Star Wars Iii The Clone Wars

[Georgeanna Abson]

StarWars: Clone Wars is an American animated television series developed and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky and produced by Lucasfilm and Cartoon Network Studios for Cartoon Network. Set in the Star Wars universe, specifically between the Star Wars prequel trilogy films Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, it is amongst the first of many works to explore the Clone Wars. The show follows the actions of various prequel trilogy characters, notably Jedi and clone troopers, in their war against the droid armies of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Sith.

The series begins shortly after Attack of the Clones, as the failing Galactic Republic and the Jedi are under siege from the Separatist Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Sith. As the war rages on, more and more planets start to slip from Republic control.

The main storyline of Volume One features the Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi leading an assault on the planet Muunilinst. This is the home of the Intergalactic Banking Clan,[4] benefactors of the Separatists wishing to break away from the Republic. The Banking Clan have hired a bounty hunter named Durge to command their droid armies on the battlefield. Obi-Wan's apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, is personally appointed to lead the space forces in the battle by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.[5] Meanwhile, Separatist leader Count Dooku takes the Force-sensitive Asajj Ventress as his Sith apprentice and sends her to kill Anakin.[4] On Yavin 4, Anakin manages to defeat Ventress in a lightsaber duel by drawing on his anger.[2]

Surrounding this storyline are various battles focusing on other Jedi and their wartime exploits. Master Mace Windu faces a droid army unarmed[4] on Dantooine, Master Yoda travels to the ice world Ilum to save Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee, the amphibious Kit Fisto leads an aquatic regiment of clone troopers on the waterworld Mon Cala,[5] and a group of stranded Jedi encounter the dreaded Jedi hunter General Grievous[2] on Hypori.

Volume Two picks up right where Volume One ended, with Obi-Wan sending his team of ARC troopers to Hypori to rescue the Jedi from Grievous. The Republic is now desperate and, after much consideration, the Jedi Council decides to promote Anakin to the rank of Jedi Knight.[2] The series then jumps ahead to nearly the end of the war, when Anakin has become a much more powerful Jedi.

Anakin and Obi-Wan are assigned to search for Grievous on the planet Nelvaan, but instead end up liberating a group of Nelvaanians who had been enslaved and mutated by the Separatist Techno Union. While rescuing the Nelvaan warriors, Anakin sees a cryptic vision of his eventual transformation into Darth Vader.[2] Meanwhile, Grievous leads an assault on Coruscant and, despite the best efforts of Yoda, Mace Windu, Shaak Ti, and others, he kidnaps Palpatine. Anakin and Obi-Wan then set out to rescue the Chancellor over Coruscant mere minutes before, and leading directly into, the beginning of Revenge of the Sith.[2]

Several attempts were made to maintain continuity within the overall saga, most notably bridging Attack of the Clones to Revenge of the Sith. Anakin appears with his new lightsaber (as it appears in Episode III) after his previous one was destroyed in the previous film.[6] In "Chapter 21", C-3PO makes his first appearance in gold plating[7] and Anakin is knighted.[8] He sends his Padawan braid to Padm, who stores it with the necklace he gave her in The Phantom Menace.[a] In "Chapter 22", Anakin appears with the facial scar he has in Revenge of the Sith,[10] and it is implied that Anakin and Padm may have conceived the Skywalker twins on Naboo.[11]

Volume Two shares aspects of its storyline with the novel Labyrinth of Evil, which was created at the same time. Both the cartoon and book climax with the Jedi chasing Grievous on Coruscant to save Palpatine. The book features a different final duel between Windu and Grievous, but in both titles Shaak Ti acts as Palpatine's primary guardian.[16][17] In the series, Anakin and Obi-Wan investigate a possible base for Grievous on Nelvaan before being called back to Coruscant. The novel depicts the Jedi duo pursuing Count Dooku on Tythe. While fleeing to Coruscant, Dooku stops at Nelvaan to leave a false trail.[17][18][b] While the final season of The Clone Wars references Shaak Ti being sent to guard Palpatine, it depicts Anakin and Obi-Wan in yet a different location just prior to Revenge of the Sith.[16][c]

Clone Wars served as a pilot for the CGI The Clone Wars.[21][d] The character designer for the latter series attempted to translate aspects of the character designs from the 2D series to 3D.[23] It was originally reported that the 2008 series would not supersede the continuity of the 2003 series,[24] but following Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, in 2014, it was announced that the CGI The Clone Wars would officially be considered canon, while the 2003 series and most other spin-off works would not.[25][21][c]

