2009: State of Star Wars — Page 3

Congratulations guys, this thread got me to break out my 97 vhs letterbox set for the first time in what must be years. I was even surprised to see none other than (at the time future) LOTR visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri in the feature about the SE restoration.

I even synced up the '04 dvd so I could do an a-b comparison. Luke's return to the homestead is a scene I payed extra comparison attention to since I remember a book at the library called "The Cinema of George Lucas" where they mention the '04 digital restoration of the OT and THX-1138 and the frame of film they used for Star Wars was from the shot of Luke running towards the camera yelling "Uncle Owen, Aunt Beru." My comparison, even though it's also between different formats, was pretty much what I remember seeing in that book.

I actually had a couple paragraphs typed out way back when this thread was started, but I cut and didn't paste. To sum all of it up, blu-ray has wowed me and being able to watch the original version of Blade Runner in 1080/24p makes me seriously wonder if we'll see Star Wars given the same treatment sometime in the next few years.

Otherwise, it's been a while since I've bought anything Star Wars, which I believe was the last issue of Dark Times back in June. My Cowclops v2 transfers, which I used to play ALL THE TIME, haven't been watched in months. Somehow, knowing that it isn't as accurate (in terms of color, etc) as the GOUT makes me actually consider laying down good money for that most recent boxset, but then I remember a) I don't have money to blow right now and b) the blu-ray, which will hit with some version of the movie on it sometime in the next few years, could very well include the original version in 1080p.

Scruffy said:

There's nothing silly or cutesy about his appearance--at least, no sillier than he was in RotJ. It's simply a slightly different appearance, due to the limitations placed upon and inherent to the CGI artists of the time. Perhaps your impression of his personality is based more on his mood than his appearance? Like all creditors and collection agencies, he is relatively friendly the first time he calls to collect--but he means business, and will freeze you in carbonate (or do worse to your credit score) if you don't pay up.

There most definitely is something silly or cutesey about his appearance. He looks like a cartoon, with those cutesey big vulnerable eyes. Are you sure you're thinking of the 1997 Jabba and not the 2004 version? In 1997 the animation cutesifies him and plays him for laughs. In ROTJ he wasn't silly at all.

It is not a slightly different appearance. It's a massively different appearance.

Nor is it due to the limits of cgi at the time. The limits of cgi didn't make it necessary to make his eyes big comical-cutesey-vulnerable things or make him come off cutesey-comical in general. That was a choice they made. They could have tried to make him faithful to the ROTJ Jabba. Instead they chose to go a totally different direction.

My impression of his personality is based on everything in the portrayal and his appearance is a big part of that. As for his different mood, different mood doesn't excuse a totally different personality. Even in a good mood ROTJ Jabba would have been menacing. 1997 ANH Jabba couldn't scare a toddler if he tried.

idk. that helment can be intimidating

Erikstormtrooper said:

Akwat Kbrana said:

Will the real Jabba the Hutt please stand up? No two versions look the same. The closest match is probably '83 and '99. The ANH versions are particularly sad. The question will remain: is "Jabba the Hutt" actually a conspiracy comprising a number of different hutts all going by the name "Jabba," or has ILM just gotten painfully lazy?

 

 

Actually, "Jabba the Hutt" is a title, not a name. Jabba's baby from the Clone Wars movie is the "Jabba" in ANH, who eventually grows into the ROTJ version.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to throw myself under a bus. 

 where did u hear this now?

now this is interesting ....

Okay... here's an interesting bit of information that leaked on the Net yesterday. The Cool Toy Review website posted shots from a Lucasfilm sales presentation that revealed the Holiday 2009 release of a second LEGO Indiana Jones video game... and the complete Indiana Jones Trilogy on Blu-ray Disc. The post was pulled down faster than you can say Lost Ark, but a few other sites still link to the URL it was at, including The Pirate Universe. We're trying to confirm this with our industry sources, so we'll let you know when we do. Lucasfilm has already let it be officially known that Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Season One is coming to Blu later this year via Warner (our sources say it will likely hit stores in November), so this would mean that Lucasfilm is embracing the format in a big way this year. Our sources have previously informed us that at least some of the Star Wars films may be on deck for Blu-ray release starting in 2010, but that's still a ways off. As is always the case with Lucasfilm news, we'll believe it all when we see the actual discs on the shelf.

-from the rumor mill at thedigitalbits.com

This is the first time they've ever mentioned that little bit about their sources saying to expect Star Wars on blu-ray next year, though I don't get why LFL would only put "some" of them out and not all six at once. I would think they'd finally give us all six movies together in one collection for the people who've been waiting so long (I mean, OOT or no OOT, it's supposed to be one big six-part movie, right?!?!?!) Yeah, I'm not giving much credence to that "some" part.

The other thing I'm seriously wondering is whether LFL will actually do everything right this time. Don't get me wrong, I hope blu-ray takes off, but how confident is LFL that they'll be able to successfully double and triple dip all over again on this brand new format?

