Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)
posted by Tygrrius @ 8:24 PM
Hold on tight, fellow geeks, I'm about to use a baseball analogy. Think of going to see the six live-action Star Wars movies as the equivalent of attending major league baseball games. And not just any major league games, but the World Series. Like the World Series teams, the live-action Star Wars movies represent the best of the best - in this case, the pinnacle of filmmaking.
Opening in theaters today, the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars, on the other hand, is the equivalent of watching a really good minor league ballgame. It's a different experience than watching the World Series, but still a lot of fun in its own right.
To enjoy The Clone Wars, you will need to accept that this is a different league of Star Wars movie. If you are unable to get past that, if you are expecting the "standard" Star Wars movie experience, then you might as well stay home and watch your DVDs again. Much like those who turn their noses up at minor league baseball, though, you won't know what you're missing.
I wasn't exactly pumped up about The Clone Wars. While one of the previews looked great, many of the television spots bordered on terrible. Especially those featuring a new Jedi apprentice, Ahsoka (Bless you!). More on her later, though.
As a Star Wars fan, I sold my geek soul to George Lucas long ago. It may be minor league, but The Clone Wars is still a Star Wars movie so I was obliged to be there opening day. Keeping up a tradition we started back with Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace (almost ten years ago now, unbelievable), Caabbage joined me for the fun. Caabbage is my brother-in-law via my little sister, not to mention a friend. He's perhaps even more of a Star Wars fanatic than I am.
Breaking somewhat from tradition, though, our wives begged off from this one. It was just the guys this time. Well, and a theater full of fairly well-behaved children.
Anyway, I set my expectations bar fairly low for The Clone Wars. You know what? It wasn't horrible, not even close. The Clone Wars is often entertaining and always visually stunning. The animation, which was one of my major concerns going in, turns out to be fantastic. Many of the spacecraft and battle scenes look very close to the computer-rendered effects from the more recent live-action films. The Clone Wars looks like a Star Wars movie just often enough to deserve the name.
Most of the characters have new voice actors behind them. Since this movie is leading into a new TV series starting in October on Cartoon Network and TNT, this was probably due to economic considerations. I imagine it would be rather expensive, if not impossible, to sign Ewan McGregor to a long-term contract to voice Obi-Wan Kenobi in a cartoon series. James Arnold Taylor fills in the role nicely, though, just as he did on the 2003-2005 Clone Wars series.
Matt Lanter ably takes over as Anakin Skywalker, adding just the right edge to the character. Returning in their familiar roles are Christopher Lee (Count Dooku), Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu, in what amounts to a cameo), and Anthony Daniels (Threepio).
Soon after the battle of Geonosis (chronicled in Star Wars: Episode II-Attack of the Clones), the Separatist/Droid Army has cut off many of the Republic's shipping lines. When Jabba the Hutt's baby son, Rotta the Huttlet, is kidnapped, Chancellor Palpatine urges the Jedi to rescue him in order to forge an alliance with the Hutts and allow an alternate trade route through the Outer Rim Territories.
Sounds like a pretty bad setup for a movie, right? And it is, for writing is one of the two areas where The Clone Wars strikes out. Much like Star Wars fans really didn't need to meet Chewbacca's father Itchy or his son Lumpy in The Star Wars Holiday Special, adding to the Hutt family by including both a son and an uncle (Ziro the Hutt) brings The Clone Wars dangerously close to being a parody.
Since they are the only Jedi available (despite being in the midst of a battle), Obi-Wan and Anakin are dispatched to take care of the situation. Along the way, Anakin reluctantly takes on Ahsoka (Gesundheit!) as his Padawan learner. Voiced by Ashley Eckstein, she is a bratty teenager who resents being mistaken for a youngling.
The movie works really hard trying to make the audience see the irony of Anakin being forced to mentor a headstrong teen. Due to her affection for handing out nicknames (she calls Anakin "Sky Guy," Artoo becomes "Artooie," while Rotta becomes "Stinky"), Anakin calls her "Snips." Me, I'm going to refer to her hereafter as Spunky Brewster.
