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| Star Wars - Clone Wars, Vol. 1 | 
| Directors: Genndy Tartakovsky, Tippy Bushkin
Actors: John Di Maggio, Kevin Michael Richardson, Cree Summer, Tatyana Yassukovich, Wanja Gerick
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $14.93
You Save: $5.05 (25%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $14.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  (201 reviews)
Sales Rank: 6266
Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Extra Tracks, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 69 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: D2225792D
UPC: 024543157922
EAN: 0024543157922
ASIN: B0006Z2LMO
Release Date: March 22, 2005
Theatrical Release Date: November 7, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Make no mistake, Clone Wars is honest-to-goodness authentic Star Wars. The animated series takes place between Episode II, Attack of the Clones and Episode III, Revenge of the Sith. If the feature films covers the beginning and end of the war, Clone Wars depicts the actual battles and events that made heroes into legends. Don't expect too much character development, as the episodes tend to be driven more by flat-out action than by dialogue (which can be a good thing, considering some Star Wars dialogue). We see such familiar faces as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and Mace Windu in combat, and we meet the elite ARC (Advanced Recon Commandos) clone troopers plus new Jedi--the amphibious Kit Fisto and two women, Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee. We also see a little more development of Anakin--showing off the best pilot skills in the army, defying Obi-Wan, and engaging in a deadly duel with Sith apprentice Asajj Ventress. But just when it's clear that the Separatist droid armies are no match for a Jedi, the tide begins to turn with the introduction of the menacing General Grievous, who plays a crucial part in Episode III. The cast mostly consists of veteran voice actors, but Anthony Daniels does appear as C-3PO. Clone Wars was created by Genndy Tartakovsky, whose resume includes such stylish series as Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory, and The Powerpuff Girls, and the program won a 2004 Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or More). These 20 episodes, which played on the Cartoon Network (and were originally designated seasons 1 and 2), can be viewed as a seamless 69-minute whole or as individual chapters. DVD features include two commentary tracks, a making-of featurette, video game and Episode III trailers, and an Xbox playable demo of the stealth game Republic Commando. If you're a fan who can't wait for Episode III, Clone Wars is essential viewing. --David Horiuchi
Description
The saga continues with the Emmy-winning "Star Wars: Clone Wars," available for the first time ever on DVD. This animated micro-series, directed by Genny Tartakovsky, captures George Lucas' vision in a dynamic animated style that is a visual delight for all ages. "Star Wars: Clone Wars" Volume One reveals the epic adventures that bridge the story arc between Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. Follow the valiant Jedi Knights and the brave soldiers of the Republic's clone army as they battle against the droid forces of the Separatists, led by the evil Sith Lord, Count Dooku. Witness the battles that made galactic heroes out of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and along the way get a first look at the new menace from Episode III, General Grievous. This is a must-have for any Star Wars DVD collection.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 196 more reviews...
 If the Star Wars universe worked this way, there would be no wars. Ever. July 25, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
The physical side first: Where's the innovation? There is none. It's typical of Genndy Tartakovsky style, in which everyone has square or misshapen heads, construction-paper-cutout looking bodies, and highly surrealist comically misshapen objects and fight sequences. The voice acting is bad, with most of the characters sounding about as much as their movie counterparts as a horse would sound like a chicken.
Considering the majority of the series consisted of 5 minute "microsodes", there's little room for story beyond "ZOMFG ACTION ACTION ACTION EXPLOSION LIGHTSABER VWOOM WOOSH EXPLOSION JEDI JEDI JEDI~!" And while this may be visually entertaining to children, it's hardly worth the sort of critical acclaim this series has gotten.
Now to the core of the problem: If the Star Wars universe worked the way Genndy Tartakovsky portrays it, there would be no wars. Ever.
The Jedi are like Superman, and there is no kryptonite in this universe.
Everything moves at rapid-fire pace. In one space scene, you're staring at stars for a few seconds. Then in the space of a second or two, the Republic and Confederate fleets emerge and fighters are chasing one another and lasers are filling the airspace. Nothing in the Star Wars galaxy works that fast out of hyperspace.
Whoever designed the Republic's armored vehicles in this series should have been executed for treason, because it really goes to show just how pathetic they are when robots on speeder bikes with big metal sticks scratch at the surface of an armored vehicle (even making alittle squiggly line that looks like it would be made by scratching wallpaper) and the ENTIRE FREAKING THING BLOWS UP. Just BLOWS UP. No destruction, no leaking of fluids and sparking and igniting. Just a scratch on the surface, maybe a tear through the hull, and the thing blows up like it was a jar of propane on stilts.
And the Jedi are just unstoppable. An entire minisode is dedicated solely to Mace Windu fighting against an ENTIRE SEPARATIST ARMY of several THOUSAND battledroids AND a BIG FREAKING SPACESHIP HAMMER, and guess what... Mace Windu kills the shit out of EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. His injuries? His robes get torn a little.
Seriously. And this is the same Mace Windu who got killed by a little bit of lightning. What the hell is lightning compared to A THOUSAND DROIDS DESIGNED AND BUILT SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF KILLING?
Mace Windu is not the exception here; every single Jedi on screen just about becomes as powerful as fifty Clone armies, with such chestnuts as Yoda fending off hundreds of blaster bolts without moving anything save his lightsaber arm, while simultaneously having a conversation with someone.
