The biggest bomb in ‘Star Wars’ history unfairly overshadowed its underrated predecessor

Image via Lucasfilm

2008’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie is generally considered something you have to endure to enjoy the TV show. Directed by Dave Filoni, it was never intended for a theatrical release until George Lucas stepped in and made the call. The result was a critical drubbing of just 18 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a minuscule box office haul of $68 million, by far the lowest in the franchise’s history.

Thankfully this story had a happy ending, with The Clone Wars eventually turning into a good show and spawning Rebels, The Bad Batch, and introducing numerous characters and concepts now appearing in live-action. Along the way, something sad happened: fans forgot about the other Clone Wars cartoon.

This is Star Wars: Clone Wars, which was released in the run-up to Revenge of the Sith by animation legend Genndy Tartakovsky. It introduces characters like Asajj Ventress (who’d go on to appear in The Clone Wars), features beautiful animation, and one of the greatest lightsaber duels ever seen in Star Wars.

It’s now firmly non-canon, and The Clone Wars has completely overshadowed it, but the replies indicate it has a warm place in fans’ hearts. It’s noted that even as animated shorts it excelled in “robust character building”, with some saying that even at 25 short episodes of no more than 12 minutes, it’s better than the gargantuan 133 The Clone Wars episodes.

All that said, there are clearly some burning a candle for it. The recent Star Wars Jedi: Survivor features the villainous Gen’Dai Rayvis, who’s the same species as the nearly invincible Durge from Clone Wars. We often like revisiting these shorts, and we’ll always go to bat for Anakin vs. Asajj on Yavin IV as a truly fantastic Star Wars action sequence.