During the 2008 fall television season, the Time-Warner-owned Cartoon Network and Lucasfilm Limited returned to George Lucas’s “galaxy far, far away” with a new animated series titled Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Set during the intergalactic conflict from which its title is derived, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a 3D computer-animated follow-up to the 2003-2005 2D-animation-rendered Cartoon Network “micro-series” Star Wars: Clone Wars, which has a narrative which bridges the three-year gap between the Prequel Trilogy’s Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
(Supposedly, the two shows are intertwined, with the newer series taking place between Chapters 22 and 25 of the 2D series, even though there are always going to be some continuity issues that hopefully will be addressed as the narrative of Star Wars: The Clone Wars evolves.)
Even though the 2008 feature-length film Star Wars: The Clone Wars was not exactly given a warm reception by many Star Wars fans and media critics, the TV series which it was launching has gained a loyal following among viewers of all ages and is one of the most-watched shows on Cartoon Network.
Like Lucasfilm’s The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Star Wars: The Clone Wars doesn’t tell its stories in a strictly linear or chronological fashion. It is presented in an anthology format, with stand-alone episodes and multi-episode story arcs skipping back and forth across the Star Wars timeline.
This means that some episodes or story arcs in one season can be either “prequels” or sequels to episodes in a previous season, and that some characters’ costumes and/or hairstyle (Anakin Skywalker’s, for one) will change subtly depending on when the particular story takes place.
Generally speaking, though, Star Wars: The Clone Wars depicts the many battles and other adventures in which the newly-minted Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, his former Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Skywalker’s Padawan apprentice Ahsoka Tano are involved during the three-year-long conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems.
However, the series’ anthology format allows executive producer George Lucas, supervising director Dave Filoni, producer Catherine Winder and their creative team of writers, animators and directors to tell stories about other Jedi Knights (Quinlan Vos, Kit Fisto and Plo Koon, for instance) which play minor roles in the movies or have appeared only in other Expanded Universe media like novels and video games.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – The Complete Season Three
Like its 2009 and 2010 predecessors, Lucasfilm and Warner Home Video’s 2011 Star Wars: The Clone Wars – The Complete Season Three set contains – in four DVD or three Blu-ray discs – 22 episodes of the series created by George Lucas, produced by Catherine Winder and supervised by Dave Filoni.
Each 22-minute episode (sans commercials) is essentially a stand-alone story set during the Clone Wars (22-19 years before the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope), although often two or three chapters are thematically linked to form story arcs.
For example, the Duros bounty hunter known as Cad Bane, introduced in Season One, is back in a two episode arc ( Evil Plans, Hunt for Ziro) which concludes the Ziro the Hutt storyline covered in both the Star Wars: The Clone Wars feature film and the first season cliffhanger Hostage Crisis.
Likewise, a two-episode arc ( Corruption, The Academy) takes viewers back to Mandalore after the events depicted in Season Two’s Death Watch trilogy. Once again we see Obi-Wan Kenobi’s old friend, Duchess Satine, as she attempts to deal with the corruption resulting from her decision to keep Mandalore and other star systems neutral in the war between the Republic and the Separatist movement.
Another interesting multi-episode storyline features the rescue of Jedi Master Evan Piell from a Separatist prison designed originally by the Old Republic to hold Jedi Knights who had turned rogue.
Not only do we get to see a seldom-seen member of the Jedi Council in action, but the Citadel arc marks the first substantial Prequel era appearance of Captain Tarkin, the militaristic Republic officer who is politically allied with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and is disdainful about the Jedi Order’s methods of waging war against the Separatists.
Other outstanding story arcs feature the Nightsisters, the prominent Expanded Universe witches of the planet Dathomir, take Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka to a Force-influenced world called Mortis and – in a fan-pleasing season finale – bring back one of the most popular characters from the Classic Trilogy: Chewbacca the Wookiee.
My Take: Like many fans, I sometimes wish Lucas, Winder and Filoni had chosen a more linear (i.e. chronological) approach to the story telling rather than showing Star Wars: The Clone Wars as an anthology, but once viewers get used to it they can tell that big arcs often are chronological within the context of the whole saga and that one-shot stories (such as the Ahsoka Tano-centered Padawan Lost) are little sideway jaunts that take viewers away from the Anakin/Obi-Wan narrative and allow them to learn about other Jedi, including the less-than-disciplined Quinlan Vos, who is edgier and more impulsive than Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Though the series airs on kid-friendly Cartoon Network, it is rated TV-PG for good reason; unlike most “cartoons” where characters can go through battles and other nasty situations virtually unharmed (as in the 1980s’ GI Joe series), Star Wars: The Clone Wars features many episodes in which clone troopers and even Jedi Knights are injured or even die.
On Animation: For first-time viewers, the animation (which was inspired by the British animated series The Thunderbirds) does take some getting used to. It’s rendered in three-dimensional computer style and done in a slightly exaggerated style (Count Dooku, for instance, has a decidedly knife-like look in his face-and-beard) reminiscent of both the 2003-2005 Clone Wars series and anime.
Once the viewer gets used to the visual style, though, the strength of the writing will win over almost all Star Wars fans, with perhaps the exception of fanboys who will never accept the Prequel Trilogy as worthy of the Star Wars brand.
Episode List (Blu-ray Version)
Disc 1:
Clone Cadets
Written by Cameron Litvak
Directed by Dave Filoni
ARC Troopers
Written by Cameron Litvak
Directed by Kyle Dunlevy
Supply Lines
Written by Steven Melching, Eoghan Malhony
Directed by Brian Kalin O’Connell
Sphere of Influence
Written by Katie Lucas, Steven Melching
Directed by Kyle Dunlevy
Corruption
Written by Cameron Litvak
Directed by Giancarlo Volpe
The Academy
Written by Katie Lucas, Steven Melching
Directed by Giancarlo Volpe
Assasin
Written by Katie Lucas
Directed by Kyle Dunlevy
Disc 2
Evil Plans
Written by Steve Mitchell, Craig Van Sickle
Directed by Brian Kalin O’Connell
Hunt for Ziro
Written by Steve Mitchell, Craig Van Sickle
Directed by Steward Lee
Heroes on Both Sides
Written by Daniel Arkin
Directed by Kyle Dunlevy
Pursuit of Peace
Written by Daniel Arkin
Directed by Duwayne Dunham
Nightsisters
Written by Katie Lucas
Directed by Giancarlo Volpe
Monster
Written by Katie Lucas
Directed by Kyle Dunlevy
Witches of the Mist
Written by Katie Lucas
Directed by Giancarlo Volpe
Disc 3
Overlords
Written by Christian Taylor
Directed by Steward Lee
Altar of Mortis
Written by Christian Taylor
Directed by Brian Kalin O’Connell
Ghosts of Mortis
Written by Christian Taylor
Directed by Steward Lee
The Citadel
Written by Matt Michnovetz
Directed by Brian Kalin O’Connell
Citadel Rescue
Written by Matt Michnovetz
Directed by Steward Lee
Padawan Lost
Written by Bonnie Mark
Directed by Dave Filoni
Wookiee Hunt
Written by Bonnie Mark
Directed by Dave Filoni