New OT DVD images. Case, booklet and DVD art.

Icehawk · Post by **Icehawk** » 2006-09-05 05:37pm

I'd be thankful Lucas even bothered to do these at all. They've got more important things to do than bother spending time and money fully remastering versions of films he effectively consideres non canonical and no longer his vision.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-05 05:53pm

Are you REALLY saying this isn't another cash-in by Lucas? He isn't doing anyone any favours: he stands to make millions of dollars, and all he did was say 'fine, okay, we'll do it'. Then someone backs up a truckload of money to his house.

Hilariously, of course, now that Star Wars is finished, Lucas *doesn't* have 'better things to do'. He's got NOTHING to do, unless anyone really thinks he'll be anywhere near as successful doing anything else.

Galvatron · Post by **Galvatron** » 2006-09-05 06:00pm

Shouldn't he be working on some "small independent films" or at least Indy 4?

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-05 06:03pm

The very idea of Indy 4 terrifies me. I know nothing about it beyond 'they're totally making Indy 4', though.

I imagine it's hard to go back to being creative after making unseemly piles of cash milking a franchise for thirty years, though.

Cao Cao · Post by **Cao Cao** » 2006-09-05 06:04pm

I thought he's doing things like 3D Star Wars

and that Star Wars TV series with Boba Fett.

Galvatron · Post by **Galvatron** » 2006-09-05 06:11pm

Don't forget the inevitable HD-DVD and Blu-Ray editions of the entire saga. That's sure to be a huge marketing circus.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-05 06:16pm

Surely you mean the 'at least three' HD-DVD editions. I know a guy who literally owns every 'version' of SW OT from the 80s VHS and laserdisk on. He's Australian: HE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A LASERDISK PLAYER. But he's got this disease. Like, two different widescreen VHS releases, all the late-90s 'special' and 'sorta special' editions...

I'd forgotten about the SW TV show. I wasn't under the impression he was 'directing' it or anything, so I figured he sat on his mighty throne and said 'I will allow you to make a show if I recieve hundreds of millions of more dollars'.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2006-09-05 06:18pm

Stark wrote:I'd forgotten about the SW TV show. I wasn't under the impression he was 'directing' it or anything, so I figured he sat on his mighty throne and said 'I will allow you to make a show if I recieve hundreds of millions of more dollars'.

GL doesn't really strike me as that sort of corporate mega-villian. I think he'll have a hand in the TV show. Whether or not that's good or bad, I will leave to the judgement of the reader...

Cao Cao · Post by **Cao Cao** » 2006-09-05 06:26pm

He claims he's heavily involved with the show.
And given that some of his ideas include getting the kid who played Boba Fett back for a few episodes.. yech.

I'd actually prefer if Lucas was the evil Emperor in the background taking in the money, maybe things would be better.

Well, at least if he fired his current stock of spineless jellyfish yes men and got people with real ideas other than "Aw why didn't George keep the Yoda on Dagobah scene in RotS? It's cooool! It iiiiiiiiis!"

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2006-09-05 06:49pm

Cao Cao wrote:I thought he's doing things like 3D Star Wars and that Star Wars TV series with Boba Fett.

People can and often do work on several projects at once. And it's not like they do all of the work themselves...

Galvatron · Post by **Galvatron** » 2006-09-05 06:53pm

Cao Cao wrote:Well, at least if he fired his current stock of spineless jellyfish yes men and got people with real ideas other than "Aw why didn't George keep the Yoda on Dagobah scene in RotS? It's cooool! It iiiiiiiiis!"

Don't remind me. I wanted to punch my TV screen when McCallum said that.

I suppose that's what I get for posting the White Vader pic...

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2006-09-05 06:55pm

I'm going to buy one boxed set of all six on DVD only because my OT VHS version is full screen and I have this collector's mentality. No, I don't have every other version released. Just the one OT VHS.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-05 06:57pm

When the smoke clears I'll buy the OT again, but I'm in no hurry. Perhaps if I outlive George Lucas I'll get my wish.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2006-09-05 06:58pm

You may get that chance: something is planned for 2007.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2006-09-05 07:06pm

I remember when the OT DVDs were a once in a lifetime limited offer.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2006-09-05 07:37pm

After ROTS was released I was fully expecting some kind of Saga Set, all 6 movies with bonus materials. Really I just want the OT and ROTS. I can get that now if I wanted.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2006-09-05 09:48pm

I will be buying this just for the LEGO Star Wars II Xbox demo and trailer of the Xbox game!

(just kidding)

Sad, really. I'll wait for reviews on this one...

Lucas PR wrote wrote:I wanted you to know how much we appreciate the passion and enthusiasm you have for Star Wars, and thank you for sharing your concerns about our upcoming DVD release.

The DVDs being released in September will contain two versions of Star Wars: Episodes IV, V and VI – the Special Editions (which represent George’s vision of the movies) and the first versions, which will be included as bonus material. We hoped that releasing those “original” movies on a bonus disc would be a way to have some additional fun with the debut of the movies as individual DVDs. We certainly did not want it to become a source of concern or frustration for any of our fans.

