“Star Wars: The Clone Wars” Movie Review

    I remember the micro series “Star Wars: Clone Wars” as being something incredible.  It was developed by Genndy Tartakovsky and done in a style similar to his “Samurai Jack” series.  So a computer animated feature film in the same vain as the micro series seemed like a win.  “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” came out in 2008 and the movie ended up getting lost in the slew of excellent films that summer.

    The film is set to the backdrop of the Clone Wars and features plenty of battle scenes.  After a tense battle at the beginning of the film, Yoda arrives and assigns Anakin Skywalker his first (and only) Jedi Padawan to train.  The young Jedi is named Ahsoka Tano.  Anakin is resistant to train the young girl but is sent on an assignment with her to rescue the son of Jabba the Hutt.  Obi-Wan Kenobi is sent on a mission to negotiate with the Hutts with the hopes that if Anakin and Ahsoka’s rescue attempt is successful, Jabba (a netural party in the Clone Wars) will side with the Republic against the Seperatist forces.
    The film essentially served as the pilot for the hit animated show “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”.  That is a major flaw with the movie however because it feels very wide open, as if they didn’t want to end that story thread completely in case they wanted to revisit the Hutts one day in the show.

    Setting the movie (and later tv show) between Episode II and Episode III provided a lot of opportunities to showcase the conflicts and battles hinted at during the movies.  It also gives us as an audience more of an insight to how the war effected the characters, which is something capitalized more in the show than the actual movie.  Since this served as a pilot, it was also finding it’s footings.  At times it felt more comedic than the show later became.

    The show featured the return of Asajj Ventress from the previous “Clone Wars” micro series.  She was a fan favorite so including her was a smart decision.  The film was introduced fan favorite character Ahsoka Tano who wasn’t so loved when this film premiered.  Her character grew a lot over the show but her depiction in the movie left a lot to be desired.

    Dave Filoni based the character designs on supermarionation such as “Thunderbirds” from the 1960s.  I am not a huge fan of this animation design but it grew on me with time.  It works better with certain characters over others.

    “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” ultimately works better as an episode of a tv over a theatrical movie.  While I think the critics were a little hard on the movie, it’s hard to overlook the movie’s flaws.

Grade: C-