Overview of Edit:
None of the Phantom Menace fan edits I’ve seen have gone far enough. Jar Jar is either still really annoying or so side-lined that he serves no purpose at all. The Federation remain bumbling and ineffective villains, and there is a lack of tension and excitement. This isn't the fault of the fan editors, of course, but to fix a movie this terrible something more radical is required.
So when I watched Trooperman’s Episode 2 edit “Shroud of the Dark Side”, which radically altered the tone of the movie through new music and re-dubbing of certain characters, I was inspired to try something similar with Episode 1. Using these techniques I wanted to evoke that “classic Star Wars feel” so glaringly absent from the Lucas version.
The first major change was to re-score most of the movie. Adding pieces from the Original Trilogy goes a long way to making TPM feel more like a Star Wars movie.
I also wanted to make Jar Jar an effective humorous foil for the humor-deficient Jedi, so I dubbed him into an alien language and added subtitles. He is now more cynical, world-weary and tagging along with the Jed to save his own neck.
The Trade Federation have also been redubbed. Instead of bumbling and ridiculous, with their Asian accents, they now sound and act like menacing alien threats. Much more worthy antagonists.
In addition, removing the other Gungans deDisneyfies the movie, and makes it feel less like a dated CGI cartoon.
Key Changes:
- Tons of musical changes throughout, largely from the OT
- Jar Jar is the only Gungan
- The Trade Federation and Jar Jar are both subbed and dubbed
- The space battle happens when the Queen leaves Naboo
Quick note: an early version of this edit was released on FE under the subtitle "Lone Gungan Edition". It was way rough and in hindsight not ready for release.
This version is significantly tightened up and slicker. So my advice for any editors out there: don't release your edit until you're 100% sure it's as good as it can be!
Hopefully this edit will be up on MySpleen sometime today.
Or you can PM me for the links.