The Special Editions Turn Twenty

[Tosk]

As for the singing into camera thing, if you look there are little floating devices around the stage which one can assume are holo-recorders.

One can also assume (as I did) that it's a microphone, seeing as they never gave CG-Snootles a mic stand like the old one had, and we see her and the three back-ups sing into the device. (Speaking of which, I love the laziness that had them leave the old Snootles in the first shot of the sequence. Just like the new Artoo rocks that disappear.) But I don't know what that device is for sure...regardless of justification, I just personally didn't dig such average CG creations leaning in to camera like that. But it's not as though it's the only reason I hated the new music number, it's just a part.

 

[Reverend]

One can also assume (as I did) that it's a microphone, seeing as they never gave CG-Snootles a mic stand like the old one had, and we see her and the three back-ups sing into the device. (Speaking of which, I love the laziness that had them leave the old Snootles in the first shot of the sequence. Just like the new Artoo rocks that disappear.) But I don't know what that device is for sure...regardless of justification, I just personally didn't dig such average CG creations leaning in to camera like that. But it's not as though it's the only reason I hated the new music number, it's just a part.

Personally I can take it or leave it. I think the original music felt like it blended better with the background but if the intent was to have a big musical number, then the SE version serves that purpose better.
However one feels about the execution, I think the notion of an elaborate musical performance in the palace of a underworld crime lord is thematically valid, assuming one wishes to evoke the Chicago gangsters of the 20's & 30's. They even did it again in TCW with a Temple of Doom/Anything Goes pastiche, which was considerably more on the nose but all the better for it IMO.

 

[Trek Survivor]

Good memories of watching all of these in the cinema. The hype for them was huge, and despite what oh-so-cool fans claim now, EVERYONE was excited about new footage being added in!

 

[Venardhi]

We were very excited. . . and then we saw them.

I was 11 and until that moment thought George Lucas was a step away from godhood.

Even then I thought most of the additions to ANH were weird and out of place. I liked most of what they added/changed to ESB but had a serious WTF moment over Luke screaming as he fell. RotJ had me gritting my teeth through almost all of the changes.

I saved up something like $70 to buy an extra box set of the previous VHS release when I found out they were getting rid of the original version so I would have a backup. I punched a dent in my bedroom wall when I found out my parents sold them at a yard sale the next summer while I was at Boy Scout camp.

I guess I was just an advanced hater, before it was cool.

 

[Reverend]

Yeah I still remember seeing this trailer on the telly and being very excited.

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It's probably difficult for younger people used to big, wide-screen TVs, home cinema sound set-ups and on-demand digital downloads to really appreciate how special it was back then to be able to see Star Wars in the cinema. For someone like me who was born in the early 80's it was the first time ever seeing the film on anything but my parent's old 4:3 Hitachi, via a very worn video tape recorded several Christmases back (I still have the stupid MFI winter sale adverts memorised!)

 

[JD]

Personally I can take it or leave it. I think the original music felt like it blended better with the background but if the intent was to have a big musical number, then the SE version serves that purpose better.

I actually think it's a pretty fun little musical number, it just feels like a weird thing to throw in the middle of the movie, especially when it wasn't that significant a part of the original version.

However one feels about the execution, I think the notion of an elaborate musical performance in the palace of a underworld crime lord is thematically valid, assuming one wishes to evoke the Chicago gangsters of the 20's & 30's. They even did it again in TCW with a Temple of Doom/Anything Goes pastiche, which was considerably more on the nose but all the better for it IMO.

Wasn't Sy a fairly significant part of that episode? There it at least makes sense to introduce a singer with a musical number.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

John Williams' music at the end of ROTJ is much better than the original but, quite possibly, the ten year old me would've preferred the original. But there again, that ten year old kid didn't realise what a kiddie movie ROTJ really is.

One problem is that the Ewoks are not dancing to the right music anymore.

 

[Jedman67]

I can live with the special editions. Some of the extra bits genuinely improve things, like the yavin battle, snow monster and a few other shots. It's the creatures in mos eisley and jabbas palace that are shit in my opinion, and there's not too much screen time devoted to them to override the positives for me. I wish my blu ray box set had both cuts of the films in though.

Rumors floating around the internet for the past few years suggest that Disney will release a completely restored GOUT with updated vfx. There are some purists there who think any changes to the original SW is sacrilege, but I happily embrace the middle road of replacing the effects with CGI and fixing matte lines and prop strings etc. without actually modifying the story in any way.

I would also...shoot...Hayden Christiansen.

FTFY

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Disney will release a completely restored GOUT

A what now?

 

[Jedman67]

A what now?

GOUT is internet slang for George's Original Unaltered Trilogy

 

[Reverend]

I actually think it's a pretty fun little musical number, it just feels like a weird thing to throw in the middle of the movie, especially when it wasn't that significant a part of the original version.

Not to split hairs, but I'd hardly call the 12 minute mark of a 2 hour movie "the middle". IIRC the middle is actually where the speeder bike chase happens.

Wasn't Sy a fairly significant part of that episode? There it at least makes sense to introduce a singer with a musical number.

True enough, though the purpose of that scene in RotJ wasn't to introduce or highlight Sy and the band, it was there to help show how chaotically exotic and dangerous the place is, and to be interrupted by Leia/Boushh's dramatic entrance.

It's basically the cantina scene all over again: Mysterious stranger walks it, some barfly picks a fight, draws on him. Music stops, everyone dives for cover. Arm hits ground. A beat and then people go back to their drinks, music starts up again. While that lent more on the western saloon version of that trope, think of Jabba's Palace as being more like a mob run nightclub in the 20's. The place is heaving, some starlet is putting on a big musical number and right in the middle of the second song, someone looks at a made man the wrong way and gets their face shot off. Then the hard boiled PI strides in, mark in tow. Just a typical Friday night.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

GOUT is internet slang for George's Original Unaltered Trilogy

But if it has updated EFX, how can it be original?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

But if it has updated EFX, how can it be original?

It couldn't possibly be.

 

[Jedman67]

But if it has updated EFX, how can it be original?

The supposed rumor (don't ask me where, i've clicked countless articles on this topic) would be that Disney is basically doing an HD or BluRay remaster of the original, Original Trilogy and updating visuals as well.

 

[Reverend]

The supposed rumor (don't ask me where, i've clicked countless articles on this topic) would be that Disney is basically doing an HD or BluRay remaster of the original, Original Trilogy and updating visuals as well.

It's a rumour that got started recently when Edwards mentioned he saw a 4K print of ANH at LF. However, contrary to what the clickbaiters have been saying, it's not something new Disney have on the go, it was actually just Lucas's master print from several years back.

 

[Venardhi]

here are some purists there who think any changes to the original SW is sacrilege, but I happily embrace the middle road of replacing the effects with CGI and fixing matte lines and prop strings etc. without actually modifying the story in any way.

Fixing matte lines, prop strings, etc. isn't going to get many people up in arms, as soon as you start replacing (rather than enhancing/cleaning up) the revolutionary miniature/model/puppet work though you can count me out. Lucas didn't create these films in a vacuum. Erasing the contributions of those artists and technicians after the fact doesn't sit right with me, even if they found a way to do so in a way that didn't look out of place with the rest of the cinematography.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Fixing matte lines, prop strings, etc. isn't going to get many people up in arms, as soon as you start replacing (rather than enhancing/cleaning up) the revolutionary miniature/model/puppet work though you can count me out. Lucas didn't create these films in a vacuum. Erasing the contributions of those artists and technicians after the fact doesn't sit right with me, even if they found a way to do so in a way that didn't look out of place with the rest of the cinematography.

And that's a mighty big if.

 

[OtherGene]

One problem is that the Ewoks are not dancing to the right music anymore.

I think it'd be a stretch to imagine that music being played in the forest anyway. The Ewoks were probably drunk on bark beer or whatever and just dancing to the music in their fuzzy little heads.

 

[Ithekro]

"Yub nub, Commander."

 

[Campe]

I was 17 when the Special Editions came out. I remember going opening night with some friends and being really excited over it. One friend of mine and I got interviewed by one of the local TV stations (which I worked for several years later). When we went into the theater, it was very exciting... until the Greedo scene came up and the subtitles were in French. That was a little strange. (We lived in Central Illinois and I took Spanish in high school.) Then when the Jabba scene came up, it was also in French. I didn't get to see the SEs again until they came out on video so it was awhile before I got to see what the scene was all about.