Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Skippable, and it is the weakest thing with the Star Wars name on a cinema poster. It was assembled from the opening episodes of the television series and released theatrically, which is exactly what it plays like: three episodes of a show that had not yet found its look, its tone or its writing, stitched into ninety-eight minutes and charged for.

The animation in this first batch is stylised to the point of stiffness, with faces that barely move and action that reads as puppetry, and the series itself improved on it substantially within a season. The plot concerns the rescue of Jabba the Hutt's son and includes a Hutt character pitched at a register the franchise has never repeated.

The one reason it exists in any watch order is Ahsoka Tano, who is introduced here as Anakin's apprentice and becomes the most important character the animated era produced. Her arrival matters a great deal. Her arrival in this particular film is about ten minutes of it.

Skip it and start the series instead. The show re-establishes everything within a few episodes, and the common advice among people who recommend The Clone Wars is to begin elsewhere entirely.