The Clone Wars “Rising Malevolence” & "Ambushed" Review

Bothan spies have delivered to me advance screenings of two upcoming episodes of "The Clone Wars" animated television series. Just as a precautionary warning, there are episodes descriptions in the review below which some might consider as possible spoilers.

I wouldn’t have thought it possible; but after watching two episodes of the upcoming “The Clone Wars” series that will start airing on Cartoon Network, October 3, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT), I have to say I think the television series is actually better than the feature-length movie that hit theaters last month. The two episodes I got to preview are titled “Rising Malevolence” which sees Anakin and Ahsoka embarking on a rescue mission to save Jedi Master Plo Koon who was ambushed by a “special” secret weapon being tested by General Grievous and Count Dooku, and “Ambush” which sees Master Yoda and a small squadron of Clone Troopers facing down a full battalion of battle droids led by Asajj Ventress. I’ll let you guess who wins.

The animation voices and music are exactly the same quality as we saw in the movie. For those who have not seen the movie, the animation is spectacular; the music isn’t quite as good as the live-action movie soundtracks but is close enough, and the voices do a decent job of replicating those of their live-action counterparts. Unlike the movie, Samuel L. Jackson and Chistopher Lee did not reprise their roles for the TV series. Corey Burton, who voiced Dooku in the first “Clone Wars” animated series, reprises his role for this one.

Where I think this series seems to surpass the movie is with the character development, and not just with the main characters. In “Ambush”, we actually get to know the clone troopers. No longer are they just mindless carbon copies of Jango Fett, but we see they actually have individual personalities, which is cool and sad at the same time being as we all know how things finally end up.

If these two episodes are any indication, I think Star Wars fans have a really intriguing series ahead of them that not only will have a lot of action and adventure but also allow us to get a more in-depth look at characters, races and places in the Star Wars Universe that we were only able to glimpse in the movies.

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