For those who like pretty glowing sabers and spaceships, the entirely computer-generated "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" works well enough. For those who prefer to experience "Star Wars" as a real drama, with interconnecting themes and undercurrents, "Clone Wars" can seem as empty as the orange haze surrounding Cloud City.

Performed by non-celebrity vocal actors (with the exception of Christopher Lee, Samuel Jackson and Anthony Daniels) and impressively animated by what during the credits resembled a Great Wall of Chinese-sounding names (lots of Tangs, Fangs and Yangs), "Clone Wars" forges the expansion of George Lucas' evil empire into the Cartoon Network galaxy. A follow-up TV series is planned for the fall.

As the noisy "Powerpuff Girls"-style narrator explains, after Episode II the Separatists' expanding army of Battle Droids continued fighting the Republic's defending Clone Troopers. If you recall, the droids appear like brass beanpoles with robotic chicken heads and the clones all look like New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison.

Obi-Wan Kenobi takes part in some of these battles, though the graphics make his hair and beard look wood-carved when they should be flowing. Yoda also makes a few appearances — or should I say, a few appearances does Yoda also make.

We spend most of our time, however, with Anakin Skywalker and his new Jedi student, Ahsoka Tano, who run around shutting down energy fields and disabling giant metal arachnids. The most impressive battle takes place while climbing a sheer rock wall; the least resembles space football and ends with a nod to Charlie Chaplin's falling barn door.

Ahsoka is a curious creation. She's a midriff-baring Manga chick with enormous Bette Davis eyes — that is, if Betty Davis' eyes took up most of her skull. A tattoo-faced, backpack-fashioning cross between a videogame character from "Dance Dance Revolution" and Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of the sky, Ahsoka likely will appeal to kids while giving adults a disconcerting case of the Jar-Jars.

Though his shadowy eyes mirror Hayden Christensen's just-crying look, the animated Anakin seems less like a budding Darth Vader than a guy who didn't have his morning coffee. His relationship with Ahsoka consists of constant bickering, with each second-guessing the other's decisions during the heat of battle. Call it "Star Wars Episode II & 1/2: Bitching & Cloning."

Is this supposed to be a romance? Anakin and Ahsoka trade barbs like Bogart and Hepburn in "The African Queen," and their connection gets gooier as they try to rescue Jabba the Hutt's green-gas-burping baby son, Rotta the Huttlett. It seems Count Dooku (whose elongated face resembles the king in an old-fashioned chess set) has kidnapped Rotta as part of a false-flag operation intended to gain use of Jabba's outer-galaxy smuggling routes. No, seriously, that's the plot.

The focus on Jabba's son raises all sorts of questions: Where is the mother? Is Jabba a single parent? Does he home-school? Things get more mind-boggling when you consider that Anakin is attempting to rescue the son of a character who later tries to kill Anakin's own son (and who, in turn, gets killed by Anakin's daughter). Some gratitude.

So in humanizing Hutt, maybe "Clone Wars" is about families, with Anakin/Ahsoka/Rotta resembling the nuclear variety. And why shouldn't Anakin have a mistress? He's attracted to the dark side, after all, and Ahsoka does keep calling him "master." Fortunately Anakin's true love, Padme Amidala, shows up in the third act to put a stop to the subtextual shenanigans.

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" Rated: PG. Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes. 2 stars.

To find out more about Zachary Woodruff and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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