Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - Season 1 Review

Fire Across The Galaxy.

Star Wars: Clone Wars is a micro-series made up of 3 minute episodes, as such I have chosen to review each season rather than each episode. Boasting a unique art style and some entertaining stories, this first season of the micro-series is a blast.

The major focus of this short series is on the Republic's battle to regain control over Muunilinst from San Hill's Separatist forces. Due to the brief nature of this ten episode season, there is little time for character development or extensive plots, but the show nonetheless manages to tell a world-spanning story focusing on major characters, helped along by excellent animated battles.

Obi-Wan's ground forces took on the bounty hunter Durge, a powerful foe unseen in the movies but renowned in the Legends universe. The regenerative enemy is imposing and his destruction of the Republic battalion on the back of a speeder is a sight to behold. He may have ultimately been defeated, but Durge was undoubtedly one of the highlights of this series.

Elsewhere, we learn about the rise of Asajj Ventress, a character I only came across first in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) and thus had no background knowledge on. As such, despite this series supposedly being non-canon, it was fascinating to understand just how Ventress arrived in the Star Wars universe, and I particularly liked the fact that her initial dual lightsabers are those stolen from Jedis, as it would'nt have made sense for the assassin to wield red Sith lightsabers without coming from such a background. Ventress and Count Dooku may not feature prominently this series, but with that cliffhanger from Chapter 10 I imagine the dark side duo will return to cause further chaos in the next two seasons.

Anakin is the only character short-changed here, with little to do aside from a few cool dogfights above Muunilinst. For all the talk about Skywalker leading a large command for the first time, it still felt like Obi-Wan was the true commander and he had much more to do to further the plot than his padawan.

I also have to shout out Chapter 5 as the best episode of the series, despite it being largely disconnected from the rest of the season. Watching Kit Fisto and Scuba Troopers wage war beneath the waves of Mon Calamari was truly spectacular and I wish the showrunners had provided more episodes focused on this particular conflict.

Clone Wars then has already impressed me both with its action, style and characters. The plot leaves much to be desired, but when the episodes are this short it is understandable that something must be sacrificed. Having blasted through the first season is just half an hour, I am both excited to binge the rest of the series and disappointed that it is so brief. Hopefully the final, extended series can close this exciting story in a respectable way.

FEATURED CHARACTERS
- Yoda
- Chancellor Palpatine
- Obi-Wan Kenobi
- Anakin Skywalker
- Count Dooku
- Asajj Ventress
- Darth Sidious
- San Hill
- Durge
- Kit Fisto
- Padme Amidala

FEATURED PLANETS
- Coruscant
- Muunilinst
- Mon Calamari
- Rattatak

TRIVIA

• Chapter 1 is the only chapter to use music from the original scores by John Williams instead of new, electronic music
• After seeing the Arc Troopers in action on the Clone Wars micro series, George Lucas decided to add their trademark 'skirt' or 'kama' to several clone commanders in Revenge of the Sith. This meant Rob Coleman and his team had to render several finished effect shots all over again
• The symbol on Kit Fisto's belt buckle may look like Yin and Yang, but is in fact a couple of fishes
• A gladiator named Nilo, from the planet Rodis, was named after Return of the Jedi concept artist Nilo Rodis-Jamero and based on one of his early Gamorrean Guard sketches
• Grey Griffin based the voice of Asajj Ventress on Eartha Kitt
• Count Dooku presents Asajj Ventess with the twin light sabers of his former Padawan Kamari Vosa, a character from the Lucasarts game Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (2002)

RATING: 7.5/10