(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Star Wars: Clone Wars)
Doug (vo): I think like a lot of people my age, I didn't really put much stock on anything with George Lucas's name on it after the first prequel. That means I missed Genndy Tartakovsky's...I never know if I'm saying that name right...miniseries, The Clone Wars. For years, people would tell me, "You have to see it, you have to check it out." Even when it first came out, everyone was saying, "Man, this is what the prequels should have been. They're so good!" So I finally sat down and watched it, and...I'll admit, it's not really what I was expecting. When a lot of people said this is, like, the Black Hawk Down of Star Wars, they weren't kidding, because most of what you see is literally just violence.
Premise and review[]
Doug (vo): For a long time, particularly in part one, there is almost no dialogue. Now, with the prequels, you could say that's a good thing, because we all know what the dialogue in the prequels is like. But at first, I was like, "Man, I do need a little bit, guys." Genndy's animation has proven to be spectacular overtime, and let's face it, he actually can do animation very well where there is no dialogue. He did an entire show based around it.
(The poster for Primal is shown, before we are shown footage focusing on the animation style and action sequences)
Doug (vo): But at first, I wasn't convinced this was working, and I remember the exact moment where I went, "Uh-oh, we're in trouble." And that's when Anakin looks at Padme in those weird styles that I think looks awesome in other Genndy stuff, but looks a little odd in Star Wars. And they just look at each other, and I felt nothing, which...again, you could argue is kind of just the prequels as usual. But I really like Genndy's work and I like how much he can do without any dialogue, so this did concern me. But John Woo used to talk about the ballet of violence he used to use in his movies, and that's kind of what this becomes. Maybe not a ballet of violence, but a language of violence, which kind of sounds awful, but it also kind of sounds badass, too. And it actually does start to transform into something interesting. Kind of like a Samurai Jack or Primal episode, what they say verbally isn't that important. It's how they say something physically, and in a strange way, when you see how they fight and when they take a breath and when they don't attack and when they pause and when they send in troops or when they go in on their own, you do surprisingly start to get some character from them.
(Footage focusing on Ventress and General Grievous is shown)
Doug (vo): I always thought the Clone Wars movie was the first appearance of Ventress, but I guess it was here, and it's not a bad first appearance. If I never saw the Clone Wars series, I would be asking, "Who is this character? I want to know more about this character". General Grievous, I guess, makes his first appearance here.
(Various footage is shown, mostly focusing on Palpatine's kidnapping and Anakin's spiritual journey)
Doug (vo): This is split up into two parts, and the funny thing is, in part two, there actually is a lot more dialogue. In fact, there's a lot fewer stories in the first one. There's a lot of different battles and a lot of different strategies and the different ways they take people out and everything. And in the second one, there's only two stories. One is about the kidnap of Palpatine, which is a lot like volume one, there's not a lot of dialogue, it's a lot of action. But the other story follows Anakin and Obi-Wan as they land on a planet that, man, if you think James Cameron stole a lot for Avatar, wait until you see this place. This planet literally has blue cat people that have a very heavy Native American lean to them, and they need the help of a white human savior. But what I like about this version is, it gets weird. Anakin has to go on a spiritual quest that involves leeches and trying to take down this evil place, and the more you hear about it, the more bizarre it sounds. And it is, but you can feel real self-reflection, and again, a lot of it's done without a lot of dialogue. It's also kind of neat seeing the style that Genndy would create eventually kind of become the Clone Wars style. I mean, yeah, eventually, it goes to CG, but it still has that angular look. You can tell it was inspired by this design.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): So, starting from a place of kind of worrying at the start, thinking I wasn't going to get invested, by the end, I did end up enjoying it. But like I said, it wasn't what I was expecting, and...I don't think it's anywhere near the best Star Wars. I understand why it got a following, it has a very cool style, it has great people involved, and it came out at a time where there was, like, no good Star Wars stuff at all. I mean, I know you can complain about right now, but there's a few good things here. We just had the two prequel movies, this was kind of a godsend. But it is good if you know what you're getting into. I think that does help going in. It's not going to be Clone Wars: The Series, but it isn't going to be mindless action, either, it's more...mindful action, if that makes sense. Like, there's an art to it, an energy to it, even kind of a meditative state to it after a while, which I know sounds strange, but if you know this guy's work, you know that makes a lot of sense. Grab a lightsaber, grab a blaster, and jump on in to this mindful violence.
(The final scene of the series, depicting a huge space battle over Coruscant, which will be fully showcased in Revenge of the Sith, is shown)