Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2 Disc Special Edition)

Bought for 7 year old twin grandsons. They watch it over and over and over.

Let me first start out by saying I am a 100% Star Wars fanboy. I own zero movies on DVD/Blu-Ray except for anything Star Wars.

That being said, I thought that it was a good idea for Lucasfilm animation to release a movie to promote/kick-off the Cartoon Network series. This movie, however, was not their best effort. I usually think everything that comes out of the Lucas camp is gold, but this one was way below average. A big miss people
Like other reviewers have stated, the story was very poor. I mean all the great writers from the expanded universe books and this is the best they can do? I love the prequel era books. I have read too may to count. Almost all of them are just fantastic. They have great characters unlike Asoka. I want her gone now. The "Skyguy" nickname made me cringe. It was the worst.

Enough about the bad, let's talk about the good. I have watched every episode of the Cartoon Network show on TV and it is just great. Why didn't they make the storyline for the movie like the series? They have the feel of Star Wars and I can't wait till they are released on Blu-Ray. Great job Lucasfilm animation on the network series. They are phenomenal. Now just collect all the remaining copies of the Clone Wars animated movie and bury them in the desert ala "E.T." the game.
May we never speak of this again.

The August 2008 release is set between Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. It is a stand-alone story and - crucially - was designed as an introduction to a weekly animated TV series of the same name.

The animation-style has the look of Japanese anime and manga, while giving a nod to the supermarionation of the classic British 1960s series, Thunderbirds. The fight scenes are visually stunning in this presentation, though the dialogue to push the story forward often suffers from being quite stilted.

What makes for a successful TV series does not necessarily translate to the large screen (the reverse is also true). While obviously aimed at younger audiences and as a marketing tool, it does not set the foundation to propel this Star Wars universe concept into a remarkable movie franchise.

I'm a Star Wars fan; which is to say I'm a fan of the original franchise before Lucas sold out and began making the films for merchandising rights and placed profit before storytelling. This is one more example, but I'll be more objective and base this review on content not bias.

In terms of the timeline, this takes place between episodes 2 & 3, but it undermines the Cartoon Networks animated Clone Wars cartoon (which was very well done). In the cartoon, Anakin is still a padawan but eventually becomes a Jedi and the timeline leads up literally to the opening scenes of episode 3. So where does this fit in? It doesn't.

In terms of characters, Anakins padawan is introduced. What padawan? Good question. There's never been a reference to Anakin ever having a padawan. Not in episode 3, not in the cartoon, not in the books. Nowhere. The character herself is an annoying, disrespectful, sophomoric twit. You can argue that Anakin was undisciplined, but Anakin didnt grow up in the Jedi Temple. She's the Jar Jar of the show. The only good thing is knowing that she must die before episode 3.

The animation is fine for TV, but it should never have been released in the theater, As a precursor to the series it works, aside from the fact that it never happened.

The best part of the movie/series are the clones themselves. This really shows them as people and individuals as opposed to the human robots we've come to see tham as. The entire movie and series would have worked better if it had been entirely from the point of view of the troopers, with the Jedi being secondary characters. That would have eliminated any undermining of the storyline, which is what Lucas ended up doing.

OK. Let's face it. MOST people are downing The Clone Wars because it just doesn't live up to the rest of the Star Wars saga. In that respect, the public is 100% correct.

Now, let's take The Clone Wars for what it really is. It is merely a feature-length prelude to the kid-friendly animated TV series on Cartoon Network; nothing more, nothing less. Even George Lucas himself admitted in an interview that the Clone Wars feature film was pretty much "an afterthought" after he viewed the dailies from the actual TV show.

I, for one, felt that the animation was quite beautiful and pleasing to the eye as far as the backgrounds and layouts were concerned. Yes, the characters did appear to be too rigid and expressionless and everyone's hairstyles appeared to be molded from Play-Dough, but overall, the animation was quite nice; maybe not state-of-the-art, but still quite enjoyable.

Also, it is true that the plot was rather thin, but remember Lucas' target audience for this film and the TV series; kids and pre-teens. My five-year-old loved it and I enjoyed watching it with her. Compared to the actual movies, however, it does leave you kind of flat. Even Genndy Tartakovski's 2004 Clone Wars traditional animated series was vastly superior to this film, but you have to keep in mind the fact that the 2004 series was aimed at a more mature audience (teens and adults IMHO).

Will I watch the series on Cartoon Network? If I'm home and there's nothing else on or nothing else better to do, sure. If not, oh well, no big loss. I won't make it a point to tune in.

So, take this film for what it is; a kid-friendly chapter in the Star Wars prequel saga; just don't expect to experience that same thing that the films offered and you will enjoy it.