Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Episode III: Children of the Force

Smudger's Clone Wars fanedits are probably the most enjoyable fanedits all around I've seen so far. I've watched the first two parts and this 3rd part continues strong. However I don't personally think it's as good as the first two are.

The first part (Ryloth) is nearly perfect. I've always enjoyed the grand battles in Clone Wars and it's amazing how well they're done. Pacing, dialogue and the edit overall is very good. However after the strong start the Bane story starts to cut in and takes over for the latter part of the fanedit. The story is good, Bane is a great character and all but I felt exhausted towards the end. I feel the Bane story could have worked better as a separate fanedit or at least needed a bit of trimming.

Smudger has been doing good job editing out childish/stupid dialogue and character and the trend continues strong in this one as well. However there are some lines I personally would have edited out. For example at 00:08:02 when the admiral says "It's too late" and Anakin yells "Run for iiit!". The latter part feels a bit too childish for me. But then again the whole Clone Wars has full of those upbeat liners :)

There are some very small nitpicks about the video and audio. The scene transitions were quite good in this one. Only once or twice I felt the image cut too fast or in the wrong time. HD video quality and file size are great. So often the HD fanedits are too low in quality.

The audio somehow seems to lag a bit in the .m4v version at least, some ~100ms to be more precise. It's the same in the previous fanedits too. It may not be the same for everyone as people have different video players. It's all ok though as I'm used to shift the audio in my player. This really is a very small nitpick as it's barely noticeable.

Overall I'm very happy of smudger9's Clone Wars fanedits. They are so good and I wish that all Star Wars fans who didn't like Clone Wars initially could see these. They really make already a great series even better.


In a nutshell Episode III: Children of the Force was a lot of fun but a bit overwhelming experience due to its length and extensive Bane story arc.

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Another great edit from Smudger. The visual and audio edits were all top-notch with a few noticeable but not distracting line replacements. I felt that this edit ran a little too long and could have used some more trimming, especially in the opening Ryloth scenes. The attempt to tie Hostage Crisis and Holocron Heist together felt to me a bit forced and very disjointed. Especially the scene where Orn Free Taa was sent away to do seemingly nothing. But these are minor gripes, overall I enjoyed this edit and am very much looking forward to his next instalment.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars tells a universal story of war between good and evil, and in that turmoil the daunting challenge to not become that-which-you-fight in Anakin's efforts to stop the Dark Side. A scope that cries out for feature-length presentation on the big-screen.

The storytelling gap between Star Wars Episodes II and III is big enough to fly a Star Destroyer through, the Corellian type. Clone Wars fills that gap.

Smudger9's selection of story-arcs remains outstanding. These are the gems of the series, even if they aren't always easy to integrate. It might be easier to integrate one or two filler stories with one strong story, but then Smudger9 would be making Clone Wars movies for many years. So thumbs up for sticking with the most important narrative, even if that means storylines in an edit can feel like twin suns vying equally for attention.

If you haven't the time to watch the feature film plus 6 seasons, settle in with Smudger9's movies instead.
If you want to find out why (and how) the clones turned on the Jedi, insert these Clone War stories in your Star Wars movie line-up.
If you enjoy animated Star Wars and are sad that Rebels is ending, watch Smudger9's Clone Wars.