So the Cartoon Network has finished its animated Star Wars series of 5 minute shorts on The Clone Wars. I have to admit, it was really really good. The writing was very strong, the stories interesting, the animation effective, and the action oustanding.

It was Samurai Jack in the Star Wars universe basically. If anything, it makes the battles in the movies look lame. The advantage of animation is that you can do a lot more cool things on the cheap. The force powers shown by Obi Wan and Anakin and Mace Windu certainly blow away what we've seen so far in the movies.

Which of course, creates its own problems -- in these cartoons, one Jedi can take out dozens, if not hundreds of troops single handedly. But in the movies, they're not quite so powerful. But still, that aside, the point is taken - the Jedi are tough. And Anakin is becoming ever more powerful as time goes on.

It definitely makes the third movie looking to be more compelling than the first two prequels. But it also makes me sad. Sad that George Lucas squandered the first two movies with such poor directing and allowing such poor acting to spoil what were, otherwise, reasonably good stories. Whether that be Jar Jar wrecking the first movie in between Anakin's "Yippees" or in the second one with such wooden and artificial acting with Anakin's character that Anakin comes across as creepy rather than intense (the whole "love" story of the Clone Wars is incredibly artificial and lame).

I don't know if Lucas is directing the third one. I hope not. I fear that the inevitable and intense battle between Obi Wan and Anakin will be laughably compared to the battle with the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Only time will tell.

But in the meantime, definitely check out these shorts. They're well done.