Star Wars the Clone Wars - when the prequels go ... right?

I love Star Wars. Like many people my age I grew up during the franchise's original release, the memories of which I cherish to this very day. Sadly, once the original trilogy concluded there was a 7-8 year period where Star Wars became less relevant, fading like the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi into pop-culture history. In the early 1990's things started to turnaround though, with the release of Timothy Zahn's "Heir to the Empire" novel Star Wars found new life in the form of bestselling books. Before long new toys were being produced, comic books published, video games created and eventually "updated" versions of the three beloved films were released in theaters. By the end of the decade Star Wars was - once again - a dominate force in the entertainment industry.

Then came the prequels. Without a doubt the most anticipated films of my life, the Star Wars prequels proved the old adage that you can never go home again. In other words they were horrible. Not Twilight horrible mind you, just very flawed films in need of heavy story edits, better casting and better characters. Since the release of "The Phantom Menace" Star Wars has continued to spiral out of control. The extended novel universe went to hell during its "New Jedi Order" storyline, toys have become too plentiful and too expensive, comic books are a crapshoot and the latest CGI cartoon continues to run a very tired Clone Wars concept into the ground. Why do I mention all this? Because even as the Bantha carcass that was the Star Wars franchise continues to be picked clean, there are still a couple of bright spots left to remind us why we loved Star Wars to begin with. One would be the Knights of the Old Republic video games, an immersive adventure set in the Old Republic era. The other would be Genndy Tartakovsky's fantastically conceived Star Wars the Clone Wars cartoons.

Unlike the current CGI Clone Wars series seen on Cartoon Network, Tartakovsky was given the rare opportunity to create a Star Wars story his own way, as opposed to the Lucasfilm way (and before the Clone Wars became overused). Premiering in 2003 Tartakovsky's Clone Wars was made up of 20 three-minute shorts totaling one hour in length (this would be seasons 1 & 2). The stories were a mixture of standalone and interconnected events taking place during various battles throughout the galaxy. The second hour (season 3) was comprised of 5 twelve-minute episodes and featured a more in-depth story which ends right where the third prequel film (Revenge of the Sith) begins. Though stylistically different from other Star Wars vehicles, Tartakovsky's Clone Wars works surprisingly well, probably because the cartoons creators stuck to what they knew best, action.

For those who don't know, Genndy Tartakovsky was the man behind both Samurai Jack and Dexter's Laboratory, he also played a big part in the success of the Powerpuff Girls. If you've seen any of these cartoons then you should've noticed how stylized the action is, a staple mark of Tartakovsky shows. Being such a strong visual communicator Tartakovsky is also known for keeping dialog sparse, choosing instead to tell his stories through pictures rather than words. With the Clone Wars my fear was that Tartakovsky would try and modify his directing style to better fit the Star Wars universe. Thankfully this was not the case, and all of these elements are used effectively throughout the series.

The writing from Star Wars the Clone Wars is actually pretty minimal. With the initial episodes being only three-minutes each, there just wasn't a lot of room for complicated story. The twelve-minute episodes that followed do have more substance - with the plot playing out more like a short film - but action is clearly the focus of the series. This is an amusing contrast to the actual prequel movies which have been panned for having far too much "political intrigue", and not enough action. Despite the "lack" of deep narrative however, Tartakovsky's Clone Wars never leaves you feeling cheated, quite the opposite actually. The short running times of each chapter forced the show's creators to streamline everything into a micro format, eliminating anything that is unnecessary and emphasizing only what's important. It's the cartoon equivalent of a powernap, all the substance of a 22 minute show but packed into a far shorter time frame. Taken individually - or all at once - each episode of the Clone Wars is a perfect example of how less can be more.

Besides the tight storytelling and great action, Tartakovsky is also a master of making things look - for lack of a better word - cool. Clone trooper infiltration of a city, awesome. General Grievous chasing three jedi all over Coruscant, nice. Mace Windu vs. an entire droid army, fricking mind blowing. Even really silly ideas - like the jousting villain Durge - work surprisingly well. It would be so easy for a lesser director to falter here, to make these concepts look cheesy or formulaic. Not Tartakovsky, just about everything he does is both awe inspiring and innovative.

