Genndy Tartakovsky’s Animated 'Clone Wars' Series Is Headed To Disney+
In its effort to bring every single little piece of Star Wars media under its wing, the animated Clone Wars series from the legendary animator behind such beloved series as Samurai Jack, Dexter's Lab, and the brutal Adult Swim show Primal is being added. Said animator, Genndy Tartakovsky, created his version of the show starting in 2003, and it was well-received by both critics and audiences during its three season run. The animation was unique, but overall fairly charming. The popularity of the shorts helped lay the groundwork for the seven seasons of the The Clone Wars 3D-animated TV show that was equally well received.
The movie version, however, was a little less so.
The series is due to be released on Disney+ on April 2, 2021, where it will follow the same format of the DVD release, where the collection of shorts are divided into two volumes. Each of the shorts are about three to five minutes for the first two seasons, and ten to fifteen minutes for the third season, which makes one wonder exactly when in the production process that Tartakovsky started getting a bigger budget.
Tartarovsky's series is not the only addition to Disney+ that is coming on April 2. The Ewoks films The Caravan of Courage and The Battle for Endor, as well as the animated series Ewoks, are being added. Like the Ewoks themselves, the reception for their stories tend to be...mixed.
The final thing that is scheduled for release is the animated short The Story of the Faithful Wookiee, which first aired during the Star Wars Holiday Special, universally perceived as a train wreck of a special released between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back that even George Lucas wasn't a huge fan of himself, with an urban legend stating that he'd smash every copy with a hammer if he could. The main claim to fame for The Story of the Faithful Wookiee is that it was the first appearance of some small background character you might have heard of named Boba Fett.
So, I mean, I guess it's got that going for it.
The short nature of the Clone Wars microseries will make it fairly easy to binge, which is a skill we all developed even before we were all stuck at home during The Great Quarantine of 2020. You could see every episode in about 2 and a half hours, or a little over two episodes of The Mandalorian. It's something you could easily knock out when you're feeling lazy and looking for something to do when bored at work.
The interesting thing about all of these projects is that they are non-canon, which probably explains why none of it has been featured on the streaming platform already. Or, in the case of the Ewoks and holiday stuff, it was so poorly received that not many wanted to actually watch, so why waste the viewing time? In the end, though, nothing will escape the watchful eye of The Mouse, and all will come into his loving embrace. In the case of the Clone Wars series, its non-canonical...ness(?) is probably one of the things that delayed its appearance on the streaming service. There might have been a rights issue with it as well. Either way, in a few weeks (as of the writing of this article), people who didn't manage to pick up the two volume DVD release of Clone Wars will finally have the ability to sit down, fire up Disney+, and watch some more Star Wars now that WandaVision is over and we count down the days until the releases of The Bad Batch, The Book of Boba Fett, and the third season of The Mandalorian.
Source(s): Polygon