It cannot be denied the sheer impressive volume of content the 2011 Star Wars: Complete Saga Blu-ray box set (and subsequent individual releases) boasted…and yet be so confusingly botched at the same time.
From the odd hodgepodge of documentaries in place of ones that make sense on the bonus discs (Anatomy of a Dewback and 501st documentaries in place of say From Star Wars to Jedi or Empire of Dreams) to the needlessly complicated menu navigation (why split them into planets?) to the strangely letterboxed featurettes, I’ve always felt these odd decisions held it back from being counted among the truly great Blu ray sets like Alien Anthology or Lord of the Rings Extended Editions.
Here’s how it looks.
- MENUS
Links to full motion demos can be found here: https://vimeo.com/316023689 and here https://vimeo.com/316023478
PLEASE NOTE I captured the full motion menus from playing the Blu-ray on a cheap disc drive on not-the-best video card, so please bear with the incorrect aspect ratio, choppy loading, and dulled colors. All these problems go away on a standard Blu-ray player.
Disc 1 Preview:
Disc 2 Preview:
- FEATURES
I have made the Featurettes and Collection features from the 2011 Blu ray full screen rather than letterboxed.
Before:
After:
This list details the bonus features on the discs:
Disc 1:
-4 Audio Commentaries
-Isolated Score
Disc 2:
Documentaries:
-The Making of Star Wars
-Star Wars: The Making of a Myth
-Star Wars Begins: A Filmumentary
-Leonard Maltin Interviews George Lucas: Part 1
Featurettes:
-All interviews and Prop Collection features from the 2011 set (pertaining to Ep IV)
-Interview with Ben Burtt from the Laserdisc
-Blooper and Behind the Scenes reel
Other Features:
-Concept Art gallery with introduction from Ralph Mcquarrie (audio taken from Laserdisc feature put over HD images of his artwork)
-Hundreds of Archival Photos of shooting, promotional material, continuity images, sketches etc.
-Deleted Scenes; some not included in the 2011 set, including Han’s encounter with Jabba before the actor was replaced with CGI
-Trailers and over 15 TV spots
I can put the ISO images onto MySpleen if you want, I haven’t gotten an invite to it so I’ll need that to get it to you.
Ultimately I plan on making a Original Trilogy set using the 4K77/4K83/4K80 remasters. I am currently working on the Empire Strikes Back bonus disc then will be working on the ROTJ set before coming back to ESB once 4K80 is complete.
Any suggestions and feedback are more than welcome. Thanks!