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Title:
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: A Galaxy Divided
Episodes”
“Ambush”, “Rising Malevolence”, “Shadow Of Malevolence”, “Destroy
Malevolence”
Region:
One
Media:
DVD-Video
Genre: Animated Space Opera
Starring The Voices Of: Ian Abercrombie, Dee Bradley Baker, Corey Burton, Anthony Daniels, Ashley Eckstein, Nika Futterman, Tom Kane, Matt Lanter, James Arnold Taylor, and Matthew Wood
Supervising Director: David Filoni
Producer: Catherine Winder
Executive Producer: George Lucas
Running
Time: 90 minutes
Languages:
English, French (Dubbed In Quebec), Spanish, and Portuguese Language Dolby
Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Subtitles For The Deaf and Hearing Impaired and French, Spanish, And
Portuguese Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case Within A Cardboard Slip
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year
Of DVD Release: 2009
Home Video Distributor: Warner Home Video and Lucasfilm LTD.
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera
Over three years in the making, Lucasfilm Animation’s first weekly television series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, reunites Star Wars fans with classic heroes from the prequel trilogy such as Anakin Skywalker (voiced by Matt Lanter), Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) and Yoda with the villains of The Clone Wars such as Count Dooku AKA Darth Tyranus (Corey Burton) and his apprentice Asajj Ventress (Nika Futterman), who was introduced in the previous award winning animated microseries Star Wars: Clone Wars. We also get to know new characters like Anakin’s Padawan Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) and the series does much to humanize characters we only saw fleeting glimpses of such as the various Clone Troopers themselves, who are all voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. Anthony Daniels is back again to reliably supply the voice of C3PO and Matthew Wood reprises his role as the voice of General Grievous, but neither Christopher Lee nor Samuel L. Jackson return to provide the voices for their animated counterparts, which they did do for the feature film that opened this past August. Fortunately the talent behind their voices for the TV series do a very good job at making the characters their own and the series moves so quickly at times that I doubt anyone will notice outside of hardcore fans.
While the animation style remains unchanged between the feature film and television series, the TV series somehow looks more polished and the serialized storylines are more interesting and entertaining than what was seen in the feature film, but what the series does that the animated movie never really had a chance to focus on was to bring Lucas’ heart into the story. The reason why Star Wars resonates with generation after generation is because of the humanity of the characters and the non-denominational spirituality inherent throughout the two trilogies. While not everyone is force sensitive enough to be a Jedi Knight, that does not hinder our ability to better ourselves through it with the Jedi serving as inspiration for the Clones. Quite honestly I think in some ways the new TV series comes closest to carrying the same spirit the classic trilogy had and it also makes the events most of us are familiar with from Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith all the more poignant because now not only are we becoming more aware about some of the background Jedi characters from the films, but I have to state I see the tragedy of it all even hitting the Clone Troopers, who will lose what humanity they gain from the experience once Order 66 is given.
In
short, the TV series in my opinion is among the best Star Wars I have
seen outside of the feature films and it is much better than the animated
feature. In fact there should be no worries for anyone who missed the feature
film because in my opinion one does not necessarily have to be all that familiar
with Star Wars in general to enjoy the show, which is suitable for adults
too. I guess the only thing I cannot shake from my mind is a direct comparison
between this and Paul Verhoeven’s 1990s CGI television series Roughnecks:
Starship Troopers Chronicles though The Clone Wars offers
storytelling potential the animated Starship Troopers TV series could not
in that since the opposing sides are anthropomorphic in one way or another, it
is easier to portray the opposing point of view in episodes and give viewers
more backstory into the characters of Asajj Ventress, Count Dooku, General
Grievous and even the battle droids. If we are going to get episodes that show
the plight of the Clone Troopers, why not do an episode from the point of view
of an ordinary Battle Droid? In Star Wars sometimes the droids are more
human than the humans so perhaps this is not entirely out of the realm of
possibility for the second season. So whether or not a character is human,
alien, or mechanical or a bit of everything, it is a lot easier to relate to the
Star Wars villains than it is to the bugs of Starship Troopers.
In the episode entitled, Ambush, Jedi Master Yoda is on a secret mission to forge a treaty with the King of the strategic system of Toydaria when Count Dooku ambushes his ship. Yoda and three clone troopers must face off against Count Dooku’s dreaded assassin Ventress and her massive droid army to prove the Jedi are strong enough to protect the king and his people from the forces of the war. This episode was pretty much the only Yoda-centric episode of the entire first season and it is one of the best ones too.
Rising
Malevolence details a devastating Separatist mystery weapon terrorizing the
Republic Starfleet. An obvious
pre-cursor to the super laser on The Death Star, the super weapon leaves a fleet
of Jedi cruisers helpless and then to be certain there are no survivors, Hunters
are sent out to kill any life forms in escape pods helplessly floating the
debris field. Can Anakin and Ahsoka race to save Jedi Master Plo Koon and his
Clone Troopers in time? Plo Koon is handled wonderfully in the episode
and he is a great example of what I mean by taking side characters from the live
action feature films and in this case one that is not a human, but making him a
heroic role model everyone can respect and look up too.
Shadow
Of Malevolence has Anakin leading a wave of Y-Wing fighters on an assault
mission to disable Count Dooku’s ship and if possible, knock out the
Confederacy Droid General in the process. Meanwhile Obi-Wan is leading a fleet
of Star Destroyers to take out the ship following Anakin’s attack. So in order
to reach the Malevolence, Anakin leads his fleet through a nebula that
happens to be the nesting area for a breed of giant space born creatures. The
episode is in many ways about ego in my opinion. Anakin miscalculates his attack
strategy and is forced to amend it in order to complete the mission. Thus he
must accept responsibility for the mistake and the only way he can do it is to
see it for himself and sometimes that is easier said than done.
Destroy
Malevolence has our heroes boarding Grievous’ flagship to rescue Padme and
C3P0, who were mislead into the system under the guise of possible peace
negotiations and are now trying to escape. I liked the way we get to see a lot
more of the interior of a starship in the Star Wars Universe and hope we
get to see more things in season two related to the Star Destroyers and so forth
that we never saw in the live action feature films.
All
four of these episodes take place during a time when Anakin and Obi-wan are
still having high flying adventures, but as can be seen as the first season
progresses, the situations grow ever darker and we get more adult oriented
stories as a result, including some that do not necessarily feature Anakin,
Obi-Wan or other heroes from the films. While the picture quality is fine, I’m
sorry to note that all four episodes are presented in a letterboxed (1.78:1)
aspect ratio and none of them are THX Certified either. The two volumes of the
microseries featured THX certified anamorphic widescreen transfers. Why the
first DVD release of Lucasfilm Animation’s flagship TV series was not released
in the same manner is unknown to me, but it is a disappointment. Well rounded
English, French (Dubbed In Quebec), Spanish, and Portuguese Language Dolby
Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtracks are provided along with English Subtitles for
the Deaf and Hearing Impaired and French, Spanish, and Portuguese Language
Subtitles are encoded onto the disc as options. The interactive menus are
standard interactive still frames that are easy to navigate and unlike the
episodes included on this DVD are 16 by 9 enhanced too. Hopefully future
releases in any format will rectify that problem with letterboxed episode
presentations since I think the fans whether they are adults or kids deserve to
see the show as it was meant to be seen and because widescreen HDTVs are far
more common than they were ten years ago so why not take advantage of that from
the beginning? Super Star Wars fans will want to add this DVD to their
collection regardless.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: A Galaxy Divided is available on DVD Video now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Lucasfilm LTD and Warner Home Video.
©
Copyright 2009 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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