Visually Star Wars the Clone Wars is very much a Tartakovsky cartoon. Everything from the characters to the vehicles to the environments are highly stylized and use minimal detail. It's this minimalist approach that makes Tartakovsky an unusual fit for the Star Wars universe, in some ways he's not a good fit at all. The cartoony look associated with his work is a stark contrast to the hyper detailed "dirty" space look that Star Wars usually exhibits. This is why I was afraid Tartakovsky might try and change his animation style, thankfully he didn't. As for the quality of the visuals themselves, they are excellent. When moving the animation is very fluid and energetic, colors are crisp and backgrounds fantastically quirky. You wouldn't mistake the show for an animated feature or anything, but it still looks very high end. Like many cartoons these days the Clone Wars does feature some CGI, thankfully the Tartakovsky style of animation is a perfect match for this and everything blends together seamlessly. In short, this is a very polished show.

I mentioned earlier Tartakovsky's penchant for sparse dialog. What I meant by this is that long sequences of events - especially ones related to action - will often take place with no words. This doesn't mean that everything is silent - quite the contrary - in the absence of dialog sound takes on a whole new level of effectiveness. With noises normally overlooked now emphasized, sounds relating to things like frustration, elation, struggle and annoyance become far more effective. You would be hard pressed to find a better use of sound and silence in animation today.

Musically Star Wars the Clone Wars uses the same orchestra style music synonyms with the franchise. This is a good constant since the show is such a visual departure from the movies. Voice acting is good all around with many of the voices used in later incarnations of the Clone Wars stories. At the risk of sounding repetitive, this series is very well put together in all phases of its production including audio.

Looking back over this review I think I spent more time talking about Genndy Tartakovsky than I did the actual show itself. With that in mind I'll finish by saying that Star Wars the Clone Wars (often referred to as the microseries) is an excellent series. With an overall run time of just over two hours the show isn't particularly long, but what it lacks in length it more than makes up for in content. If you're a fan of Star Wars, action/adventure animation or Genndy Tartakovsky then this is a must watch. Unfortunately both DVD volumes of the series are out of print, so tracking down copies can be tricky. The best place is probably Amazon, though new copies are outrageously priced the used copies are still pretty affordable.

Atlantis - The Lost Opportunity

It was the turn of the century and feature film animation found itself at a crossroads. With the success of CGI film studios like Pixar, Hollywood started to ponder a move away from traditional animation. Seeing its own classically animated films return less and less at the box office, Disney tried to regain its swagger by creating an epic feature that would use both hand drawn and computer generated images. The film was Atlantis, a $120 million dollar extravaganza that spared no expense in both production and promotion. Unfortunately Atlantis was met with mixed reviews and a modest box office return of $85 million dollars domestically (the film did recover its production budget with the world wide box office however). Adding insult to injury Dreamwork's Shrek and Pixar's Monsters Inc. would go on to be huge hits - both critically and financially - that same year. Looking back at it now, this was probably the tipping point where traditional animation lost its credibility as a feature film medium.

With a premise like finding the lost city of Atlantis it should come as no surprise that I was very pumped for this film. I'm a longtime Disney fan and getting an animated feature with roots in science fiction seemed like a dream come true. Unfortunately the movie fell far short of my expectations and I found myself massively frustrated for the second time in just one year (the first frustration being with Fox's Titan AE).

The story of Atlantis centers around Milo Thatch, a linguistics expert working in the boiler room at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. Milo believes the key to finding Atlantis can be found in an ancient book called the Shepherds Journal and needs funding for an expedition to find it. Unfortunately for him the Institution's board believes that both the Journal and Atlantis are nothing more than myths and refuse Milo's proposal. This rejection is doubly painful because Milo's deceased grandfather - who raised him - was ridiculed for his own obsession with the fabled civilization. But Milo's luck takes a turn for the better when eccentric millionaire Preston Whitmore steps into the picture. Turns out Whitmore was a friend of Milo's late grandfather and he's already found the Shepherds Journal. In need of a linguist to decipher the Journal, Whitmore offers Milo a spot aboard his privately funded expedition to find Atlantis. Joining Milo is a band of eclectic experts including Demolition specialist Vinny Santorini, medical officer Dr. Sweet, geology expert "Mole" and tomboy mechanic Audrey Ramirez. Leading the expedition is Commander Rourke and his second-in-command Lt. Helga Sinclair. The last character worth mentioning is Kida, the 8,000 year old Atlantean princess who serves as Milo's love interest later in the story (Personally I would have been a little more apprehensive about hooking up with Kida if I were Milo. That girl has to have been around the block more than once in the last 8,000 years, I'm just saying). Sounds interesting enough right? Unfortunately the final product can't live up to the strength of its own premise and many animation fans left the film feeling unfulfilled.

Before I discuss the writing of Atlantis I want to offer the following warning. The next four paragraphs all contain minor story SPOILERS. Normally I try to avoid this but the movie is almost ten years old and most of the issues I had were very specific. If you don’t want to know any story details then skip the four paragraphs following this one.

