The stylized animation takes some getting used to, especially when dealing with familiar characters, but the storytelling just improved over the series' run, until by the end, it was arguably more emotionally sophisticated than the films that inspired it.
However, where the prequels failed, the Clone Wars and Rebels succeed - not just by filling in surface-level plot threads... but by chronicling subtle nuances that inform how an entire Galaxy was manipulated by fear.
Perhaps more significantly, Clone Wars - drawing from all the quadrants of the Star Wars universe - brought the fun back to Lucas' creation, which, in the movies, at times came to feel like an obligation.
Believe it or not, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is pretty cool. Not the theatrical film, which underwhelmed critics and died at the box office. But rather the computer-animated TV series.
The new series aspires to the level of a virtual-reality game. That's both the source of its great visual charm and the key to its emptiness, which is too dull to get worked up about.
