Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003)
Cast & Key People
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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.
