The Show
It helps to think of it this way: True Star Wars is its own entity, three films in a universe all their own. Off to one side is The Prequel Trilogy, vaguely reminiscent but certainly not the same, and then even further off in the distance there is the weekly Cartoon Network series The Clone Wars, which fills in the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. And taken thusly, with plenty of new characters and new stories every Friday night, plus occasional glimpses of the familiar to add a flourish of relevance, it's actually a pretty engaging body of work.
There are one-offs like "Bounty Hunters," which begins with a dedication to Akira Kurosawa, riffing on Seven Samurai as it does, as well as multi-episode story arcs within the season that spin grander tales, some of which pay off later. Some explore the Jedi Order, some deal with the war, some show the growth of the characters, and they all have a worthwhile moral.
Season Two was subtitled "Rise of the Bounty Hunters" because these villains for hire figure prominently in many of the nasty schemes behind the prolonged conflict between The Republic and the Separatists, including the return of young Boba Fett, voiced by Daniel Logan from Episode II. His is a mission of revenge upon the Jedi who killed his father, ending the season on a dark, action-packed note.
The Picture
The cinematic widescreen 2.4:1 image is encoded here as a lower-bitrate VC-1, sometimes dropping into single digits. The animation is at once simple; with big, chunky ships and characters; and complex, with lots of depth and action and an interesting style that puts faux brushstrokes across so many of the surfaces. The most significant consequence of the compression is a frequent ringing in soft glows. There's also an occasional flicker, but all in all the video here is quite passable.
The Sound
The sound design is outstanding, full of clever effects such as Jedi voices probing around inside a criminal's head, or a grenade bouncing down a shaft before exploding. Too bad all of this creative effort is presented in mere Dolby Digital 5.1, not one of the high-res formats. The many different environments are not always conveyed with a unique tone, either (where's the resonance when Obi-Wan and Anakin are talking inside a ventilation duct?) but there is a surprising amount of discrete rear-channel info that most Cartoon Network viewers have probably never heard.
The Extras
Four in-depth featurettes reveal not only the wealth of inspiration and toil that go into every episode, but the reverence for Star Wars mythology that all of the creative team clearly has. These total over an hour and each approaches its topic from a variety of angles. There's also a gorgeous little softcover "production journal" packed with artwork and notations by the amazingly talented staff.
Exclusive to Blu-ray is the elaborate interactive Jedi Temple Archives. This vast collection of 2D and 3D artwork, animation tests, deleted and extended scenes and still images is organized by episode, with well over two hours' worth of content to explore. I also discovered three Easter eggs here. The video extras are all in HD
Final Thoughts
Taken at face value, The Clone Wars is just a really entertaining animated series, pretty to look at and exciting for the kids, and recognizable enough to help rope in Mom and Dad, too. Season Two is dark-but-not-too-dark, and this Blu-ray, while not Jedi-level in audio or video, certainly schools us with its "Archives" bonus.
Product Details
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