Movie review: 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars'

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1 star (out of four)

At what point might animators be arrested for doing work so ugly  it causes aesthetic blindness in millions of younglings?

It’s not a question that comes up every week. But this is the week for it. The two cruddiest animated films of the year, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Fly Me to the Moon,” have precious little to take your mind or your eyes off the visual crimes against humanity. I suppose I’m overstating it. But woe be to us and our eyes if we get worse animation of any stripe this century.

“Clone Wars” was executive-produced by George Lucas, who may be feeling a tad sheepish about the results. The film’s purpose is clear. It is a full-length teaser for the forthcoming TV series of the same name. The animation style, according to Lucas and director Dave Filoni, owes debts to Japanese anime and manga and the marionettes of the old “Thunderbirds” series. What we see in this grinding bore, however, resembles photographs of woodcuts, moving herky-jerky, swinging their light sabers here and there while the battle sequences pound on and on and on and on and on, as surly young Anakin Skywalker and lippy young Ahsoka Tano trade the flattest exposition and the most witless witticisms in the galaxy. There’s a Hutt in this thing by the name of Ziro with a voice like Truman Capote, and he appears to be a bit of a cross-dresser. There. You now know the most interesting thing about “Clone Wars.”

mjphillips@tribune.com

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