George Lucas has taken us to galaxies far, far away. Loyal fans worldwide have followed him on a journey that included battles with greedy bounty hunters, power-hungry slugs, galactic emperors, shaggy banthas, carnivorous wampas, and evil dark lords, among others.

After six epic movies and countless books, comics, television specials, video games, and radio shows, Lucas must have confused his fan-base for Jar-Jar Binks or one of his mindless cloned droids. Perhaps he ran out of Jedi mind tricks in producing his latest imperial project, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

While Lucas’s films are generally preceded with excitement and anticipation, The Clone Wars is not even introduced by the classic 20^th Century Fox searchlight logo, let alone the rolling script with bold yellow text to set up the story.

A bridge movie, The Clone Wars is an animated movie that not only sets itself up for an upcoming television series on The Cartoon Network, but also fills moviegoers in on a gaping hole in the Star Wars saga –- the actual fight between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire’s clones.

Lucas hinted at the war with the clones in Episode IV: A New Hope, then delved a little deeper in Episode II: The Attack of the Clones. Yet the clone story was never completely fleshed out, as Lucas finished his prequel trilogy with Anakin Skywalker (voice of Matt Lanter) completing his journey to the dark side.

In The Clone Wars, Lucas takes a step back, in the form of a cartoon, to shed light on the battle between good and evil without having to introduce new characters. Skywalker is still a Jedi disciple, taking the battlefield with his loyal instructor, Obi Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor). Also returning from the live-action flicks are Yoda, Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson), R2D2, C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), and Count Dooku (Christopher Lee).

Just as in the six live-action movies, The Clone Wars opens with a conflict. Anakin and Obi-Wan lead the Republic in a battle against Dooku’s laughably clumsy android troops. The adrenaline continues throughout the movie, as Anakin and Obi-Wan are assigned to trek the universe to rescue the kidnapped infant son of crimelord Jabba the Hutt, while Dooku conspires to use kidnapping to destroy Skywalker and gain momentum for his separatist movement.

With the darkest moments of the series exhausted and Anakin completing his transformation in Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith, Lucas takes the opportunity in The Clone Wars to present a lighter, softer side of the Star Wars series.

To drive that point home, Anakin, himself learning the ways of the force from a mentor, is given a Jedi apprentice of his own in Ashoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein). As Anakin nobly completes his mission, he playfully establishes a witty, wisecracking bond with his apprentice, herself a spunky alien who spends as much time cleaning up her own mess as fighting off enemy forces.

The animation itself is quite interesting, with most of the characters sketched with a chiseled look, allowing the film to distinguish itself from the CGI-filled prequel trilogy. Visualized by Dave Filoni and Lucas, not only do the characters look harsh, they look stiffer than C-3PO’s walking motion or a storm trooper’s hand-to-hand combat style.

Though the lack of fluidity is quite noticeable on the big screen, it would be as evident on the small screen, meaning Filoni and Lucas will not have to change the animation much, if at all.

Laser guns and light sabers aplenty, The Clone Wars has its share of action. Yet the first animated Star Wars flick to the big screen is forgettable. While filled with camaraderie and campy humor, it lacks the somber tone of the latest trilogy, chronicling Anakin’s transformation from Jedi Knight to heartless Sith Lord. Yet it also falls short of the innocence and solidarity of the original trilogy.

However, while The Clone Wars may not be best-suited for the big screen when compared to its cinematic brethren, Lucas may have achieved his purpose. The tone of the movie had a feel of a well-made television cartoon series.

Indeed, that overall tone is best-served as an incremental television series on the small screen. Further, while the overall plot of The Clone Wars was not as dense as its live-action counterparts, the animated flick offered several subplots and character-defining situations to build a television series around.

Overall, The Clone Wars is silly and forgettable yet entertaining and comedic. The animated flick serves as the perfect prequel to the upcoming television series, which will surely attract and entertain a new breed of Star Wars fans to the small screen.

Released under Warner Bros., Star Wars: The Clone Wars is rated PG for sci-fi action violence throughout, brief language, and momentary smoking. (Running time: 98 minutes.)