Star Wars: The Clone Wars - 2003 vs 2008

I thought the 2008 series was quite well balanced. Enjoyable story, likeable characters and enough action (which was quite nice to watch). I will have to admit I haven't watched the whole 2003 series but what I did watch from it seemed to amount to "Hello Jedi, I'm going to leave a one-liner I deem witty and then we're going to cross sabers while I make orgasm faces and sounds"

Genndy Tartakovsky not even a comparison imo. The lack of dialogue, creative use of animations and silhouettes coupled with long drawn out segments of samurai style fights was wonderful.

Definitely my fav short.

@uninspiredcup: Really enjoyed Samurai Jack but for some reason this doesn't work for me as Star Wars. Also, isn't that the anime where Mace Windu kills 5 billion droids by itself? And people complain about Starkiller =P Lastly, why does Shaak Ti look like a kitten and an octopus did the nasty?

Hehe, Batman General Grievous at 3:10.

@korvus: That's another thing about the '03 series, it felt like Samurai Jack + Dragon Ball Z with a Star Wars skin. Not that it wasn't entertaining (at least on my end), but the 2008 series actually made the action scenes feel more like the films.

@nintendoboy16: Yep, maybe if I had watched this before Samurai Jack I'd feel differently but when I watched Jack I thought "this is quite unique" and now looking at the 2003 series it just feels much like a reskin like you said.

2003 Star Wars 2D was actually a 5 minutes show clip that Cartoon Network did for every week which was kind of a letdown but when DVD collection came out, it made sense to put all episodes into DVD. 2003 Star Wars Clone Wars is pretty much canon leading up to Revenge of the Sith. The art style which I like and it's one of my favorite SW then the CGI show which I also like the CGI but some of the episode were unnecessary, Ashoka was a merry sue wannabe, but the show did get better when Darth Maul show up again. I'm going for 2003 but the Jedi were overpower using there force more then the CGI and seeing Mac Windu go Bruce Lee style was like WTF?

People praise the 2003 series, but to me, it's just ok. Not good, not bad, just ok. It is just a series of nonsense action sequences loosely sequenced together until the end, there is simply no context for what happens and it gives the viewer little reason to care. And..that Mace Windu scene with Droid army and the massive cruncher thingy was just ridiculous, in a bad way.

The 2008 series is way better. It has actual characters with actual dialogue, actual plotlines, better paced and less ridiculous action, and more depth overall. It actually enriched the prequels as well, and tied in well with them. The only season that I mostly skipped through was Season Four. I really dislike Season Four.

@Kevlar101: What was Season 4 about again?

Well there were a lot of different storylines, but there were just a lot of what I thought were lame Droid stories and Gungan crap and stuff like that.... I was just underwhelmed. Also, a lot of people seem to like the Umara story-arc, but I really didn't. At all.

@Kevlar101: Oh yeah, that was kind of a low point. I like the clones and all but they overdid it. It wasn't a well balanced season at all.

I liked the 2003 for its action, but the 2008 for its story. Though, to be honest, I really never seen much of the 2008 Star Wars, only an episode here and there. Some of the action in it felt too stiff and slow pace for my liking....

There are things about each I prefer instead of the other.

The 2003 Clone Wars shows the full power of Jedi (especially Mace Windu and Yoda).

The 2008 Clone Wars goes into detail about character personalities, intellect, and relationships which are equally important parts of Star Wars.

I've seen several people bring up the Mace Windu fight. Which is odd.

I remember an almost 20 minute long fight scene played out like a video game of Ewan Mcgregorr and Hayden Christensen fighting on floating robots over a lava pit doing 10 meter high jumps. As well as an 80 year Christopher Lee doing backflips and attempting to fight a trampolining CGI Yoda.

With almost every set: with every battle the sequence: a disingenuous phoniness is felt. It plays like a cartoon, but it isn't.

Likewise I'm not sure I get the argument about lack of story-telling or pacing, in the context of what these are suppose to be: short segments inspired by samurai movies for the consumption of children, quite a bit of story-telling goes on. Dialogue isn't required for story-telling. As with Samurai movies e.g. Akira Kurosawa's (which is a direct influence of Genndy Tartakovsky ) it can be done visually. Sometimes with almost no movement or none at all.

