I’ve also just finished editing TPM down into just 18 minutes containing all of JarJar’s lines
Why even bother continuing the thread when it’s already produced the perfect version of TPM?
I’m tempted to slap on an intro and some credits and submit it to IFDB as Phantom Menace: 'Tis Demanded by the Gods Edition.
Anyway, in the sanity of morning, I’ve now realised that the file was rendering as huge because I forgot to tick the box for ‘only render this small section’, so I was rendering the entire movie instead. I’m an idiot. The new video is available in the spreadsheet now. I’ve added some notes in the sheet for a few words we might be able to make.
As I was working over this all yesterday, focusing on solely Jar Jar’s lines brought a few things into focus for me:
- Good God, what an obnoxiously written character.
- Other than the voice, a big failing of his character is that he has no personality. A proper character has well established wants, that the audience can relate to. He gives Qui-Gon his life debt, which essentially makes him a tag-along, and isn’t interesting, plus later he’s still confused that he got carried along in events. He wants to lead them to Otoh Gunga, then really doesn’t want to go back there, then is coerced into it, then he’s glad to be home even though he’s hurt and nearly punished there. He likes Theed (for a line), dislikes the heat of Tattooine (for a line), then likes Anakin’s home (for a line). He’s scared of a lot, though seems to be quite taken by Anakin, but this goes nowhere. His biggest happy outburst is “Wesa goin’ home!”, even though he hasn’t indicated that he wants that prior, and his world is currently under invasion, and Otoh Gunga rejects him. Arguably his best scene (!) is when he sympathises with Padmé on Coruscant, shows sadness and doubt, and gives her the seed of her plan. I think his main arc is that he regrets his exile and finds redemption when Padmé makes peace and he gets recognition, but this is so underdeveloped. In short, he’s both a genuine idiot, and worse, completely passive.
- Passivity is so dull. Even dropping the idiocy and trying to reframe his passivity as opportunism still leaves him quite flat. But the problems are that he’s present in a load of scenes (major work to mask out), and used in a number of key scenes that’re valuable for other characters or world-building. He’s especially relevant to Padmé’s plot in a few places (and the Boss Nass alliance turns Padmé from macguffin into a character), so even when annoying, some of his scenes serve a useful purpose and I feel like we should be careful when cutting them.
- I’m generally an adherent of not deviating too far from canon because of references in other media. But Jar Jar’s presence is limited to TPM and only lightly the other prequels and Clone Wars. My own TCW edit, and I believe all others on these forums, exclude him completely, so maybe there is room for even people who want it to fit with wider media to be comfortable with a re-dub.
- That said, he (and his voice) are unfortunately such a familiar cultural phenomenon that outright replacing it may still be a stretch for some. But hey, the tool works either way, let’s see what people come up with.
- I think, if working with his existing voice lines, one of his most obnixious traits is “Mesa”. He rarely says I and never says I’m. You could maybe preserve some of his weird patterns (and maintain lipsync) if you keep the ‘-a’ part of ‘Mesa’ but put it elsewhere in his speech. “I’m called-a Jar Jar Binks”, for example. That way it might just sound a bit more like an awkward accent, rather than idiocy.
Beyond trimming his idiocy and obnoxiousness, I think more work can be done on his passivity. I wonder if we could frankenbyte any new voice lines to actually give him some agency. Looking over my list, a few ideas:
- [to explain why he’s into Jedi, or Anakin once they talk about Jedi reflexes] Ohh, maxi big da force. (Mesa your humble servant?) (Perhaps even something using the word ‘sacred’: “Ohh, da force sacred.”)
- Queensa in trouble, das’ da last thing mesa wantin’! Come on! Hurry!
- Mesa wantin’ to help.
- This planet is piddy hot. Sun doin’ murder to mesa skin.
- Gungans get murdered too, eh?
- Mesa no dyin’ without a fight. Wesa warriors. Gungans got a grand army.
- Wesa gotta fight, mesa thinks.
- [about the Trade Federation] Gungans no likin’ monsters. De outsiders’ bosses will do terrible things.
- Da outsiders must be banished.
- [During the planning phase, if you want to have the Gungan plan be to draw the army out then retreat into the nearby swamp] Da safest place would be underwater. Wesa settin da outsiders up. Outsiders follow, we goin’ back. We retreat!