"Kidnapped, Jabba the Hutt's son has been. Negotiate the treaty with Jabba, Obi-Wan will. Find the renegades that hold Jabba's son, your mission will be, Skywalker."
~Yoda
With the war between the Jedi and the Separatists spreading throughout the galaxy, Count Dooku and his apprentice, Asajj Ventress, have abducted Jabba's son. The Sith hope to frame the Jedi for the crime and gain the Hutts' support. It is Obi-Wan and Anakin's job to find the Huttlet, but the mission takes an unexpected turn for Anakin when Master Yoda assigns him an apprentice - a youngling named Ahsoka. With this bother to deal with Anakin sets off to save Jabba's son, little knowing that it will stab him in the back.
Say hello to the first animated STAR WARS movie! I went to see it with low expectations - but not this low. But I'll talk about the positive elements first.
Anakin doesn't like Ahsoka at all at first. Both are very arrogant, but they soon learn to respect each other. Padme risks her life to try to assist the Jedi. Christopher Lee, Anthony Daniels, and Samuel L. Jackson all do the voices of the characters they play in the real movies. That was nice. The other voices are quite convincing - don't worry about being distracted through the movie because "that's not Obi-Wan Kenobi". There is some excellent animation, and some choppy animation. For all you clone fans, it was cool to see some more action from the 501st. They did quite well. The characters were all pretty true to their non-animated selves. Ventress finally gets a nod.
BUT, if you're expecting to see some real Star Wars - DON'T GO HERE! The plotline was a huge stretch. I mean, give me a break, Jabba the Hutt's son??? Surely they could've thought up something better than that! The story was weak at best, and the lightsaber fights were... not lightsaber fights. They were choppy and lego-style. In fact, all the starships looked like things my little brothers could make any day. There was no deep theme. We forgive the real movies for bad lines and strange side-stories because of the good vs. evil and Darth Vader and all that. This had no hint of Anakin's fall, or real good versus real evil, or anything of the sort. No brain food at all. I could be happy with calling it a kids' movie, like some attempt to get 5-year-olds engaged in Lucas's world, but the 501st commander lets out a swear during the first 10 minutes of the movie! Class. They add a horrid new character in Jabba's uncle - a purple, 80s looking Hutt that speaks Basic and talks like an old lady. Pointless. The music was not John Williams - didn't even SOUND like Star Wars. Dissapointing.
All in all, I echo the sentiments of a reviewer who said, "Has it come to this? Has the magical impact of George Lucas' original vision of Star Wars been reduced to the level of Saturday morning animation?" I'm not saying it's a no-go forever. After all, there's a whole TV series of this thing that's coming out. I'm saying don't go see it at the theaters and if your kids want to watch it, watch it first and don't expect to see any real Star Wars in there. You want Star Wars? Just put in REVENGE OF THE SITH and pop the popcorn!
Director: Dave Filoni ~ Producer: Catherine Winder ~ Writers: Henry Gilroy, Scott Murphy, Steven Melching ~ Starring: Matt Lanter, Ashley Eckstein, James Arnold Taylor, Dee Bradley Baker, Tom Kane, Nika Futterman, Ian Abercrombie, Anthony Daniels, Christopher Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Catherine Taber ~ Music by: Kevin Kiner ~ Distributor: Lucasfilm, Warner Bros. Pictures ~ Released: United States:August 15, 2008 ~ Runtime: 98 minutes
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