For New Year's Day, a Double-Shot of Clone Wars

After a long hiatus for the holidays, Star Wars: The Clone Wars kicks off 2010 with back-to-back episodes: "Grievous Intrigue" and "The Deserter."

Matt Wood is the sound editor for the show, and, more important, the voice for both Grievous and the separatist army of battle droids. He says, "I play the droids and Grievous as a twisted Abbot and Costello routine," because both the lackeys and their master find themselves adrift in a universe that they can't quite control:

I see Grievous' hatred of the Jedi stemming from intense jealousy; the Jedi have a skill that has been unattainable by Grievous. . . . Even though the technical skill of the lightsaber has been taught to him by Count Dooku, Grievous still lacks the Force sensitivity to grasp the true nature of the Jedi. So many things seem just out of reach to Grievous, intensifying his jealousy and frustration.

Grievous is put in command of a massive droid army, yet the droids lack the skills to overtake the Jedi. The absurdity of the juxtaposition of those characters enhances my ability to portray them, especially because I record both Grievous and the battle droids continuously. . . . The droids are so limited by their mass-produced, low-cost processors and will never see the bigger picture of the war; their comedic navel-gazing will always be their undoing. While the General wants to be more of a leader and game-changer in the war, he has so far only been good at stalling our heroes. Personally, I like all of the moments of Grievous destroying battle droids, the ultimate manifestation of his frustrations. I play the droids and Grievous as a twisted Abbot and Costello routine.

The point about the battle droids' "low-cost processors" is well-taken: they're the netbooks of the war: cheap, useful in their way, but ultimately too limited to compete against either Jedi or clones.

Here's a clip from "Grievous Intrigue":

Don't forget to check the web comic that fills in some of the gaps in the campaign.

Tune in this Friday at 9pm ET/PT on The Cartoon Network. (Finally, the 6-yr-old will stop asking!)