What They Say:
No show summary was provided on the package.
The Review:
Audio:
For this viewing I listened to the English Dolby Digital 5.1 language track. French and Spanish language tracks also in Dolby Digital 5.1 were available as well. Spanish, French, and English subtitles were provided. The audio quality for this set was excellent with good directionality of sound effects, music, and dialogue.
Video:
The series is presented in 16:9 aspect ratio and it is very nice. The showrunners for Season Two played around with different genres, which affected their use of color, light and shadow, camera angles, and camera effects, all of which come through clearly. Visually this is a gorgeous season.
Packaging:
Clone Wars Season Two comes in what may be my favorite case ever. Instead of the standard Blu-ray case, the three discs come housed in a thick cardboard case that opens and closes like a book. The case is about an inch and a half thick. The first disc rests on the inside cover and the second and third overlay each other on the back cover. A silver sleeve occupies the middle, holding a small art book. The front of the sleeve imitates the poster from the classic Western The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly right down to the use of Spanish. Anakin, Cad Bane, and Ahsoka are pictured, separated in distinct boxes, with “Il Buona,” “Il Brutto,” and “La Bella” written under them. The back of the insert is a mock giant monster movie poster showing the Zillo Beast climbing a building on Coruscant with Mace Windu and the soon-to-be Emperor in the foreground.
The front cover features Yoda framed against a faded silver background, staring off into the foreground, holding his lightsaber at the ready slightly behind him. The show’s title hovers just to his right (our left). The spine continues the silver background and simply shows the show’s title and season number. The back also continues the silver background and overlaying it are six screenshots from the season.
It’s a great design that gives the series a metaphorical sense of weight. The silver color makes it feel old and used, and the lack of summary and DVD specifications is interesting and certainly goes against convention, but in an odd way it makes it feel rather classy, like this is a book I’m holding.
Menu:
The menu for Season Two is not as dynamic as the menu for Season 1. Instead of the scenes playing in the upper three-fourths of the scene, we are now treated to a static image of Yoda, holding his lightsaber and staring off to some point out of the screen. The various disc options are listed at the bottom the screen on a dark gray, metallic strip. Oddly, there is no music playing in the background. In terms of functionality it works just fine, but aesthetically, it’s rather dull.
Extras:
The production journal alone is enough to earn the extras an “A,” but this season is full of great stuff. The Behind the Story featurettes were actually very interesting and it was neat to hear the thought processes of the writers, directors, and animators behind their various creative decisions.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wd_Q-7b19k&w=560&h=315]
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While the first season of Clone Wars was perfectly enjoyable, Season Two is lightyears better. The animation is more fluid and dynamic, the backgrounds richer and more immersive, and the action even more exciting. More importantly, the stories are more engaging, the character development deeper, and way they skillfully play with different genres was excellent.
Genre is really the name of the game with this season. The show plays with film noir with the Holocron episodes, horror with the Geonosis episodes, political intrigue with the Mandalore story, and kaiju films with the Zillo Beast episodes. Each story arc runs roughly three to four episodes and they are distinct from each other in terms of tone, content, and art design. The film noir is perhaps the most visually distinct given that it is a highly stylized genre, but if you know what you’re looking for, you can see the influence of the other genres in terms of camera angles, scene composition, and color—along with plot and character conventions.
Of course, if the show just focused on playing with genre, it would end up being a hollow viewing experience. Really this is just added spice to the stew, as the focus continues to be the journey of Anakin from Jedi Knight and potential Chosen One to Darth Vader. One of the more interesting aspects of Clone Wars is that I actually like Anakin in this series. I never cared for him in the movies and always found the insistence that he was a good man and a great Jedi to be hollow—perhaps a product of Obi Wan wanting to remember the past in terms of how he would have liked it to have been, not as it actually was. I do see the brave knight here, but unfortunately, they do too good a job of it. There are moments peppered throughout the season where we supposedly see the seeds of the Dark Side in him, but they feel out of place and almost forced. Moreover, because Anakin is the protagonist of the show, we as the viewer tend to naturally side with him. His actions always seemed justified to me, which is definitely a problem and means that the show will probably have to force the issue later in the series and make Anakin do things out of the character that has been established.
In some ways, the show works better when the spotlight is taken off of Anakin. Ahsoka has a very nice arc in the Geonosis episodes where she really starts coming into her own, and Obi Wan’s story on Mandalore introduces some interesting new wrinkles to his character. I also have to say that I’m a sucker for the British, urbane way James Arnold Taylor plays Obi Wan. It plays off very well the more American, straightforward manner that Matt Lanter plays Anakin.
In Summary:
Star Wars Clone Wars Season Two is lightyears better than the first season and might prove to be the best of the entire show. This is a season that fires on all cylinders: it has strong writing, strong acting, and amazing art and animation. More than that, there’s a sense of confidence and an understanding of what the show is and what they can do with it, as evidenced by the playing with different genres. The only issue is that this season fails to build up Anakin to the child-murdering monster that he becomes later. I love the character right now—he’s everything we were told he was in the movies—but it’s very, very difficult to see him becoming Darth Vader. That issue aside, I greatly enjoyed watching this season. I’m not a huge fan of the prequels in general, but this is one of those products that reaffirms my love of Star Wars.
Features:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Language, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Language, French Dolby Digital 5.1 Language, GermanDolby Digital 5.1 Language, Production Journal Booklet, Behind the Story:
Magic of the Holocron Episodes, Return to Geonosis, Creating Mandalore, Attack of the Zillo Beast, The Force Unleashed II Trailer, Clone Wars Adventures Trailer, Jedi Temple Archives
Content Grade: A-
Audio Grade: A
Video Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Menu Grade: C+
Extras Grade: A
Released By: Warner Bros.
Release Date: October 26th, 2010
MSRP: $54.99
Running Time: 494 minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Panasonic Viera TH42PX50U 42” Plasma HDTV, Sony BPD-S3050 BluRay Player w/HDMI Connection
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