The prequel trilogy is an interesting beast. The movies themselves were seriously flawed and oddly paced, but they have some of the best supplementary material out of any Star Wars trilogy out there, probably a testament to the sheer potential of Lucas's world in these movies. While the seven-season-long Clone Wars series is a more well-known and comprehensive depiction of the titular event, and I definitely plan on reviewing it at some point, Genndy Tartakovsky also made a depiction of his own, and it's a lot different.
This series, which I'll just call Clone Wars, was actually a miniseries composed of three seasons. The first two seasons had ten 4-minute-long episodes, while the third season was shorter but had longer episodes. Clone Wars attempts to summarize the most important battles and tide-changing moments of the titular war, occasionally splitting off into side stories about what other Jedi are up to. Airing after Attack Of The Clones, it does a solid job of tying it with the third movie, introducing characters like Ventress and Grievous impressively early on, and ending with the Battle Of Coruscant. We even get a few entirely original characters like the shockingly badass Durge and the cool Chameleon Droids. However, I think the short length of the series means it doesn't do the best job of actually evoking the size and scale of the war like a seven-season-long anthology series would. Most of this series takes place during the same battle, and the characters don't really have arcs or development. The third season is a bit better with its longer episodes, but as a whole, this show is more style over substance. As a result, where it falls slightly flat as an actual depiction of the Clone Wars at times, it definitely excels as a feat of animation.
Tartakovsky is well-known for his fluid and angular animation style and I don't think it's demonstrated more effectively than in Clone Wars. The action scenes here are both effective and understated. They're not overly flashy and drawn-out (*cough* prequels *cough*), yet the characters still get to use their Jedi abilities in unique ways, like disassembling a droid with the force and hurling its parts at everyone else. Dialogue is fairly lacking in this series, it's only used when truly necessary. This show really just lets the visuals and sound design speak for itself. Sometimes the music even cuts out to just let you take in the sounds of the war, it's oddly immersive. Similarly, the simplistic 2D style might take a while to get used to, and the faces are a bit stiff at times, but these simple designs lend well to the show's spartan style. Clone Wars's "less is more" direction is an incredibly odd one to take for such a story and lore-heavy series, but I found myself compelled through the visuals and action alone, which just kept getting better as the series went on.
While the episodes are short, there are a few that I thought were pretty great:
Chapter 9: As I mentioned before, Durge is an awesome and intimidating villain, and his big final battle with Obi-Wan for the season was an incredibly fun bit of action with an explosive ending.
Chapter 13: Easily the most iconic fight in the series, this episode does something the prequels rarely ever did, separate the Jedi from their lightsaber and force them to use other ways to fight. Windu is forced to beat an army of Super Battle Droids in a myriad of creative ways, and the ending where he retrieves his lightsaber and destroys the tank that caused him to lose it in the first place is satisfying.
Chapters 18-19: The battle between Anakin and Ventress was easily one of the best in the series. It's well-choreographed, dynamic, and incredibly dramatic. Chapter 18 was a bit more flashy and exciting, but Chapter 19 was far more intense, culminating in Anakin tapping into the Dark Side while Duel Of The Fates plays in the background and seemingly killing Ventress!
Chapter 20: The end of the first volume has Grievous make one hell of a first appearance, completely slaughtering a group of Jedi in what seems like more of a slasher film than an actual fight. Grievous is intimidating in this episode, way more than in any of his other appearances, and as a fan of his design, he deserved so much more. Not sure how I feel about his voice though.
Chapter 24-25: Probably the coolest thing about this series is that unlike its sequel series, which focuses on the Siege Of Mandalore, here we get to see how Grievous kidnaps Palpatine and how the Battle Of Coruscant starts. I mentioned this in my Star Wars retrospective but the Battle Of Coruscant is one of my favorite sequences in the whole series, so this was just so amazing for me. And I also like that Palpatine wasn't captured easily, it was after a really long and tense fight with pretty much the entire Jedi council that boasted some of the best choreography and humor in the series. It also made me realize that Shaak Ti is a badass and nearly killing her twice in Revenge Of The Sith did a serious injustice to her character.
Overall, 2003's Clone Wars miniseries may be too short to actually tell a comprehensive story about the war and its characters, but it's still worth watching for its great visuals and action, unique style, and interesting take on the Star Wars universe.
3/5 Stars
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