Because of the inherent nature of cartoons which take liberties in perspective, lighting and animation: it's arguably more suitable.

Fights such as this one kind of just remind me of the light shows of the movies. There's no abrupt stops of build up's to the pacing like the cartoon, creativity or style to the lighting and perspective. Just lots of shit going on as fast as possible.

#1: The Mace Windu fight is ridiculous for a few reasons. The first of which is that there is zero context for it. The second is that ... damn, Mace takes on countless Droids like that. The Jedi may be master warriors, but they aren't superheroes. They have limits. And that scene was way pushing it. And finally.... the most ridiculous thing about it..... that damn mega-cruncher thing. What the hell? They have superweapons that can destroy entire battleships, massive superweapons that cause unspeakable damage...and you're telling me that they decided to use a freaking mega-cruncher to fight ground troopers? Opponents who didn't even have heavy tank support or anything, just troopers. It's bullshit and it makes no sense.

#2: I do admit that the 2003 series had one of the best lightsaber duels in Star Wars history (the duel between Ventress and Anakin), and it did build suspense fantastically.

#3: The 2008 series still has better characters, dialogue, and significantly better story-arcs. If I read you correctly, you said that the lightsaber duels in the 2008 series are "just lots of shit going on as fast as possible" .... but that also describes the entirety of the 2003 series, because it literally just transitions from one mega-action sequence to the next. The 2008 series may not have lightsaber duels that are as suspenseful, and that are way more flash rather than substance, but that does not encompass the entire series like it does with the 2003 series. The 2008 series has way, way more substance in every other respect.

The 2008 series adds so much more to the Star Wars universe than the 2003 series. In fact, the latter adds nothing significant.

I generally don't agree with the assessment that it adds nothing significant. A couple of aspects such seeing exactly who General grevious acquired light-sabers from, why he has breathing problems, who Count Dooku was training and a few interesting scenes such as Anacin glimpsing his future exist.

Having said that though:if it didn't add or expand anything at all, it would still largely be moot. It doesn't need to add anything significant. Perhaps for you personally and a sect of starwars fans: the expansion of lore does enhance the experience. However, the target audience primarily consist of young adolescent that do not care.

For me, personally, I don't consider the movies to be particularly great. So I don't care either way.

Is this even a comparison? The 2003 series is just a bunch of 5 min action shorts loosely strung together. The 2008 series is an actual TV show with characters and storylines.

The 2008 series is also masterfully thought out. The plot lines are pretty incredible, tons of details, and lots of entertainment. From an action standpoint, it's pretty amazing to watch.

Relevant:

http://i.imgur.com/QdeTOsE.gifv

The original by far. Even though it's not even a show by normal sense, the animation is sublime, and watching 5 seconds of those is far more entertaining than anything I got from watching the later version.

lol

Not sure if it was what you were laughing at, but I just realized I didn't mean to put TV show, cause it's obviously not one.

The way this shit is going I wouldn't be surprised if that turns out to be official footage =P

It's a micro-series.

I don't get what he's laughing at either. As far as animation and cinematography goes: it's very rare for a Western cartoon to be of something even remotely close to that craftsman. In fact outside of large budget movies like Disney and Samurai Jack, I honestly can't think of any.

Typically: children are seen have seen afterthought with anything shoved on screen primarily to sell toys. For an animation with action sequences inspired by Akira Kurosawa from someone who clearly gives a shit about the content being put it, it's something of a enigma.

But hey: it doesn't add much needed to a movie with midichlorians or Anakins dislike of sand.

I prefer 2d 2003 version it takes me back to when I was a kid all of y'all complaining about to much action we're guys tits and action is all that matters and it at least offers one lol plus it fed my hunger of star wars leading up to episode 3 and learning what happened between the two films now that i have seen 3 so long ago why is this new clone wars even out i don't need to see it why show it again when it's already been done with episode 3 being made in 05 its done with either show what happens between 3 and 4 or do a force unleased show otherwise this new clone wars is not needed