Star Wars: The Clone Wars Review

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars hit theaters in August of 2008. The film would serve as the pilot episode and a jumping off point for an animated series of the same name that would premier several months later on Cartoon Network. The series fits neatly in between the events of Star Wars Episode 2 – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith. Over it’s 108 episode run, fans followed the adventures of Anakin Skywalker, R2-D2, and Yoda, and were introduced to new characters including bounty hunter Cad Bane, Asajj Ventress, and young Jedi Ahsoka Tano. The series would also provide Star Wars fans with the resurrection of Episode 1 fan favorite Darth Maul.

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The series was beautifully animated. Upon close examination, characters and environments appeared to be painted and included textured brush strokes. The series included an original score by composer Kevin Kiner, who seemed to be channeling John Williams. Sound design was top notch and included all manor of recognizable sounds from the Star Wars universe.

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An amazing voice cast provided near perfect sound alike voices for the animated versions of already established characters. Most notably, James Arnold Taylor as Obi Wan Kenobi, Tom Kane as Yoda, Ian Abercrombie as Chancellor Palpatine, and Disney alumni Corey Burton as the voice of Count Dooku. Guest stars were plentiful and included actors Simon Pegg, Ron Pearlman, James Marsters, and David Tennant. Even better, every once in a while a veteran actor from the Star Wars films would pop up and reprise their role for the animated series, including Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Ahmed Best as Jar Jar Binks, and Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca.

 

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It seems however, that all good things must come to an end. So, in March of 2013 shortly after the final episode of season five aired, Lucasfilm announced that The Clone Wars series had come to a close. Fans were, as you may imagine, enraged by the announcement. It was always intended that the series would not only draw to a close by leading directly into the events of Star Wars – Episode 3, but would address questions not answered by the feature films. It was this lack of closure that angered long time viewers of the series. Shortly after, series producer Dave Filoni revealed that a Season 6 of the series was well underway before The Clone Wars was cancelled. Dave assured fans that, one way or another, they would be able to watch these bonus episodes and even taunted fans with a lengthy clip of one of the yet to be aired Season 6 episodes.

 

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Nearly a year would pass before the announcement came that as of March 7, 2014 The Clone Wars would be coming to Netflix. This included the 2008 feature film, the first five seasons of the series, and the long anticipated sixth season. While the original five seasons included twenty or more episodes each, season 6 is comprised of just thirteen episodes. As a long time watcher of the series and a life long Star wars fan, I had to ask myself, are 13 episodes enough to answer all the questions I needed answered? On the evening of March 7th, I popped some popcorn, poured three glasses of blue milk, and with my 11 year old son Hunter and 9 year old son Stewart, settled in for a four and a half hour marathon.

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As was the previous five seasons, Season 6 is broken up into small story-arcs. The first was a four episode story that sheds some light on “Order 66”. During the events of Star Wars Episode 2, five seasons of the animated series, and the first half of Star Wars Episode 3, the clone troopers fought along side the Jedi and even established friendships with them. How was it possible that upon the Emperor giving the order to “Execute Order 66” the clones would instantly turn on the Jedi, killing them? This was probably my personal favorite of all the Season 6 story-arcs. While it had it’s light-hearted moments, it was dark, action packed, and ended up being a very emotional story that held our attention with little effort.

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The second story was a three episode arc focusing on the return of Rush Clovis, a character from an earlier season. Honestly, Clovis was not a character that I had any real interest in seeing ever again. One of my only complaints with the entire Clone Wars series is the multiple episode stories that focused on politics, politicians, and seemingly endless narratives on the Galactic Senate. This was unfortunately one of those stories, literally focusing on the banking system and how the two sides were coming up with the cash to pay for the war, unpaid loans, and believe it or not…interest rates. Riveting stuff. The only positive I found, and I had to search, was a brief look at Anakin’s jealousy and the growing tension between Padme and himself that comes to a head in Episode 3.

