Original Trilogy on DVD

Prepare for one of my longest posts ever.

This past Wednesday, while I was at school, we got the Original Trilogy on DVD!!! I LOVE IT!!! I highly recommend it to any fan of Star Wars.

Changes

One thing many fans are annoyed by, however, is that the set doesn't include the original movies as seen in 1977. Instead, they're the Special Editions, complete with changes like Greedo shooting before Han in the cantina, Han talking with Jabba about his payment, a new finale for ROTJ, a new song in Jabba's palace, plenty of new CG shots, more shots of Cloud City, moving dewbacks, and so on.

Actually, they're not even the Special Editions -- there have been even more changes made for this release. For example...

A New Hope (Ep. IV)

• Han and Greedo shoot almost simultaneously, with Greedo shooting a moment earlier.
• The CG Jabba has been improved.
• All Imperial display text (like on the tractor beam controls) has been changed from English to Aurebesh.

The Empire Strikes Back (Ep. V)

• The dialogue of Vader's conversation with the Emperor has been changed, and now Ian McDiarmid (who plays Palpatine everywhere else) is the one in the hologram.
• Boba Fett's dialogue is now spoken by Temuera Morrison, the actor who plays Jango in AOTC -- after all, Boba is his clone.
• Luke doesn't scream as he's falling from Cloud City. He didn't in 1980, he did in 1997 for the Special Editions, and now he doesn't again.

Return of the Jedi (Ep. VI)

• The rancor looks much better.
• Naboo is now featured in the final celebration, alongside Endor, Tatooine, Bespin, and Coruscant.
• The Jedi Temple is seen in the background of the Coruscant celebration shot.
• Anakin's ghost at the end is now Hayden Christensen as seen in Episode III.

There are more, but I don't know about all of them. All in all, the films look great, and I'm happy with the changes.

Bonus Material

There's a whole lots of bonus material on the discs, including a huge 2 1/2 hour documentary about the making of Star Wars and three shorter features on various aspects of the films. There's also a gallery of all the release posters for the movies. I had never before realized how many times they've been in theaters over the years!

But wait, there's more! The bonus disc features a great sneak peek at Episode III, featuring the creation of Darth Vader's mask and behind-the-scenes footage of Anakin and Obi-Wan's epic duel.

And there's still more! For people with a DVD player as a standalone box, in their PC, or in their PS2, there's a trailer for the game Star Wars Battlefront, which was released on the same day as the DVD set (Sept. 21). But for Xbox owners, there's an actual demo! I've been playing it every chance I have -- it's absolutely amazing, even though you can only play on one map in the demo (there are 16 in the real game) and the soldier types are limited. I'm addicted!

Willy's birthday is this Tuesday, and Battlefront is on his wishlist, so with luck I may be telling you lots more about the game shortly. :-)

Money

The DVD set and Battlefront are already spectacularly successful. On Sept. 21, consumers worldwide spent $115,000,000 on "in-home Star Wars entertainment" -- aka the DVDs and Battlefront. WOW!!!

Well, I'm off to do homework. :-( Aloha!

On the Publishing Horizon

I've been looking back through the archives of my blog, and I've noticed something that deserves an update: the publishing horizon.

First there's the rest of the Clone Wars books and Labyrinth of Evil. Then there'll be another book taking place directly after Episode III. There'll be a couple books set in the Old Republic -- just a little series of two or three -- and then a lot post-NJO (but still in the NJO "era"). There's the Dark Nest trilogy, which takes place about five years post-NJO, and then a 9-book series that was originally going to be an Old Republic series. (Note that in a previous post, I mistakenly referred to this series as a six-book series. Oops!) The nine book series will be written by three different authors -- one for the first three books, another for the next three, and a third for the final three.

Then, of course, there are a couple more New Essential Guides, a few DK books to go with Episode III, and some other books here and there.

By the way -- as I said months ago, I still think there should be an "Ultimate Guide" series after all these books come out (perhaps as the first books in a new publishing contract). My dream series would consist of:

• The Ultimate Guide to Characters
• The Ultimate Guide to Vehicles & Vessels
• The Ultimate Guide to Weapons & Technology
• The Ultimate Guide to Planets & Moons
• The Ultimate Guide to Droids
• The Ultimate Guide to Alien Species
• The Ultimate Chronology

The Planets & Moons one would also feature a large cartography section, complete with various maps from various eras showing territory and sector boundries shifting over time. So there could be a couple from the Sith era, a couple showing the ongoing Clone Wars, a couple Rise of the Empire maps showing the bad guys taking over, a few showing the New Republic taking all that back, and then several showing the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. That's a lot of maps!

What do you think? Post a comment! :-)

---

Episode III Update:

Last night StarWars.com updated with some amazing Episode III stuff. A great new set diary, an amazing new Before the Helmet depicting an interesting bit of the space battle, and one of the best web documentaries to date focusing on Anthony Daniels as C-3PO. (Unfortunately, only members of Hyperspace can see it all, although the documentary will be released for all members later.)

Today is the last day of pick-ups, which means that pretty much everyone has done their last Star Wars filming ever. That's kind of sad. Oh well. There'll still be books, and comics, and games, and maybe even a live-action TV series or two... and in the mean time, we still have Episode III to look forward to! :-D

---

Well, I'm off to a wedding for the weekend. Aloha!

LucasArts Forums

The LucasArts website just launched new game discussion forums. It's only three days old and already going strong! :-)

I feel very proud of myself, for I have posted the 7th topic ever on the Republic Commando web site!

---

In other LucasArts news, Battlefront has gone gold, meaning it's done. It will be released on September 21st -- the same day the original trilogy comes out on DVD!!!

Pretty Logo & Pick-ups

Wahoo! Now my little blog has a colorful logo at the top! As an added bonus, clicking it will bring you to my Star Wars site. That site, which will be updated soon (hopefully), will also feature a link back to this blog. That's all in an effort to bring the two closer together.

---

In other news, I've been following the Episode III pick-ups for the past couple weeks. StarWars.com has some great coverage, although you need to be a paying subscriber to have access to most of it. Oh well.

It sounds like the movie is coming together well! I really can't wait until May 19!!!

(Or, for that matter, September 21st, when the Original Trilogy comes out on DVD -- complete with a special sneak preview of Episode III!)