an inspired sequence of the contingency files on the Bat-Computer and sets up the premise of the film without the aid of dialogue.

My bottom line is Justice League: Doom is a day one purchase. Whereas I was content to wait for the older DC DTV’s to hit the discount bins, I was happy to pay full price for this one, and I suggest you do so as well, be it on Blu-Ray, DVD, or Digital Download.

MTV has the scoop that Sam Witwer will be the new voice of Darth Maul and the first episode of that arc will be airing on March 9th.

I’ve got some interviews and pieces planned that I think you guys are going to like coming up before then.

In the meantime, check out MTV’s piece, and check out their video below.

I got hit a few different times by different people on different mediums asking me why it is we don’t cover My Little Pony.

I’ll be honest, I simply wasn’t aware it was worth covering.

To that end, I’ll be getting the first season on DVD to offer my opinion of it. In the meantime, enjoy these clips from the show.