Cartoon Network is staging 2,000 house parties around the country this Saturday to trumpet the primetime debut of the animated “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” on Oct. 3—with clone troopers dropping in on some of them.
The network struck a partnership with House Party, a word-of-mouth company specializing in TV viewer engagement, to hold the viewing parties. Each child who will be the host of a “Clone Wars” party will receive a kit that includes a lightsaber, character masks, glow sticks, tattoos, stickers, posters and balloons. Fans registered on the Cartoon Network Web site for the chance to play host.
Cartoon Network is making the first two episodes of this first weekly television series from Lucasfilm Animation available for the parties.
The network will stage a special party for nine-year-old Calvin Rodgers, his family and friends and hundreds of special guests at the Park West Theater in Lincoln Park, Chicago. That party will include “Star Wars” activities preceding the screenings. Several other youngsters holding parties that day will receive surprise visits at their homes from clone troopers. Rodgers is a veteran host of past viewing parties that he’s staged himself.
“Calvin has thrown several house parties around a couple of our other shows and submitted some great photos from those parties,” Cartoon Network spokesman James Anderson said. “We thought it would be great way to surprise a very dedicated Cartoon Network fan.”
An advance unit of clone troopers dropped in on Calvin’s Chicago area school recently to promote the series premiere and the viewing parties.
The special one-hour premiere of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” will anchor a night of fantasy/adventure shows on Cartoon Network, including “The Secret Saturdays” and “Ben 10.”
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