plug: Tartakovsky's Clone Wars (2003)
Enjoy an action-packed pre-Disney Star Wars gem this May the 4th!
Welcome to today’s plug, a quick recommendation of an oft-forgotten film, cult classic, or movie that is dying to be rewatched // We send plugs Tuesdays + Thursdays //
Yo yo, happy May the 4th! Thought I’d do a quick plug for a super fun, low-stakes corner of the Star Wars universe that peeps should at least check out if not enjoy the living hell out of.
Before the popular CG-animated Clone Wars series, Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky made a 2D-animated series of Clone Wars shorts that aired on Cartoon Network between 2003 and 2005. As I wrote in my Star Wars ranking on here last May the 4th, “it’s very much in sync with its time and target audience, characterized by frenetic 2D action that plays out like what you’d imagine as a 13 year-old who had just seen all the sick Jedi fights in Attack of the Clones for the first time.”
Tartakovsky is a master of his craft, staging his sequences with a palpable sense of both “Kurosawan” mise-en-scene and ‘90s boyhood fantasy radness. His Clone Wars is gorgeously rendered stuff that’s been a semi-secret fan favorite since its original airing, but hasn’t been as widely accessible due to its “non-canon” status (I snatched the DVDs the second I saw them at my local record store a couple years ago). Now you can watch the whole series in 2 60-minute segments on Disney+. I really hate the way Disney is hoarding a monopoly of entertainment in their imaginary “vault” or whatever then slowly doling out shittily rebranded bits and pieces on their streaming service, but I’m also glad they got around to making this show available, even if it’s wedged into an arbitrary “Star Wars Vintage” collection along with the Ewok Adventures and a couple other apocryphal SW titles.
This is one of those “not technically a movie” plugs but I went with it today cuz I’ve been watching a lot of sci-fi/action animated films and shows lately (most recent example: Street Figher II: The Animated Movie, an absolute banger you can watch in full on YouTube), and I’m pretty convinced that hand-drawn/2D animation is the optimal medium for frenetic comic-book/fantasy action. To that effect, Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars is as great an exhibition as any.
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