If you thought that the Star Wars franchise was finished with following the completion of the prequels (episodes I, II and III) you were sadly mistaken.

Due to fan intregue and, i'm sure, not a little bit of good old fashioned material greed, the boffins at Lucas Entertainment produced a series of short animated adventures in the run up to the release of Revenge of the Sith. They proved to be more popular than expected, so they have now released a feature length CGI adventure set between episodes 2 and 3.

You get to meet all the stars of the films, now obviously animated (but in some cases with the same voice actor - including Sam Jackson) having all new adventures. We also get to meet a few new players including a young padawan for Anakin Skywalker and an extremely camp cousin of Jabba the Hutt - which was, quite frankly, both creepy and hysterical.

The films focus is far more about the war than the development and turn of Darth Vader, which gives the film far more scope than the others and (despite the fact that you know that some characters can't die) meant that it was more fun.

However, when compared to the live action films, despite the large amount of action sequences, it just didn't have the same tension. It was clear that this was a cartoon though, (again, despite some of the realistic back drops) which was done purposefully.

Any fans of Star Wars won't be disappointed - it's a good film - but I wouldn't rush out and buy it or anything.

see also:
Transformers, Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones, The Green Lantern

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photo © Warner Bros Pictures.