Star Wars: The Clone Wars

What’s the Story?

In STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS -- which is set between the films Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith -- Jedi knights Anakin Skywalker (voiced by Matt Lanter) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) are once again plunged into the thick of things, helping Republic troops seize a planet back from the robot army led by separatist Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). In the middle of the fray, viewers learn that Anakin's been assigned a new student by Master Yoda (Tom Kane) -- plucky young Jedi Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), whose skills are matched only by her impetuousness. When word comes that intergalactic gangster Jabba the Hutt's son has been kidnapped, Anakin and Ahsoka are dispatched to rescue the infant, partially in hopes that a placated Jabba will give free passage to Republic ships as they try to stop the separatists. But the separatists have their own agenda, and Dooku's assassin Asajj Ventress (Nika Futterman) is on the hunt for Anakin and his new student.

Is It Any Good?

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is aimed at kids, but the film's biggest flaw -- the constant repetition of lines, themes, concepts, and information in the script -- suggests that the people who made it don't have a terribly high opinion of their target audience. The movie's computer animation also sometimes looks shabby and shoddy compared to other computer-animated films -- hair is stiff and unyielding, and skin textures look mottled and flat. The character of Ahsoka feels fairly generic -- she's plucky and spirited, sassy and yet eager to learn from her elders -- and is clearly being set up as a new lead character for future animated tales set in the Star Wars universe.

The film unfortunately has more in common with the heavy, clumsy paces of the "new" Star Wars trilogy than the more graceful, spirited ones of the three original films from the '70s and '80s. There are plots and conspiracies and stratagems, usually over-explained by characters appearing in a holographic communication with our heroes and villains; watching The Clone Wars feels like listening in to several tedious phone conversations, interrupted by fight scenes. Yes, the action is non-stop, but as The Clone Wars takes place between two movies viewers already know the outcome of, it's hard to shake the fact that the entire film feels like money-making filler, an attempt to wring more story -- and money -- out of a long-established franchise.