Star Wars, the cartoon?

We are now only two months away from the release of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, the final chapter to George Lucas' saga that will answer all those questions you've always had about how Darth Vader became the ultimate icon of evil. I hope that George can get at least one of these three prequels right, and judging by the preview, this looks to be the one.

But even more exciting to me is the release over the next 24 hours of the first round of Clone Wars cartoons on DVD and a new set of episodes premiering tonight on Cartoon Network. These are animated shorts, released as 5 minute episodes, that fill in some of the gaps between Episodes II and III, developing the relationship (and conflict) between Obi-Wan and Anakin and introducing a new villain. Cool enough for those of us who like our continuity, as these storylines are approved by Lucas himself (but thankfully, none of the dialogue comes from George's pen). But what gets me most excited about these cartoons is that they are done by Genndy Tartakovsky, the man behind Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack and one of my all-time favorite animators. Minimal dialogue and a reliance on sound effects as well as an animé-influenced way of using simple shapes and negative space to create tension mark his style, and it's a perfect fit for the Star Wars universe. I enjoyed the first set of Clone Wars cartoons more than either Episode I or II (and not just due to the lack of Jar-Jar).