Warning Full Spoilers for the Episode “Cat and Mouse” Fellow Below

It has been a few weeks since the seventh and final season of The Clone Wars wrapped up on Disney+. Now, with the show completed and the arcs wrapped up neatly I thought it was a perfect time to go back and do a re-watch of the entire series in chronological order. Let’s start with a bit of background info. The Clone Wars originally debuted with a movie release, which like the series finale amounted to four episodes of the show. Yet these episodes were aired on TV out of order for some crazy reason. Because of that, I will be starting with season two episode sixteen “Cat and Mouse”

”Cat and Mouse” starts off with the Separatists forces occupying Christophsis and preventing the Republic from delivering much-needed aid to Bail Organa’s relief efforts. A simple set up for the first episode is the perfect way for fans and newcomers alike to get reintroduced (or introduced for the first time) to two of the show’s main characters, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Set shortly after the events of Attack of the Clones, The Clone Wars chronicles the time between the second and third films, bridging not only story gaps but also fleshing out character development and motivations. In the progress it also makes Anakin’s decline into toward the dark side much more believable.

In what I would call the pilot episode, we see young Skywalker in his prime. He is a much more brash and foolhardy boy than the wise Jedi Knight he wants to be. During the Separatist blockade, Obi-Wan tasked Anakin to take a newly developed stealth ship down to the surface of Christophsis and deliver supplies down to the surface. However, Anakin takes matters into his own hands and decides to take down the lead ship with Admiral Trench inside it.

I would say that the “Cat and Mouse” space battle was a great way to introduce us to the ship’s capabilities and Anakin’s leadership skills. Anakin has a much more direct approach to handling these types of operations. Instead of listening to Obi-Wan, he decides that he will play a cat-and-mouse game of cloaking and de-cloaking to throw the Separatists attention on him rather than the Republic’s small fleet. In a way this plan ends up saving the lives of thousands of people.

Another thing that this episode did well was humanizing the Clones, and showing how they feel about Anakin’s commands. In the early start of the episode, a new recruit named Spark joined on the mission. Spark soon learned that serving under Anakin means that you must always be willing to join the offensive. Some characters like Admiral Yularen were skeptical under Skywalker’s leadership, but soon learned that he may be brash but he can get the job done.

Admiral Trench is a Harch which is a giant spider. He started off as an intimidating villain as he out maneuvered the Republic at every turn, causing them to flee and wait for reinforcements. Seeing the mind games and the strategies that he uses to combat Anakin was a joy and felt fresh from the constant action from other episodes and films.

I will say that going back to the first episode of The Clone Wars was a bit strange, as I was expecting the animation to fell outdated. Thankfully, the animation aged a bit more gracefully than I was expecting. The action was smooth and the colors were vibrant, ships looked great as well. It wasn’t until the character models first appeared that I was a little taken aback.

That’s not to say that the character models are poorly done or anything. It is just that the models move a little stiffly and look a bit more blocky. Additionally, the lip syncing was strangely off in this episode. I never noticed before how the voice actors seemed to finish their lines just two or three seconds before the on-screen character’s mouth caught up. There was a second or two of mouth movement with no noise coming out. This doesn’t take too much away form the overall product but it did distract me a little. Overall however “Cat and Mouse” is a great starting off point for the series. It has all the ingredients to making a great Star Wars experience, fun dialogue and character banter, intense action and the making of a great new adventure.

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Great start to the story
• Intense action
• Great banter

Cons

• Lip Synching was off
• Characters moved a little stiffly