STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS - A GALAXY DIVIDED (TV SERIES) (2009)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - A Galaxy Divided (TV Series) (2009)

Format: AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English, French, Spanish
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 3
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Release Date: March 31, 2009
Run Time: 714 minutes

Movie: * * ½
Disc: * *

If the so-called “prequels” never felt like REAL Star Wars to you, then the chances are that this computer-animated TV series will feel even less so. The Fox logo is missing and so is the now familiar text scrawl through space, plus John Williams’ score has been jazzed up. The character designs are also highly stylized caricatures of their live-action counterparts. Whether their angular looks appeal to one is a question of taste.

However, once you get over your “the capitalist pig that is George Lucas raped my childhood” fanboy objections, then Star Wars: The Clone Wars (not to be confused with the 2D Fox show of a few years back) isn’t too bad. It is even in some ways better than the big screen prequels themselves! For instance despite his wooden movements and zombie-eyed appearance the computer-animated Anakin Skywalker is actually more likeable than Hayden Christensen ever was in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

Speaking of which, chronology-wise this series fits in between the events of these two movies. It follows the so-called “clone wars” in which separatist rebels battle against the Republic – an event which Obi Wan Kenobi briefly mentioned in the original 1977 Star Wars and which has obsessed Star Wars geeks ever since then. Perhaps would have been better if Lucas should left it to fans’ imaginations because Star Wars: Clone Wars only “works” if you forget the events depicted in Revenge of the Sith.

It is better to ignore issues raised in Revenge such as:

(a) Why am I cheering Anakin Skywalker on if he is only going to turn into a villainous bad guy who actually kills children?

(b) The good guys may have won this battle, but aren’t they going to lose the war in any case?

(c) Yeah, you Jedi may be all smiles and buddies with those clone troopers right now, but one day they are going to shoot you all in the back!

(d) Isn’t this all a phoney war in any case that is being manipulated by the evil senator Palpatine?

The TV series downplays all this and depicts events in a straightforward “good guys vs. bad guys” way. It is after all aimed at eight-year-old boys and not ageing thirtysomething fans of the original Holy Trilogy. Still, good luck explaining things to your ten year old if he or she has already seen Revenge of the Sith! The sheer pointlessness of it all will get you down and when you think about it perhaps Lucas would have served his fictional universe better by making some sequels to the original trilogy instead. After all, are we really to believe that - as an episode of Robot Chicken points out - an entire galactic empire comes to a fall just because they blew up one guy (the Emperor)?

THE DISC: This disc only contains the first four episodes from the series, namely Ambush, Rising Malevolence, Shadow of Malevolence and Destroy Malevolence. The last three episodes recounts one single storyline involving the Separatists employing a new secret weapon against the Republic’s forces. There are no extras of any sort whatsoever. Not even trailers!

WORTH IT? With Anakin Skywalker being less of an annoying, whining teenager than he was in the live-action movies, this series is at times better than the prequels themselves. Episodes are fast-paced and the animation is okay too.

RECOMMENDATION: Clone Wars: A Galaxy Divided is aimed at the curious and parents who wish to appease nagging kids. Fans of the series would however prefer to wait for a complete box set which is sure to hit shelves later this year.