TV: Clone Wars

According to my TiVo, new episodes of Cartoon Network's Clone Wars will be airing next week, although the official site (linked above) says only "Season 3 Coming Soon," and this site seems convinced they'll begin airing May 21st, not March 21st. So maybe TiVo is wrong. Or I'm crazy. (It can be both.)

Whenever the new episodes are -- I can't wait. I can honestly say I am more excited about these five new three-minute long cartoons than I am for the actual Revenge of the Sith movie. The quality of the previous 20 Clone Wars episodes (directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack) has been so vastly superior to the previous two feature films, it's not even funny. Chapter XIII of the cartoons, in which a weaponless Mace Windu battles an entire army of droids, using only the Force, was more exciting, action-packed, visually inventive, and just plain fun than anything in the films since the Speeder bike chase in Jedi.

In fact, I will go so far as to say, without reservation, Clone Wars is the best Star Wars product of any kind since Return of the Jedi. It's better than the novels (although there have been some excellent ones), it's better than the comics, it's better than the supposed improvements made to the original trilogy (HAN SHOOTS FIRST, GOD DAMN IT!!), it sure as hell is better than the two miserable prequels Lucas inflicted upon us all.

Will I still see Episode III? Of course. The pull of Star Wars is too strong to resist. And will I be as disappointed with it as I was with the last two? Almost certainly. Clone Wars is just more proof that Star Wars is in better hands with almost anyone but George Lucas.