In The Clone Wars Volume 1, we saw the Republic under attack from the Separatist droid army led by General Grievous, with the cloned warriors and Jedi Knights struggling to withstand the onslaught. In Volume 2 we see how the Clone Wars progress to the point of the story blending in with the beginning of Revenge of the Sith.

The anime-influenced animation continues to impress visually, and the “Connecting the Dots” featurette reveals how unashamedly nerdy some of the animators working on the project are. Among several amusing moments in the interviews with Director Genndy Tartakovsky and his team is the excitement caused by them being allowed to include Wookies in the story – it was a dream come true for some of them! The featurette also explains how, following the success of volume 1, they were given more leeway with the storyline of the second volume which results in a much more coherent plot. Several puzzling questions from watching Return of the Sith - particularly why General Grievous, a droid after all, baffling had a persistent cough! Along with the extras you’d expect such as a trailer for the film Revenge of the Sith, audio commentary, a couple of game trailers and a playable demo of Star Wars: Battlefield 2 for X-box, there is a delightful short animation called “Revenge of the Brick”. This is based on the LEGO Star Wars characters and is quite hilarious in places. (It finishes with Darth Vader and a bunch of stormtroopers with the infamous “Vader March” playing – the stormtroopers are the orchestra being conducted by Darth using his lightsaber as a baton!) That little animation is almost worth getting this DVD for on its own. You also get some sketches and storyboard images thrown in for good measure, resulting in a quite satisfactory set of extras.

But back to the main feature. With a more cohesive plot structure the whole thing works better, and with more focus on Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship, and young Skywalker’s ascension to the rank of Jedi Knight, more interesting than the montage of battle scenes that volume 1 consisted of. There is also a good dollop of humour injected into the proceedings for volume 2, which somehow makes the whole thing run much more smoothly. General Grievous is given plenty of screen time and this too is a plus point as he’s one of the more curious characters in the Star Wars universe. Don’t worry though, there’s still plenty of action of adrenaline junkies with the quality as good, if not better, than that seen in volume 1. The music continues to be top notch and the voice acting is more convincing here. The storyline leads right up to the intro sequence of Revenge of the Sith, and though I’ve already seen the film this made me want to watch it again. Things culminate with a surprise attack on the galactic capital (it says this on the DVD sleeve so not a spoiler!), with the little green dude getting right into the thick of the action. (Come on, surely you knew I was referring to Yoda?!?!?) Good stuff that is always entertaining, often amusing, and for fans of the Star Wars saga, quite revealing… Of course the whole Clone Wars series is designed to bridge the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, which it does extremely well. Added to which we have of course been wondering about these clone wars ever since it was mentioned by Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi and Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars movie. Seeing the Star Wars universe portrayed in animation rather than live action didn’t actually take any time to get used to, which did surprise me a little.

There are very few weak points to the animation as a whole but at an hour it still seems too short to be 5 stars considering the cost of the DVD. This is very highly recommended to all Star Wars fans, but if you don’t like Star Wars in general, I doubt very much if you’d like Clone Wars.

Rated PG for mild fantasy violence.




Star Wars Reviews…

The Clone Wars Volume 1

Films

Star Wars Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

Computer Games:

Jedi Academy from the Jedi Knights series, published by LucasArts.

Knights of the Old Republic, also by LucasArts, the first real attempt at a Star Wars RPG.


Freeware Star Wars Games

Battle for Endor

Battle of Yavin

Star Chores (my Star Wars parody)

Star Chores Part 1 (links to other episodes)



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD