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[Eggo]

Picked up the SW Trilogy DVD and SW Battlefront for Xbox today at lunch. I'm at work right now, so haven't had the chance to check them both out in detail yet. I did have time to pop in the DVD and see the Han/Greedo scene.

Spoiler

Han and Greedo both appear to shoot at the same time. The scene still looks unnatural compared to the original cut, but it is better than the previous version where Greedo shot first. I can probably get used to them shooting at the same time. It's... fair, I guess.

I haven't seen this scene yet, but some co-workers just mentioned that you can see an ugly box around one of the Tie Fighters when it is flying around in the "Great shot, kid. Don't get cocky" scene. Sounds like the boxes that were in the original cut, and now with DVD they are more ugly and pronounced.

If you guys have questions about any scenes or features in particular, ask away and I will try to answer them tonight when I go home and check it out in detail.

 

[darscot]

Do all the storm troopers sound like Jango?

 

[KarishBHR]

where can you get it already?

 

[Drey1082]

where can you get it already?

Exactly

 

[Guzim]

I got it.

Just have a friend who works at Blockbuster

 

[distantmantra]

Cool for those who got it early, but I'll just wait and get it at Fry's for $36 on Tuesday.

 

[levious]

Cool for those who got it early, but I'll just wait and get it at Fry's for $36 on Tuesday.

funny you mention fry's, they're the one store I remember breaking the E.T. street date.

 

[Team Rancid]

Did Lucas really replace the orig Anakin actor (Sebastian Shaw) with Hayden Christensen into the final scenes in Jedi? Or was that an urban myth?

 

[Spiritreaver]

Did Lucas really replace the orig Anakin actor (Sebastian Shaw) with Hayden Christensen into the final scenes in Jedi? Or was that an urban myth?

Yes, he really did do that, you can even find videos of it if you look around. Lucas explains his reasoning and spoils a little of EP3 on the DVD as well in the commentary. Now, Hayden is not in the final DSII scene with Luke and Anakin unmasked. But Anakin has had eye alterations to match Hayden as well as his eye brows removed.

 

[Makura]

What was wrong with the Greedo scene before???

 

[sefskillz]

Did Lucas really replace the orig Anakin actor (Sebastian Shaw) with Hayden Christensen into the final scenes in Jedi? Or was that an urban myth?

 

[levious]

What was wrong with the Greedo scene before???

With the ORIGINAL scene? My guess is Lucas looked at it as a very rough cut scene... as far as the SE edition of that scene, everything was wrong.

Hopefully this shooting at the same time version is not that same as the one leaked months ago where Han's whole body jumps up in the air.

 

[Makura]

I'm just glad I still have the THX remastered VHS set. Lucas is getting very selfish in his old age it would seem.

 

[SKluck]

I don't care how much you like the original, how someone could watch a VHS tape in this day and age is appalling.

 

[levious]

porn collections are the only reason VHS players are still manufactured.

 

[Makura]

I don't care how much you like the original, how someone could watch a VHS tape in this day and age is appalling.

What choice do I have? He's butchering my childhood memories!

 

[Mairu]

Just have a friend who works at Blockbuster

We've had it for like two weeks now

And I feel sorry for those refusing to watch the DVDs because they're not the originals, the quality of these are amazing. I don't know how I'll be able to watch the VHSs again

 

[FnordChan]

And I feel sorry for those refusing to watch the DVDs because they're not the originals, the quality of these are amazing.

That's what laserdisc is for.

FnordChan

 

[Mairu]

That's what laserdisc is for.

FnordChan

Not even close

 

[FnordChan]

Not even close

They may not have the remastered sheen, but the CAV Definitive Collection laserdiscs look just dandy and have the added benefit of being, you know, the original films before Lucas begin to obsessively tinker with them. If I only had a VHS set, I'd probably break and buy the DVDs. However, the video quality of the Definitive Collection set is pretty damn good, so I look forward to spending my hard earned on something else this week.

FnordChan

 

[Cooper]

Laserdiscs and DVDs look similar on smaller 4:3 sets. However, on a larger widescreen set, there's no comparison; anamorphic DVDs look far better than the best LDs. We rarely watch our LD collection anymore, since the quality just isn't the same.

 

[Warm Machine]

Get your friend to tweak his monitor using the THX optimizer. The Matte boxes should all dissapear.

 

[Go Go Ackman!]

And I feel sorry for those refusing to watch the DVDs because they're not the originals, the quality of these are amazing.

If you "refuse" to watch a DVD because they changed a some scene in the movie, do the world a favor and eat all the pills in your medicine cabinet.

 

[ManaByte]

They may not have the remastered sheen, but the CAV Definitive Collection laserdiscs look just dandy and have the added benefit of being, you know, the original films before Lucas begin to obsessively tinker with them. If I only had a VHS set, I'd probably break and buy the DVDs. However, the video quality of the Definitive Collection set is pretty damn good, so I look forward to spending my hard earned on something else this week.

FnordChan

Definitive Collection Laserdisc:

2004 DVD:

Definitive Collection Laserdisc:

2004 DVD:

 

[Dilbert]

Y'know, I might be the only person I know who has gone beyond complete apathy towards anything Star Wars into active dislike. The original movie was pretty damn cool...when I was five years old.

 

[cvxfreak]

Damn, those LaserDisc editions look quite archaic next to the DVD releases. Wow.

 

[BlackMage]

how many times do you need to see this stupid trilogy, anyway?

 

[Error Macro]

Eh, the Laserdiscs don't look that bad, as shown above. I have a Pioneer Elite CLD-52 LD player fed through composite so that my JVC's 3D comb filter handles the separation, and it then upconverts it to 1080i. Looks quite good. I'll have to take some pictures.

 

[FnordChan]

Eh, the Laserdiscs don't look that bad, as shown above. I have a Pioneer Elite CLD-52 LD player fed through composite so that my JVC's 3D comb filter handles the separation, and it then upconverts it to 1080i. Looks quite good. I'll have to take some pictures.

Exactly. I dunno about those LD captures above, but whenever I pop in my LDs I don't find myself saying, "You know, the video on these discs really looks like ass", which is the first thing that comes to mind looking at those frames. Simply looks better in motion? Not a terrific frame capture in the first place? Either way, I'm happy with the LDs and will be sticking with them for the time being.

FnordChan

 

[Eggo]

***********************SPOILERS WITHIN DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT ANYTHING RUINED*****************************************

With the ORIGINAL scene? My guess is Lucas looked at it as a very rough cut scene... as far as the SE edition of that scene, everything was wrong.

Hopefully this shooting at the same time version is not that same as the one leaked months ago where Han's whole body jumps up in the air.

Don't know what video you're referring to. If you have a link I can tell you if that's what the final cut looks like. After watching it at home, if you go frame by frame, Han doesn't look like Harrison Ford. Eh, I don't really care for the way the scene looks now, but it does happen very fast. If you'd never seen the original, you wouldn't care and wouldn't know what the fuss is about. Only the purists will be upset with it. Still better than the SE, but looks unnatural overall.

Get your friend to tweak his monitor using the THX optimizer. The Matte boxes should all dissapear.

It's wierd, I never saw the matte boxes (if that is what they are called) that my friend was talking about. Maybe his TV's brightness settings were off or he had a wierd TV. When I got home and watched it on my 57" HDTV, I didn't see the boxes on the tie fighters. The lighting is a little bit off on the center of the tie fighters, but you can't see the boxes outlining them, even when you're looking for it.

I just finished watching A New Hope without the commentary. I thought the lighting was a little messed up on Tatooine. There would be the occasional lighting that does not look right. It's hard to describe, especially since I'm not a professional DVD reviewer, so I don't know all the terms. Just some of the yellows look off? I remember Tatooine looking pretty bad on the special editions when those came out. Maybe the DVD just brings out the flaws more.

Once they get off tatooine, the transfer is fantastic. It is more DVD-quality, which is what I expected the movie to look like. Considering the age of this movie, it's a great transfer, especially in the second half of the movie. The engine rumble of the Millenium Falcon in space is great. Audio is good, but I kind of wish my speakers (especially the rears) got more of a workout. Episodes I and II have way more going on surround sound-wise, but the technology wasn't there when Episode IV was made.

Don't know if it's me or what, but the Darth Vader/Obi Wan fight looks... different. It seems less hokey than I remember it being. Did they modify it? Add more action to it? It looks fine, in fact it's more exciting than I remember it. However, when the blue and red lightsabers clash, there is an odd green or yellow flash. I don't remember this flash being there before, but it is really distracting. I'd have to see the special editions to compare, but that flash seems out of place. Maybe it's just me.

The A New Hope DVD is barren of extras except for a commentary track and French and Spanish tracks, as well as 2.0 and Dolby Digital 5.1 EX. I'm going to check out the new scenes in Empire and Jedi, then move on to the supplemental disc. BBL with more impressions - too bad I have to work tomorrow. :'(

**************************END SPOILERS TAG ******************************* *********************************************************************

 

[BobbyRobby]

Is there a list somewhere on the internet that states every thing that has been changed?

 

[Warm Machine]

Yeah they fixed the sabers in A New Hope during the Obi Vader clash. They added those little flashes in I believe. The original version of the scene was incomplete or had the sabers shoting out on purpose or something. If you go frame by frame you can still see the old effects in there as they worked off a complete film negative rather than the original negative plate photography. They may have sped up the battle a touch but I would need a side by side comparison to tell for sure.

 

[Eggo]

OK, just finished spot checking Empire and Jedi. I also did a full once over of the supplemental DVD. The picture quality looks great on Empire and Jedi. The Hoth sequences and Dagobah looked great. Cloud City looked fantastic, but that may be due to some of the special edition spiciness to liven it up. Jedi looked clean from what I saw of it.

The first thing I wanted to see with Jedi was the ending.

Spoiler

I had heard talk that the yub yub song was removed and Lucas had added Gungans to the end of the movie. Well, the yub yub song is indeed gone. I don't remember if this is a change from the special edition re-release or if it is new to this DVD set. Either way, it has been replaced by a Chrono Cross sounding flute, which sounds way better than the "yub yub" song. The celebrations from the other cities at the end of the movie seem the same as the re-release. I did not see any Gungans partying it up, at least not close-ups of them.

The scene at the end where Hayden Christiansen's ghost replaces the original Darth Vader does NOT look right! The scene starts with Yoda and Kenobi's ghosts and nobody to their left. Then Hayden materializes next to them. If you've seen the originals, you'll be like "WTH?" It's better for continuity for him to be there, but purists will probably hate this change. If you've never seen the originals, you wouldn't give it a second thought. I thought he looked out of place because it felt so different from the original.

Next I popped in the supplemental disc. I use my Xbox as my DVD player, and the first thing it did was install the demo without prompting. I see this "loading" bar. I'm like... OK. I didn't play the demo to Battlefront since I have the full game, but I did watch the trailer to the game, which looks cool. Fans are going to wet themselves when they see this trailer.

Spoiler

The extras in this DVD are merely OK. There are a ton of production stills with nice captions. These are awesome. There's at least 50 from each film. There's a couple sexy Carrie Fisher shots, including one of her and her body double suntanning on Jabba's sail barge. There's a shot of her about to kiss Luke in ESB which furthers my belief that that whole brother/sister thing was complete crap that Lucas threw in at the last second of RotJ.

Speaking of incestuous romance, the New Hope trailers play up the love story between Luke and Leia, so that bro/sis thing was definitely not planned in advance. There's a cool oneshot and teaser trailer for REVENGE of the Jedi (not Return) when the movie had the cooler title.

There are some Episode III spoilers. SERIOUS EPISODE III SPOILERS HERE ->

Spoiler

the making of the game Episode III featurette and the teaser for Episode III show extensive footage of Obi-Wan fighting Darth Vader. This appears to be the climax of the third film. Their saber fight is billed as epic, and the footage they showed of them on set dueling looked very cool.

Interesting little tidbit, when Hayden came on the set when they were motion capturing the saber fighting for Episode III the game, they mentioned he played video games a lot and had a lot of ideas for how he wanted his character represented in the game. He said, "I want my idle stance to be like this... and I want my quick strike to look like this..." Pretty cool to see an actor who is a gamer giving input on a game based on a movie.

I get the feeling this is not the definitive DVD set. They have to be holding back for a double dip.

Spoiler

There are production stills of the character Carrie, Fixer, and Biggs on Tatooine at the beginning of A New Hope (before Luke gets the droids). Decades ago, I had heard a radio broadcast of Star Wars: A New Hope which had this scene, which was cut from the movie. Basically, it shows Luke hanging out with his 'friends' who treat him like a runt. Since they have production stills, they have to have those deleted scenes somewhere. It fleshes out the relationship between Luke and Biggs much better than the movie cut. Here's to hoping there is another release with deleted scenes and some more behind the scenes extras. Where are the blooper reels? Interview with John Williams? Footage of the theatrical opening of the movie and how it was received? None of that is present in this DVD. Call me greedy, but I know fans want to see more. We've waited this long, we need an ultimate Star Wars DVD and this... (while good) is not the ultimate Star Wars DVD.

 

[border]

[geek out]Okay, first off, it's "Yub Nub," not "Yub Yub".......and the loss of the Ewok victory tune is lame. Oh and BTW, "Yub Nub" was removed in the 1997 re-release as well...[/geek out]

A lot of people hated Greedo shooting first and the CG Jabba in Episode 4, but I really think that the worst changes were in Return of the Jedi (new ending song, dancers at Jabba's palace, Sarlaac pit = carnivorous penis).

The celebrations from the other cities at the end of the movie seem the same as the re-release. I did not see any Gungans partying it up, at least not close-ups of them.

THERE ARE NO WORDS....oh wait, yeah there are....."Lucas sucks!"

Seriously though....out of all the new changes, whether you like them or not....this one seems to be nothing more than a great big "Fuck you" to the critics. It's thrown in totally unnecessarily, and I think the only reason it's there is that Lucas knows that it will infuriate and annoy people who complained about Phantom Menace.

 

[Spiritreaver]

A few things to go over, excluding the EP3 stuff, as I'd rather wait till I have the DVD to find out such things. Not because of EP3 spoilers, but eh DVD spoilers.

Anywho, the Yub Nub song was changed in the SE re-release I believe, but sadly I think I'm one of the few who actually preferred the original, infact, it's the only change that I'm bothered by. Other than that though, I'm happy with the changes.

At the end you mentioned of things left out, yes there are deleted scenes, infact there are videos of them floating around on the net. I wouldn't expect them to be around until the NEXT major video format, mostly the HDDVD version.

Spoiler

There ARE blooper reels though. Im spoiling this as eastereggs are not always something people like to be told about without finding them. Anyways, go to the Video Game/Still Galleries menu page and type in "1138"' or something to that sort. I can't be more exact as I don't have the DVDs yet, but this has been confirmed by quite a few people.

I think this is the definitive version for the current format at least, we'll definitelly see an HDDVD set and we may or may not see a special boxset in 2007, which I guess would make me wrong. I would expect something special, but maybe a 6 film boxset is about the most I'd hope for. Special and extras? Maybe, it's likely if that were to release, but eh I wouldn't know.I would personally like to see all 6 films in theaters as well, but that's just drastic wishful thinking. Anyways, as far as the OT goes, I think this is it. The PT may be another story.

Also did you check out Empire of Dreams yet? I think it has a tiny bit more of what you're looking for in terms of the John Williams interview and ANH reaction. But I guess not very much so, but I don't know what exactly was cut from the TV airing.

 

[Mairu]

Spoiler

The extras in this DVD are merely OK. There are a ton of production stills with nice captions. These are awesome. There's at least 50 from each film. There's a couple sexy Carrie Fisher shots, including one of her and her body double suntanning on Jabba's sail barge. There's a shot of her about to kiss Luke in ESB which furthers my belief that that whole brother/sister thing was complete crap that Lucas threw in at the last second of RotJ.

Why haven't you watched Empire of Dreams yet?!

 

[BuddyC]

Did they take out Luke's scream at the end of ESB? All that matters to me, really.

 

[Dujour]

What's the deal with that, anyway? When was that scream added or was it in the original? Was it in the special editions seven years ago?

...

Wow, it's been seven years.

 

[BuddyC]

What's the deal with that, anyway? When was that scream added or was it in the original? Was it in the special editions seven years ago?

...

Wow, it's been seven years.

Scream was added in the SE. I found a supposedly complete list of the changes made for the DVD..

Spoiler

A New Hope:
- 24'51" : twin sun effect has been renewed.

- 48'50" : Han Solo avoids Greedo's shot before shooting at him.

- 50'30" : Jabba effect renewed completely, in accordance with Episode 1.

- 71'30" and after : Death Star jail corridor is much deeper.

- 77' : the garbage monster has been improved.

- 82'10" : "Power" and "Tractor Beam" stencils have been replaced with Star Wars "foreign" signs.

Empire Strikes Back:
- 50'56" to 52'05" : Emperor's hologram has been reshot with Ian Mc Dairmid. A new dialog has been recorded and Palpatine informs Vader about Luke's real identity!

- 63'42", 87'18" & 98'39" : Boba Fett's dialog has been re-recorded by Temuera Morrison.

- 92'05" & 92"15 : Han Solo's black jacket has been erased, due to cut mistakes in the original movie.

- 101'40" : Luke's scream, which was added in the '97 Special Edition, has been removed again.

Return Of The Jedi:
- 24'44" and after : Edge transparency defects around the Rancor have been removed.

- 115'41" : Old Anakin's eyebrows have been erased and eyes are now blue, to fit with Hayden Christensen.

- 120'44" : Naboo has been added to Tatooine, Bespin, Coruscant and Endor victory celebration scenes.

- 120'58" & 121'03" : Senate & Jedi temple are now included in Coruscant panoramic view.

- 122'30" : As everyone knows already, Hayden appears as a ghost beside Yoda and old Obi-Wan at the end of the movie.

 

[border]

Luke's scream is gone completely, yes. I thought that they were going to just have Mark Hamil re-do it...but now there's complete silence. So in 7 years, they managed to do away with 1 of the stupid changes that they made in the Special Editions. By the year 2272, we should have perfect versions of the original films!

EDIT: That list of changes is far from "complete". I saw a listing of just the changes to the sound/music, and it was pages and pages.....though obviously 99% of viewers won't notice a lot of what has been altered.

 

[DDayton]

Lucas is a twit.

No, let me rephrase that.

Lucas has BECOME a twit.

 

[BuddyC]

EDIT: That list of changes is far from "complete". I saw a listing of just the changes to the sound/music, and it was pages and pages.....though obviously 99% of viewers won't notice a lot of what has been altered.

Yea, hence the supposedly. I'd be interested in seeing that list you're talking about.

Now for bed, as the forum has a much stronger grasp on me than AIM (where I told people who have recently posted in this thread I was going to bed over 30 minutes ago).

 

[border]

Okay, I wasn't entirely right....what I saw was a listing of the audio changes in JUST the first movie (Episode 4):

The 1954 recording of the Fox logo is still played though it sounds very distorted.

The new Lucasfilm logo is shown.

The “Star Wars” title card starts moving much too fast in relation to the original and can be seen “shifting gears” as it gets smaller and slows down.

New explosions can be heard over the opening shot.

The foley in this mix is very loud and in your face. Not subtle in anyway. Note Threepios footsteps. They've always been there, just never this loud.

The sound of the ship docking has some revised sound.

The shirts of the rebel troopers change colors. They were always gray before. In some shots now they are blue.

Vaders voice has been re-processed throughout the entire film to get him to match the sequels.

When Artoo opens the door to the escape pod, the button he pushes buzzes.

The laser blast that convinces Threepio to get in the escape pod was re-done in 1993. It is the same sound effect as a lamp blowing up in Raiders of the Lost Ark. This effect is also heard later in the movie.

When Vader is talking to the “Second Commander” (“Lord Vader, the battle station plans are not aboard this ship!”) the room in the background makes beeping noises. For fun, I’ll point out that this actor has the same voice as General Dodonna at the end of the movie. I suspect that the “Second Commander” is dubbed.

When Artoo is shot by the Jawas and falls over a tremendous bass impact has been mixed in.

The restraining bolt being installed makes a different sound.

Artoos arrival inside the sand crawler makes a new sound.

You now hear the sand crawler start up as it starts to move.

Later, you hear the sand crawler come to a stop. Threepio then says, “We’ve stopped” before telling Artoo to wake up.

The sound of Threepio rising from the oil bath has been augmented.

The lunch scene with Beru and Owen has some new foley (Beru’s chair makes a sound now). This is a quiet scene and you can literally hear the faders being brought down after every line of dialogue. Dailogue does not sound integrated in this scene.

Beru’s pronunciation of “father” has been re--done......again.

Luke’s land speeder can be seen in the long shot from the sand peoples point of view. Previously it was just a white speck moving.

The clanking of the sand persons gaffi stick is heard in this mix.

The Krayt Dragon sound that Ben uses to scare the sand people has been re-done. It almost sounds like a police siren at first. Definitely sounds artifical as opposed to the older, more organic sound.

The light sabers have not been re-processed to match the sound heard in the prequels.

In this mix it’s very clear that the bartender has been dubbed. It was not as obvious before.

When Luke is thrown into the table, it makes an all new sound effect.

When the stormtroopers walk into the bar they can be heard saying, “Undertand you had some trouble in here”. This is heard under Hans, “Looks like somebody’s beginning to take an interest in your handiwork.” line.

Alien sound effect is missing just before Threepios line, “I would much rather have gone with Master Luke than stay here with you.”

The music edit just after the Jabba scene is pretty bad. The music just starts. Also Bens line “If the ships as fast as he’s boasting we ought to do well” is different than the original mix. It sounds edited together here.

A quick dissolve is missing between the shot of the spy and the interior entrance of Docking Bay 94. It is a hard cut now.

The spy makes some more sounds before informing the stormtroopers of where Luke and Ben are.

There are new explosion sound effects in the shoot out in Docking Bay 94.

“You would prefer another target? A military target?” both sound crystal clear. “Then name the system!” is clearly from the old mix. Right in the middle of the line there is a quality shift. This happens through out the entire movie, but this may be the most obvious. It almost feels like a game, wondering if the next line is going to be the new clear dialogue or the older sounding dialogue. Obviously, there is a lack of consistency here and it’s jarring throughout the film. This is problably the worst feature of this new mix.

When the Falcon arrives at Alderaan there is some very deep bass. However, when the Falcon is captured by the Death Stars tractor beam, deep bass is missing that was heard in the 1993 mix. However there is a lot of sound of the cockpit shaking.

Also in the 1993 mix, the sound of the TIE fighter shooting at the Falcon could be heard. That’s not here nor was it in the original mix.

The PA systems line, “Close all outboard shields” sounds different.