As you may know, an enormous amount of effort was put into digitally restoring the negatives for the Special Editions. In one scene alone, nearly 1 million pieces of dirt had to be removed, and the Special Editions were created through a frame-by-frame digital restoration. The negatives of the movies were permanently altered for the creation of the Special Editions, and existing prints of the first versions are in poor condition.

So many fans have requested the original movies, we wanted to find a way to bring them to you. But since these movies do not represent George's artistic vision, we could not put the extraordinary time and resources into this project as we did with the Special Editions. The 1993 Laserdisc masters represented the best source for providing the original versions as DVD bonus material. Although these are non-anamorphic versions, they do preserve the original widescreen composition of the movies.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans – now or in the future – to restore the earlier versions.

We hope you will understand our decision and, again, want to let you know how much we appreciate your interest and enthusiasm.

Sincerely,
Lynne Hale
publicity@lucasfilm.com

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-05 09:51pm

Kurgan, why? Just buy the damn game when it comes out in five days. I KNOW I WILL.

Mange · Post by **Mange** » 2006-09-06 01:02am

JLTucker wrote:How were the light saber effects flawed on the 2004 releases? Also, the pictures showed on the link you provided look decent.

Uh, Luke's light saber is green for a few seconds in ANH, the colors of the lightsabers alternate in all of the movies (especially Vader's which alternates between red and pink and it looks really bad in TESB) and the white cores are missing. Haven't you noticed the awful shot when Luke and Vaders' light sabers crosses in front of the Emperor in ROTJ?

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2006-09-06 11:01pm

Yep. Vader's goes from pink, to violet, to red, to orange and back again sometimes even within the same scene in all three movies. Luke's changes from blue to green a few times in ANH (compare the far shot of Luke in the Falcon training, vs. when he's in Ben's hut, and then when he actually starts blocking the shots of the remote, vs. before with the helmet on).

Actually it seems like the portion of Luke's saber that is in front of his clothing is green, while the portion in front of the background is blue (until he blocks the shots, then it all turns blue for a short bit).

In ROTJ the sabers are too dark (making them no longer appear to have white cores, and this really goofs up the saber clash in front of Palpatine in that dramatic moment).

Due to the color balancing/timing flaws in ROTJ, Luke's saber appears too yellow in some scenes while Vader's appears too pink (compare their saber clash on top of the steps in the throne room, vs. Vader's saber as he "searches" for Luke under the stairs).

There are other color problems in the 2004 set. Various sites have pointed them out, but for example notice how ghostly, pale and "Tammy Faye" Carrie Fisher appears. This was not a problem in the previous releases, but now her face looks too white, too red or too blue, depending on the scene, making her skin look unnatural.

Likewise look at the men in ANH. They all seem to have orange faces, extreme tans (which would seem natural enough for Tatooine, but it's excessive, like somebody who took some artificial tanning stuff that makes your skin look like carrots). Empire Strikes Back often suffers from a different problem, with people's facing looking more flushed, but it's far less of a problem there with far less color to worry about.

Various shots in ANH have a blue tint to them (often when everyone is wearing white).

Yoda appears very green in ESB, which puts too much green in the rest of the scene as a consequence. R2D2 just appears unnaturally blue in the Tatooine Desert (notice how the dark almost black metallic blue on the Tantive IV differs from this sudden shocking pastel blue in the desert shots where they are wandering after the pod lands).

The light balance is also off (not just the ROTJ saber clash, but also the garbage mattes around ships are painfully visible in various places, and you can't fix it, without making the saber clash look worse).

It's just a mess. At first glance you don't notice it, but any comparison of shots will show you how wildly inconsistent it is. Apparently the color balancing and timing was a quick and dirty scripted automatic process where the computer took its "best guess." This would help explain some of the more obvious flaws.

The other problem with the 2004 site (as long as I'm griping anyway) are the sound issues in ANH (why the French attack on the Death Star retains the glorious fanfare of the original, but the Spanish and English versions don't; and the tape hiss behind Leia's lines with Tarkin, and the poor balance between lines in that dialouge).

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2006-09-06 11:11pm

Stark wrote:Kurgan, why? Just buy the damn game when it comes out in five days. I KNOW I WILL.

Why do that when I can get it for free?

That's the silly thing.

As a Star Wars fan you're required to buy a new Star Wars game when it comes out, but then you're also supposed to appreciate the fact that you get an XBOX (I don't even have a friggin' Xbox! Not everyone has an Xbox, okay? But LucasArts has long been in the pocket of micro$oft) demo "Free" with your Star Wars movie, rather than something to do with the actual movie.

An Xbox demo of a game about to come out is such a throw away feature to put on a movie DVD.

Frankly, while cute, Lego Star Wars just didn't interest me. It struck me as a gimmicky repackaging of The Phantom Menace game (or worse, Jedi Power Battles.. though thankfully it wasn't so buggy and blatantly untested as JPB!).

The only "LEGO" game I would find fun would be one where I'm simply given total freedom to use any and as many lego blocks as I want to build whatever I want and then view it in 3d and save it for later.