CatBus said:
Seems incredibly unlikely, and IMO easily explained by fast-fading film stock.
Certainly Technicolor showings were not retimed--they just took the existing Technicolor reels and spliced in the new crawl/flyover using the cheaper filmstock.
Yes the fast fading film stock hypothesis would explain the difference.
But what about Artoo in the canyon?
I was under the impression(please correct me if I am wrong) that the 1977 prints had a dusk look for that scene.
In the 82' VHS it looks like daytime.
In subsequent releases on home video (at least from the mid 90's onwards) it looks like dusk again.
Would colour fading(from 1977 to 1981) explain the dusk to dawn look.
Or
In 1981--- to meet the demand for prints in some areas they created new interpositives/internegatives to produce release prints that used the original negative's colour palette without(or very little) any alteration- as opposed to 1977 where the original negatives were colour stamped differently to produce more vibrant release prints.
The release(not the teaser) trailer from 1977(also on the 2004 bonus DVD) is quite vibrant.
It may explain why that Artoo shot in particular looks like a daytime scene in the 1982 VHS(and I assume the 1981 35mm release print)