Just before Han and company come out of the secret compartments, the two inspecting stormtroopers stop at the exit ramp and one of them says, “There’s no one here.”.

When Luke exits out of the Falcon and taps his stormtrooper helmet, static can be heard.

The dialogue keeps changing during the command office scene, between the clear dialogue and the older sounding dialogue.

The computer in the detention block scene makes new noises.

When Han, Luke and Chewie are shooting the cameras in the cell block area, the explosions are all re-done. There is also some new blaster fire added. When Han shoots the console, his blaster is much louder now then it was before.

The explosion as the stormtroopers blast into the cell block is much louder and has more bass.

When Leia shoots the hatch to get into the garbage chute, the explosion is different.

Chewie pounding on the door of the trash compactor makes new sounds.

The famous blooper of the stormtrooper walking into the door has now been punctuated with a loud “clunk” sound effect. What was once a tough to see mistake is now pointed ot for everyone to see.

When Ben is turning off the tractor beam (I guess this is what he’s doing since the display is no longer in English) some sound effects that were heard at Bespin in The Empire Strikes Back and in ALIEN are mixed in here.

The creature sound effects after they get out of the trash compactor are different.

When Leia fires her blaster during the chasm crossfire, it no longer sounds like Dirty Harry’s .44 magnum. This chasm also has the ALIEN/Bespin sound effect.

When Luke throws the grappling hook, it makes a “whizzing through the air” sound effect.

When they are shouting for Luke to come on board the Falcon (after Ben’s death) Leia now says, “Luke, come on!”. Previously, it was just “Come on!”.

Music reverb heard during the fight with the TIE Fighters is gone.

During the TIE Fighter fight, there is a long shot of the Falcon and you can see red blaster fire coming from it. There is now sound there to match.

During the first dive towards the attack on the Death Star, key music has been dialled out for a few moments. You can hear a sample of this here. Be sure to right click that link and save it. The "Comment" section in the file lists all the timings so you know what you are hearing and what to listen for.

“He’s on your tail” line from the SE mix is not heard here.

New sounds can be heard in Red Leaders cockpit as his ship is failing.

When Red Leaders engine is hit by blaster fire, it now makes the same sound as a lamp blowing up in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

As Han, Luke, and Leia walk off after the battle, new crowd cheering effects can be heard.

 

[Miguel]

The laser blast that convinces Threepio to get in the escape pod was re-done in 1993. It is the same sound effect as a lamp blowing up in Raiders of the Lost Ark. This effect is also heard later in the movie.




......







This proves to me people have WAY TOO MUCH FUCKING TIME ON THEIR HANDS! EVEN MORE TIME THAN I DO!

 

[border]

While it's all super-geeky "no one would ever know" stuff, I think the sound-analysis proves that in many cases they are just changing the movie for the sake of changing it. Like they are just going through shot-by-shot, second-by-second and asking themselves "How can we alter this?" rather than "How can we make it better?". In fairness to the sound people at Skywalker Ranch, I guess they are trying to justify their jobs.....if the originals got sent to them and nothing was altered, it would "seem" like their employment was without purpose.

 

[Dujour]

This proves to me people have WAY TOO MUCH FUCKING TIME ON THEIR HANDS! EVEN MORE TIME THAN I DO!

Unpossible. I am now clean, time for sleep.

 

[Eggo]

A few things to go over, excluding the EP3 stuff, as I'd rather wait till I have the DVD to find out such things. Not because of EP3 spoilers, but eh DVD spoilers.

Anywho, the Yub Nub song was changed in the SE re-release I believe, but sadly I think I'm one of the few who actually preferred the original, infact, it's the only change that I'm bothered by. Other than that though, I'm happy with the changes.

At the end you mentioned of things left out, yes there are deleted scenes, infact there are videos of them floating around on the net. I wouldn't expect them to be around until the NEXT major video format, mostly the HDDVD version.

