‘Clone Wars’ an Underrated ‘Star Wars’ Show

by Thomas Schultze

“Star Wars” is a personal passion of mine. I didn’t get into it until I was a teenager, but I grew to love it, the older I got. There is one adaptation of “Stars Wars” that I love the most, and I don’t think it’s discussed enough. That show is “Star Wars: Clone Wars,” a micro-series that consisted of several 3-5-minute-long shorts, with each short airing once daily on Cartoon Network in 2003.

It was directed and produced by Genndy Tartakovsky, the man behind “Dexter’s Laboratory,” “Samurai Jack” and “Primal,” and was meant to continue the story between “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith,” which hadn’t been released at the time. Today, every short has been combined into two separate volumes, lasting over two hours with every short transitioning seamlessly into the next, making it more like a movie.

While it has gained much more praise from fans today, I want to touch on parts of the underrated micro-series. It’s time to give Tartakovsky’s “Clone Wars” micro-series the love it deserves.

One of my favorite aspects is the tone, in that it feels like a war that is happening across an entire galaxy and shows how widespread it is by introducing new planets and showing how the war affects the characters. As confirmed by Tartakovsky himself in the DVD commentary of volume I, he wanted to make the series feel like a war movie by making the Clone Troopers seem as military-like as possible. He did this by researching how real-life soldiers operated in squads. Characters such as Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi were more developed than they were in “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones,” and you felt what they were going through. It added to the story arc that the previous films started. Even as someone who

enjoys all three “Star Wars” prequels and the characters, I am willing to admit that the characters could have had more development. “Star Wars: Clone Wars” delivered that to me on a silver platter.

The director takes advantage of the series being animated and creates good visual storytelling through the facial expressions and how the characters would move. You could tell what personality a character had based on the way they moved, and you knew how they felt based on their expressions. As for the dialogue, each line is simple but meaningful. It’s what I would expect from the man who grew up with films like “Seven Samurai,” “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” and the original “Star Wars” trilogy. It also doesn’t surprise me that his past work, also acted as inspiration for this series, with the art style, imagination, and well-choreographed action scenes. The best moves performed by the Jedi (e.g., Mace Windu) don’t even involve their weapons which makes the action more exciting, because it added something new to “Star Wars,” and it showed how the force could be utilized in other ways. This micro-series planted the seeds that would grow into the different versions of “Star Wars” that we’ve always wanted to see.

This may be a bold statement, but Tartakovsky is one of the best animation directors ever and he never fails to amaze with his work. Even though I never grew up on his work, he’s my hero in animation who continues to inspire me today. I like to look at this micro-series as Tartakovsky’s vision of what “Star Wars” is to him. It was the first to introduce new ideas for “Star Wars” that would be used by other adaptations that came after. Tartakovsky saw potential in the franchise and everything in his adaptation with great animation, fantastic action sequences, new story ideas, and giving new personalities to both old and new characters. If it’s possible, Tartakovsky (and Dave Filoni) understood George Lucas’ vision better than anyone else and he knew what George Lucas wanted “Star Wars” to be. All I can say to all “Star Wars” and

animation fans is to go watch this micro-series, you can find it on Disney+, or you can buy both volumes on DVD for $70. It may be a large price to pay for two DVDs, but I can assure all “Star Wars” fans that it’s worth it, especially with the commentary and behind-the-scenes features.

(Thomas Schultze)

Categories: Featured, Editorials