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They did make at least one change when they decided to edit the episodes into a film - Corey Burton, the voice of Count Dooku in the series, was replaced by Christopher Lee reprising his role from live action.

 

...and Samuel L. Jackson voices Mace Windu in it, too. I'm pretty sure some of the animation (at least facial, if not entire shots) would have needed to be re-synced in order to better accommodate their performances.

 

Yes, but that was just re-recording dialogue with another actor. I was talking about animation changes.

They recorded over the finished animation. It can be seen in the BTS featurettes, IIRC.

 

Well, then I sit corrected. And it's impressive that they managed to get such high-calibre talent to match another actor's prior performance!

 

At least some of the music for the movie was also recorded or re-recorded with a live orchestra, the Prague philharmonic, rather than using digital samples as with most of the rest of the series (the Ahsoka fugitive arc or Season 7 being exceptions). You can hear the early non-orchestra version of the main title theme on several of the earliest produced episodes of the show, before it was replaced by the orchestral version in subsequent eps.

Im still intrigued how the airing of The New Padawan was meant to go originally, whether it was always intended to be produced later and bumped up to air first, or if it was going to be a flashback like The Hidden Enemy. There’s also a large number of fully animated scenes which were cut from the Castle Trilogy after full voice and music dubbing was completed, which suggests some very late edits to those episodes when pacing out the movie.

 

That's an interesting question. I assume it would've been the first season's first episode (and the marketing machine would have led with "Meet Anakin's New Padawan" in a much stronger way than it had to do for the movie). As much as I enjoy the show's non-linear storytelling, I'm not sure it was never done with anything as major as introducing a brand new central character. TV audiences expect that kinda thing up front.

But then 'Ambush' works so well as an introduction to the Clones, as well as the concept of the whole show (at least early on, before it outgrew its fun knockabout adventure phase and became something altogether more serious). The focus on Yoda also makes sense, as he's probably the most recognisable / iconic Jedi for casual viewers, and is already adored by OT and PT fans alike. It feels like the perfect premiere, regardless of whether or not it was ever intended to be one.

So, maybe the Castle Trilogy would've been the first full arc after 'Ambush', and then the Malevolence would've gotten pushed back 'til after the Artoo two-parter...?

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars treats parts of the movie as its original separate episodes, almost as though it was developed before the movie was a thing. For example, its 'Castle of Doom' level shows a lot more of Dooku at Jabba's Palace.

 

Given that the game came out in 2011 I think it must have entered production after the movie was released, especially given the busy production schedule those Lego games had at the time. I’d be fascinated to see how the production overlapped with the show, since it features elements up to Season 2 (as well as a tease of Savage Opress from Season 3).

There’s only one level in the game that’s based on the movie in any case, which is probably why they used the title of one of the episodes as a level name (ironically it covers events from Castle of Salvation, not Doom). I remember being confused where that tile came from when I first played the game back in the day

 

My apologies, you're quite correct. I thought there were multiple levels, but I'm now remembering that its trip to Christophsis covers 'Hidden Enemy' instead of the movie's events. It's like how Republic Heroes on the DS uses familiar locations to tell original-ish stories. Gets confusing!

But yeah, the inclusion of LEGO Savage as a hidden character reminded me of when Rogue Squadron was revealed to have an N-1 Starfighter squirreled away in its code, added several months before anybody outside of Lucasfilm even knew what an N-1 was. Must be pretty awesome to be a developer working on a Star Wars game and be given a secret glimpse of what's coming!

 

Either awesome or horrible, take your pick. I personally know one former LucasArts developer who, along with several others, left the company after the in-house screening of Episode I, with one major reason being they didn't want to make games based on a movie they thought (and still think) was terrible.