When George Lucas released the first three episodes of his new Star Wars spinoff cartoon The Clone Wars into theaters as a feature length movie, I viewed it as a cynical marketing ploy to wring out a few more bucks from fans before they got to see the series for free on Cartoon Network. The actual product didn’t thrill me much, either. I didn’t particularly like the storyline and found things like the Roman Polanski-ish hutt, Anakin Skywalker’s tube-top wearing jedi pupil and the overly cute antics of the baby hutt all fighting it out to see which could annoy me more.
But for some reason, when the cartoon debuted back in October, I tuned in to see if things were just as bad. I was pleasantly surprised to find a drastic jump in the quality of the show. Sure, I still am not thrilled wooden puppet look of the character design, but for the most part, each episode is an enjoyable, action-filled half hour. In addition to focusing on the adventures of Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi, the show has focused on some of the other Jedi Knights only seen in the background of the films and on the Clone Troopers themselves. In fact, the two best single episodes of the series “Ambush” and “Rookies” deals more with the troopers than with the marginal “stars” of the show.
OK, there is an episode featuring the annoying Jar-Jar Binks (“Bombad Jedi”), but even that has a few things in it to recommend.
All this week into next, Cartoon Network is running the show in repeats. If you passed on the show initially based on the (lack of) quality of the theatrical version, I would recommend giving the show another chance. Below, You’ll find Cartoon Network’s schedule for the repeats. However, since many of the episodes are loosely connected via various plot threads, I would recommend watching them in the following order-
1.1 Ambush
1.2 Rising Malevolence
1.3 Shadow of Malevolence
1.4 Destroy Malevolence
1.5 Rookies
1.6 Downfall of a Droid
1.7 Duel of the Droids
1.8 Bombad Jedi
1.9 Cloak of Darkness
1.10 Lair of Grievous
Repeat schedule-
Dec. 22
10 a.m. “Ambush”
10:30 a.m. “Bombad Jedi”
5 p.m. “Cloak of Darkness”
Dec. 23
9:30 a.m. “Shadow of Malevolence”
2 p.m. “Destroy Malevolence”
2:30 p.m. “Rookies”
Dec. 25
4:30 p.m. “Rookies”
Dec. 26
8 a.m. “Ambush”
6 p.m. “Downfall of a Droid”
6:30 p.m. “Duel of the Droids”
9 p.m. “Cloak of Darkness”
Dec. 27
9:30 a.m. “Cloak of Darkness”
Dec. 28
9 a.m. “Cloak of Darkness”
Dec. 29
10 a.m. “Rising Malevolence”
10:30 a.m. “Shadow of Malevolence”
5 p.m., “Bombad Jedi”
Dec. 30
9:30 a.m. “Lair of Grievous”
2 p.m. “Cloak of Darkness”
2:30 p.m. “Destroy Malevolence”
Dec. 31
9 a.m. “Ambush”
9:30 a.m. “Cloak of Darkness”
3 p.m. “Rookies”
Set your various recording devices accordingly.