About 99 and 04 Jabba

 For the most part, a vast improvement over the '97 Jabba, but perplexingly, it doesn't look as much like the '83 Jabba as the '99 model does!

When looking closely at the shape and skin of the 99 and 04 Jabba I really think it is the same model. It is just that the ANH scene has close up shots that don't make that CG model look really good (I know TPM has a close up shot, but the face was not too animated in this one). The lightning is not the same, and the animators did not make Jabba react like the same character. But all in all I feel it is the same CG model, maybe reworked a bit for the purpose of the 04 SE scene.

Fang Zei said:

now this is interesting ....

Okay... here's an interesting bit of information that leaked on the Net yesterday. The Cool Toy Review website posted shots from a Lucasfilm sales presentation that revealed the Holiday 2009 release of a second LEGO Indiana Jones video game... and the complete Indiana Jones Trilogy on Blu-ray Disc. The post was pulled down faster than you can say Lost Ark, but a few other sites still link to the URL it was at, including The Pirate Universe. We're trying to confirm this with our industry sources, so we'll let you know when we do. Lucasfilm has already let it be officially known that Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Season One is coming to Blu later this year via Warner (our sources say it will likely hit stores in November), so this would mean that Lucasfilm is embracing the format in a big way this year. Our sources have previously informed us that at least some of the Star Wars films may be on deck for Blu-ray release starting in 2010, but that's still a ways off. As is always the case with Lucasfilm news, we'll believe it all when we see the actual discs on the shelf.

-from the rumor mill at thedigitalbits.com

This is the first time they've ever mentioned that little bit about their sources saying to expect Star Wars on blu-ray next year, though I don't get why LFL would only put "some" of them out and not all six at once. I would think they'd finally give us all six movies together in one collection for the people who've been waiting so long (I mean, OOT or no OOT, it's supposed to be one big six-part movie, right?!?!?!) Yeah, I'm not giving much credence to that "some" part.

The other thing I'm seriously wondering is whether LFL will actually do everything right this time. Don't get me wrong, I hope blu-ray takes off, but how confident is LFL that they'll be able to successfully double and triple dip all over again on this brand new format?

"some" might mean just the prequels or even just II and III. since they're already digital it would be less work to bring them to blu.

Erikstormtrooper said:

Akwat Kbrana said:

Will the real Jabba the Hutt please stand up? No two versions look the same. The closest match is probably '83 and '99. The ANH versions are particularly sad. The question will remain: is "Jabba the Hutt" actually a conspiracy comprising a number of different hutts all going by the name "Jabba," or has ILM just gotten painfully lazy?

 

 

Actually, "Jabba the Hutt" is a title, not a name. Jabba's baby from the Clone Wars movie is the "Jabba" in ANH, who eventually grows into the ROTJ version.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to throw myself under a bus. 

 dude! i'm dying here! where did u hear this!

I just had a little email correspondence with Bill Hunt in regards to that rumor mill post from a few days ago and here's what he had to say:

"Well, it’s not for sure, but that’s what I’m hearing right now. Not all of them, probably just the first three films, and then the second three would come out later. Fingers crossed. I’ll post updates in The Rumor Mill as I get them.

 

Bill"

By "the first three" he meant the prequels.

Erikstormtrooper said:

Yes. I was joking. I made that up.

But the franchise must be in a pretty sad state if y'all thought that might be true.

 thank god! i would say that it could be possible though. i still think jabba should of ate him at the end of clone wars. it looked like that's wat he was about to do.

Erikstormtrooper said:

Yes. I was joking. I made that up.

But the franchise must be in a pretty sad state if y'all thought that might be true.

Well it is in a pretty sad state.

Re the comparision of different Jabba's up above, the 97 version looks like a cartoon and the 2004 version looks dead. The TPM version isn't too impressive either. It's like there's no effort being made to make Jabba look like Jabba.

Gaffer Tape said:

Lucas in 2010:  It was my original vision to give Jabba the Hutt fingers, but that had only been possible with puppets, and I don't like puppets.  So it was my original vision to have a computer generated Jabba that had fingers.  Until now that wasn't possible, but with my brand spankin' new versions of the films, Jabba not only has fingers... he has spirit fingers!  I felt it was important that Jabba wiggle his fingers as much as possible.  It's indicative of my strong desire to have him have fingers!  I felt that I could simply go in the direction of giving him regular fingers, but that wouldn't be worth it to the fans... the fans who have waited six years for a new version of Star Wars.  They needed to see the kind of effort we put forth in these corrections.  I know they'll be excited about these fingers.  They wave, they curl, they give the peace sign.  He even gives a big thumbs up when Han steps on his tail.  It's a very whimisical moment.  The kids'll love it.

::shudder:: You can just imagine it. God, what's that guy going to do to Star Wars next?