This is the third step in the journey. This was the first step - "The Phantom Menace". This was the second step - "Attack of the Clones".
I know that I saw this movie when it was released in theatres. I remember nothing about it other than that there was a hutt-let.
So since we now know that Dooku (I'd like to know why he's a "count". Maybe I'll eventually learn that in the stuff I haven't seen yet. No, I'm not asking for an answer right now.) is on the side of the Separatists (The Senate and the Jedi don't know about his connection to Darth Sidious yet, right?), he doesn't have to hide his connection to them anymore. He and the Separatists cut off the Republic from most of their clones, making it a more difficult fight for the Republic.
Oh, no, Jabba's son (Rotta) is kidnapped! Jabba is apparently so desperate that he asks the Senate for help. That sort of comes out of nowhere. I mean, yeah, I know, it's his son, but it still seems odd for him to go to them for help.
And, we're introduced to Ahsoka Tano, who Obi-Wan and Anakin both assume is Obi-Wan's new padawan, but it turns out that Yoda has assigned her as Anakin's padawan, much to his chagrin. I don't think I'd realized that Ashley Eckstein's voice was quite that high as Ahsoka, but Ahsoka is supposed to be pretty young, enough that she's called "youngling" by a few people, and others are questioning whether she's *too* young to be a padawan.
That's cool that Ahsoka holds her lightsabre backwards, of sorts, in that she holds the hilt so that the blade faces behind her rather than in front of her. Because of a friend, I'd known that she holds one of her lightsabres that way when she's got two of them, but I didn't know that she also does that when she's only got one.
Ahsoka's lightsabre blade is green, in contrast to the blue that both Obi-Wan and Anakin have. Trying to remember blade colors is making my head swim.
It took a little getting used to for me in seeing live-action characters that I know being depicted in animation. I don't mind the blockiness of this animation style though. It was actually even harder to get used to the new voices. It might have been easier if I'd watched this at the time, when I didn't know the voices as well, but I can definitely tell that it's not Ewan McGregor or Hayden Christensen or Ian McDiarmid. Maybe with time, I'll learn the voices more, but for this movie, I only knew who the voices belonged to because they were also on-screen at the time. Being able to pick them out from just an audio communication would have been impossible.
And then the Star Destroyers show up with back-up to save the day! Wow, that made my brain explode. I've been taught too well that a fleet of Star Destroyers and accompanying ships all arriving at once is not a good thing, but in this case, that's exactly who you want to see helping the Jedi.
Anakin and Ahsoka are tasked with taking out the shield generator that's protecting the advancing battle droid troops. Anakin is definitely getting a taste of his own medicine. Ahsoka is young and impulsive and sure that she knows how to handle things. Just like Anakin was when he was Obi-Wan's padawan. He tries to keep her in check but it works just as well as it did for Obi-Wan when he tried to counsel Anakin.
I think Ahsoka referred to the droideka aka destroyer droids as "rolling balls of death"? I loved that line. Accurate too, even though I love those droids.
Once they complete that mission, it's on to the next one - to find and rescue Jabba's hutt-let Rotta.
Jabba isn't relying only on the Jedi to find his son. He's sent out bounty hunters as well, and then he gets word that they've returned. He goes out to meet them - but the only thing left of them are their heads! That was pretty funny. Yeah, that worked out well. Didn't send out the right bounty hunters, Jabba.
And there's Obi-Wan going to try to negotiate a deal with Jabba, and he arrives to Tatooine with his ship and his hyperspace ring. Yeah, go ahead, rub it in some more that I don't have one of those. It looks cool in live action *and* animation.
Is that KT with R2? Oh, that *is* R2-KT! How cool!
"This is where the fun begins." - I laughed when Ahsoka echoed Anakin's line from "Attack of the Clones".
Oooo, walker machinery that can climb a cliff! Those are cool. Well, they're cool when they're not falling down said cliff.
Asaji Ventress is the one who kidnapped the hutt-let, and she's working for Dooku. I know her name but am not really familiar with her or what she looks like and didn't know who she was until she was referred to by name. She's only in the animated stuff, right? We haven't seen her in live action, at least not yet? I think they released her lightsabre at Dok Ondar's, though. Or am I mis-remembering?
So we find out that Dooku arranged for the hutt-let to be kidnapped so that he could then frame the Jedi for it, thereby starting a war between Jabba and the Jedi (That sounds like a band name - Jabba and the Jedi.) and also convincing Jabba to align with the Separatists.
Why is Anakin repeatedly calling Ahsoka "Snips"? I must have missed something. I don't really like it though, because it doesn't sound like a nickname of endearment but rather derision. On the other hand, while it sounds like a mean name, it's endearing to me that Ahsoka calls the hutt-let "Stinky". Maybe it's in the tone of voice she uses.
The Clones are all Jango. Have to keep reminding myself of that.
I haven't quite nailed down how Dave Filoni (as director) is doing it, but the clone troopers are portrayed very much as sympathetic canon fodder during the various battles. We're used to seeing storm troopers being killed in battle, and we don't really think about them as individuals, but the way the clone troopers are filmed, especially in seeing individual ones being killed, it seems much more personal, and you feel the loss of each one, even when you can't see their faces and don't actually know them personally. And you realize that's exactly what they were created for - to be replaceable. It's ok if they die, we'll just make more! And that's exactly why it's so terrible. Battle droids are one thing - they're at least droids. (And we're even sad when some droids are killed.) But clone troopers are still people, created to not matter. That's sad.
Oh, Padme is in this. She decides to go chat with Jabba's uncle, Ziro, in an effort to convince him to help her with talking to Jabba since no-one-knows-he's-her-husband Anakin is in trouble.
But treachery is afoot, as she discovers that Ziro is in cahoots with Dooku and helped with kidnapping Stinky. Dooku's plan was that in framing the Jedi for the kidnapping, Jabba would then take revenge by killing the Jedi (Anakin and Ahsoka) who supposedly kidnapped Stinky, and then the Senate and Jedi Council would have to bring Jabba to justice, leaving Ziro to take over the Hutts' business.
Dooku sent three nasty droids after Ahsoka, and I was pretty surprised that she pretty much dispatched all of them on her own. That's pretty impressive. She returns Stinky to Jabba, but Anakin has already been captured, and both are about to be killed. But Padme, who was rescued by clones, is able to get through to Jabba and explain what Ziro and Dooku had planned, turning Jabba against not only his uncle, but also Dooku, and Jabba also agrees to let the Republic travel unbothered through Jabba's controlled air spaces. Win all around for the Jedi and the Republic.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the hardest things for me about watching this movie was getting used to the new voices.
At some point while the series was on the air, I learned that Matt Lanter was the voice of Anakin Skywalker, and I was floored. I'd only known him from the new version of "90210", so that was quite the surprise. I'm looking forward to hearing him more as Anakin in the series.
I like James Arnold Taylor. I can tell that it's not Ewan McGregor but it has enough hints that I know who he's supposed to be.
I'll have to listen to Captain Rex and Cody and the clones more. I don't envy Dee Bradley Baker having to sound like and be Temuera Morrison.
That was cool to discover that Samuel L. Jackson voiced Mace and Christopher Lee voiced Dooku here. No wonder they sounded so good!
Next up, the series.
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