With all due respect to George Lucas, Star Wars: Episode II left fans still searching for something of quality that fans can be enthusiastic about. This was years before Dave Filoni started working with Star Wars properties, and Cartoon Network show creator Genndy Tartakovsky was picked. Tartakovsky was one of CN's CalArts guys, and in the past, he created Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack. In the DVD special features, Lucas says that he liked Tartakovsky because he liked the anime visual style that Samurai Jack aimed for. Watching Dexter's Lab shorts like "Dim", viewers can see that Tartakovsky is also a great storyteller with the animated medium.
In 2003, fans were treated to "Star Wars: Clone Wars". Today's post is reviewing the first season. Uniquely, this consisted of episodes about 3 minutes long. They would premiere during the afternoon, re-air that night, and then become available online. Talking about the air times reminds me of my first semester of art school. A bunch of us would come back from a morning studio course, grab lunch, watch Clone Wars, and then be ready for the next class.
It had action drama, big and smaller stars, and it bridged Episodes II and III. The show was so successful that when the combined first two seasons got nominated for an Emmy, they aced it.
So the series was primarily about Anakin's change in character between the two films. We watch his relationship with Obi-Wan, Padme, and the Jedi Order in large. We watch Count Dooku (Darth Tyranus) find an apprentice in Asajj Ventress. We also saw different parts of the universe \affected by the Clone Wars conflict. In these little side stories, you get to see Yoda, Mace, Luminara, Kit Fisto, and other Jedi get the spotlight.
While the story's main focus is about the separatists' strange fixation on Anakin, my favorite part was the side stories. I was learning about lesser known knights and their padwans. There's an episode where Kit Fisto, (an amphibious Jedi knight) rescues Mon Calamari from evil attacking droids (I had never seen force bubbles or a lightsaber in water). Mon Calamri is the homeworld of Admiral Akbar. I learned about the planet of Illum when Luminara Unduli was teaching young Barriss Offee about the importance of a lightsaber crystal. In another episode, there was this awesome battle when Mace Windu takes on a who batallion of droids. There's this scene where he jumps on an aerial droid, punches his fist into the machine, and uses the force to hijack and ride it.
When it came to the cast, many minor characters were brought into this story. Some characters would have brief appearances like an R4 unit that flew with Anakin and a jousting villain called "Durge" on a speeder. What I think is cooler is that Filoni would later take characters like Ventress, Luminara, and Barris, and build on their rich stories.
This show was incredible, especially given that it was probably the best thing that happened to Star Wars since Return of the Jedi. I have great respect for what Kathleen Kennedy, Dave Filoni, Greg Weisman, and J.J. Abrams have done with Star Wars, but I think Tartakovsky's series deserves more respect (even if it's no longer canon). Disney's done an awesome job with the framchise. but I'd like to see Buena Vista put Star Wars: Clone Wars DVDs back into print. Until then, you can find them secondhand, and sometimes on YouTube. Since his Clone Wars series, Tartakovsky created a short lived series for Cartoon Network, a sci-fi teen drama called Sym-Bionic Titan, and has been directing the Hotel Transylvania series, along with some other animation and storyboarding jobs.
Tartakovsky's take on Star Wars deserves to be appreciated.
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