To call Spunky Brewster annoying would be an understatement. Keep in mind, I am one of the few known Star Wars fans in the galaxy who actually likes Jar Jar Binks to a certain degree. I don't even mind that the teddy bear Ewoks helped defeat the Empire. Yet Spunky even grates on my very patient nerves.
I can only imagine the thought process behind this character.
And thus, Spunky Brewster was born. While the high-tech animation makes me look forward to the upcoming television series, the inclusion of Spunky as a main character does not.
The worst part of all of this, though, is that The Clone Wars absolutely wastes Padmé Amidala, an existing strong female character who is anything but annoying. Expertly voiced by Catherine Taber, Padmé's role in The Clone Wars amounts to a short but exciting bit part.
The male-driven 2003-2005 Clone Wars series also unfortunately left Padmé out of the mix most of the time, but filling the female void with Spunky Brewster is just a horrid idea. The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones both set up Padmé as an action hero, so her more subdued outings since those two movies have been disappointing.
Also more than likely due to the TV budget, Kevin Kiner provides the music for The Clone Wars rather than John Williams. Don't get all excited by hearing the classic John Williams recordings in the preview trailers, for not a second of it is to be heard in the actual film. Though Kiner makes use of some of Williams' themes, they are all inferior re-recordings and arrangements.
Kiner has a little more success with his original themes, most notably a rock-sounding song that plays during an intense battle, but even many of those fall flat. Without John Williams, The Clone Wars just doesn't sound like a Star Wars movie.
One technique that Lucas used in the prequel trilogy to anchor it to the originals was the echoing of familiar moments. The Clone Wars takes this technique to an absurd extreme, with echo after echo designed to remind you of specific moments or lines from the live-action movies. This serves mostly to make the audience wish they were watching those other movies on the big screen instead of this one.
As I said at the beginning, though, The Clone Wars is still an entertaining way to pass the time. So buy yourself a hotdog, peanuts, and Cracker Jacks, and take in a game or two of minor league Star Wars. You won't be disappointed. Much.
Opening in theaters today, the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars, on the other hand, is the equivalent of watching a really good minor league ballgame. It's a different experience than watching the World Series, but still a lot of fun in its own right.
To enjoy The Clone Wars, you will need to accept that this is a different league of Star Wars movie. If you are unable to get past that, if you are expecting the "standard" Star Wars movie experience, then you might as well stay home and watch your DVDs again. Much like those who turn their noses up at minor league baseball, though, you won't know what you're missing.
I wasn't exactly pumped up about The Clone Wars. While one of the previews looked great, many of the television spots bordered on terrible. Especially those featuring a new Jedi apprentice, Ahsoka (Bless you!). More on her later, though.
As a Star Wars fan, I sold my geek soul to George Lucas long ago. It may be minor league, but The Clone Wars is still a Star Wars movie so I was obliged to be there opening day. Keeping up a tradition we started back with Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace (almost ten years ago now, unbelievable), Caabbage joined me for the fun. Caabbage is my brother-in-law via my little sister, not to mention a friend. He's perhaps even more of a Star Wars fanatic than I am.
Breaking somewhat from tradition, though, our wives begged off from this one. It was just the guys this time. Well, and a theater full of fairly well-behaved children.
Anyway, I set my expectations bar fairly low for The Clone Wars. You know what? It wasn't horrible, not even close. The Clone Wars is often entertaining and always visually stunning. The animation, which was one of my major concerns going in, turns out to be fantastic. Many of the spacecraft and battle scenes look very close to the computer-rendered effects from the more recent live-action films. The Clone Wars looks like a Star Wars movie just often enough to deserve the name.
Most of the characters have new voice actors behind them. Since this movie is leading into a new TV series starting in October on Cartoon Network and TNT, this was probably due to economic considerations. I imagine it would be rather expensive, if not impossible, to sign Ewan McGregor to a long-term contract to voice Obi-Wan Kenobi in a cartoon series. James Arnold Taylor fills in the role nicely, though, just as he did on the 2003-2005 Clone Wars series.
Matt Lanter ably takes over as Anakin Skywalker, adding just the right edge to the character. Returning in their familiar roles are Christopher Lee (Count Dooku), Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu, in what amounts to a cameo), and Anthony Daniels (Threepio).
