Star Wars: Clone Wars
Entry updated 25 October 2021. Tagged: TV.
US animated tv series (2003-2005). Cartoon Network Studios, Lucasfilm. Developed and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, based on characters created by George Lucas. Writers include Darrick Bachman and Genndy Tartakovsky. Voice cast includes Nick Jameson, Mat Lucas, Richard McGonagle and James Arnold Taylor. Twenty mostly four-minute episodes (seasons 1 and 2) and five mostly thirteen-minute episodes (season 3). Colour.
This series focuses on Anakin Skywalker (Lucas), Obi-Wan Kenobi (Taylor) and their allies as they battle the Sith and Separatists from the Republic. The events take place after Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) and set up Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005) by closing with the kidnapping by General Grievous (McGonagle) of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Jameson). Though initially intended to be canon, in 2014 the series was shifted into the Star Wars Legends bracket (previously known as the Star Wars Expanded Universe), the resting place for non-canon spin-offs. Ironically, the show's popularity led to the even more successful 3-D animated tv series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-2020), which ran to 133 episodes and is considered canon. An Anime series, Star Wars Visions (2021), was produced by several different anime studios (including Trigger), whose staff wrote and directed the nine episodes: it was reasonably well received.
Given their brevity, the first two seasons' episodes are lively bursts of action and animation, with minimal plot; the third season's longer episodes allow more story. This was an exciting series, with the impressive battle animation to be expected of Tartakovsky; one quibble would be the poor dialogue, though this was not out of place in the franchise at that point. The series won three Emmys and an Annie. [SP]
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