"STAR WARS: CLONE WARS – VOL. 2"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: ****1/2 (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars) STARRING Mat Lucas as ANAKIN SKYWALKER James Arnold Taylor as OBI-WAN KENOBI Richard McGonagle as GENERAL GRIEVOUS Nick Jameson as DARTH SIDEOUS/PALPATINE Tom Kane as YODA Grey Delisle as PADME AMIDALA Anthony Daniels as C-3PO Not Rated Studio: 20th Century Fox Directed by: Genndy Tartakovsky Back to DVD Review Home |  |
Having grown up on “Star Wars,” I devour everything “Star Wars.” Even the bad stuff like “The Star Wars Holiday Special.” Yup. I watched it when it first aired in 1978, and I’ve got a bootleg on DVD.
This year, in anticipation for the upcoming “Revenge of the Sith,” the Cartoon Network released a micro-series of cartoons in the “Star Wars” universe. This series of vignettes told the story of the Clone Wars, one of the least covered eras in the saga.
The first wave of toons were released on DVD before “Revenge of the Sith” came out in theatres, and the remaining episodes were shown on television and the Internet. Now, the second volume of “Clone Wars” cartoons are available on DVD.
Everything that made the first slate of shorts great is here in the second volume. All the main characters are presented. The animation is stylized and slick. The sound mix is awesome. And there’s a lot of cool Jedi fighting going on.
But this second volume is even better. Where the first volume was short on story, they made up for it here. The goal in this second wave of cartoons was not just to placate an insatiable audience. It was to really bridge the story gap from Episode II to Episode III. And their fixes were pretty clever at times.
We see Anakin go through Jedi training and be knighted. We see why General Grievous has a nasty cough in “Revenge of the Sith.” We see how Chancellor Palpatine is kidnapped. And we also get to see more historically devastating blunders from Yoda.
The DVD has a similarly nice assortment of special features. There’s an audio commentary by director Genndy Tartakovsky, as well as the expected galleries of concept art, storyboards and sketches. The “Revenge of the Sith” trailers are on board, as well as trailers and demos for some “Star Wars” video games.
LEGO presents a spoofy trailer “Revenge of the Brick” on this disc, but it’s a little stale. The best feature, aside from the commentary, is a “Connecting the Dots” featurette that goes behind the creative process of putting this animated series together.
After seeing “Revenge of the Sith,” I’ve told people that one day I plan to watch all six “Star Wars” movies on DVD. Now, I revise that statement. I’m going to watch all eight. The other two will be the “Clone Wars” DVDs because after seeing how things get tied up in this second volume I feel they are truly part of the saga.
Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Widescreen (1.78:1). French and Spanish language tracks. English subtitles for the hearing impaired.
