10 Films With Awesome Animated TV Shows You Forgot Existed

4. Star Wars: Clone Wars

Star Wars The Clone Wars General Grievous
Lucasfilm

This one might be classed as cheating, considering that it merely inhabits the Star Wars universe more-so than it does offer an expansion of any singular film, but there are literally no excuses for missing this 2003 masterclass in cartoon creativity - it's just that good.

Pioneered by Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky, this Cartoon Network micro series not only provided two seasons worth of enjoyable, sometimes terrifying storytelling, it genuinely traversed uncharted Star Wars territory. It introduced characters like Asajj Ventress (one of the most instrumental figures in the canonical Star Wars universe) and General Grievous, and imbued them with truly terrifying personas. It did this all with Tartakovsky's unmistakably beautiful art style, bridging the gap between Episodes II and III in a manner that, befitting the theme of most prequel trilogy spin-offs, transcended the quality of the source-material it was based on with ease.

Voice work too was without fault. James Arnold Taylor kicked off a decade-long relationship with Obi-Wan in the micro series, as did Corey Burton with Count Dooku. Indeed, it's a testament to the show's quality that the primary concern of its successor was to cast two of its predecessor's biggest talents in the same roles again, though it is a shame that elements of the series' continuity weren't brought over along with them.

Unlike the 2008 series, which took about two seasons to really find its footing, Tartakovsky's show remained consistent from start to finish. Genuinely unique in vision, you'll be hard-pressed to find an interpretation of the galaxy far, far away quite like it.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.