Only thing I will suggest in this thread is to remove or replace as many puppets in ROTJ as possible.
There is something so lacking in quality in Jabba’s palace compared to ESB - and even it’s much-cheaper ANH counterpart, that the entire sequence is so conflicting to witness. From one scene to another I go from excited to laughing, to annoyed, to laughing again. I will never forget last year when me and two friends re-watched ROTJ the first time in two years (for my part at least), and I was so conflicted about the whole beginning. We couldn’t stop laughing at certain parts because of the stiff movements from many of the aliens, or their horrible facial designs and/or movements. The whole experience made ROTJ into a comedy for me.
If replacing or somehow improving proves difficult or too expensive, I’d suggest just removing the worst designs that are in the forefront all together.
The problem isn’t just that many of the designs are poorly done or ineffective in costume, but that it cheapens the entire sequence in Jabba’s Palace, which is a very worrying problem for the rest of the movie.
The designs that do work are undeniably Jabba, Boba Fett, Leia in disguise, Jabba’s Guards, and others given more than a two-second treatment. Most of the others… what were they thinking… this wasn’t 1950. This was the 80’s! The height of puppeteering and practical effects. And simply going for “background characters will go unnoticed” as a thought of process simply won’t due.