Genndy Tartakovsky claimed that Lucasfilm conceived of the series as a way to sell more action figures because the prequel trilogy figures were underselling.[27] It was produced and directed by Tartakovsky, the creator of Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack,[21] and employs a similar animation style to the latter. According to Tartakovsky, the series was developed in two weeks, created by a small crew,[28] and "it was stressful because I had to translate this world I've loved since I was a kid into something completely different."[27]

Tartakovsky stated that he deliberately animated C-3PO with moveable expressive eyes to pay homage to his animated appearances in the Star Wars Holiday Special and Droids.[29] Additionally, the planet Nelvaan's name was a nod to Nelvana, the production company that produced all previous Star Wars animated series.[30] In "Chapter 21", a Dulok appears, which is a species that was introduced in Ewoks. According to art director Paul Rudish, the Banking Clan planet of Muunilinst was designed to look like a U.S. dollar bill.[31]

The series originally ran on Cartoon Network. In addition to being shown on television, the episodes were simultaneously released online on the Star Wars and Cartoon Network websites. It was heavily advertised by the channel and was originally shown immediately before their popular Friday-night programming block, 'Fridays'.

As of 2019, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes lists four out of five critics as giving season 1 a positive review.[36] In 2009, Clone Wars was ranked 21 on IGN's Top 100 Animated Series list.[37]

In a list of "Best Animated Star Wars Moments", /Film credits the series with marking "the arrival of a new era for animated storytelling that seriously expanded the canon of the galaxy far, far away", specifically praising the dialogue-free scenes of Mace Windu fighting battle droids without a lightsaber (calling it "a dream seeing the legend in action") and Anakin's premonitory hallucination of Vader's helmet on a cave wall (drawing a parallel to Luke's vision on Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back).[42]

Both volumes were released on DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, making it one of the few Cartoon Network original shows not to have their home releases released through Warner Home Video. Both volumes were released on Disney+ on April 2, 2021.[45]

This release contains all five of the show's 12-minute episodes, edited together into one continuous feature with English subtitles and an optional commentary track. Extras include a Revenge of the Sith trailer, art galleries, trailers for the Star Wars games Battlefront II and Empire at War, an Xbox demo with two levels from Battlefront II, and the Lego short film Revenge of the Brick. Also included is the featurette "Connecting the Dots", which highlights the creative process that Tartakovsky and his team used to link Clone Wars to Revenge of the Sith.

Elements of the series, including the regenerative villain Durge,[f] are mentioned in the 2005 novelization of Revenge of the Sith.[51] According to the (now-defunct) Star Wars Databank, Durge has a vendetta against Mandalorians and extends this to the clones of Jango Fett.[50] Durge was considered for inclusion in The Clone Wars, but was dropped in favor of the new bounty-hunter character Cad Bane.[52] Durge also appears in a 2021 issue of the canon Marvel comic book series Doctor Aphra, as part of the War of the Bounty Hunters crossover event, set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.[53][54] The 2023 video game Jedi: Survivor features Rayvis, a member of Durge's species, the Gen'Dai.[55]

Nelvaan has been mentioned in canon reference books.[56] Versions of the medieval-style Jedi knighting ceremony have appeared in canon works such as Star Wars Rebels and Jedi: Fallen Order.[8] A 2022 Comic Book Resources (CBR) article opines that certain elements of the series which do not conflict with more recent works "are good enough to deserve canon status", such as the duel between Anakin and Ventress, the introduction of Grievous, and the knighting ceremony.[16] The 2022 Clone Wars novel Brotherhood establishes a new origin for Ventress, which CBR interprets as definitively demoting the series to non-canon status, calling the implication "a shame".[57] The book's author, Mike Chen, explains that he viewed Ventress and Skywalker's duel from Clone Wars as "kind of canon", like animated Republic propaganda of Anakin's encounters with Dooku's agents (as referenced in the novel).[58] A 2022 issue of Obi-Wan references Mace Windu's battle on Dantooine.

In early 2013, Lucasfilm announced that The Clone Wars would be "winding down".[4][5] Thirteen episodes comprising a new sixth season were made available in the U.S. for streaming on Netflix, along with the entirety of the series, beginning March 7, 2014.[6] A project known as The Clone Wars Legacy adapted unproduced story arcs into other formats, such as comics and novels.[7] The series was revived for a seventh and final season of 12 new episodes, which premiered on Disney+ on February 21, 2020.[8][9][10]

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