Being one of the few people I know who is not a huge Star Wars fan, only seeing the original trilogy and The Phantom Menace, I was pretty bewildered when I heard that not only was there an animated film that was made to fit within the new trilogy, but there was an entire television series that predated the film… And this isn’t even that series! This is a new unrelated series that takes places throughout the Star Wars chronology at different times. Confused? Let’s see if it’s worth figuring out.
Series 
It’s hard to call “The Clone Wars” a series, mostly due to the fact that the story arcs don’t last more than a few episodes and it’s really a stab in the dark to tell when each storyline is taking place. Remember, I know as much about Star Wars as I do about quantum mechanics. However, even though these tangent storylines are short, they’re the perfect length to tell a quick story within the Star Wars universe without having to worry about infringing on canon set forth by the films. Lucas knows how to please his fans in a way that is both exciting and completely null considering we know Anakin isn’t going to suddenly die in a storyline that takes place before the Darth Vader days… I may know a little about star wars.
When I started watching the first episode I was frightened when opposed to having your regular scrolling text like they do in the films, they decided to put in a narrator to recap the storyline. A bad thing? Not at all, time is tight on a 23 minute tv show… However when the voice of the narrator is that of a 50′s car salesman, perhaps your casting director should be fired. You get used to the voice over time though.
Throughout the different storylines we’re presented with a mixture of different elements. There’s great action scenes that contain amazing visual effects and very intense battles and then there’s these odd Saturday morning cartoon moments that really show you the seams of the production, this is a television show that needs to acceptable due to the fact it’s for kids. If you’re fearing that nothing tastes more bitter than a sugar-coated version of something you cherish like the Star Wars films, don’t worry. For the most part the droids are the main element that caters to younger audiences, from their silly dialogue to their slapstick antics… Did I laugh when a group of droids accidentally jumped to their death and the only droid who made the landing was subsequently hit by a train? Perhaps.
For the most part the series is a great watch mostly for the visuals, but the storyline isn’t as campy and cheesy as I feared. It’s definitely the perfect helping for a quick dose of some sci-fi adventure. The distribution of television series is probably my favorite aspect of being an avid movie watcher, because when you only have an hour to kill and can’t finish a full length feature, sometimes it’s nice to kick back and watch something short and sweet. Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 1 is definitely short and sweet!
Video 
The Clone Wars comes at us in 1080p/VC-1 and surprisingly uses 2.35:1 aspect ratio for a television series. I was originally going to critique the animation at times throughout the series. I was going to say when you compare it to the amazingly fluid animation from other Lucas arts or ILM projects that the Clone Wars series seems a bit lesser in quality… but then I remembered THIS IS A WEEKLY TELEVISION SERIES! Considering they have to pump out 2 hours (roughly a Pixar movie’s length) worth of animation within a month is insane.
The animation is great, the backdrops are detailed and well designed, and the character models have this unique and almost anime look to them that really fits the style of series.
The graphics look phenomenal being projected onto a 100″ screen and I was blown away by the colors and lighting throughout. The details are crisp and clear and everything moves smoothly and fluidly. The visual effects look amazing as well, it seems Lucas Arts spends just as much detail on the compositing on the show as they do in their bigger projects.
This is definitely showroom quality!
Audio 
I had high expectations, being a bit of an audiophile, and my expectations weren’t met. Considering this is a Lucas Arts project and it was mixed at Skywalker Ranch (one of the top audio studios in the world), it better have some amazing sound!
I immediately expected to see a THX codec used or at the very least DTS-HD, but instead we’re given a subpar Dolby digital 5.1 mix that wasn’t mixed incredibly well. Sounds bled into one another in the multi-layered scenes such as a battle sequence that involves dozens of audio tracks on top of each other.
That being said the film doesn’t have a bad mix, just not a great one. The dialogue comes through nicely, the score sounded great and everything can clearly be heard when a million things are happening at once, but when the complex mixing is pushed to the limits the codec shows its weakness.
Special Features
The Blu-ray offers only two special features, minus trailers. They’re labeled Jedi Temple Archive and the Enhanced Jedi Temple Archives Mode. Although that doesn’t seem like much, both are actually quite insightful and allow the fans to see every facet of the development of the show from early concept art to pre-vis 3D tests.
The enhanced version of the archives plays while you’re watching the series and when a nugget of info is available for the scene you’re watching you have the option to learn more. The regular archive is more of a mini behind-the-scenes documentary that you don’t need to watch in the middle of each episode.
Even though there’s truly only two special features, they provide for information, back-story and insight into the development and production of the series then I’ve seen on a lot of other Blu-ray’s that have a giant list or separate discs full of features.
The only thing that may have been missing was a commentary track.
Final Thoughts
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Season 1 is definitely a well-made series on a technical level and although the show does have a lot of sugar-coated elements for kids, the action is intense and the storylines aren’t as 2 dimensional as they seem. With showroom quality video and great special features; newcomers, such as myself, are going to enjoy this release just as much as the fans. Even though I still have no idea how the Star Wars chronology goes, this series is a great watch!
