Posted by Curto on July 19, 2007 at 12:00 AM CST
Steve Sansweet treated us to an exclusive behind the scenes look at the new The Clone Wars animated series and the first trailer in full digital glory and surround sound! Fans watched a video presentation with series producer Catherine Winder and Supervising Director Dave Filoni. Dave was a big Star Wars fan who actually dressed as Kit Fisto for the Episode III premiere. Wearing his trademark hat, Dave told us how he asked Catherine if her phonecall for a job interview on Lucasfilm was a practical joke! To which she replied, "I'm going to give you my phone number and you can hang up and call me back... You're going to be very embarrassed when you see this number is from Lucasfilm!"

Dave and Catherine talked about the main differences between the first Clone Wars cartoon from Cartoon Network and the show they are working on. Their goal is to achieve a stylized, yet more realistic look for their series, which was illustrated with a clone trooper design. The new The Clone Wars look is something in between the Cartoon Network show's highly stylized look and the realistic look of Episode II and III clone troopers. A statue model of Anakin was shown and the producers mentioned that the Anakin design will evolve, starting with a leaner Anakin and then bulking up as The Clone Wars progress and he becomes the Anakin we see in Episode III.

We were then shown the trailer, and it was received with such enthusiasm than Steve actually gave us and encore and showed it again! The animation is impressive and some battle scenes rival those in the movies. There was a shot of an AT-TE crashing that was just amazing. We can look forward to some great animation and story development, as episodes will have about 20 minutes, while the Cartoon Network series had 5 minute episodes. And all our favorites from the Clones Wars will return including Asajj Ventress!

Special thanks to Patricia Gomes for the report!