Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Revenge of the Animators

I’ve yet to make it to any Comic-Con but I feel like getting up early on a Saturday to wait in line to see the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars should count for at least half a visit. While waiting I was treated to several interesting debates, such as whether Battlestar Gallactica’s Katee Sackhoff is too tall to (hypothetically) play Wonder Woman. (The counter: Hugh Jackman was not the right height to play Wolverine so there’s precedent. Sounds solid to me.) I also saw two people dressed in excellent Stormtrooper costumes. My own private Comic-Con, right?

The actual featured presentation, though, was about as interesting as the people who were in the audience and I think the film’s appeal is limited to only the die-hard Star Wars fans. (My unscientific proof: I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to go see this with me.) But I’m biased. I’m a huge fan of the series and can look past the bad dialogue that permeated the prequel trilogy and the lame attempts at comedy. At the end of the day, this is Star Wars and neither my fellow geeks nor I can get enough. But for you mere mortals, use this test: unless you’d be willing to drive 40 minutes and stand in line on a Saturday morning, I’d wait until this comes out on DVD.

The story places us in the middle of the Clone Wars, which to you fair-weathered fans is between Episodes II and III. It’s unclear how far in but I believe our timeline is shortly after the Cartoon Network’s earlier Clone Wars shorts occurred. Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) fight the Separatists on some planet with the help of Anakin’s first Padawan (Ashley Eckstein). Meanwhile there’s a needlessly elaborate plot by Darth Sidious and Count Dooku to kidnap Jabba the Hutt’s “huttling” to convince Jabba not to sign a treaty with the Jedi granting access to the Hutt Clan’s shipping lanes in the Outer Rim. As a bonus we’re treated to some superfluous C-3PO (voiced by Anthony Daniels) and Senatrix Amidala (Catherine Taber) appearances thrown in just because. The most exciting part for me was realizing that Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu) and Christopher Lee (Count Dooku) were reprising their roles from the live-action films.

But as with all of the post-1982 components of the Star Wars saga, it’s hard to get excited about a story that we know has to end a certain way. Everyone knew that obnoxious Anakin in Episode I turns into evil Darth Vader by Episode IV. There’s no suspense with the story. Of course, the mystery of the kidnapping plot (including the belated twist) are a noble attempt to add tension, but it falls flat when we know that none of the main characters are going to die in any of the their fights.

So let’s look at the technical aspects, which is really where George Lucas shines. First, the musical score was a marked change from the all-classical work by John Williams. This time we had variations on Williams’s original score plus some rock-like songs underneath some of the battle scenes. I thought this was a bold move that made the action seem more interesting than the droid versus Jedi battles we’ve already seen.

The animation, while nothing special, looked like a comic book come to life instead of the attempts at realism we’ve come to expect from recent animated films (e.g., Pixar). Again, a wise decision because the simplicity and limited scope of this story was better suited for a comic book serial than a feature-length film. The creators were not here to tell the Clone Wars, only a chapter, and they were successful in their efforts.

Most striking to me, though, was that I left this film less disappointed than I did after any of the prequel trilogy. Why? Well, when I see live actors, I expect them to act and in believable situations. This is how Lucas did the first three films. The last three, though, were mostly actors in front of green screens talking to red dots on top of sticks. Even the best actors have difficulty doing that without stiff dialogue. By animating this latest story, though, my expectations were lower; I know nothing I’m seeing is real because it’s animated and I also know that because these are not human actors the performances are naturally limited. At the same time I can suspend reality and become part of Lucas’s universe when I know everything I’m seeing is fake and at the end of the day it’s “just a cartoon.” And what is that they say about lowered expectations? You’re never disappointed, right?