Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) is an animated feature that belongs somewhere in between the second and third episodes in the Star Wars series. I didn't feel the need for this additional episode after the sixth Star Wars film (which is really the third episode) concluded: I'd had enough. As fun as the original Star Wars film and its sequel The Empire Strikes Back might have been, the others were mostly disappointing. Although The Revenge of the Sith had good moments, they weren't frequent. The highpoint for me in the recent three Star Wars films was the infamous request uttered by Princess Padme Amidala to Anakin Skywalker: "Hold me like you did by the lake on Naboo," or some such cosmic nonsense.

In The Clone Wars the separatists attack and the Jedi lead the clones in fighting back. Jabba the Hut's infant son is kidnapped by separatist forces under the leadership of the evil Count Dokku, and in order to win Jabba's support in an alliance against the separatists, the Jedi Knights undertake to get him back. The animation is good and stylish but not groundbreaking or even impressive. The action moves along, but not at breakneck speed and everything more or less seems to move in a predictable way. Because we've already seen the films, we know that the principal characters will survive the film to fight on in the next episode. There is a mildly interesting wrinkle involving Anakin Skywalker and his paduwan, Ahsoka Tano, an apprentice Jedi. She's female, and he doesn't want a paduwan, certainly not a female paduwan, but gradually she earns his respect with her derring do and courage. Together they succeed in retrieving the slug-like son of Jabba. But this is exactly what one would expect.

The Clone Wars seems mostly an excuse for an animated television series on the Cartoon Network.