Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Though I am a die-hard fan of the series, it was a relief to see the 'Star Wars' saga come full circle three years ago with the final film 'Revenge of the Sith'.  Despite its faults, the new trilogy did answer many questions and brought closure to a story that began over thirty years ago.  It was with bittersweet feelings that I would say goodbye to that familiar cycle of getting a new movie every three years. I frankly thought it was over for 'Star Wars' at the cinema, until three years later, as fate would have it, we get another movie.  But 'Clone Wars' isn't a live action piece featuring Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen or even Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford.  This is a CG animated tale that attempts to fill in the story gaps concerning that legendary war first mentioned by Alec Guinness in the original film, but feels more like a shameless gimmick by George Lucas to make even more money.

A few years ago, Lucas enlisted 'Samurai Jack' cartoonist Genndy Tartakovsky to create a series of mini TV episodes involving Jedi Knights Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and the galactic civil conflict known as the 'Clone Wars' that took place between the second and third prequels.  The animation wasn't particularly first rate, but it was an effective exercise with a series of vignettes that lasted five to fifteen minutes each and worked like silent movies.  The same look and character design has been recreated by director Dave Filoni, except this time its all been rendered in CGI.  The animation is the only element that has any dimension since not only is the story rather lacking, but silly, childish and frankly lame.

Anakin and Obi-Wan are in the midst of leading an army of clone troops in defense of a planet under siege by the separatist movement, when they receive a set of conflicting orders from Master Yoda and the Jedi Council.  The son of Jabba the Hutt, the vile gangster and crime-lord from Anakin's home planet of Tatooine, has been kidnapped by separatists and ensnared in a plot that could only be conceived by former Jedi turned rogue Count Dooku.  Though the Galactic Republic and the Jedi do not like to associate with scum like Jabba, forming a treaty with him will help them gain access to stellar supply routes that the gangster controls.  Though Dooku has set the conflict into motion, it is his Sith master, the as yet to be revealed Darth Sidious who hopes that the turn of events will cause the Jedi to make a new enemy of Jabba.

Anakin and Obi-Wan are still at a point in their relationship where they are very much friends.  Now a full Jedi Knight, Anakin must call upon the teachings of his former master when he is ordered to take adolescent apprentice Ahsoka Tano under his wing.  Still considered "a youngling", Ahsoka is just as headstrong and naive as Anakin was and though she is full of good intentions, her antics to locate and retrieve Jabba's son, put them in danger every time.  Anakin must not only keep his new charge in line, but fend off attacks from Dooku and his deadly apprentice Asajj Ventress, who is fond of wielding not one, but two lightsabers.

As always the case, first rate animation is no substitute for a good story.  Audiences have been brow beaten by the 'Star Wars' saga for so long now, that it would take a phenomenal story that nearly redefines the series to succeed as a piece of entertainment.  What we get is pretty much everything we've seen before and the fact that it doesn't involve live-action only further detaches us from the story.  The vocal cast do a fine job of recreating the familiar voices of McGregor, Christensen and even Frank Oz's Yoda, with the real voices of Samuel L. Jackson's Mace Windu, Anthony Daniels' C-3PO and Christopher Lee's Count Dooku thrown in for good measure.  If only their animated counterparts were given something really exciting and compelling to do.

With animation, things tend to get exaggerated and even over-stylized.  Characters are too physically expressive instead of allowing the vocals to work for them and events are hyper-realized.  In essence, things become "cartooney" and this isn't a good thing for a story that's we all know will take a dark and dramatic turn with its third episode, "Revenge of the Sith."  Anakin and Ahsoka seem more like they are from a 'Teen Titans' episode than 'Star Wars' and with the way their physical abilities are presented if Anakin were such a great acrobat he never would have lost his legs to Obi-Wan in their duel in "Episode III."  Though Christopher Lee still projects a sense of majesty in his villainous role as Count Dooku, he can't hold it together as the villain and is given shameless support by a character known as 'Ziro the Hutt", the uncle of Jabba who not only looks like "Hamburglar" but acts like the flamboyant comedian Rip Taylor.  The bad guys don't seem like much of a threat especially when their robotic soldiers are nincompoops asking "What do we do now" or shouting "roger, roger!"  Then there are the scenes with Anakin and Ahsoka trying to safely return Jabba's infant son, a baby slug, who is meant to provide us with "isn't he cute" moments but is so annoying you hope they'll play "kick the baby" with him like the kids on 'South Park'.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that this film is meant to be the jumping off point for a television series.  In other words instead of paying to see this non-cinematic piece on the big screen, you can wait to see its subsequent stories for free on TV.  It's rather shameful that George Lucas wants to continue shoving 'Star Wars' down out throats in every medium possible.  What once was a landmark and influential piece of entertainment is now slowly turning into some cosmic joke.  I'm sure his defense for this piece is that like the original films, it is a fairytale for children.  That may be true, but the success of 'Star Wars' is not that its solely aimed at kids, but contains elements that connect to all ages. By dumbing it down he not only insults us, but the original material as well.