Star Wars The Clone Wars: The Complete Season One Blu-ray Disc Review

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Star Wars The Clone Wars: The Complete Season One Blu-ray Disc Review

By brenden ⋅ November 20, 2009 ⋅

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STAR WARS THE CLONE WARS: THE COMPLETE SEASON ONE (2008-2009, Blu-ray released November 3, 2009 - MSRP $59.99)

The animated Star Wars The Clone Wars TV show is kind of hit and miss for me. But for some reason, most of its sins wash away or are simply forgotten with the brilliant, updated high-def presentation on the Blu-ray disc. This is the MUST HAVE holiday gift for the Star Wars fan in your life!

Let me start at the beginning. I grew up with Star Wars. I’ve always been a fan. And despite my dislike for the prequel films and the general apathy for the franchise they almost forced upon me, I perpetually maintain the tiniest slice of interest in anything cinematic that George Lucas might serve up connected to the Jedi and the Skywalker clan. So, of course I checked out the animated series. And of course I was disappointed. While my expectations were low, I was hoping that the producers of this new, ongoing CGI animated series would keep alive the spirit and sense of storytelling established in Gendy Tartakovsky’s 2D, cell animated Clone Wars shorts from 2003. Sadly, the CGI series decided to follow its own path. And it travels a rocky road for quite a while, beginning with the clunky, ham-fisted Clone Wars theatrical release (ostensibly the pilot for the series and not included in this boxed set.) The animation comes out of the gate stiff, the characters as wooden as their Thunderbirds marionette-inspired designs and the stories uneven at best. But as the season wears on, everything improves. I even found myself warming to the character designs!

By the time the episodes in the box-set wrap up, the production team finds its footing and makes you cry for more! The stories become more coherent and effective and the characters more well-rounded. More, dare I say it…human. And the quality of the animation raises more than a notch or two above where it began. In fact, this is, without question, the best CGI that series TV has ever seen! And the presentation included on the Blu-ray just seems to amplify every positive quality of the show. I have to admit, I enjoy these episodes a lot more, watching them on these discs, shown in brilliant 1080p in their correct aspect ratios, than watching the versions shown on broadcast TV. Everything seems better, brighter, more well thought out. It might help that 7 of the 22 episodes are shown in their longer Director’s Cut versions (original cuts aren’t included.)

The whole Clone Wars package is a delight! The 3 Blu-ray discs in the set come served up in a beautiful hardcover digibook. This thing is amazing! It apparently replicates the series director’s production book, filling all 64-pages to the brim with sketches, character turnarounds, tests and lush background paintings. Every time I flip through the book, I have a hard time believing I’m looking at the standard packaging for the set. A few years ago this would have been marketed as a separate “Special Collector’s Book-Edition” sold for a premium price. We’re very fortunate to have such a wonderful package set as standard for the collection.

The discs within are beyond reproach, as far as video quality is concerned. Brilliant! All 22 episodes look better than ever before. Sadly, the audio doesn’t quite match up. While the Dolby Digital 5.1 sounds amazing all around, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed that Warner Home Video wasn’t able to include lossless audio in the set. Perhaps there wasn’t any room left after cramming all the episodes and bonus content on the discs?

And speaking of the special features, they are plentiful. In fact, every single episode is given its own short featurette! These run around 5 minutes or so per episode and are actually quite informative, given their brief runtime. I highly recommend checking each one out directly after you’ve finished watching the episode. Great stuff. In addition, the discs feature the Blu-ray exclusive “Jedi Temple Archives” which amount to several hours worth of 2D and 3D art, videos, sketches, storyboards and much, much more. You’ll lose hours to these two features alone! There is also a sneak peek at Clone Wars: Season Two and a trailer for the new “Republic Heroes” videogame.

Previously on The Blu-ray Blog: Star Wars: The Clone Wars The Complete Season One package art, details, release date confirmed