If I had to describe the story of Atlantis in one word it would be “underdeveloped”. What I mean by this is the film doesn't provide enough detail or explanation for many of its plot points. Want to know why Atlantis sinks into the ocean? Because the king wanted a super weapon ... that's it, that's all you get. Or how is it the people of Atlantis can learn to speak English so quickly? Sure their language was the basis for many of today’s modern dialects, but that's not really good enough. Knowing some root elements of a language and speaking said language are two completely different things. After all English (or any language for that matter) has evolved and changed over the years; so how could a society isolated from the rest of civilization for over eight millennia learn it in just a few brief seconds? But while these plot points are unabashedly lazy they at least try and provide the viewer with an answer, Atlantean lifespan - on the other hand - doesn't even get that much. While recounting her younger years Kida implies that she witnessed the fall of Atlantis. Milo quickly realizes this would make her over 8,000 years old and subsequently points this out to Kida. Her response … “Yeah, so”. And there you have it, a bombshell revelation suggesting that much of Atlantis’s population is thousands of years old gets a “Yeah, so”. No explanation - not even a lazy one - just “Yeah, so”. To quote Eric Cartman … lame.

The flippant manner in which Atlantean lifespan is addressed isn't the real problem here though, the giant plot holes it creates are. For example, the citizens of Atlantis are no longer able to read their own language. This would make sense if hundreds of generations of Atlanteans had passed and the knowledge was gradually lost. But since Kida - and presumably others - were all around when Atlantis fell, how is it that none of them can read? Did everyone, including the adults forget how? Combine this with the fact that given 8,000 years just about anyone could decipher a language and you've got a nice big plot hole staring you right in the face. This same issue shows up again when Kida takes Milo to see a flying machine she has been unsuccessfully trying to start for ages. Being a linguistic expert (boy that's convenient), Milo quickly reads the vehicles instructions and reveals the simple three step ignition sequence ... put hand here, insert crystal and turn it one way then back the other. Wow Kida, 8,000 years and you weren't able to figure that out on your own using trial and error? Good God, you're supposed to be an advanced race, one that hasn't even seen a single generation pass, yet you can't deduce something that simple? My car is harder to start than that. It would have made much more sense for the Atlanteans to simply be descendants of the cataclysm survivors. Descendants whose culture is being lost and thus they need an outsider to help rediscover it. Personally I wonder if the original script for Atlantis included this long lifespan fiasco. Being that it's common practice for movie scripts to get "retooled", I could easily imagine the story of Atlantis receiving "enhanced" ideas, the kind that create large plot holes like the ones found here.

The characters comprising Atlantis are also frustrating, mostly because I couldn't bring myself to care about any of them. Commander Rourke and Lt. Sinclair are complete cyphers that have no backstory or motivation beyond clichéd greed. Mole is similarly barren and serves only as comedic relief. Even the secondary characters who do get a backstory like Dr. Sweet, Vinny and Audrey can't escape the two-dimensional characterization that plagues this film. Don't get me wrong, the crew is likable enough. Vinny and Dr. Sweet in particular made me laugh on numerous occasions. The problem is that I didn't care about anything the cast did or had done to them, even the expedition's obvious "betrayal" left me feeling underwhelmed. In the end only Milo is given any real depth, but while he has motivation (to prove his grandfathers theories on Atlantis are correct) it fails to deliver any real emotional impact. Compare this to Scar's betrayal in the Lion King, or the robots sacrifice at the end of the Iron Giant. Those scenes sent a chill up your spine, they made you care, not so much with Atlantis.

Even forces outside the movies control conspired to undermine it. Atlantis was released in the summer of 2001, about one year after Fox's animated flop Titan AE. Why does that matter? Well for those of us who watched Titan AE the previous year Atlantis reeked of deja vu. Lets run down the similarities:

• Eclectic crew trying to find a lost place(or)thing. Check
• Main character possessing unique abilities necessary for finding lost place(or)thing. Check.
• Betrayal by eclectic crews greedy leader and second-in-command. Check.
• Subsequent life or death battle between said leader and second-in-command. Check.
• True power of lost place(or)thing is unleashed causing the revitalization(or)rebirth of something. Check.

Now I'm in no way implying that these films purposefully aped one another, in fact I'm sure they did not. What I am saying is that these unfortunate coincidences detracted from the latter films original viewing, in this case Atlantis. Sitting there in the theater I was stunned by the number of thematic parallels and plot twists, especially the betrayal. Of course this doesn't matter anymore since the films are both a decade old, but for people like me who really wanted both Titan AE and Atlantis to be good, their similarities and shortcomings will forever be linked.

