Star Wars: The Clone Wars Blu-ray Disc Review

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Title: Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Media: Blu-ray Disc

Region: A

Genre: CGI Animated Space Opera

Starring The Voices Of Ian Abercrombie, Dee Bradley Baker, Corey Burton, Anthony Daniels, Ashley Eckstein, Nika Futterman, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Kane, Matt Lanter, Christopher Lee, James Arnold Taylor, and Matthew Wood:

Writer: Henry Gilroy, Steve Melching, and Scott Murphy

Director: David Filoni

Feature length: 98 minutes

Extras: Exclusive Video Commentary, The Clone Wars: The Untold Stories, The Voices Of The Clone Wars, A New Score, A Gallery Of Concept And Production Art, Webisodes, Deleted Scenes, Hologram Memory Challenge, Trailers

Languages: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 EX Surround Sound and English, French (Dubbed In Quebec), Spanish, and Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 EX Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hearing Impaired and French, Spanish and Portuguese Language Subtitles

Packaging: Elite Blue BD Case

Sound: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 EX Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 EX Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2008/Blu-ray Disc Release: 2008

Theatrical Distributor: Warner Brothers and Lucasfilm LTD

Home Video Distributor: Warner Home Video

MPAA Rating: PG

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

This year saw something very rare occur for super fans of George Lucas and his two beloved franchises, Star Wars and Indiana Jones. For the first time ever in the United States, a new Indiana Jones film and a new Star Wars film were released theatrically during not only the same year, but also the same summer movie season. The closest time this has ever occurred before was over twenty years ago in 1984 when abroad both Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom and The Ewok Adventure: Caravan Of Courage were released theatrically. In the States both Ewok films premiered on television. In addition to the theatrical releases, Lucasfilm released through their respective home video distributors, Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull and Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Blu-ray Disc, which is a big deal when you consider that at the time of this writing the Blu-ray Disc format is two and a half years old and DVD, which debuted in 1997, did not see it’s first Star Wars and Indiana Jones DVD releases until 2001 and 2003 respectively. The Blu-ray Disc release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars also marks the third official THX certified Blu-ray Disc release following Lionsgate’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Paramount’s Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull.

The storyline for Star Wars: The Clone Wars is kind of lame in my opinion, but I do agree that not only is it a good introduction to the continuing CGI animated series, which airs Fridays on Cartoon Network, but I like the film better now that I have watched eight episodes of the series both professionally as a reviewer and as a fan. The look of the series in some ways is supposed to evoke a sense of the classical heroes and villains of antiquity that one reads about in school or sees images of on TV, in a museum, place of worship, etc. Thus the characters of Obi-wan and Anakin do not look photo realistic, but the spaceships, some of the aliens, the droids and the Clone Troopers when they are in full armor, including wearing the helmet, do look as good as anything in the live action feature films. I also think the animation has improved on the TV series and the film does play better on TV and some of the changes like the narration and Kevin Kiner’s score now feel appropriate and not quite as jarring as when I saw the film in the theater. It is not John Williams take even though cues from his music are reinterpreted by Kiner, but even the animated micro series Star Wars: Clone Wars had a different score as has previous Star Wars related animated series and the two Ewok films.

Now there are other questions and concerns that have cropped up since seeing the film and reviewing the first two episodes, but I addressed those directly with Director Dave Filoni in an interview I did with him before the series premiere, which you can read by clicking here. In a nutshell, film takes pace at a time during The Clone Wars when Anakin is already a Jedi Knight and has received his first Padawan learner Ahsoka Tano as assigned to him by Yoda, who feels that Anakin’s weakness is in letting the people he cares about go and since a Jedi is not supposed have attachment, the training and eventual letting go of Ahsoka when she becomes a Jedi will be a tough exercise for Anakin that Yoda hopes will ultimately make him a stronger Jedi. It has come to the attention to the Supreme Chancellor and high ranking Jedi Council members that Jabba The Hutt’s son has been kidnapped and in order to secure the free use of hyperspace lanes controlled by the Hutt clan, Anakin and Ahsoka must find his son before the separatists do or the Confederacy will gain free passage through Jabba’s hyperspace lanes, which strategically control traffic to and from the Outer Rim Territories. Over the course of the search, new villains and recurring villains conspire against the Jedi.

Presented in a THX certified 1080p (where available) maximum high definition resolution with a (2.4:1) aspect ratio preserving the theatrical presentation for Blu-ray users, the picture is outstanding and upon direct comparison between the standard definition DVD upconverted to 1080p and the 1080p high definition image at 24 fps, I found the Blu-ray Disc knocks the ball out of the park with an amazing display of colors and detail. For those who wonder if animation in true high definition makes a difference, they should go and check this BD out. The English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 EX Surround Soundtrack has an enveloping feel with idiosyncrasies that I never detected when I saw the film at a local movie theater. English, French (Dubbed In Quebec), Spanish, and Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 EX Surround Sound and English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hearing Impaired and French, Spanish and Portuguese Language Subtitles are encoded onto the Blu-ray Disc as options too.

Exclusive to the Blu-ray Disc edition is an optional video commentary that appears across the bottom of the screen with Director Dave Filoni, Producer Catherine Winder, Writer Henry Gilroy, and Editor Jason W.A. Tucker. What I liked about the commentary was whenever something was referenced, whether it was behind the scenes or an element from the live action Star Wars films as well as something that occurs in the film itself, images and or moving footage is shown usually to the left of whoever is talking and having spoken to Mr. Filoni personally about both the movie and the TV series, I can attest that not only is he a fan at heart as much as he is a professional, he is also a very articulate speaker with excellent knowledge of not only his rich background in animation, but also in Star Wars and movies in general. His participation in the commentary makes it as good as if not at times better than the audio commentaries found on the Star Wars DVDs and as a whole, I can’t wait to see how the hopefully eventual Star Wars live action films and The Clone Wars Blu-ray disc sets will be because the potential for the format is just barely being explored and can only get better in the right hands.

Additional extra value features include a sneak peek at the first season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network (30:00), a behind the scenes look at the recording sessions with the Actors for both the movie and select first season episodes of the TV series. For the feature film, Samuel L. Jackson and Christopher Lee reprised their film roles from the prequel trilogy and the ever-reliable Anthony Daniels returns once again to lend his unique vocal cords to voice C3PO for the film and TV series too (9:41). A look at the scoring session with composer Kevin Kiner in Prague (10:34), four deleted scenes, the Stars Wars.com webisodes, trailers, still gallery and a BD Java enhanced memory game wrap up the bonus materials on this Blu-ray Disc. A second disc containing a digital copy of the film for PC and Mac users is included within the Elite Blue BD case too.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is available on Blu-ray Disc now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Lucasfilm and Warner Home Video.

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