Halloween has just come and gone and while at some neighborhood parties and when out Trick or Treating with my kids, I noticed several youngsters in Star Wars costumes. I'm a member of the original Star Wars generation, so I remember the excitement over that film as a kid, and I also remember the year that I went Trick or Treating dressed as a Stormtrooper. But, these kids were like 6 or 7 years old; What do they have to do with Star Wars? Did they see the prequels? Did they actually like them? Are they crazy? Then I realized that it may have something to do with the recent animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which has just come to DVD.

The story of Star Wars: The Clone Wars takes place between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. As the movie opens, Obi-Wan Kenobi (voiced by James Arnold Taylor) and Anakin Skywalker (voiced by Matt Lanter) are fighting along-side a battalion of clone soldiers to defend a beleaguered city against an assault by Separatists forces. During the battle, a ship lands delivering Ahsoka Tano (voiced by Ashley Eckstein) into the fray. Kenobi assumes that she is his new Padawan (pupil), but she has actually been assigned to Anakin, who is reluctant to assume the role of teacher. Despite this, the three charge, light sabers in hand. Meanwhile, Chancellor Palpatine (voiced by Ian Abercrombie) learns that Jabba the Hutt’s son has been kidnapped, and that Jabba is asking for help. Knowing that the Hutts control important shipping lanes, Palpatine and Yoda (voiced by Tom Kane) assign Kenobi and Anakin to the rescue mission. Little do they know that they are walking into a trap set by Count Dooku (voiced by Christopher Lee).

Full disclosure time: I've seen The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, and I really didn't enjoy either one. Due to this, I never got around to see Revenge of the Sith. So, one can easily deduce that I'm not a big fan of the "new" Star Wars movies. As for the "classic" films, I loved them upon their initial release when I was a pre-adolescent, but seeing them as an adult, I don't think that they're very well-made, especially the first entry. However, I always try to have an open mind and I was willing to give Star Wars: The Clone Wars a shot.

As the opening of the film doesn't give a timeline (I learned from the extras that the story occurs between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith), and the action begins immediately, I quickly realized that I had absolutely no idea what was happening. Sure, I knew who Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker were, and I remembered the clone soldiers, but everything else was a blur. So, that's the movie's first mistake. You know how the Star Wars movies always begin with the text crawl which has become a cliche? Star Wars: The Clone Wars really needed one.

Once I got up to speed on who everyone was and what was happening, I slowly began to realize that I didn't care. There's no doubt that Star Wars: The Clone Wars is chock full of action, one battle scene bleeds into the next one, but there's not much story here. The movie is not only assuming that you know exactly what is happening at the beginning, it's assuming that you know all of the characters and their backstories as well. There is no character development here, for either the established characters, such as Kenobi, or the new ones like Ahsoka Tano. For example, when Anakin must go to Tattooine, it mentioned that he had a rough time there as a child. Sure, I sort of remember the pod race from The Phantom Menace, but would it have killed them to have taken two seconds to refresh my memory.

It's clear that Star Wars: The Clone Wars is aimed squarely at a younger, and presumably, less discerning, audience. The movie is filled with spaceships which whiz by, battling robots, and sassy aliens. Again, the movie is populated with familiar characters, such as Mace Windu (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson), in addition to those listed above. While I didn't miss the obtuse dialogue about politics which plagued the feature films, the lack of any in-depth story really pulled me out of the movie. Truth be told, the only thing that I really liked about the film were the two stupid Imperial droids who kept asking dumb questions. They didn't really fit into the movie, but at least they weren't boring.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars comes out of hyperspace on DVD courtesy of Warner Home Video. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image here looks very good, as it's very sharp and clear. The picture shows no grain and no defects from the source material. The colors look very good, even though some scenes have muted tones. The image is never too dark or bright. I did note some occasional stuttering in the animation and some minor video noise. The DVD carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 EX audio track which provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are good, as the sound of spaceships moving from one side of the screen to the other creates some excellent effects with impressive speaker separation. The subwoofer effects are good, as the battles offer many explosions. The surround effects are somewhat weak, however.