A
regular reader, Jason, writes:
“I'm interested in your opinion of Cartoon
Network's "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (2009-2013) series.”
Jason, I’ll be honest about this.
Before I received your e-mail (several weeks ago....) I didn’t have a very
clearly formed opinion of The Clone Wars.
I had watched only a handful episodes with my
son, Joel -- out of order too -- and found them likable enough.
However, after reading your e-mail, I went back
and watched several more installments of the program. The whole series is now available on Netflix
and so this seemed like the perfect time to wade in.
So my opinion -- with the caveat that I have
still have still viewed less than thirty installments, overall -- is that it is
an enjoyable series, and more than that, a dignified, respectable, and worthwhile continuation of the Star Wars saga.
More significantly, I feel that The
Clone Wars has mimicked the general creative approach of Star
Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) in a way.
By that comparison, I mean only that Star
Trek: The Next Generation took a while to find its legs as a successful
creative endeavor.
Early on, for example, the Ferengi were an
embarrassing disaster in terms of their villainy. But The Next Generation writers and
producers didn’t drop the Ferengi, ignore the Ferengi, or mark them as toxic
failures.
Instead, they figured out how to deploy the Ferengi
creatively and dramatically, and then brought them back to serve as prime
supporting players in both TNG and Deep Space Nine.
Similarly, many long-time Star Wars fans did not
like the prequel movies (1999 – 2005) or their universe very much.
There were
complaints about Jar-Jar Binks, young Anakin, older Anakin, and so forth.
But to its
credit, The Clone Wars doesn’t shy away from the universe established
by the live-action prequels, and brings back races and characters that weren’t
happily perceived the first time around.
Yes, even Jar-Jar Binks.
Yet as I believe The Next Generation proved,
something intriguing happens when disliked or initially unsuccessful characters
(such as the Ferengi or Jar-Jar) return in additional (and often superior…) stories.
We get to know
them better. They become deeper. We know and understand how they "fit" into the universe, and we start to accept them.
And,
finally, this new-found success in later ventures sort of retroactively shines back on the earlier
stories. You can suddenly go back to the lesser tales and find some value that was harder to see before, when you were distracted by the creative missteps.
There, I said it.
Watching The Clone Wars actually makes
re-watching the Star Wars prequels a better, and far more intriguing and engaging experience.
This principle applies to the
development of Anakin (and his eventual journey to the dark side), his
relationship with Padme, and many other factors that some fans felt were
inadequately handled in three movies.
By
revisiting the Gungans (in stories such as “Gungan Attack”) or Watto’s people, the Toydarians (in stories such as “Ambush,”) the aliens take on new substance, and
the universe seems, oddly enough, less like a cartoon designed to sell toys.
Again, my caveat is that I have not seen the
entire series at this juncture. But based on what I have seen, The Clone Wars actually does an
extraordinary job deepening a universe that could use some deepening.
There are two important factors that I noted on my survey.
The first is that with Star Wars functioning as a
TV series, the creators have far more time to discuss issues of moral complexity.
The six feature films dramatize an epic story of a
galaxy in transition, and so there often simply isn’t time to go into detail regarding
some aspects of life in the Empire or Republic. But the
episodic nature of The Clone Wars allows writers to linger on those world-building qualities and moral shades that the movies, by necessity, gloss over.
For instance, we remember young Anakin as a
slave in The Phantom Menace (1999).
Here, episodes such as “Slaves of the Republic” in
season four of The Clone Wars allow that idea to play out a little more fully, and in a way that adds
to our understanding of Anakin’s journey as a character. For example, Anakin recalls that his mother was sold in a slave market
like the one he visits on the planet Zygerria.
Ahsoka, Anakin’s padewan, must
pretend to be a slave herself in the course of the story and questions how a “civilization
as advanced” as the Republic permits such atrocities to continue.
Other episodes ask additional questions that the movies simply couldn’t get to. One clone notes in “Rising Malevolence,” an early episode,
that “we’re just clones…we’re meant to be expendable.”
Is that true?
If so, one can tie this comment from a clone to the notion
of slaves in the Republic and see that nobody, not even the Jedi, have clean hands. The series thus asks -- at least occasionally -- whether it is right for
a society to maintain, essentially, second class citizens.
The episodes of The Clone Wars that I have
watched are not overly deep, it is true. But they at least touch tangentially on these
issues of importance in the Star Wars universe. They add color and texture to places and people that, in the movies, were afforded no such color or texture.
The second and perhaps more noticeable virtue in
The Clone Wars involves the visuals.
They are often, as far as I can determine from my viewing, simply breath-taking.
“Gungan Attack” -- which
features an underwater war between the Separatists and the people of Admiral
(here Captain…) Ackbar, is positively stunning in its imagery. Huge alien and mechanical armies battle beneath the sea with giant machines, robots, and vessels, and light-sabers swinging everywhere.
The whole set-piece resembles some brilliantly imaginative 1930s era pulp cover, and one Separatist ship in the episode even boasts the large “eyeball”
windows, it looks like, of Disney’s Nautilus in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
(1954).
Actually, I really admired this story a great deal
because the visuals are superb, and the touches of continuity-- Ackbar, Mon
Calamari, and Gungans -- suggest a fidelity to all eras of the franchise.
The episode captured the essence of Star Wars, in my
opinion. That essence consists of
splendidly-realized action-adventure in an unusual setting (wild alien planets or environments) -- combined with a knowing pastiche of earlier science fiction images, re-purposed for
maximum excitement.
Are there some aspects of The Clone Wars that
give me pause?
I suppose so. I have a bit of trouble with the Battle
Droids, who act crazy and function as overt comic relief, but never really project a genuine
menace. I fail to understand why the
Separatists make their battle droids talkative blunderers with bad aim.
But the bottom line is this: I wish I had about fifty hours to kill, right now, to watch the whole series from start to finish.
Perhaps, after I watch more, I’ll find
something to really dislike in Clone Wars, but for right now, I’m hoping that Joel swings back
to a fascination with Star Wars so we have the opportunity to watch the whole
series together start to finish.
Don't forget to ask me your questions at Muirbusiness@yahoo.com
Posts