When it's all said and done the story of Atlantis just doesn't work in its final form. It's hard to tell if the movie was under or over developed, but it definitely feels incomplete. Ambitious to a fault, Atlantis suffers from an overly ambiguous mythology, two dimensional characters, horrible plot holes and formulaic storytelling. Though the film is completely watchable don't be surprised if you find yourself sensing something amiss. Kind of like you're waiting for the last couple pieces of a puzzle to fill in, sure you can tell what the picture is, but it still doesn't look finished.

Luckily the visuals from Atlantis do look very complete, not surprising being that it's a Disney animated feature. Animation is always smooth, movements are natural and characters stay on model. Backgrounds are similarly beautiful with great design work and a cool (mostly blue) color pallet. The only complaint I had was that a couple of scenes - specifically those early in the film - looked flat, like they forgot to add shading. Though it doesn't really hurt the film at all I still found these rare occurrences jarring enough to take notice. Fortunately Atlantis manages to effectively do something that other animated features of the time often couldn't, it convincingly blended CGI and cell animation. Unlike Titan AE and Sinbad, Atlantis really does a good job of making computer generated images look like they belong in the traditionally animated environments. Yes you can still tell the CGI from cell pretty easily, but the overall illusion holds together quite nicely and that's what really matters.

Character designs from Atlantis are a little different than your average Disney film, but in a good way. Mike Mignola (artist and creator of Hellboy) was a production artist on the movie and his influence is very noticeable, especially in the angular look of the people (as opposed to the rounded look found in many other Disney movies). Of course there's still a Disneyfied quality found in many of the films characters - Kida and Dr. Sweet for example - but other people like Lt. Sinclair and the faceless gas-mask soldiers have a great edge about them, much like a Mignola comic book. Overall I thought the design and execution of Atlantis's visuals were a win, had the film's story been able to deliver this could have been something special.

The voice acting and music of Atlantis is all very good. My favorite actors were probably Micheal J. Fox (Milo) and James Garner (Commander Rourke), but everyone turned in a solid performance. Being one of Disney's non-musical films Atlantis's music lacks the distinct sound found in many of their other animated movies, still the music does its job well and I had no complaints.

So there you have it, an animated film with superior craftsmanship including: great animation, excellent design, good voice acting and solid music. Too bad it's wasted on an underdeveloped story that - despite its promising origins - fails miserably. To be fair Atlantis never stood much of a chance for success. With the creatively sentimental story of Monsters Inc. and the humorous pop-culture writing of Shrek, audiences just weren't interested in another "safe" Disney film. I doubt that even a perfect take on the story of Atlantis could have succeeded in the face of those odds. Still I think that the opportunity to create something timeless was lost here and that's truly unfortunate. As for recommending the film I'll say that it's worth a watch, if only for the visuals. I wouldn't go out of my way though.

G.I. Joe Resolute - Thats more like it!

Being a fan of 1980s action/adventure cartoons can be tough, after all they were just glorified toy commercials containing little to no substance. Their fear of watchdog parent groups made them ridiculously tame and silly, something any child over the age of ten came to quickly realize and ridicule. Production value was minimal, music was repetitive, voice acting generic, in short ... they were bad cartoons. Still some part of me loves these cheesy shows and wishes that the magic I felt as a child could somehow be recaptured. Of course my - and many others - hope has not gone unnoticed. Again and again studios have tried to update the cartoons from my youth in an attempt to cash in on both their commercial potential and nostalgia value. Transformers has seen numerous incarnations including a handful of cartoons and two blockbuster (but bad) movies. Similarly GI Joe has several cartoon reboots and a lackluster live action film to its credit. Even He-Man got re-imagined on Cartoon Network back in 2002 and has a feature film script in the works. Financially these projects have seen a varying degree of success, but not even the best among them could meet, let alone exceed my expectations.

Where did they fall short? Well the new He-Man cartoon had the right idea, it featured intense action while staying true to its roots. Unfortunately the show's stories proved to be childish and ultimately frustrating to watch. Transformers Beast Wars was really well written, but the characters just weren't the same as the ones I grew up with. GI Joe Sigma Six was dumb, same goes for Transformers Animated. As for the live action movies ... well don't even get me started on those. So why is it that none of these remakes hit the mark for me? Probably because what I want is so specific. I want an updated version of my favorite childhood cartoons, one that respects the characters I loved while maturing the content to something more appropriate for a person my age. Of course what I want doesn't really make for a fat profit margin so the odds of seeing such a thing are remote at best. Then the impossible happened, GI Joe Resolute was created. Originally shown on Adult Swim as an eleven part series (5 minutes each), GI Joe Resolute was literally everything I ever wanted from a modernized GI Joe cartoon; Intense action, beautiful animation, over the top villains and great characters, all wrapped together in a sixty minute story that managed to be both intelligent and cheesy at the same time.

