I downloaded the DVD a few weeks ago. Haven't had a chance to watch it yet outside of scanning to see the Jar Jar removal, which as has been noted, is truly impressive.
But to this point about Frink having his head up his ass. I have only played the DVD on my computer which can be funny with subtitles, but playing through my computer there are absolutely no subtitles. Perhaps when I watch on my TV they'll pop-up.
Either way, just after the scanner completes its rotation there is a computer blip sound which a sci-fi fan would normally conclude is the sound of a computer completing it's analysis. Just after that computer blip there is a very soft computerized voice that almost whispers "kamino". The computerized effect is very heavy, and though well done, it is done in a way which really obscures the clarity of the word Kamino. If I had never heard the word Kamino before there is no way I'd have caught it, and even though I was looking for it I didn't realize I'd heard it until a few seconds afterwards and so had to scan back to double-check it. Ultimately, because it is so soft, and so digitized, it blends into the existing audio and is easily mistaken as just ambient computer sounds, a continuation of the scanning complete beep.
My guess is that the AVI that Frink watched probably really does have it, but he just didn't notice it because it is so exceedingly subtle.
In the bigger picture of this being the piece that solves the puzzle, it just doesn't make sense for a few reasons.
First, within the scene itself, it plays out like this:
- dart is placed in scanner, scanner rotates and completes scan.
- As camera begins to pan across to the computer screen, there is a scan complete audio signal and then digital voice whispers it's line and then the droid begins speaking. The result of this combination, (assuming you hear Kamino):
- "Kamino""markings cannot be identified. As you can see on your screen, probably self-made by a warrior, not associated with any known society."
If this is supposed to be a replacement way to tell the Prequels, assuming the viewer knows nothing, we hear some word which makes no sense (but later finds out is a planet), and then the droid tells us that it knows nothing about it. At this point we already have two huge problems, on one hand, if you've never seen the movie before, the word Kamino is delivered without context, not 'planet kamino' just kamino, immediately followed by the droid clearly stating it has no idea where the dart comes from, and that it's society is unknown. If you don't know what Kamino is, the take away from the scene is that the droid had nothing useful for Obi-Wan. On the other hand, if you do somehow hear the word kamino and comprehend that it's a planet, the droid then says it doesn't know anything about it. So which is it? Do you know where it is, or don't you? How can you know it's from Kamino, yet not know what society it comes from? If it is unique enough to be identified as originating on Kamino, you obviously know SOMETHING about Kamino and the society which made it.
So, let's assume that we have heard the word Kamino and understood that this was a planet, and ignored the conflicting information about not knowing anything about the society that made it. The next scene is Obi-Wan in the library looking for Kamino. He already appears to know where Kamino is supposed to be, yet it's not there. This presents us a number of jumbled issues. Why does he know the location of it? Without Mel.. er, Dex telling him it's near the Rishi maze, Obi-Wan shouldn't know where Kamino should be, unless it's a known system. Yet it can't be a known system because nobody has heard of it, which is reinforced by the fact that nobody is surprised that it's not in the database. Which leads to an even bigger problem, and why I'm not a fan of any edit which tries to use the analysis droid as the key to revealing 'Kamino' in combination with the library scene: how can the droid know about Kamino, yet the library have no record of it? Now if the scanner pulls it's data from the Jedi Archives, it should NOT be able to recognize that the dart is from 'Kamino' because as we learn, Kamino has been deleted from the archives. However, if the analysis droid and it's computers are accessing a different database of any kind that understands/recognizes Kamino, the fact it's missing from the Jedi Archive is an even bigger WTF because their own droids seem to know Kamino, which makes the Younglings scene even more pointless than it already is. If one database says "Kamino" and another has no entry for Kamino, OBVIOUSLY something has been deleted.
Obi-Wan looks like an even bigger idiot in this version than he does in the theatrical version because more than ever, it emphasis that the youngling scene should have been "Master Yoda, I've just discovered that a system has been erased from the Jedi Archive, we have a big problem" but instead we were given, "I'm looking for a planet that we know exists, but for some reason isn't on this here 3-D galaxy-Garmon that I checked out from the library. Did someone forget to download the latest interstellar map? What was that Liam? Oh... yes, I guess that makes more sense, someone deleted it.. got it. By the way, Master Yoda, did you get my application to be a Jedi Master? Because catch on pretty quick."
No matter how you slice it up, this sequence is a complete failure. The audio, while well-made, is difficult to recognize without knowing about it beforehand, but even if it is noticed, it contradicts everything that Anti-Matter left in, starting with the very line from the analysis droid that follows the declaration that this dart is from A KNOWN PLANET. From there it only spirals more and more out of control/sanity. It makes the already terrible flaws of the Obi-Sleuth-Kenobi sub-plot even worse.
All-in-all, this is the type of thing that would/should have been pointed out had this edit had the benefit of a strong preview audience/fanediting community.