Spoiler

There ARE blooper reels though. Im spoiling this as eastereggs are not always something people like to be told about without finding them. Anyways, go to the Video Game/Still Galleries menu page and type in "1138"' or something to that sort. I can't be more exact as I don't have the DVDs yet, but this has been confirmed by quite a few people.

I think this is the definitive version for the current format at least, we'll definitelly see an HDDVD set and we may or may not see a special boxset in 2007, which I guess would make me wrong. I would expect something special, but maybe a 6 film boxset is about the most I'd hope for. Special and extras? Maybe, it's likely if that were to release, but eh I wouldn't know.I would personally like to see all 6 films in theaters as well, but that's just drastic wishful thinking. Anyways, as far as the OT goes, I think this is it. The PT may be another story.

Also did you check out Empire of Dreams yet? I think it has a tiny bit more of what you're looking for in terms of the John Williams interview and ANH reaction. But I guess not very much so, but I don't know what exactly was cut from the TV airing.

OK, I admit I suck. I was a complete noob and missed the entire featurette and documentary section. I got stuck in one of the inner menus and couldn't find a way back to the Main Menu. When you guys mentioned Empire of Dreams, I popped it back in and found it. There are 3 featurettes and Empire of Dreams. I don't know how long this documentary is, but it's looooooooong. I got as far as the beginning of Empire Strikes Back and I have to go to bed. I must have watched this thing for at least 2 hours and it only covered the first movie.

Some cool things in Empire of Dreams:

Spoiler

Luke was originally called Luke Starkiller. There are tapes of the casting sessions, including a very good Kurt Russell clip as Han and Luke. They cover John Williams a tiny bit in this documentary, but they dedicate a lot of time to the opening at Mann's Grahman, which I wanted to see.

It's a pretty cool documentary which reveals a lot of information I did not know about the making of star wars. There is very much a theme of "it will never work" "it's impossible for this movie to be made" running throughout the movie. It feels like a tribute to George Lucas that he penned himself. It's funny seeing the actors make fun of his movie even though the documentary seems like a huge Lucas suck-off piece.

As for the easter egg...

Spoiler

I tried inputting 1138 (the THX number) at the screen that you suggested, and it did not work. Although I had problems entering the easter egg code on my episode I disc as well on my sony dvd player. It took me like 20 tries to get the episode I to eventually work and I never got the new trilogy easter egg to unlock on that Sony player. Maybe there is a hardware compatibility problem?

I did not try it on my Xbox tonight. I will do that tomorrow when I get back from work. For now, I'm going to bed. I'm tired.

 

[Warm Machine]

Many of the sound effect changes or additions may be because hearing the DVD on a decent 5.1 system will always bring out sublties that couldn't be heard through a regular stereo mix or even a Pro Logic mix. When revisiting films on my 5.1 setup I always hear new stuff especially on movies with very dense sound effect tracks like Alien.

I did hear that the totally remixed Star Wars and the other films for this release so it may have been in the remix job too.

 

[Spiritreaver]

Spoiler

Yeah, getting the blooper reels is a hassle with some DVD players. On my in particular, you have to type 11 seperately while the player reads the disc. So basically it goes, 1 *read* 1 *read* 38 *read* *load*. So maybe you should try pausing inbetween the numbers. You'll eventually figure it out.

 

[Eggo]

OK, got to try out the easter egg some more and I got it to work.

Spoiler

On my Sony DVD player, I hit 1, 1 enter then a green square lit up on the screen in the center. Then I input 3 enter, then 8 enter and it triggered the outtake reel. Unfortunately, it's the worst outtake rule I've ever seen. It's incredibly boring, and it's interwoven with the DVD credits (also boring to watch). There are only two scenes which even generated a smile and those were at the end, one is a pretty funny voiceover by Carrie Fisher as she talks to Jabba as the bounty hunter. This easter egg is pretty poor. It's cool that there's an easter egg, but it's not entertaining at all.