Why aren't you watching THE CLONE WARS?

If you missed The Clone Wars series on the Cartoon Network I highly recommend giving it a chance. Yes, I am a Star Wars dork who grew up with the original trilogy, but like many I was monumentally disappointed by the three car pile-up that was the prequel trilogy. However, this new series produced by George Lucas is better written and a lot more fun than the last three films. As a kid, I was always mystified by the Clone Wars when Obi Wan mentioned them in "A New Hope". Were the Jedi fighting against the clones? Was the war over the ethics of Cloning? Who knew? Finally our questions would be answered in the prequel trilogy and they completely skip over them! This series finally shows it in all it's droid, clone, and jedi butt-kicking glory. First, this isn't kid stuff. Sure its premiere was the most watched series premiere in Cartoon Network's history, but it's rated PG. There is a surprising amount of violence in this show, people get blown away, run through with light sabers, and clone troopers get mercilessly sucked out into the vaccume of space. Also, this show doesn't just focus on Obi Wan and Anakin, (By the way, the animated Anakin is a much better actor than Hayden Christensen!) many Jedi are spotlighted like Plo Koon, Kit Fisto, some guy named Yoda, and there is even an episode focusing on a group of Clone rookies! And yes, one episode did feature Jar Jar Binks, but just one! And with 10 episodes aired that's a pretty good ratio. Also, I gotta say I am a big General Grevious fan, and we didn't get to see nearly enough of him in the films. In the series he is pretty much the central bad guy, and he is a great villian with one of the coolest voices ever. Cartoon Network has been showing Clone Wars marathons during the holidays, a great way to catch up when the new episodes start in January, so check it out already!

[Entry by Jeff Beckley -Hopefully, the first of many. ]