Written by comic book veteran Warren Ellis, the story for GI Joe Resolute wastes no time setting its tone by showing the crime scene of recently murdered Cobra agent Major Bluud, this is shortly followed by the bombing of GI Joe's aircraft carrier the Flagg. Just five minutes in and you know this isn't going to be some campy 1980s retread of the original cartoon. Though its departure in tone is somewhat severe, Resolute still manages to pay tribute to its predecessor by bringing back a classic plot device, the Cobra doomsday weapon. Like the first couple mini-series before it, Resolute sees Cobra trying to - once again - hold the world for ransom with a super weapon. But this isn't some weather dominator, or a teleportation device, Cobra's new doomsday weapon does just one thing ... destroy. This is proven by Cobra Commander when he does something his 1980's counterpart never could (or would), he blows up Moscow ... all of Moscow. Faced with Cobra domination or absolute destruction the world turns to its only hope, GI Joe. This is a great setup, taking elements from the original series and raising the stakes so that the threat posed by Cobra has actual weight is a fantastic update to the old GI Joe formula.

The use of doomsday weapons isn't the only homage to make its way into Resolute however. Warren Ellis actually takes elements from both the original cartoon and the comic book and fuses them together to create the ultimate piece of fanservice. You want some Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow training with the Master? No problem. You want to see Zartan assassinate said Master? You got it. How about a visit to the town of Springfield? Sure. Don't forget about the showdowns either; Snake Eyes vs. Storm Shadow, Duke and Scarlett vs. Zartan, Destro and Baroness vs. Roadblock and Gung-Ho, it's all here. Ellis even goes as far as to take Scarlett's comic book romance with Snake Eyes and cartoon romance with Duke - combines them - and makes a love triangle out of it. At the same time more ridiculous things that other writers would've been tempted to include - like the battle cry "Yo Joe" - have been mercifully omitted. I have no idea if Ellis is a fan of GI Joe or not, but his knowledge of what's most important in the GI Joe universe really is admirable.

Another excellent - though less surprising - aspect to Ellis's writing is his use of science. By that I mean all the technology used in GI Joe Resolute has really good scientific theory behind it. Instead of just having a giant laser cannon that blows up cities (something your average lazy writer would use), Cobra's ultimate weapon uses a particle cannon to superheat the ionosphere. Energy from the particle reflection is then dispersed across the ionosphere so that Cobra can reassemble it and form a collimated beam above any target of their choosing. Realistic? Probably not, but boy does it make for a good sounding super weapon.

Equally impressive are the visuals of GI Joe Resolute. Though the style would probably be considered "anime" there is nothing generic about the films look. Personally I found the character designs very attractive with just the right amount new and familiar elements. I did have a couple complaints, like "Army" being printed in large letters across Duke's uniform, but overall I think the designers did a superb job. The same goes for the films animators. With the exception of some bad CG on the Flagg, the films animation is extremely fluid. Fight scenes are well staged and highly energetic, backgrounds look beautiful and lighting effects are attractive. Really, the movie just looks fantastic.

Unfortunately Resolute does exhibit one significant weakness, uneven voice acting. This shortcoming is most likely the byproduct of only having about four actors do all the films voices. With each actor being responsible for anywhere between 4-8 characters, you're bound to run a little thin in the variety department. Supporting this theory is the fact that heavily accented villains like Destro, Cobra Commander, Zartan and Baroness all sound pretty good, whereas the more standard sounding heroes like Roadblock Gung-Ho and Duke do not. Duke also suffers from having the over familiar voice of Steven Blum. Though Blum is an excellent actor he has used his "Spike" voice far too many times. This makes it really difficult to get into a character because the voice is so ubiquitous that you continually find yourself thinking "oh, that's the guy who did Spike's voice", a problem that continues to grow in the action/adventure genre (I'm referring to Spike from Cowboy Beebop).

Clearly I'm recommending this film to any fan of the 1980's GI Joe franchise. If you liked either the cartoon, comic books or both, you should check out Resolute. For those action/adventure lovers who aren't GI Joe fans per se, I would at least suggest that you rent or watch the film online (keeping in mind this is TV-14, so it's definitely not intended for younger viewers). The DVD itself is pretty cheap (about $15) but it doesn't come with any real extras. Also the video does occasionally show some signs of over compression in the form of banding, just something to be aware of in case you want to buy.