Director: Dave Filoni

Starring (voices): Matt Lanter, Ashley Eckstein, James Arnold Taylor, Anthony Daniels, Christopher Lee, Samuel L Jackson

Rating:

The 20th Century Fox fanfare is such an integral part of the Star Wars experience that seeing the Warner Brothers shield dissolving into “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...” is a rather disconcerting experience. The absence of an opening crawl – to say what it’s been replaced with would be an unfair spoiler – and slightly remixed theme tune do nothing but add to the suspicion that The Clone Wars comes from a very different place to the live-action movies.

But make no mistake, as soon as you’re plunged into the heart of a Jedi vs battledroids confrontation on a distant world, this is pure, unadulterated Star Wars. The characters may be heavily stylised CG caricatures of the saga’s heroes and villains, but the essence of George Lucas’s creation remains in a movie that bests at least two of the prequels. Indeed, The Clone Wars’ brand of simplistic, action-heavy storytelling is a fantastic breath of fresh air after the complex political machinations that bogged down much of Episodes I and II.

The film’s biggest strength is that it’s clearly been made by fans for fans. It’s easy to picture planning meetings dissolving into sessions of “Wouldn’t it be cool if...” particularly when Anakin leads a vertical assault on a distant temple, clone troopers and giant walkers scaling a massive cliff as Separatist fire rains down on them. The movie is packed with sequences that more than hold their own against their live-action equivalents.

And while it’s hardly Apocalypse Now, Clone Wars doesn’t sanitise the violence. Some scenes are surprisingly brutal: a battledroid grabbing a trooper by the neck before shooting him point blank is up there with the charred corpses of Luke’s aunt and uncle in the Star Wars pantheon of unpleasantness. This is the Clone Wars as many fans of the original trilogy wanted to see them, much closer to the prequels that existed in our heads than The Phantom Menace turned out to be.

As a curtain-raiser to the upcoming Clone Wars TV series – set to continue filling the gaps between Episodes II and III – this is an impressive statement of intent. The CG proves surprisingly effective, with the cast’s cartoony, almost puppet-like appearance perfectly suiting the material. The animation may not possess Pixar levels of complexity – probably impossible when you’ve eventually got to churn out weekly episodes – but with its vibrant colour scheme and simple, get-to-the-point dialogue, The Clone Wars is straight out of the comic-book school of storytelling. Needless to say, the hardware and spaceships look fantastic – you have to look very hard to see where what you see here differs from the (admittedly just as CG) equivalents in the prequels.

Although the mention of protecting shipping lanes through the Outer Rim conjures unpleasant memories of Trade Federation blockades, the plot involving the kidnap of Jabba the Hutt’s son rarely lets the excitement levels dip – in fact, the action’s so relentless that come the final quarter you might find yourself begging for a breather. Slug Jr proves an ingenious McGuffin, both a convincing reason for conflict between the Republic and Count Dooku’s Separatists (both sides want to keep Jabba onside) and a brilliant plot device for exploring the relationship between future Vader Anakin Skywalker and his new Padawan learner, Ahsoka Tano, when they have to play nursemaid.

That the character stuff works as well as it does is a welcome surprise. Cartoon Anakin proves to be a much more likeable character than the Hayden Christensen version, suggesting he might become the rogue-ish Han Solo character the prequels lacked, while one glance between Anakin and secret missus Padme, shared via hologram, conveys more sexual chemistry than any number of musings about the romantic properties of sand.

The newbies, too, fare well, with the impetuous Ahsoka mostly avoiding the annoying qualities that are usually the hallmark of a screen sidekick, and Asajj Ventress displaying plenty of menace and her fair share of skill with a lightsaber. Even the usually faceless clones are given a chance to develop, with their different haircuts (some of them hilarious) suggesting they’ve grown individual personalities. Above all The Clone Wars is fun. Sure, a few gags fall flat, but this gets back to the adventure serial roots that first inspired George Lucas all those years ago. The kid in you will love it.

Richard Edwards