The OTHER Clone Wars Cartoon
Star Wars Rebels began its final season
on Monday, as we prepare to say goodbye to Ezra, Hera, Sabine and friends as
they embark on their last adventures. Over the course of the show we’ve seen
many callbacks and characters from the ever-popular Clone Wars cartoon. But what you may not know about is that Star Wars: The Clone Wars was not the
original cartoon set during this time period.
Called
Star Wars: Clone Wars (you can tell
it’s different from the more popular version because this one doesn’t have a
“The” in the title), this cartoon was a hand-drawn take on the titular battles
and aired from November 2003 to March 2005. It was directed by Genndy
Tartakovsky, who you might know as the director of the Hotel Transylvania movies or as the creator of Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai
Jack.
With
the Prequel Trilogy preparing to conclude, Lucasfilm wanted to create a cartoon
series that filled in the gaps between Attack
of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
This show attempted to do just that, using an animation style not dissimilar to
Tartakovsky’s own Samurai Jack.
Overall the show looks really stylized, like nothing else you can find in Star Wars.
Instead
of character and story driven content like the 2008 Clone Wars utilized, this series was all about one thing: awesome
battles. Every episode would see your favourite Jedi alongside massive armies
of Clone troopers slicing their way through hordes of battle droids in the most
creative and fun ways imaginable.
That
isn’t to say the show didn’t use the characters at all though. We got to see
some unique spins on our favourite Prequel heroes and villains here. Anakin is
seen with much darker overtones than he ever had in the 2008 Clone Wars, as the show makes his lust
for power blatant from the first few minutes of the first episode. Palpatine is
hilariously displayed as an obvious villain right from the start. His skeletal
fingers even make slimy noises when he taps them together.
Each
episode is about 3 minutes in length (bumped up to around 13 minutes in the
shorter final season) with a small self-contained plot adding into the
overarching story. The first 3 episodes focus on Obi-Wan and Anakin’s
relationship as well as a battle between an elite squadron of Clones and battle
droids. Later episodes star lesser known Jedi such as Kit Fisto and Ki-Adi
Mundi as they fight their own battles on different planets.
This
show can also be credited as the first appearance of popular Star Wars villain Asajj Ventress. Here
she’s seen as Dooku’s apprentice, as well as a major overarching villain in the
series. The series also explains that she’s responsible for the scar Anakin has
over his eye in Revenge of the Sith,
so that’s some nice continuity.
If
you’re interested in Star Wars: Clone
Wars, it takes just over two hours to watch the whole thing and the entire
series is available to watch for free on YouTube as of this time of writing.
While it isn’t canon anymore and never quite matches the depth that the 2008
series got, Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars is
still well worth a look for the awesome animation style and epic battles only a
cartoon could portray.
No comments:
Post a Comment