 

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The next story is a two-parter featuring Jar Jar Binks and Mace Windu. This one featured Ahmed Best reprising his role as Jar Jar Binks. I was guilty of rolling my eyes when I realized this was going to be a Jar Jar story. As with most Star Wars fans my age, I don’t care for Jar Jar. His actions are just to slapstick for me. I am aware, however, that Jar Jar wasn’t meant for me. He was intended to entertain a much younger audience, as was evident by my sons laughing at his antics. After all, when I was their age, I liked the Ewoks…and I still do! This quickly turned out to be a very fun, action filled story that I really enjoyed. There were quite a few moments that were very reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom…and that’s certainly a plus! So, did this contribute to the bigger story? No. It did however provide some much needed depth to Jar Jar and it was nice to see him getting in on the action for once as opposed to running the other direction.

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In Episode II it’s revealed that a Jedi Master named Sifo-Dyas was responsible for commissioning the creation of the clone army. Sadly nothing more than that is disclosed leaving more questions then answers about this mysterious Jedi. In the episode “The Lost One,” fans finally get the answers they were looking for. I truly enjoyed this episode. I can’t really say more without spoiling it.

The last three episodes focus on Yoda. This story answered a question that’s origins go all the way back to the original trilogy. Why is it that Obi-Wan and Yoda vanish when they die and become “Force Ghosts”? Why don’t all the Jedi that get killed in Episode II and III vanish? Why aren’t all these dead Jedis popping up all over the place as ghosts? A scene was written and partially completed for Episode 3 in which Yoda communes with the ghost of Qui-Gon Jinn, however Liam Neeson was unavailable during production and the scene was cut, right along with any answers the sequence may have provided. Rest assured however, that this final story-arc answered every question I had and then some! Liam Neeson reprises his role as fallen Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn and Mark Hamill even provides a voice in the final of the three episodes. This story delivers and then some. Could not have enjoyed this one more!

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Overall the sixth season was great. It didn’t feel at any point like the creative team was “phoning in” these episodes just to get their content up on Netflix. On the contrary, these 13 episodes fit right in with the previous 5 seasons. Everything was solid from the animation and musical score, to the writing and the performances of the voice cast. Incidentally, the 3 episode arc centering on the return of Rush Clovis and the banks wasn’t even originally meant for season 6. These episodes were intended to be a part of season 5. Actor Ian Abercrombie provided the voice of Chancelor Palpatine/Darth Sidious until he passed away in January of 2012. Unfortunately, he’d died before finishing his work on season 5 and Tim Curry was brought in to replace Ian as Palpatine. Tim was brought back the following year to record dialogue for the season 6 episodes, save for those three Rush Clovis episodes which feature the voice work of Ian Abercrombie back in his original role. This indicates that those three episodes were in production and were meant to be a part of season 5. Why were they held over? Can’t say. But it certainly explains why these episodes felt a bit out of place within the larger season 6 narrative. As for Tim Curry, his performance removed me a bit from the story. As dead on as the previous actor was to matching Ian McDiarmids performance from the Star Wars films, Tim didn’t work in the role. It was painfully obvious to me that I was listening to Tim Curry trying to sound like Darth Sidious. I love Tim Curry, but this role was just not for him.

Unfortunately, missing is any sign of Anakin’s Padawan Ahsoka Tano, which I’m sure will disappoint a lot of fans. The end of season 5 had her leaving the Jedi order and striking out on her own. Admittedly, it would have been nice to see where she ended up. I can only hope that her absence here means that we’ll be catching up with her in the new Star Wars animated series “Rebels”. The new series takes place just about 20 years after The Clone Wars and it’d be great to see what path Ahsoka ended up taking. We’ll have to wait and see!

Overall, I really enjoyed season 6 of the Clone Wars and so did my sons. Does the final episode bump right into the beginning of Star Wars – Episode III as series producer Dave Filoni had originally intended? No, but it gets pretty close…and that’s not a bad thing!

Patrick Hurd is a lifelong Star Wars fan. He collects the toys, he owns every incarnation of the films from the untouched originals on VHS to the new Bluray releases, he loves the music, he reads the books, he goes to conventions to meet the actors, and for over a decade he’s been a member of Jedi OKC, a Star Wars collectors and costuming group. Jedi OKC uses Star Wars to reach out to the community, raising money for the Integris Childrens Hospital and the MDA.