This Week in The Clone Wars: Ziro the Hutt vs. Cad Bane

Ziro the Hutt was controversial when he appeared in The Clone Wars movie, and not only because he kidnapped Jabba's son, Rotta as part of an attempt to gain power, and briefly seized Padmé Amidala.

Ziro was lambasted as a compilation of gay stereotypes, and, several early reviewers really hated him. Dave Filoni identified Ziro as a "crew favorite," though, and Annalee Newitz offered an early defense of the ambitious slug as a "a moment of pure weirdo campiness in a franchise known for being far too self-serious."

Well, Ziro's back. In this week's episode, Ziro the Hutt finds himself sprung from the Republic's prisons, only to be hunted by both Cad Bane and the Jedi (in this case, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Quinlan Vos.

The behind-the-scenes interest this week is Corey Burton, who voices both Cad Bane and Ziro the Hutt (as well as Count Dooku). Burton defends Ziro along much the same lines as Newitz:

The Ziro episodes seem like a multi-room extension of the original Star Wars cantina scenes – an eccentrically comedic undercurrent to break from the steadier drumbeat of galactic conflict, but with enough sinister gravity to tug at the direction of the entire storyline. . . . It's a sort of ‘Bizarro World’ funhouse mirror dimension, a wrong turn down a strange alley running along the mainstream militaristic highway. It’s a colorful flight of fancy and insanity, to lend a contrasting air of ‘normalcy’ to the central story construct. Ziro's the ultimate spoiled brat, a bitterly resentful and unreasonably demanding megalomaniac – made even more threatening and duplicitous by his inability to inspire fearful obedience like his rival, Jabba.

If Ziro is a campy funhouse mirror, Cad Bane is a quite different villain:

Bane is a cold-blooded ‘Spaghetti Western’ movie bounty hunter – an unflappable contract mercenary who goes about his assignments with ruthless steely-eyed disregard for the damages inflicted to life and property. . . . He has a stoic tolerance for pain and Jedi mind-control tricks, and tireless reptilian patience. But he is not a particularly sturdy or athletically powerful creature, relying on mechanical aids and sharply honed wits for endurance and safe survival outside of his native environment. Bane is definitely an all-time favorite for me – from his striking design to his iconic and potent personality. There’s such a playground of speech characteristics in his palette that make him a continuing series of spontaneous discoveries. It feels like a very personal original co-creation I can feel proud to be a part of.

Given such disparate personalities, Burton observes, it's easy to voice them, even in the same episode:

It's actually easier to keep character voices distinctly separate, the greater the differences are in vocal placement, timbre and pitch. . . . When you've got voices that can be segregated, differently textured and expressed in differing musical rhythms, it's a snap to make a clean break from one character to another. Then, applying acting characterization – visualizing the unique ‘soul’ of the character within the parameters of voice – you really can speak as two entirely separate beings within the same imaginary space.

The episode premieres Friday at 9pm ET/PT on The Cartoon Network. Here's a taste:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-CD83OMwIg