The Clone Wars between the Republic and the Separatists has been raging on for years now. On the front lines are the various Jedi. When the first episode opens, some of the more familiar faces are in the battle: Anakin Skywalker, Fives and Tup. They’re alongside a few other Jedi, but there seems to be something wrong with Tup. Out of nowhere, he executes a Jedi and begins rambling on about good soldiers following orders. The Jedi and the Republic don’t know what happened to him, but they’re ready to figure it out. With each passing battle, the Jedi are learning that something is wrong in the galaxy.
This was the final season (Season 6) of the outstanding STAR WARS series that takes place between the events of EPISODE II and EPISODE III. It was originally supposed to air on the Cartoon Network (CN), but Disney bought the rights for the entire STAR WARS franchise towards the end on the fifth season. Disney and Netflix already had a partnership, so it was decided to air the season in its entirety on the streaming service. You can completely tell that this series was cancelled before it’s time. The final season had a lot to wrap up and not that much time to get it done.
When the show initially aired on CN, it felt a little kid-focused. Slowly, the show became targeted at a slightly older crowd and the big fans of the franchise. It began to explore a lot of the side stories and backgrounds of certain characters/races.
I have been a fan of this show from day one. I’m a STAR WARS junkie and there were things that I wanted to know that weren’t ever explained in the films. Most of what I wanted to know got answered, but there were some things that were overlooked. This never discouraged me at all from watching the show religiously.
Being in on it from the ground floor, I noticed that the animation got better as each episode aired. The textures, physics, and lighting look so much better than the entire first season. This show was also great because they didn’t try to re-write STAR WARS history, but kept everything under the same canon.
Voice Cast
Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker, Additional voices
Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano, Additional voices
James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Plo Koon, Additional voices
Dee Bradley Baker as Clone Troopers, Additional voices
Tom Kane as Narrator, Yoda, Admiral Wulff Yularen, Additional voices
THE LOST MISSIONS has been transferred in a 1080p AVC video that looks top notch. The reason why it looks amazing is due to it coming from completely digital source material. This is true for the previous seasons, but it looks like Disney put a little extra in to the authoring that Warner Bros. never did. The lighting is well done and has evolved from the previous season. The color is bold and there is a nice variety of the hues that’s expected from the franchise. There has always been a lot of color in this series, but it’s not as brilliant as the newest series on Disney XD. The textures on both the characters and the terrain makes the animation feel more alive. It loses the “cartoony” look that a lot of CGI animation has, even though a lot of the facial features are exaggerated. There are little to no contrasting issues and this creates dark, deep blacks. This is what fans have come to expect from the series.
The audio does not have the same power that the video does. It is a lousy Dolby Digital 5.1 track instead of the DTS-HD MA track from most of the previous seasons. It’s a track that is typically found on a DVD release and not usually on such a high-profile release on Blu-ray. However, the dialogue and effects sound good with nice separation. The audio is present in every speaker but it simply lacks the power of a high definition track.
For the sixth and final season, I was really hoping for more extras on this release. There are only two on the release and not really the best send-off for the series.
Bonus Features:
-Story Reel: Utapau Arc: the bonus “episodes” are in what’s called “Pre-vis” which is unfinished CGI animation with no textures or smooth movements. The best way to describe it is like moving story boards. These episodes are worth checking out for the story alone but don’t expect finished animation and include “A Death on Utapau,” “In Search of the Crystal,” “Crystal Crisis” and “The Big Bang.”
-The Clone Wars: Declassified:
Since its inception as super-short clips on the Cartoon Network to making the series into half-hour episodes, the Clone Wars took this rich expanded story between Episode II & III. This featurette explains how the team came together to bring this series to life.
Episode List
01-The Unknown
02- Conspiracy
03-Fugitive
04- Orders
05- An Old Friend
06-The Rise of Clovis
07-Crisis at the Heart
08-The Disappeared Part 1
09- The Disappeared Part 2
10-The Lost One
11-Voices
12-Destiny
13-Sacrifice
Disc Details
2 Blu-ray Discs
Edition Ratings
TV-PG
Region Coding
Region Free
Video Resolution
1080p MPEG-4 AVC
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Audio Mixes
English Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles
English SDH
French
Spanish
This season of THE CLONE WARS was clearly cancelled before it’s time. As I said, there were a lot of loose ends that they attempted to tie up in this final season, but ended up focusing more on transitioning the stories to line up with EPISODE III. I also feel like Disney felt responsible to release the season outside of Netflix, but not put a lot into the authoring. The video looks excellent and it’s very consistent. However, there wasn’t the same care given to the audio. The bottom line, the release is good for the series content alone. The show is excellent and the it’s worth picking up and adding it to your collection.
