Star Wars: The Clone Wars [Season 4]

The Complete Star Wars Saga hit stores on Friday in Blu-Ray, but before you start griping about the latest digital farting around that George Lucas has perpetrated on "his" classic films or millions of unfortunate fans desperate for a similar treatment of the original theatrical releases of the "real" trilogy. Forget about what is included, what ain't, what outta be or what the hell is up with that whole "Nooooo..." business anyway. Skip it!

The animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars debuted its fourth season also on September 16, 2011 on Cartoon Network. Set between the events of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the series deals with the various conflicts between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, both being secretly manipulated by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine aka Darth Sidious, who plans to turn Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker into his next Sith apprentice. The series produced in high-definition, has made a far better use of the world of Star Wars than anything depicted in the prequel trilogy. We can at least thank Lucas for that, of course the talented animators, writers and voice actors have more to do with that than brother George and thus far, he hasn't opted to make additional changes between the earlier seasons of Clone Wars.

This season kicks off with three episodes set on the home world of the Mon Calamari race. Return of the Jedi fans will remember Admiral Ackbar, who is featured here in a supporting role as his younger self. Star Wars: The Clone Wars has gone a long way towards restoring my faith in the terrific fictional universe that Mr. Lucas created a long time ago, in universe far, far away, and certainly way back when he didn't constantly change things around every time one of his children breaks wind. Although seeing a fully CGI Yoda replace the crappy puppet in The Phantom Menace might actually coax me into watching that movie again.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars airs on The Cartoon Network every Friday at 8pm!