Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Warner Brothers)
Just A Pale Reflection
How the mighty have fallen! The once great series Star Wars has now been reduced to an animated episode that looks better suited to Saturday morning TV than for a movie house. Plus we have moved from a movie starring Harrison Ford to one starring Hayden Christensen to one featuring Matt Lanters voice. Aah, the horror. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is just a way for the owners of the franchise to make a buck.
The animated film has Anakin Skywalker (voiced by Lanter) trying to find the kidnapped son of Jabba the Hutt. He is assisted in the search by Obi-Wan Kenobi (voiced by James Arnold Taylor). A Jedi in training named Ahsoka Tano (voiced by Ashley Eckstein) is also trying to help.
The baby has been kidnapped in a plot masterminded by Count Dooku (voiced by Christopher Lee). He plans to return the child while putting the blame for the abduction on Skywalker, etc.
None of this is very interesting but the animation does make it seem more exciting than it is. Seeing the alien creatures of this universe, plus the crafts of war, make us long for the actual movies that started this whole story a long time ago in a glaxy far, far away.
The movie is rated PG for violence.
Most of the original Star Wars characters are in this story. R2D2, C3PO, Padme, Mace Windu and Yoda join Skywalker and Obi-Wan. The setting of the tale places it somewhere between Episodes II and III of the prequel trilogy.
The animation is good at times and poor at others. It never captures the look of Skywalker or Padme but it does Obi-Wan. He looks like Ewan McGregor and even sounds like him.
If you are a Star Wars fanatic then you will have to see this movie, but if you are just a casual fan you might want to wait for the DVD. It should be out before much time has passed.
I scored Star Wars: The Clone Wars a copied 4 out of 10.
