Ranking the Star Wars Animated Shows

With the upcoming premier of The Bad Batch, it pays to look back at all the animated series that have graced the Star Wars franchise. Many of them were good, some were GREAT, and some fell short. Today, I rank the cartoons from WORST to BEST.

Side note: the LEGO Star Wars shows will be saved for another day…

WORST: Resistance

When I first heard of an anime-style Star Wars series, I expected something like Avatar: The Last Airbender in terms of animation. Instead, I got Legend of Zelda Windwalker style animation. This wouldn’t have been so bad if the plots were tighter, the animation wasn’t so stiff, and the color palette of the show wasn’t so blaring. The show starts off with what I can only call the most boring space battle to ever (dis)grace the series!

A tip to the animators: if a space battle from a movie released in 1977 feels more fluid and dynamic than your space battle animated in 2018, YOU’VE DONE SOMETHING WRONG!!!

The series has it charms, to be fair, BUT…this ain’t it, folks. This could have been a GREAT series, buuuuut mistakes were made. Boy howdy were they made…

9- Droids

For being the first attempt at expanding the Star Wars story beyond the films, and for being the first prequel in the franchise, Droids has a special place in Star Wars history. Unfortunately, the quality of the cartoon itself leaves MUCH to be desired. The animation is sub-par IN SPITE of the GREAT character designs; a problem that plagued many other 80’s cartoons. Truth be told, this animated series is a product of its time, in every sense of the term.

It was a cash grab that lasted a whole thirteen episodes; a DISGRACE considering that OTHER cartoons of the era had no trouble lasting a full sixty five episodes. To compare, a show called Beverly Hills Teens lasted longer than Droids!

8- Ewoks

During the mid 80’s, The Smurfs were one of the biggest cartoons in the world, with seemingly EVERYONE wanting to cash in on the “cute critters go on wild adventures” craze. Ewoks was no exception.

This is just a Smurfs knock-off with a Star Wars skin. Granted it’s not a TERRIBLE show, and in fact it lasted a full 65 episodes, but THAT is due to Season 2 being composed of 52 eleven minute episodes instead of 13 half hour episodes. A darn shame, really.

7. Rollout

This series had some good, simple plots, and told them all without a single line of dialogue. A good idea, mind you, but the animation style was…iffy, to say the least.

Animating ALL the characters like a BB unit really hurt this mini-series’ appeal, truth be told. Plus it really limited the show’s presentation, to the point that some episodes were not pleasant to watch. That all said, it has its charms, and I could definitely say at least half of its stories deserve a watch.

6- Blips

Eight episodes total, not even five minutes in length, and still highly entertaining. It might not be the BEST Star Wars cartoon out there, but as far as Sequel Trilogy projects go, this one is top notch.

5- Forces of Destiny

This show has three things going against it. First off, the episodes are too short. Second, we don’t get nearly enough episodes with Hera or Ahsoka in them. And thirdly, it ended too soon!

This show not only left me wanting more episodes overall, but to me it did the impossible: it made me like Rey! I LIKE the Rey seen in Forces of Destiny! LOVE her, in fact! I wanted MORE Rey stories, as wild as that sounds!

And did I mention this show did WONDERS for Rose Tico!? She was only in one episode, but good God was that a good one! Again, I wanted MORE!

That’s how you know a show’s good: it leaves you wanting more!

4- Galaxy of Adventures

A microseries that recreates key scenes from the movies in animated form. You’d think this would rank lower…

IF NOT FOR THAT AMAZING ANIMATION! OH MY GOD WHAT IS THIS ANIMATION I CAN’T WITH IT IT’S TOO AWESOME!!! The colors, the fluid movement, the character designs, it’s all a Masterclass of how to do Star Wars animation RIGHT! This series has left me CRAVING animated remakes of all eleven Star Wars movies!

3- Rebels

From Day 1, Star Wars Rebels had a LOT going against it. It was the first animated Star Wars program by Disney, it was their first major Star Wars project, AND the fandom was still sore about losing The Clone Wars…for THIS. As if that wasn’t enough, the animation was lower quality, the scripts weren’t as tight as TCW’s, the lighter tone of the show meant it couldn’t get too dark, and the stakes always seemed so much lower than they could be. And the lightsabers looked like toothpicks.

ALL THAT SAID, this is STILL a solid show. It had some FANTASTIC storylines, one of which (the season 2 finale) also happens to be one of my all-time favorite Star Wars stories. I recommend this show!

2- Clone Wars

Clone Wars was the first great sigh of relief the fandom felt in the early 2000’s after both Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones wound up disappointing us. This BRILLIANT show gave us more than enough action to satisfy our Star Wars hunger until the release of Revenge of the Sith in 2005.

And good GOD was it awesome! And OF COURSE it was; it was made by the creator of Samurai Jack himself, Gendy Tartakovsky! THAT is why the animation is top notch, character designs are unique and recognizable, and the action is so fast paced and stylized! The whole damned show is not just a masterclass in animation, it’s PROOF that 2D animation can blow 3D animation out of the water!

BEST- The Clone Wars

One day George Lucas looked at the Clone Wars cartoon from 2003 and said “I like this, but this isn’t canon. Let’s make a canon version of this.” The end result? This.

The Clone Wars is more than just the best Star Wars cartoon ever made, it’s quite possibly the BEST Star Wars project ever made outside the movies. In fact, it could be argued that this show is BETTER than the Prequels!

I dare to even call this one of the BEST shows to ever grace Cartoon Network, which if you know me, you’d know that’s not something I’d say lightly.

What else is there for me to even say? This is it! This is the HEIGHT of Star Wars TV! This is the bar for which every future Star Wars cartoon and TV show will be measured with! And the bar is set AWFULLY HIGH!!!