Soon after the battle of Geonosis (chronicled in Star Wars: Episode II-Attack of the Clones), the Separatist/Droid Army has cut off many of the Republic's shipping lines. When Jabba the Hutt's baby son, Rotta the Huttlet, is kidnapped, Chancellor Palpatine urges the Jedi to rescue him in order to forge an alliance with the Hutts and allow an alternate trade route through the Outer Rim Territories.
Sounds like a pretty bad setup for a movie, right? And it is, for writing is one of the two areas where The Clone Wars strikes out. Much like Star Wars fans really didn't need to meet Chewbacca's father Itchy or his son Lumpy in The Star Wars Holiday Special, adding to the Hutt family by including both a son and an uncle (Ziro the Hutt) brings The Clone Wars dangerously close to being a parody.
Since they are the only Jedi available (despite being in the midst of a battle), Obi-Wan and Anakin are dispatched to take care of the situation. Along the way, Anakin reluctantly takes on Ahsoka (Gesundheit!) as his Padawan learner. Voiced by Ashley Eckstein, she is a bratty teenager who resents being mistaken for a youngling.
The movie works really hard trying to make the audience see the irony of Anakin being forced to mentor a headstrong teen. Due to her affection for handing out nicknames (she calls Anakin "Sky Guy," Artoo becomes "Artooie," while Rotta becomes "Stinky"), Anakin calls her "Snips." Me, I'm going to refer to her hereafter as Spunky Brewster.
To call Spunky Brewster annoying would be an understatement. Keep in mind, I am one of the few known Star Wars fans in the galaxy who actually likes Jar Jar Binks to a certain degree. I don't even mind that the teddy bear Ewoks helped defeat the Empire. Yet Spunky even grates on my very patient nerves.
I can only imagine the thought process behind this character.
"Males love Star Wars. They will come see this movie no matter what we do. Take Tygrrius at The Film Frontier, he and Caabbage would see a movie featuring papier-mâché puppets as long as we stuck 'Star Wars' in the title. The question is, how do we target girls between the ages of 5 and 12 to expand upon our Star Wars empire?"
"Our marketing research shows that those girls love Hannah Montana. Too bad Star Wars doesn't have a character like that."
"Hey, what if Hannah Montana was a Jedi?"
And thus, Spunky Brewster was born. While the high-tech animation makes me look forward to the upcoming television series, the inclusion of Spunky as a main character does not.
The worst part of all of this, though, is that The Clone Wars absolutely wastes Padmé Amidala, an existing strong female character who is anything but annoying. Expertly voiced by Catherine Taber, Padmé's role in The Clone Wars amounts to a short but exciting bit part.
The male-driven 2003-2005 Clone Wars series also unfortunately left Padmé out of the mix most of the time, but filling the female void with Spunky Brewster is just a horrid idea. The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones both set up Padmé as an action hero, so her more subdued outings since those two movies have been disappointing.
Also more than likely due to the TV budget, Kevin Kiner provides the music for The Clone Wars rather than John Williams. Don't get all excited by hearing the classic John Williams recordings in the preview trailers, for not a second of it is to be heard in the actual film. Though Kiner makes use of some of Williams' themes, they are all inferior re-recordings and arrangements.
Kiner has a little more success with his original themes, most notably a rock-sounding song that plays during an intense battle, but even many of those fall flat. Without John Williams, The Clone Wars just doesn't sound like a Star Wars movie.
One technique that Lucas used in the prequel trilogy to anchor it to the originals was the echoing of familiar moments. The Clone Wars takes this technique to an absurd extreme, with echo after echo designed to remind you of specific moments or lines from the live-action movies. This serves mostly to make the audience wish they were watching those other movies on the big screen instead of this one.
As I said at the beginning, though, The Clone Wars is still an entertaining way to pass the time. So buy yourself a hotdog, peanuts, and Cracker Jacks, and take in a game or two of minor league Star Wars. You won't be disappointed. Much.
Story: 3 (out of 10)
Voice Acting: 8
Visual Style: 8
Animation: 10
Music: 3
Overall: 6
Labels: by Tygrrius, films, Star Wars
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