Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003)

Our Review

Genndy Tartakovsky’s micro-series is Star Wars as pure cinema: three-minute episodes of silhouette action, long silences, and abstract composition — the man who made Samurai Jack given the Clone Wars and told to make it breathe. There’s almost no dialogue in the best chapters: Mace Windu dismantling a droid army barehanded, Anakin’s knight trial in a cave of visions, Durge — a bounty hunter who’s a regenerating horror — hunting Obi-Wan in a duel that’s pure motion.

The 2D Anakin arc directly set up the 2008 series, and General Grievous’s debut here — a horror-movie introduction where he hunts stranded Jedi in the dark — remains the character’s best appearance in any medium. Tartakovsky’s chapters won Emmys and built the visual language the whole franchise still borrows from.

Verdict: Watch it as a single two-hour film. The Clone Wars as jazz — short, loud, unforgettable.