Make no mistake, Clone Wars is honest-to-goodness authentic Star Wars. The animated series takes place between Episode II, Attack of the Clones and Episode III, Revenge of the Sith. If the feature films covers the beginning and end of the war, Clone Wars depicts the actual battles and events that made heroes into legends. Don't expect too much character development, as the episodes tend to be driven more by flat-out action than by dialogue (which can be a good thing, considering some Star Wars dialogue). We see such familiar faces as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and Mace Windu in combat, and we meet the elite ARC (Advanced Recon Commandos) clone troopers plus new Jedi--the amphibious Kit Fisto and two women, Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee. We also see a little more development of Anakin--showing off the best pilot skills in the army, defying Obi-Wan, and engaging in a deadly duel with Sith apprentice Asajj Ventress. But just when it's clear that the Separatist droid armies are no match for a Jedi, the tide begins to turn with the introduction of the menacing General Grievous, who plays a crucial part in Episode III. The cast mostly consists of veteran voice actors, but Anthony Daniels does appear as C-3PO.
Clone Wars was created by Genndy Tartakovsky, whose resume includes such stylish series as Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory, and The Powerpuff Girls, and the program won a 2004 Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or More). These 20 episodes, which played on the Cartoon Network (and were originally designated seasons 1 and 2), can be viewed as a seamless 69-minute whole or as individual chapters. DVD features include two commentary tracks, a making-of featurette, video game and Episode III trailers, and an Xbox playable demo of the stealth game Republic Commando. If you're a fan who can't wait for Episode III, Clone Wars is essential viewing. --David Horiuchi
Entertainment
The entertainment industry has grown and evolved over the years with music and cinema taking a new form through the ages and so have the technologies that fuel it. Gone are the days of eight songs on a cassette and VCR players with merely two hours of entertainment recorded on a single video cassette. With the advent of computers came digital data storage and hence the birth of DVD/CDs.
Quiet a step back in matters of physical form as these new generation audio/video storage devices hold an uncanny resemblance to the records that preceded the cassette generation. DVDs and CDs today are an everyday household entertainment storage device which has come a long way since the first records and cassettes were distributed commercially.
Notable advantages of DVD/CDs have to begin with the amount of storage space available. These days its possible to burn multiple movies on a single DVD and as far as audio goes if its in a highly compressed format such as .mp3 a single CD can accommodate multiple music albums. These discs are easy to handle, light and portable with no moving devices unlike the tape generation however they are delicate and a scratch on the DVD/CD surface could cause a disruption in the information being read by the player.
DVD/CDs were initially invented to provide high quality audio/video data to a user with the ability to regulate its production however this soon fizzled away with daily household computers gaining the ability to burn data in such formats. The race to curb piracy through such means has not hit a roadblock and DVD/CDs keep evolving with newer encryption technologies in a bid to curb unchecked replication of data spawning newer technologies like Blu-ray discs which seems to be yet another milestone on an unending road of innovation.
