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I went through watching ROTJ and made some notes of things that I feel might be candidates for changes. I’d be curious to know what others felt. Some of these have been mentioned elsewhere, so I’m repeating them to add my voice to the choir.
I don’t have times logged, but these suggestions are basically in order from the opening scene until the end. I’ve refrained in this list from too many radical restructuring type of suggestions and limited it more to “fixes” and “upgrades”:
My suggestions:
- Not sure if the appetite for this, but how about changing the Death Star II design so that it’s less of “A New Hope” rehash? Either a completely new design or one that is less completed?
- If the Death Stat orbits the “forest moon of Endor” should Endor planet be more prominent?
- When Jabba’s door droid (TT-8L) questions the droids, it flicks out a “neck piece” with an audible sound, but you don’t see it retract (or the sound is missing if it happens offscreen)
- Agree with others that the B’Omarr Monk “spider droid” that frightens Threepio upon entering Jabba’s palace isn’t all the frightening. The concept art looks cool though, so maybe the design could get a Revisited treatment?
- Add blinking for Gamorrean guards to make them seem more alive?
- Animate the mouth of the alien frog-dog that barks at Threepio when he is first brought before Jabba
- Make Luke’s hologram more in line with others in the trilogy (desaturate? Less flesh tones?)
- Animate the “hook tentacle” that grabs Threepio after Jabba dismisses them
- Improve effect of Gronk droid being tortured. It’s obvious that steam is blowing out of his feet rather than him being branded
- As others have mentioned, not sure if it’s possible to add facial animation for Jabba to make him more lifelike? Flaring nostrils? Dilating pupils?
- Improve carbonite thaw effects, especially the mould being way too big for Harrison Ford
- Improve puppetry look on Max Rebo when laughing at “Bantha Fodder”
- Reduce Salacious Crumb comedy either by removing scenes or perhaps making his laugh more menacing?
- It looks awkward when the Rancor grabs Luke, and it seems odd that Luke was grabbed so easily without trying to avoid it. Would it look better if if the first few seconds of Luke flailing were trimmed so that it looks like he planned to be picked up with the intention of jamming the bone in his mouth?
- Either 1) cut the scene where Luke hides under the rock, or 2) Add a laceration to the Rancor’s finger when Luke hits it with the rock
- Would it be possible to tone down the comedy by removing the audio whimper of the Rancor keeper, and his subsequent crying?
- Have blind-Han take multiple shots at the tentacle holding Lando before hitting
- Assuming that you filmed a matte for Dagobah when you did it for ESB
- Improve Ben ghost as you did in ESB
- When Leia starts up her speeder bike on Endor her hand movements are obviously sped up. Not sure if you can fix that to make it look more natural.
- Not sure if possible, but add more “wind /speed effects” to Luke and Leia’s clothing while on speeder bikes
- Take out the comical “spinning sound” after Luke chops off the front of the Scout Troopers speeder bike.
- Give the Ewoks more animalistic grunts? Less purring.
- Remove comedic spin when Ewok steals speeder bike
- Show Ewok arrows bouncing off Stormtroopee armour to illustrate the stark mismatch of the two sides?
- Cut out the comedic shot of Wicket hitting himself with a bola
- Add Death Star firing sequence sound effects
- Add blood when Ewoks spear Stormtroopers
- Replace Chewbacca’s Tarzan yodel with something less comedic
- Improve the residual explosions when Chewie’s AT-ST destroys the other one.
- I actually think the Ewok “lasso” and “limbo” traps are believable - keep them, but remove log traps (unless you’re establishing that the Ewok had previously been planning an attack and had time to set these up)
- Not sure if there is any way to make Vader’s backwards somersault when Luke kicks him to look more realistic?
- Add lightsaber glows whenever they come close enough to Luke’s face
- Show impact damage when TIE crashes into Star Destroyer bridge (or if it’s because the bridge deflector is up, show that’s it’s hit a shield and not the bridge)
- Not enough time for Han to get from AT-ST cockpit into his hiding spot beside the bunker door. Not sure how to fix this.
- The explosion of the shield generator looks like it should have incinerated Han and company. Is there some way to establish different geography? Or perhaps change the destruction zone?
- The Emperor’s lightening does have a certain 1980’s “animation over film” look to it. Not sure how to improve that. On my screen the core looks purple. Maybe if it were white?
- Improve matte on Emperor’s death fall
- Improve the power generator explosion and Death Star explosion
If these are well-received I’ll try to come up with more. Otherwise I’ll probably just shut up… lol