I know! Once again I'm late to the party (about 3 series too late) but I am catching up with the CGI series "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" rapidly. I had a wave of Star Wars love last weekend and found myself obtaining copies of Episodes I - III - which, I don't mind saying, are NOWHERE NEAR as bad as I remembered them. Okay, they're not a patch on the original trilogy but they're great little films! But most of my spare time this week has been spent watching The Clone Wars.
I think what I love best about this series is that it offers a whole new look at the Star Wars universe. With new characters (most notably, disobedient and reckless padwan to Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka "Snips" Tano, clearly the best cartoon character ever - though I may be speaking more enthusiam than fact) and some lovely nods to events we know about from the movies, The Clone Wars is more than just a spin-off cartoon series aimed at kiddies.
True, they are very heavy on morality tales and some episodes leave you feeling like you've just seen Aesop's Fables updated for the future. But there's nothing wrong with slipping some advice into the kids' droid-chopping adventure, right? Especially when that kids' show translates so well to an audience of adult, geeky Star Wars fans... Like me. I began with the 2008 feature length movie, as you should, and I'm currently about half-way through the second series and loving almost every episode. The CGI is perfect for the style, the story lines are often thin, but fleshed out with some excellent movie-worthy action set-pieces and the music is top-class!
The series - overall - is thrilling, funny and heartfelt. It's TOTALLY Star Wars (you can feel Lucas' hand in it, without a doubt) and each episode it short enough, at 22 minutes, to throw on when you have a few minutes to kill before you do your next important thing. Trouble is, if you're anything like me, you'll forget all about that thing and just carry on watching. 37 episodes in 48 hours doesn't sound much, but it is! My eyes are Anakin-shaped right now...
...but it's worth it!
