Yup.
Phantom Menace is the best Prequel.
- Thread starter TheLobes
- Start date
Yup.
Oh I know he's not really a racist. But I was (facetiously) making the point that Obi-Wan has much less patience with people than Qui-Gon. Something that obviously completely changed by the time of OT, where he was the only person who ever took C-3P0 seriously.
Jar Jar could have worked beautifully, and I totally get where George Lucas was going with it.
Anyone ever seen Gunga Din? Great Flick, and an obvious inspiration for both Jar Jar Binks and The Temple of Doom.
Plus Jar Jar is a Gungan
Jar Jar could have worked beautifully, and I totally get where George Lucas was going with it.
Anyone ever seen Gunga Din? Great Flick, and an obvious inspiration for both Jar Jar Binks and The Temple of Doom.
I actually do think Jar Jar would've been just fine if he would've been toned down a bit. The accent could've even been fine, if it wasn't so shrill and constant and used to play up his "stupidity". A few dozen less "Meesa" would've helped the character greatly.
It's funny that somebody likened Jar-Jar to Han, as that brings to mind something that I'd long thought, after many a complaint about how nobody in the PT speaks in colloquial American English like the main characters in the OT did. Jar-Jar would've worked a lot better if they'd dumped the attempt at a silly alien accent and had him be the only one who spoke informal English, a la Donkey in Shrek.
Obi-Wan in TPM was pretty judgmental and I get the impression that Qui-Gon would get tired of that after a bit.
I wonder if Jar-Jar would have been accepted had he had, shall I say, a more "normal" sounding voice? I mean a squeaky-voiced alien that talks partly like a brain-damaged Jamaican and partly like Wayne Campell is hard to take.
But then once you change his voice you have to also change the few goofy "kiddie moment" things he does like getting into a scuffle with the little droid in Watto's shop in a manner similar to when the aid guy verses the leg-humping dog when he goes to pick up Robert Stack in Airplane!. Then there's the poo jokes, the long tounge jokes, the getting electrocuted joke with the pod racer.
Oy!
But I think if Jar Jar sounded "normal" like everyone freaking else or even, hell, like his own damn species he would've been better received. Maybe not liked but certainly not as hated.
That's what's amazing to me.
Jar-Jar Binks was so annoying. And so dis-liked that his act was dialed-back and role degraded in the following movies.
I mean. Wow!
If that doesn't say something about the character I don't know what will.
I think he did do something slightly subversive, though:
Apart from the two droids, who of course appear in all six films as they're the ones "telling the story"...
... Jar Jar Binks is the only main character from The Phantom Menace who survives.
Qui-Gon? Dead in Episode 1.
Obi-Wan? Dead in Episode 4.
Amidala? Dead in Episode 3.
Anakin? Dead in Episode 6.
Palpatine? Dead in Episode 6. Nute Gunray? Dead in Episode 3. Yoda? Dead in Episode 6. Mace Windu? Thrown out the windu in Episode 3.
Jar Jar? Does not die.
I'd like to think that Lucas was all like "'Jar Jar must die', huh? Well, I'll write him out, but just for that I'll make him the only survivor! Hah! Suck on that!"
Apart from the two droids, who of course appear in all six films as they're the ones "telling the story"...
... Jar Jar Binks is the only main character from The Phantom Menace who survives.
Qui-Gon? Dead in Episode 1.
Obi-Wan? Dead in Episode 4.
Amidala? Dead in Episode 3.
Anakin? Dead in Episode 6.
Palpatine? Dead in Episode 6. Nute Gunray? Dead in Episode 3. Yoda? Dead in Episode 6. Mace Windu? Thrown out the windu in Episode 3.
Jar Jar? Does not die.
I'd like to think that Lucas was all like "'Jar Jar must die', huh? Well, I'll write him out, but just for that I'll make him the only survivor! Hah! Suck on that!"
Oh yeah. Though Captain Panaka does mysteriously disappear from the films after TPM.
Watto makes it, doesn't he?
Sebulba lives
Han Solo, Luke: Lived.
My second grade school yearbook photo shows me wearing a t-shirt that says, "Vader Lives!". Wonder if anyone ever made a t-shirt that said, "Jar-Jar Livesa!!"?
Everytime someone says that, George Lucas goes and remasters the Old Trilogy!
