Fellman's Movie Reviews

RED = SPOILERS: 

The Clone Wars created chaos throughout the galaxy. Causing conflict on numerous worlds where the Jedi had to take command of troops and try to stop the fighting. The episodes in Volume One of the Clone Wars show some of these battles. Kit Fisto on Mon Calimari battles a large crab-like vehicle that shoots lasers. Mace Windu has an entire platoon of clones battling a giant vehicle that shoots a large piston into the ground. Obi-Wan is commanding a platoon of ARC troopers on Munnilist and gets sabotaged by some creature that can regenerate itself. The Clone Wars are a tumultuous time.  

What’s it about? It’s not necessary, but any true Star Wars fan in the midst of a Star Wars marathon would watch the Genndy Tartakovsky Clone Wars cartoons in between Episodes 2 and 3. Clone Wars Vol. 1 is about the first half of the Clone Wars when Anakin is still a Padawan, and the Jedi are just getting used to being generals and commanding battalions of troops. Obi-Wan acclimates rather quickly to his leadership position, as do several other higher up Jedi such as Ki-Adi Mundi and Mace Windu. This volume has numerous small cartoons as opposed to just five longer episodes on the second volume.  

What’s good? I love these cartoons because they’re made by Genndy Tartakovsky, the same guy that made Samurai Jack. They’re very stylized and intertwined with the soundtrack. The type of cartoon that Genndy makes is really perfect for something like Star Wars. It’s fast-action and slice-and-dice. The kind of cartoon that makes for abrupt movements and sudden screen changes. And the music and sound is really important to the way he makes his cartoons. And music and sound is a really important element in Star Wars too. It all just kind of falls into place with these cartoons.   

What’s bad? There’s not really a whole lot that’s bad with these cartoons. Personally, I would’ve liked to have seen more of them and not just have them only been Vol. 1 and 2… 

The animation? I’ve always loved Genndy Tartakovsky’s animation style. I’ve always been a huge fan of Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Laboratory when I was younger. When I found out he was making these cartoons, I was all about it. And then when I finally got a chance to see them, it was like, double awesome… 

The stories. It’s not one big movie. It’s a collection of smaller stories across the various battles. From Obi-Wan on Munilist, to Kit Fisto on Mon Calimari, to Yoda on a rescue mission to save Master Luminara and her Padawan Bariss Offee in the Jedi Temple on Ilum. There isn’t one main story throughout the entire thing. The one that gets the most time though, is probably Anakin fighting the new Sith apprentice Asajj Ventress. He follows her to Yavin 4 and eventually kills her, showing some more parts of his dark side.  

The giant piston crushing vehicle. I don’t know what this giant piston crushing thing is that Mace Windu is fighting on Dantoine, but it just slowly moves over everybody, and everybody just watches it float over them, and then it just shoots this huge pipe down into the ground that leaves a giant crater and crushes like, everybody around it. And nobody even tries to run or get out of its way. And then it just moves on and does it again. Like, what kind of a weapon is that? And how would you even get something like that off the planet? How would you even build something like that? Where did that giant piston come from? Windu seemed to take it out easy enough, anyway. It didn’t seem like it was that much of a problem for a gigantic floating weapon… 

Asajj ventress. I thought Asajj Ventress was going to last longer as a character, but they killed her off rather quickly. She was a cool character to introduce, and then got rid of pretty much instantaneously. It was a real shame, because they could have done a lot with her. Like, when they cut Maul in half at the end of Episode 1, he came back in Rebels with metal legs. But they never brought Asajj Ventress back. They could’ve. Such a waste.  

Either way, if you’re going to go on a Star Wars marathon, a real Star Wars fan is going to watch the Clone Wars cartoons because they’re part of the story. And not only that, they’re just great cartoons. And as always, May the Force Be With You…