I taped it on Saturday night and watched it last night. Damned if it wasn’t better than either one of the prequels! Granted, it had the luxury of only limiting itself to the action sequences, but still, when a cartoon has better dialouge than your multi-million dollar live action movie…well, it should cause some reflection on your part.
Gennedy Tartakovarsky was the perfect choice to make this happen. His Samurai Jack aethetic translated perfectly into the Jedi. He really captured the proper tone and character of Jedi like Obi Wan, Mace Windu and Yoda without making them humorless and cold. And the treament of Aanakin was perfect as well. In the Original Trilogy he is referred to as the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen. We finally got to see him fly in Clone Wars, and he does not disappoint. The space dogfighting sequences were reminscent of some of the great dogfights in Cowboy Bebop, which is a great compliment, IMHO. Aanakin’s battle with the Sith apprentence Asajj Ventress on Yavin 4 (of all places!) was incredible. It showed his tendency to give in to his anger and effectively foreshadowed his big transformation. It was an extremely powerful bit of animation, and contrasted his behavior with that of Luminaria Unduli and Bariss Offee in the Illum caves.
I completely agree. Tartakovarsky has put more into 1 hour than Lucas has managed to do in 4. I’d like to appreciate the shorts on their own, but to me, they throw the prequels into all-too-sharp relief, making me wonder “Why on earth couldn’t Episodes I and II be like that?” Still, they were action packed, had good moments of (funny) humor, and, perhaps best of all, no Jim-Jam (er, I mean, Jar-Jar). The only thing I didn’t like was the design for Anakin’s starfighter, but seeing him fly was good enough to make me forget how goofy it looked.
My personal favorite episodes: the ones involving Mace. Sure, he was a little over-the-top, but come on, he’s Samuel L. Jackson. If anyone deserves to do it, it’s him.
You know, I hope Lucas is aware just how badly Tartakovsky has schooled him with this “micro-series.” Everything that Lucas got wrong in the latest movies (which is, basically, everything) Tartakovsky absolutely fecking nailed. Better action, better characters, better dialogue, better special effects, better humor. If Lucas has one iota of cultural awareness, he ought to be humiliated at being so badly shown up within his own franchise.
My biggest (and really, only) criticism of Clone Wars is that occasionally the Jedi were overpowered. Mace, for example, jumps what looks like a couple of kilometers at one point, and the Jedis seem to be occasionally gifted with super-speed, which I do not think is cannonical.
Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon moved with super-speed in the beginning of Phantom Menace, when they were on the Trade Federation battleship. Probably in other scenes, too, but I’ve blocked out most of the rest of the movies.
Her status was unclear to me, except that she was a total badass. I thought she was actually claiming to be a member of the Sith species, something from the old comic books which may no longer be canon. Also, the term “Sith witch” has been bandied around occasionally. Are there any examples of Sith witches or monks (which I took to be evil force users)?
Asaij’s bio on starwars.com says she was partially trained by a jedi who was killed before she “graduated”.
Loved the content, hated the format. Who came up with this “microseries” idea, and where can I go to taunt them mercilessly?
And Anakin Skywalker is just such an enormous git! He’s not as intolerable as he was in “Attack of the Clones”, but I still can’t wait for him to just shut up and become Darth Vader. At least Darth Vader isn’t annoying. Still, the duel between him and Asajj was fun to watch.
I find myself wondering if the character introduced in the last episode will ever be seen again. Did Mr. Tartakovarsky get some spoilers from Mr. Lucas about Episode 3, or was the droid general a throw-away bad guy? Hmmm…
You can watch all episodes online. With or without commentary. Hmm, looks like CN took down the episodes. Weird. Try through starwars.com I don’t have quicktime though. Which is again weird since CN had them in real.
I loved it. Both the full on bad-assery of Mace Windu to the little things like the battle between Anakin and Asaij takes place on Yavin 4. The same place where Luke goes before the assault on the first Death Star.
Thank you for starting this thread. How awesome was that?! I’m so happy I remember to record it. Is there a second season? When is it airing?
Favorite episode: Mace Windu taking down a droid army with his bare hands. I actually cheered out loud during those scenes.
Why does Orbifold hate the European Union? Granted I prefer the old traditional coinage to the euro, but it does make things easier.
Holy Crap! Mace Windu was friggin’ Superman in that episode! The only way I can see Anakin/Vader taking this guy out is to strand him on a planet and then nuking it from orbit.
BTW: slight hijack- Any word on whether the Jedi get betrayed and slaughtered before, or after Vader goes into the suit? (I presume he’s Vader by that time, whether or not he’s had his lava bath yet.)
I concur that Lucas should be utterly humiliated that others are doing so well with his universe (see also the video game Knights of the Old Republic), while he is doing so very, very poorly.
Now that’s how you foreshadow a slide to the Dark Side, George. Abandoning his post, disobeying his masters, looking for an unnecessary fight, and then beserking. All Dark Side, but, unlike slaughtering an entire village, not out-of-left-field, somebody shoot this guy right now, pure distilled evil.
posting a spoiler with that quote is probably spoiler enough…yes, General Grievous (Urgh, what a friggin cringeworthy name! Almost as bad as Elan Sleezebaggano -The drug dealer from the Outlander Club in AOTC) is the BIG BAD in Ep3. We’ve only seen the animated version so far, but according to the StarWars mailer that goes out every so often, Grievous turns up in the comics shortly and will be pretty heavy in the movie. I’m rather keen to see what he looks like as a live-action character.
And I must concur, the Clone Wars series was wonderful. Is there any murmurings of a third set of episodes or is this it? And where’s the DVD? We were supposed to get it before Xmas last year! That was the semi-official rumour-line from Lucasfilm! (wasn’t it?).
I particularly liked the kid watching Mace fight the Battle Droids. The Droid ship was very silly, but DAMN did it carry a wallop! tee hee.
