(Neil Genzlinger) 'STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS' (PG, 1 35) As a mechanical thrill ride, this digitally animated "Star Wars" saga is more or less as satisfying its blockbuster predecessors.
THE first time Chris Wedge went to the podium to accept an Academy Award, he thanked everyone who worked on his movie for putting their heart and soul into "Bunny," a computer animated seven-minute saga of a frail widow rabbit doing battle with a grim reaper moth.
On a lazy New Year's Day I sat in my kitchen, logged in to IndieFlix and watched the seven-minute animated short The Saga of Biorn on my laptop instead of scanning through the usual channels on my TV.
Roger Ebert gave it 3 1/2 out of 4-stars and called the film "a superbly drawn animated feature" and, in his print review wrote, "The saga of Simba, which in its deeply buried origins owes something to Greek tragedy and certainly to Hamlet, is a learning experience as well as an entertainment".
But a statement by Disney-owned Lucasfilm has ruled out that possibility by declaring that only the six Star Wars feature films and animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars series are considered part of the saga's official canon.
He then composed the music for the 2009 anime Guin Saga; this marked the first time he provided a full score for an animated series.
Pixar's final instalment in the saga which began in 1995 with Toy Story, the world's first fully CGI animated feature, made a spectacular $1.05bn£682m2m) globally.
