Star Wars: Clone Wars - Volume 1
Of all the spinoffs that make up the Star Wars Expanded Universe, I don’t think any project reflects the vision of a single creator who isn’t George Lucas more than Cartoon Network’s animated Clone Wars shorts. While executive producer Genndy Tartakovsky worked with Lucasfilm to incorporate the film series’ sound design, music, and certain familiar vehicles and characters, the look, pacing, and style are very reminiscent of Tartakovsky’s work on Samurai Jack. If you like that aesthetic style and want to see it explored in the Star Wars universe, this series is for you. If not, you’re probably going to want to pass on the DVD.
These 20 shorts, most of them just 3 minutes long, pack an amazing amount of action and story development. Edited together into one continuous program here on the DVD, the various narratives flow very well. It’s sometimes awkward to transition from one character’s story to another’s, but for the most part it did not feel jumpy. (I actually wish that Lucasfilm had waited until Volume II was complete and just released the whole thing as one animated two-hour movie, but no one asked me, and the gods of cross-promotion have to be fed.) The stories themselves are fun and exciting, but very exaggerated. Jedi single-handedly destroy dozens of droids with a thought, Mace gets surrounded by hundreds of battle droids and manages to punch his way out; bounty hunters regenerate limbs in moments. If you enjoy it on its own merits, it’s fun. If you try to square it with what we’ve seen of Jedi and droids and weapons in the movies, you will go nuts.
You’ll probably have the same reaction if you try and square events in this series with other licensed Star Wars stories. I know the continuity mavens at Lucasfilm insist that this all fits together, but at this point they’re holding the continuity together with spit and baling wire. But I’ve said this before, and I’ll have a chance to say it again when Volume II comes out on disc, given the discrepancies that pop up there. It’s just another reason to look at these shorts on their own merits. (Even with the small amount of dialogue in these shorts, the voices might throw you, since only Anthony Daniels from the movie cast does voice work for the cartoons. Of the others, Obi-Wan sounds particularly good.)
The DVD comes with a few extras. The commentaries Tartakovsky recorded for Cartoon Network’s site and the official Star Wars site’s Hyperspace section are included here; the latter goes into a lot more behind the scenes detail, while the former is basically Tartakovsky pointing out exactly who’s doing what on the screen for those who might not be very familiar with the characters and setting. There are two small making of featurettes, one of which includes a bit of comment from Lucas himself about using the cartoons to bridge the gaps between the movies. This featurette actually seems to focus more on Volume II than Volume I, and includes some shots from the second series and from Revenge of the Sith itself. The disc also includes the teaser trailer for Episode III, trailers for Star Wars video games, and sketch and design galleries. Unfortunately, the jaw-dropping, drool-inducing, when-do-the-tickets-go-on-sale full trailer for Revenge of the Sith is not included. Ah well. Can’t have everything.