darth_ender said:

I did want to make the extremely off topic but fully in character point that Don Bluth, the genius behind Titan A.E., Land Before Time, Anastasia, The Secret of Nimh, and many other brilliant films in competition with Disney, is...a...Mormon!

Yes I'm having fun with this one.

Bet he's a lovely guy. You'd expect Mormon and Sientologist celebs to be frickin' nuts but they all seem to be super nice... except for Romney (I'm sure you could end alot of jokes with the punchline... except for Romney).

SilverWook said:

I had the chance to exchange emails with an ex employee of the studio that made Titan A.E. (The one that sold me the drawings and model sheets.) It was shut down by Fox after the film's failure, leaving a lot of animators who had relocated to Arizona up the creek. The movie had been in development for quite some time as Planet Ice before Bluth came on board. I also learned there were plot elements toned down or eliminated to avoid a PG 13 rating.

The plot thickens.

Love all the background info that goes into bringing a film to the audience. With other art forms an artists thinks of something and just does it. With a movie an artist has to assemble a whole army of like minded other artists who they have to trust to all pull together towards that release date. Al the miss-steps, blind alleys, rejected ideas, casting problems, set backs etc can all add to a movies DNA. Coppola took it a little too literaly on 'Apocalypse Now' declaring they weren't filming Vietnam, it was Vietnam! Then again watching the restored original 'road-show' style cut of A.N. is probably the greatest experience I've ever had in the Cinema... and that includes SW btw

Now, not only do I want a Blu-Ray of 'Titan A.E.' but I want a feature length documentary about the production!

^ "We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane" - Francis Ford Coppola 1979 George Lucas 1999

     To return to RED TAILS, I suspect the reason it didn't click with a wider audience is the same as the inevitable failure of a movie called THE FIGHTING TEA PARTIERS OF IRAQ, Celebrating a small group for their particular charactteristics and viewpoints rather than simply targeting the widest possible audience for escapist entertainment.  I'm glad ANH was made in it's era and with it's pre-PC Westerns and WWII propaganda features Fantasies tropes. Maybe the ST set decades into the future of the galaxy will have a bit more space for PC pandering, but ESB, ROTJ, and the PT had too much of that beside-the-point, jar-you-out-of-the-movie nonsense as is. As I've said before, it's unavoidable for a movie to be entirely without a "message" as they involve human drama and experience and there is always some political and social aspect to that, but the goal should be to make a movie for maximum popular entertainment value and make any unavoidable political and social aspects serve that purposel rather than the other way around. There is enough material available from history and legend to build strong minority and female characters. GL managed to slip in messeges about slavery and discrimination using robots. 

     Actually, I think that if someone in Hollywood wants to produce and finance THE FIGHTING TEA PARTIERS OF IRAQ because everyone NEEDS to understand the heroism and plight of white male small businessmen taken from reserves and hurled into combat, he should go right ahead. I'm just a little concerned that the SW universe would descend into that sort of thing. It's not necessary. The Damsel In Distress/Distressing Damsel architype of the 30's and early 40's provided a strong and positive character profile for Leia. There are ways to handle these things with some subtle PC. No need to club people over the head. I hope SW will remain true to what it is.

I went to a screening of 'Inner Space' last year. The audience went nuts, Star Wars style nuts... I'd forgotten quite HOW how much fun the film was! The film's overall tone is alot goofier than SW but it's got the same sense of adventure and romance. It's got that 3-way romantic frisson like in ANH and in an echo of the OT, Quaid and Ryan end up together while Short discovers his true self.

Dennis Quaid would've made a great Han Solo if Harrison had been unavailable. The goodies are really great and the baddies are really bad, simple stuff really. Another Amblin Entertainment film, good god that studio was on fire in the '80s. The FX still look great too.

            ^ Luke                 ^ Han             ^  Leia

                           ^ "It's not my fault!"

                 ^ The ship was pretty neat too

Hey, it's me. said:

Personally, I think LOTR is slightly more adult than Star Wars. 

Slightly maybe but more in terms of the language.

The bloody arm, the smoldering corpses, the exploding cockpits and the generally dead pan representation of the Imperials made Star Wars seem 'adult' storywise to me.

I didn't see it as a children's film when I was seven.

I imagine the same would have been true of Lord of the Rings if I were a kid then.

ESB had a supporting short film called Black Angel which was practically identical in tone to Excalibur. 

Ronster said:

Considering the old Flash Gordon Inspired Lucus to do star wars I think this one deserves a mention

^ Fo sho! Old and new Flash. Super Camp, colour fun. Got alot of key Star Wars ingredients but way more light hearted. Plus the Queen soundtrack still Rocks. I can highly recomended the Blu-Ray, the colours in the image are amazing.

Hey, it's me. said:

I maybe wrong, but wasnt the Hobbit more a children's story than LOTR? LOTR dealt with more 'adult' issues such as power, corruption and greed albeit in a fantasy setting. Star Wars was unique because you loved it as a kid in a very one dimensional kind of way, and grew to understand the deeper tones of it as you got older. I don't know many (if any) 5-10 year olds that fell in love with LOTR the first time they saw it.

The parents of my godchildren were read the books when they were kids and passed this on to their children.

So when they saw it they already knew the characters and the story and were miffed about some of the changes just like the adults.

As a boy I used to love Biblical epics and historical dramas and they are pretty much more weird and unworldly than anything in LOTR.

Another film with bags of Star Wars-esque action is... 1987's "Masters Of The Universe"....

Not even a hint of irony. This is a great, great film. The costume designs, sets and props are 1st class for one thing:

Plus Chelsea Field is way hot in her kickass Teela costume...

 

Bingowings said:

Hey, it's me. said:

I maybe wrong, but wasnt the Hobbit more a children's story than LOTR? LOTR dealt with more 'adult' issues such as power, corruption and greed albeit in a fantasy setting. Star Wars was unique because you loved it as a kid in a very one dimensional kind of way, and grew to understand the deeper tones of it as you got older. I don't know many (if any) 5-10 year olds that fell in love with LOTR the first time they saw it.

The parents of my godchildren were read the books when they were kids and passed this on to their children.

So when they saw it they already knew the characters and the story and were miffed about some of the changes just like the adults.

As a boy I used to love Biblical epics and historical dramas and they are pretty much more weird and unworldly than anything in LOTR.

My dad read the Hobbit to me and my brother, with voices and everything! Don't think he ever read the LOTR though, I read that myself when I was a bit older. I listened to a home recorded reel-to-reel of the BBC radio LOTR/Hobbit first (That's way waaaay before the internet lol).

Hey, it's me. said:

Hmm. Now I think your pushing the boat out a little to far? Lol

If you've not seen it in years, watch it again. Trust me.

It's got He-Man wielding a blaster and massive broad-sword while riding a hover shield!

What's not to like