So you have with this series a GAPING lapse of logic, which if were true of the Star Wars universe, would mean that there would be no wars ever. The Republic would just need to send a single Jedi to a troubled planet, and they could likely blow the whole freaking planet up, Dragon Ballz style.
This may be "entertaining" for some, but considering the fact that the Jedi are SUPPOSED to die en masse in the Clone Wars (that's how Palpatine is able to seize power, after all... thin out the Jedi with war, then execute Order 66 to eliminate the remnants), and SUPPOSED to die to a man/woman/child save for Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi, this series basically spits in the face of EVERY STAR WARS MOVIE/BOOK/COMIC/GAME EVER CREATED by claiming that the Jedi are invincible.
Why did they even bother with a Clone army, Tartakovsky's Star Wars, if they could have just sent BADASSMUTHA Obi-Wan and Anakin and Mace Windu to kill the shit out of the entire Separatist movement within a day?
As such, I, and just about any logical Star Wars fan, should disown this as part of the Star Wars canon, and see it solely for entertainment value. Because that's all it's good for; entertainment. And only if you like Tartakovsky's style.
 love this July 11, 2008
My kids begged to see the Clone Wars. They love all things Star Wars. I am of the generation that saw it in the theaters. I thought this could be awful. I was really delighted when I liked watching it. I even loved some parts. My kids LOVE it. IT is a nice bridge from 2 to 3. Fantastic job with story and character. I even liked the drawing style.
If you thought all the jedi did in Ep I and II was sit around..... July 8, 2008
Then this is for you. The precursor to Ep III shows in a fantastic setting where the future for the whole franchise will be - as with Homer's Iliad - Homer left the minor poets to fill in the lesser stories - so George Lucas must be content to let others tell the stories of the minor characters. If you enjoy Japanese anime then you should enjoy this.
 Here's where the none begins.... June 10, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I realize I'm gonna get creamed for bad-mouthing this film -- especially after seeing all these four and five-star reviews, but I have to speak my mind. STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, VOLUME I was a big disappointment, and if this is as good as the series gets then I won't be buying the others, or even watching this one again.
The Clone Wars are possibly the richest area of the SW franchise in terms of storytelling possibilities, and since they were touched only tangenitally in the prequel trilogy, I was expecting a thorough examination here. Yes, I realize this is a cartoon, and one that seems to have been meant for youngish kids, but cartoons don't have to be childish -- numerous films have shown they can be co-written for both adults and kids with neither audience getting the short end of the lightsaber. In this version, nobody wins.
What did I hate? Well, for starters, the episode is boring. Action is fun to watch, even for its own sake, but too much of it has a numbing effect, and virtually the whole film was fighting, fighting and more fighting. After about 20 minutes I realized story elements were going to be few and far between and I wasn't wrong. Which brings me to point # 2: There is no plot. The wars are going on and...that's about it. The only actual plot thread is the attempt by the Sith to bait Anakin, but everything else is just an excuse for various characters to be engaged in battles that never end. The Ventress sub-plot was gone into in some detail, but it was like a single pillar trying to hold up a building: not enough.
My third peeve was the animation. It was awful, stylized to the point of caricature and executed with less skill than the cartoons I grew up watching in the early 80s. I don't understand why SW cartoons are always drawn as if they had a hundred-dollar budget, but when videogame animation is better than a DVD, you have a problem.
It may be that a lot of what I wanted to see -- Grievous' origin story, a flashback of Dooku's path to the darkside, members of the CIS who were sincere in their desire to break away from what they thought was a corrupt Republic ("There were heroes on both sides...") -- may have been handled in subsequent volumes. My problem is that this one did not leave me willing to shell out money to see them. Here's hoping the animated film due out this summer does a better job of tilling such fertile story soil.
 Here we go again... March 7, 2008
Clone Wars, Volume I picks up where Attack of the Clones left off, and if you enjoyed that movie (I did), you should have a blast with this. Clone Wars aired as a series of shorts (watchable here as an uninterrupted whole) detailing the war that begins at the end of Episode II and ends in Episode III. There isn't really a great deal of plot (and no essential plot) that happens between the two films, so Clone Wars focuses mostly on the action, which is just fine. This isn't meant to be a stand-alone film, by any means. If you're one of the few people on earth who have never seen this whole "Star Wars" thing, this isn't the place to start, but if you have, it's a great addition.
Some highlights:
1. While this is also true for any video game that carries the Star Wars brand, the inclusion here of John Williams' great music, and a lot of the familiar sound effects from the films, goes a long way towards making this bona fide Star Wars.
2. It's in widescreen. I haven't had the chance to check out the surround sound options yet, so I won't comment on those. The story being told here is epic, involving huge fleets of starships and big armies of droids and clones and Jedi, and making it widescreen is absolutely essential.
3. It's Star Wars! The visual style of the show lends itself well to the Star Wars universe, and the crazy aliens and monsters and such which inhabit it. My only gripe here is that in some cases the Jedi are a little too much like Superman, but this is carried over from the prequel films.
The only thing for a fan really not to like here is that this really ought to be packaged and sold with Star Wars - Clone Wars, Vol. 2. There's no reason to own one without the other, and putting them together would be a nice excuse for some schnazzier packaging, and maybe a few more DVD extras. Fortunately, you can get both volumes without spending too much.
If Tartakovsky and co. ever decide/are allowed to make another one of these, set between Episodes IV and V, sign me up.
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