Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 1 Review

Okay, let’s get this out of the way straight off the bat. I’m a prequel fan. I love George Lucas’ handling of the Star Wars Saga in its entirety. Sure, I have qualms with bits and pieces, (Boba Fett as a stupid, pouting kid and Han shooting second, come to mind), but as a whole, all six films are, in my view, the best of the best that celluloid has to offer. I’ll even go as far as to say that Episode III is my favorite of the six movies (ESB coming a close second). Now that, that is out in the open I’ll begin… anyone still there?

Lucasfilm has done an admirable job of keeping Star Wars in the mainstream since it reemerged as a dominating entity in 1996. Especially when you take into account the fact that its theatrical incarnation ended in 2005. Of course, I’m not claiming that Star Wars had disappeared before ’96, but it had slumped out of the mainstream’s sweet embrace to a more nuanced status. It appears that Lucas is of the mind now though, that like it or not, Star Wars is here to stay with new content constantly pumping new blood into the franchise.

Now when I said Star Wars’ foray in the bright lights of the cinema world ended four years ago, I meant it. Episode III closed out Lucas’ desired story-arc (unless you count the fabled sequel trilogy) and it should end with him. Whatever your views of the prequels, he is the man to bring it to the big screen and the one who should, and did, end it. My point was punctuated last year with the release of the Clone Wars animated movie. Hell, I’ll go as far as to say that it was the perfect example. It felt as if the thought process behind it was, “Hey George we just finished the first three episode story arc What do you think about releasing it on the big screen as a sort of launch for the TV show?” Bad move boys. The movie missed the mark on all criteria being too small in scope, vision and polish to fill a big screen. It was a kind of “square peg, round hole” kind of thing. But when it was released on DVD it worked. On my 42” plasma it felt more like a “square peg, urm… square hole” kind of thing.

As the show of the same name ended its first season on Cartoon Network, I decided to take a look back at the little season that could… “Could launch a toy line you mean, snigger!” Hey you in the back, yeah you with the vote for Pedro T-shirt. Another comment like that and I’ll tell your mom what you do with her Dyson attachments! Okay so, as I was saying.

Straight off the bat, this show takes every advantage that made the movie launch such a disaster. It takes Star Wars and makes it what it always was, a serial like the Flash Gordon works of Lucas’ childhood. The opening crawl is now a narrated flurry of explosions and fly-by shots of Star Wars tech that seamlessly puts you in the thick of the action. Come to think of it, it tends to play the ESB card, starting with the big battle and ending with the dilemma to be resolved in the next “thrilling installment”. This is a formula that makes for a great kids show for the fans (read: twenty-five to forty some-things). And that’s what it is. It’s a kids’ show. It doesn’t shy away from the fact that it’s built for kids but there is plenty there for the dude squeezing into the kids’ Vader shirt from Target (yeah, I’m guilty of this). A fact that only helps it when employing fan favorites Jar-Jar and The Three Stooges-esque battle-droids, as this setting is much more adept at coping with them than a theatre full of people over twenty-five. And, as if to end any dispute that it was aimed at the new generation of Star Wars fans, you have Anakin’s new Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, a young Togruta with a lot of spunk. Thankfully the writers of the show spent the twenty-two episodes getting her out of the habit of calling Anakin, “Sky-Guy” and Artoo, “Artooey”, allowing me to really appreciate the little tike and nervous and excited for her inevitable death at the end of the series, helping push Anakin that bit closer to his inner-Vader. And speaking of Anakin, wow talk about putting the last nail into the coffin of Hayden Christensen. He is completely upstaged by the Gerry Anderson inspired marionette version of the character. With a cocky voice that somehow makes you like him more as an arrogant S.O.B. than you did as a whiny Emo kid (I stole that from Kevin Smith).

The show has its faults just like any other. The sometimes stilted dialogue of its big brother returns, as well as the overused catchphrases such as “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” It also becomes apparent, on occasion, that this show is produced by writers and animators that are huge fans of the films who badly want to make the Star Wars story they always wanted to do. The “moral of the story” sometimes deals with complex issues such the ultimate sacrifice of pacifism in the face of unwavering brute force, in a simple kids show way that does neither the child nor the story justice. But sometimes it gets it spot on and, let’s be honest, have you gone back and watched any of the boy-centric shows from the 80’s. Jeez-Louise those were some badly executed moral tales for sure!

For a twenty-seven year old such as myself, the series truly shines brightest when it goes to its dark side (irony!!!) There are several storylines that deal with the nastiness we love and it can get pretty nasty. Necks get snapped, lightsabers are used as phallic symbols to illustrate that Anankin and Padmé are gonna go all Barry White! Even clones are brutally dispatched left and right. And these boys have now got soul. No, I don’t mean the James Brown kind. I mean the show takes a well deserved step back to highlight the boys in white, giving them personalities grown from their individual experiences. This might hurt the canon as it takes away from Order 66’s effectiveness due to the clone’s new found free-will, but it’s a divergence that is well worth the stretch.

Kevin Kiner’s soundtrack walks a thin line that all Star Wars media with an audio track must walk. It utilizes John Williams’ score of all scores, weaving in new music to make up the majority of each episode. Kiner does a great job staying far enough away from Williams’ initial work to prevent it being compared to it. So far, Kiner is only credited with scoring the first 17 episodes of the series so my next comment can’t point to Kiner, per say, but I did pick up on one very noticeable influence. In the Season finale, the score was clearly influenced by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s score for “The Dark Knight”. Although it did take from my immersion the pay-off is a grittier soundtrack to the darker episode. And, let’s be honest, anyone involved or with a passing interest in scores took notice of Zimmer and Howard’s work, at that time and it would make sense that Kiner’s work (if it was, in fact, Kiner) on this specific episode would coincide with the time that “The Dark Knight” was dominating everything “film”.

Overall the show makes a valiant attempt to make a series that doesn’t feel at all reminiscent of the Genndy Tartakovsky version, which it shouldn’t, as that, as good as it was, was Genndy playing Star Wars. Instead it focuses on capturing the escapism of the films. And that’s what it should continue to do, as it rolls on with Season 2 this fall.

Stand out episodes:

EP 1-Ambush: Yoda, outmanned and outgunned, teaches his clones that their uniqueness is their strength.

EP 5-Rookies: A squad of clones, fresh from their test-tubes, face-down a new breed of assassin droids on a remote outpost.

EP 13-Jedi Crash and EP 14-Defenders of Peace: After crash landing on a planet inhabited by tribal pacifists, Anankin, Ahsoka and Aayla Secura try to weigh these beliefs against the looming threat of utter destruction at the hands of the Separatist army.

EP 15-Trespass: Proving that the season has hit its stride this episode pits Anakin and Obi-Wan against shotgun diplomacy between two races on a planet reminiscent of Hoth.
EP 22-Hostage Crisis: The season finale introduces a new Bounty Hunter named Bane who is almost as dark as the tone of this cliffhanger.

Lucas’ hands-on control of the franchise is sadly over, but the opening phrase from the first episode of Season One says it all:

“Great leaders inspire greatness in others.”

This is Lucas’ legacy and it looks like a good one.

Ben Simkins
Staff Writer

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