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Unaltered Prequels?

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Since our case for the OOT is largely based on the principle that movies should always be available in their theatrical versions, shouldn't the unaltered prequels be available as well? Puppet Yoda might suck, but at the end of the day, revisionism is revisionism.

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Yep. I (shamefully) prefer puppet Yoda in TPM, if only for nostalgia's sake. Also, the already overly long pod-race sequence is even longer on DVD/blu-ray. I don't approve.

Dboman said:

I don't care about spelling! I just want to find a mirror!

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Yes and no.  Revisionism in the OT is worse because it happened after a 20-30 year gap.  Thus the changes in OT cause it to lose its cultural window in time.  By contrast, the changes in the PT happened roughly within the same cultural context time-frame.

That said, CPY kicks a--, so anything that preserves him I'm all for.

"Close the blast doors!"
Puggo’s website | Rescuing Star Wars

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Yes.

I say that because there are countless examples of films with more than one version being released on dvd and blu-ray with both/all of their versions included.

I seem to remember reading an article on the official site way back in 2002 where one of the people involved with AotC (on the vfx end of things, I think) said there were like 80 little differences just between the theater version and the dvd version.* The only big noticeable difference between the 35mm and digital versions in theaters was Padme holding Anakin's hand at the end, but the longer scene of his confession about slaughtering the Tuskens ("I'm a Jedi") wasn't added until the dvd IIRC.

*It was 12 years ago now, so my memory is a bit fuzzy. The dude might've just been talking about the 35mm and digital versions. It would help if I could remember what time of year it was.

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The Yoda puppet is the only thing I liked about Episode 1

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pittrek said:

The Yoda puppet is the only thing I liked about Episode 1

 Me too. It may look ugly, but it was a practical effect. And the last time Yoda would be portrayed as a puppet.

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It didn't even look like the Empire Yoda. Supposedly it was a stand-in puppet meant to be replaced in CGI later, but technology hadn't caught up with George's true vision of the Phantom Menace yet. 

The Person in Question

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Yeah I'm gonna have to agree here as well. Preservation is very important and once its out there its out there. If George wants to make his revisions ok but still provide with the original on the side, both for the original trilogy and prequels! Sure puppet Yoda wasn't particularly great but that's filmmaking. Nothings perfect.

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Every publicly released version of every film should be made available.  Simples.

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kane1138 said:

Every publicly released version of every film should be made available.  Simples.

 And, yet, it's so hard to do for some reason.

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Handman said:

kane1138 said:

Every publicly released version of every film should be made available.  Simples.

 And, yet, it's so hard to do for some reason.

It's not hard. There was just an unwilling owner for 35 years.

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darklordoftech said:

Handman said:

kane1138 said:

Every publicly released version of every film should be made available.  Simples.

 And, yet, it's so hard to do for some reason.

It's not hard. There was just an unwilling owner for 35 years.

 I wasn't talking specifically about Star Wars. Close Encounters, ET, Amadeus, and the Lion King are just a few which did not get (or have not gotten) every version of the film made available in one format.

Believe it or not, Lucas isn't the only one who tampers with films.

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The opening of the original Toy Story was totally ruined for the blu-ray release, imo. Pixar's version of the castle with Randy Newman's fanfare has been completely removed. I don't know how the second movie originally opened, but the new logos don't appear to have affected it as adversely. I wonder if there've been similar alterations to the openings of other pre-2006 Disney/Pixar movies like Bug's Life, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, Incredibles, etc.

Ratatouille, which is from 2007, uses a similar opening to Toy Story with the Pixar-lookin' castle. I guess that one made it to blu-ray unscathed because it was a new release and not catalogue.

Oh, and I love the irony of the touchstone logo on Nightmare Before Christmas being replaced by the Disney logo. At least they redid the opening credits to keep the score intact.

ETA: sorry if this post seemed kinda random. It was looking up the changes made to Lion King that got me thinking of Disney's own revisionism.

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The disappointed annoyance I feel whenever I watch any movie with an opening logo that obviously did not exist at the time the movie was actually made can scarcely be quantified.

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hairy_hen said:

The disappointed annoyance I feel whenever I watch any movie with an opening logo that obviously did not exist at the time the movie was actually made can scarcely be quantified.

It's one thing when it's a clean replacement/addition to what was already there. For example, the 2008 Paramount logo on the Godfather blu-ray doesn't bother me in the slightest since the movie doesn't really "begin" until you hear Nino Rota's score and see the opening credits.

But in the example of Toy Story you're hearing the music from the get-go, not to mention seeing a version of the logo unique to that film (at least it was at the time). I can't fathom why someone would decide to completely delete all of that.

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The 35mm version of AOTC doesn't have the line "to be angry is to be human". Do you think that the digital version adding this line was a good change or a bad change?

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darklordoftech said:

The 35mm version of AOTC doesn't have the line "to be angry is to be human". Do you think that the digital version adding this line was a good change or a bad change?

 As far as I know, the digital version didn't have that extra line either. It was added for the dvd.

It's worth noting that the "I'm a Jedi" segment of Anakin's reply was in one of those early teaser trailers for the movie. It was probably in an earlier edit before it was deleted for the theatrical release.

The question, indeed, is why George felt it was so important to have that moment put back into the movie.