Clone Wars: Chapter 1

Publisher: Cartoon Network
Producer: Genndy Tartakovsky
Art Director: Paul Rudish
Original Air Date: November 7, 2003

Reviewed by Quest

 

Star Wars returns to the small screen, once again in animated form. Genndy Tartakovsky (of Samurai Jack fame) brings a wonderfully artistic portrayal of the SW galaxy, as evidenced by the gorgeous opening shot of a landscape vista being crossed by the shadow of Yoda atop his kybuck steed.

This first chapter opens with a prologue montage setting up the Clone Wars confrontation and the general state of the galaxy as established in Attack of the Clones- much of this footage seems to be from forthcoming episodes, though some seems to be only for this opening sequence.

The second half of the episode basicly sets the stage for the rest of the series, providing the exposition of the Confederacy's activities on Muunilist and Obi-Wan & Anakin's departure from Coruscant to confront them there.

The battle sequences of the opening prologue contain several noteworthy moments- my personal favorite being Saesee Tiin's bombing run on the droid armies- visually exciting and very Star Wars in feel. It's also great to see Barriss Offee and Luminara in action- if only as a taste of things to come.

We're also treated to the obligatory moment of badassitude by Mace Windu and show-of-Force (couldn't resist) by Anakin as he takes down a circle of Super Battledroids, Neo-style.

The only aspects that didn't quite click for me was Yoda wearing his hood (the ears-popping-out thing just doesn't look right, IMO- even though I believe it's a reference to early Yoda conceptual designs) and the final shot of Anakin in the prologue- the "pissed off with saber" pose; for some reason that just didn't look quite right- maybe its just the blue lighting or something, but it seems kinda forced I suppose. All in all, though, they are very minor complaints and easily overlooked.

Wiping to the second half of the episode, we're treated to a depiction of Palpatine's office, which looks just like the movie, it has the same feel and hazy gray light that the Coruscant daytime scenes have in the movie, and that really makes it gel well with the films.

It's at this point we really get our first glimpse at the voice acting (though Yoda does narrate the opening sequence as well), and so far it seems fairly accurate: Obi-Wan sounds really good, Yoda is one of the better impersonations I've heard and Palpatine isn't half-bad, though they really should have hired Alexander Adams, who has voiced a few of the Star Wars audio books (including Cloak of Deception) and does an uncanny Palpatine voice.

Not to mention this is also our first glimpse at Palpatine himself, who, despite some truely funky sleeves, has an enjoyably twisted sense of decay about him, and his bony fingers clicking together was a nice touch.

This sequence does the necessary job of setting up the other episodes, but does so at a brisk pace (which compensates for half the episode being taken up by the prologue sequence) and overall, much like the prologue, provides one with very little to complain about, except, perhaps, for Obi-Wan and Yoda being a tad quick to scowl ;;)

We're then treated to a montage of Obi-Wan's army preparing for take-off: Clonetroopers and AT-TE's boarding their Acclamators, Clone pilots readying their starfighters for lift-off, and Anakin approaching his own customized fighter.

This whole sequence is a treat on many levels: on one, we get a nice moment of Obi-Wan reflecting about how even Qui-Gon could not have prepared a Jedi for this (a line, Genndy points out in the Hyperspace audio commentary, that was added later on); on another, we see several small moments that shows Tartakovsky's eye for the SW universe- the clones rushing to their V-19 Torrent starfighters (think of a cross between a Lambda shuttle and a B-Wing) is highly influenced by the launch of the Rebel fighters at Yavin IV in A New Hope (droids scurrying about, pilots rushing to their stations, tech crews removing fueling cables, pilots using hand signals to motion to launch crews, among other lovely touches).

We also get a brief piece of humor with Anakin's cloak flying into 3PO's face- not terribly funny but subdued in a way that makes you crack a grin on the inside...if only because it's not Jar Jar humor ;;)

The lifting off of Anakin's fighter is a gorgeous shot that leads into a nice emotional character moment: Anakin pausing before Padme's apartment, and them placing a palm to their glass as Anakin pulls away, regretfully, ending with a final shot in the vein of Empire Strikes Back's medical frigate view of the falcon departing, as well as the final shot of Attack of the Clones.

Now, as for the short runtime, I've been a supporter of the short-film serial format (or, rather, I don't have a problem with it, even though I wouldn't complain if the episodes were longer), as I've seen what Genndy could do on Samurai Jack in only a short period of time.

However, this first chapter felt undeniably short, but I feel this is only because of two factors: one, it was an exposition episode, so it seems like "not a lot happened"; and two, half of this episode was taken up by the introduction sequence, so, in essence, the chapter didn't really "start" until half way through for the viewers, and thus it seems short because, from that point of view, it was- roughly one and a half minutes instead of three.
So, I feel very confident that the rest of the episodes will seem much longer since they won't be bogged down by the intro montage and allow the full three minutes to tell a chapter's story.

So, all in all, an artistic success to be sure, and certainly a very Star Wars-feeling one, despite it's apparent runtime being slightly frustrating short, but again, that is something I feel will be taken care of now that we're past the first chapter.

-Quest
"ARC Trooper- Deploy!"

Stay tuned to TUCWS for more reviews and opinions on the Clone Wars Animated series.

 

Related Items:  The Battle of Muunilinst