New Star Wars animated show "Rebels" coming fall 2014

Yeah I was going to comment on that before, but then I remembered that the blades were also pretty thin at times in the OT (particularly in the Vader/Obi-Wan battle).

I agree though that the thicker blades look a lot cooler.

 

The lightsaber blades in the OT could use some more effective digital upgrades. The past several cycles of changes to the original films left many of the classic lightsaber blades too fuzzy or too pink or too inconsistent with other blades seen in the Saga (or all three). For years even the "corrected" DVD version of Luke's remote training session aboard the Falcon had his weapon blade glowing green in one scene and it wasn't fixed until the Blu-ray edits were compiled.

If there's some way they can reconstruct the original blades using CGI so they're more vibrant and consistent in color and texture throughout the OT I think it'd be a good thing. The look and quality of the OT weapons have just been all over the map since 1977 and it'd be great to get some vibrant uniformity.

 

Oh God, the lightsabers on the DVDs were awful. There should have been a rebate on the Blu-rays if you had a proof of purchase from the DVDs. How you release a SW set and screw up the lightsabers is beyond me. The saber cross before the Emperor's face only looks right if you turn the contrast all the way up.

 

Normally my heart and sympathies are with the OT purists on many of the changes that were made to Episodes IV, V and VI starting in 1997, but when it comes to the original lightsabers those things need a complete and modern digital overhaul. Period. Luke's weapon shouldn't be blue in one shot, then white, then green and then a slightly different shade of blue but fuzzier.

 

I can't say that I've done the research on this, and vague memory of the old days surely won't suffice. But when did the green color in that scene first appear? I don't recall seeing it before the DVD release. Was it in the 1997 version of the film as well?

 

I'm not certain, but I think the green Luke blade on the Falcon was just in the 2004 and 2006 DVD versions. Before that the blade was an off-white color, even in the 1997 Special Edition.

 

Actually one feature I do really like about the ANH blades is the way the animated light kind of "vibrated". It was a really cool effect, which also made the lightsabers seem a bit more powerful and dangerous somehow, and I was sad to see it wasn't carried over into the other movies.

 

Yeah, the original effect made it seem like there was static electricity all over the place, more raw and barely tamed. There were white flashes too when the blades came in contact that seemed to be gone or much reduced in the films made later.

 

I would guess that was a consequence of the glow being animated frame by frame and not being drawn perfectly consistently from one frame to the next. Interesting how sometimes the imperfections in a work produce more satisfying results than a flawless version would have.

 

Actually I think the shots where the blade looks like it's vibrating are because, well they are. At least in the first film. I don't know if it's every shot, but the Falcon training scene and the Kenobi/Vader fight for sure used the rig where the blades were wodden dowel covered in reflective material and attached to little motors so they'd spin and give off some interactive lighting to match the rotoscoping. Never worked right, so they switched to pure rotoscoping in the later films.

I did notice that in one of the new trailers Ezra is seen holding Kanaan's lightsaber with two hands as if it's about to jump out of his grip. This seems to be a reference to a concept they used in the original films that lightsabers had a *lot* of power running through them which meant they were difficult to wield. Like pushing against some magnetic field or holding a machine that was vibrating dangerously <insert innuendo here>. Hence all the fights in the OT being choreographed with strong two handed grips. As if wielding one handed risked the thing getting away from you, like a heavy broadsword.

I like that they've brought back that idea.

 

Maybe there's a vague in-universe 'reason' for this... since the days of kyber crystals, a lightsaber lasts forever but only the first 10-15 years or so and the blade gets worn down, thick becoming thin. (I'm no lightsaber expert but I guess Luke would have had to have rustled up one such crystal for Return of the Jedi.)

 

Yeah I'd heard about the motors but wasn't sure if that was the reason for the vibrating effect or not. And I never noticed the effect in the Obi-Wan/Vader fight. It mainly seemed to be for scenes with Luke's lightsaber and Obi-Wan's in the Cantina.

Yeah as fun as the lightsaber battles in the prequels were to watch, I far prefer the two-handed style of the OT. It just looked much more like classic, old-school swordfighting to me.

 

Mark Hamill's frequently described the on-set lightsaber props in the original film as essentially wooden sticks painted with a silvery, light-sensitive coating that spun around on the handle so that the post-production effects artists could later rotoscope the final lightsaber glow and colors onto them. He likes to say that the actual props were never very impressive and that final, completed effect far surpassed what he thought they'd look like.

 

Hey you can watch the first 7 minutes online now... in, um, French. I gave it a shot, but think I'll wait for the English version later tonight.

It looks very cool though!

http://www.starwars7news.com/2014/08/the-first-7-minutes-of-star-wars-rebels.html

 

I saw the announcement on Facebook earlier. I don't have a subscription to Disney XD so I'll have to view it online, preferably in English. Thanks for that thoughtful heads up, though!

 

Have to admit it's a bit odd seeing a Star Destroyer flying so low within the atmosphere at the beginning (even though I know the prequels established that such a thing was possible).

 

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZn_TrwbPN8[/yt]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZn_TrwbPN8

I don't think it will live up to Clone Wars but it's OK. I was actually a little surprised by seeing those Stormtroopers getting killed. Not that there wasn't plenty of it in Star Wars but nonetheless.

 

IMO it looks better than The Clone Wars...but i admit i wasn't a huge fan of that series. i am glad we're no longer in that time frame though.

 

Looks like fun. Ezra's a little annoying, but so was Ahsoka for a good while before she became one of the best and most interesting characters in The Clone Wars.

 

Thought it was a decent start, although it's hard to really get much of an idea from just this clip.

And I imagine it will take a little time to warm up to these new characters, since we don't know them like we already knew a lot of the characters in TCW. Not to mention that this is an era of the SW universe we haven't seen in quite a long while.