The familiar Star Wars logo and the pulse-pounding John Williams score now lift the curtain on a deadening film that cuts corners on its animation and slumbers through a plot that (a) makes us feel like weve seen it all before, and (b) makes us wish we hadnt.

The Republic is still at war with the Separatists, its access to the Galactic Rim is threatened and much depends on pleasing the odious Jabba the Hutt, whose child had been kidnapped -- by the Jedi, he is told.

Its up to Anakin Skywalker and his new Padawan pupil, Ahsoka Tano, to find the infant, while Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda lead the resistance to a Separatist onslaught.

And if all of this means little to you, you might as well stop reading now.

This is the first feature-length animated Star Wars movie, but instead of pushing the state of the art, its retro.

Youd think the great animated films of recent years had never been made.

The characters have hair that looks molded from Play-Doh, bodies that seem arthritic, and moving lips on half-frozen faces -- all signs that shortcuts were taken in the animation work.

The dialogue in the original Star Wars movies had a certain grace, but here the characters speak to one another in simplistic declamation, and Yoda gets particularly tiresome with his once-charming speech pattern.

To quote the famous line by Wolcott Gibbs, Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind.

The battle scenes are interminable, especially once we realize that although the air is filled with bullets, shells and explosive rockets, no one we like is going to be killed.

The two armies attack each other, for some reason, only on a wide street in a towering city.

Why not a more fluid battle plan To save money on backgrounds, I assume.

The trick that Anakin and his Padawan learner use to get behind the enemy force field (essentially, they hide under a box) wouldnt even have fooled anybody in a Hopalong Cassidy movie -- especially when they stand up and run with their legs visible, but cant see where theyre going.

She bats her grapefruit-sized eyes at Anakin and offers suggestions that invariably prove her right and her teacher wrong.

Which reminds me.

Im probably wrong, but I dont think anyone in this movie ever refers to The Force.

You know youre in trouble when the most interesting new character is Jabba the Hutts uncle.

The big revelation is that Jabba has an infant to be kidnapped.

The question is, who is Jabbas wife The puzzle is, how do Hutts copulate Like snails, I speculate.

The last thing this movie needs is a Jabba the Hutt sex scene.

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