Anyone else prefering the way buildings on Tatooine looked like, before the SE and the Prequels?

Talking about the buildings and their architecture here, not the other ways cgi changed the way the settlements of Tatooine look like.

I definitely do. Old Tatooine felt more desolate and mysterious. It felt like a place in a Spaghetti Western crossed with Arrakis. The Mandalorian sort of got that vibe back, but not quite. Prequel Tatooine didn’t really have that quality as much. There was the homage to The Searchers in AotC, but the planet in general was made much more bustling and lively.

I hadn’t really thought much about the difference in architecture, to be honest. I always noticed more how the general atmosphere was different.

Servii said:

I definitely do. Old Tatooine felt more desolate and mysterious. It felt like a place in a Spaghetti Western crossed with Arrakis. The Mandalorian sort of got that vibe back, but not quite. Prequel Tatooine didn’t really have that quality as much. There was the homage to The Searchers in AotC, but the planet in general was made much more bustling and lively.

I hadn’t really thought much about the difference in architecture, to he honest. I always noticed more how the general atmosphere was different.

Yeah, that exactly how i see it too. Especially Mos Pelgo was portrayed relatively similar to the OOT version of Anchorhead and Mos Eisley. Although, as you said, not quite there.

If you compare the footage of Mos Eisley in the OOT to that of the SE, you can see that the buildings became bigger and there were also changes in their architectal style.

The original version of Mos Eisley:

https://i.imgur.com/tqTJRjV.jpg

The special edition changed the architecture of most of the buildings and introduced new buildings not in line with the OOT Tatooine style:

https://cantinacustoms.tripod.com/164f4000.jpg

https://cantinacustoms.tripod.com/163f4000.jpg

https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress...&fit=crop&w=450&h=225&dpr=1.5

Many of the buildings in Mos Eisley were originally smaller and looked to be more functional and unadorned.

Some of them also were kind of different in their shape. A few of them became more elongated and/or had ornaments that weren’t there before.

As i said before, i prefer the more minimalistic buildings of the OOT.

I prefer Tatooine to be a random planet than being the place where Darth Vader was born

MinchD36 said:

I prefer Tatooine to be a random planet than being the place where Darth Vader was born

I mean, it was already implied in ANH that Luke’s father and Owen were from there.

Servii said:

MinchD36 said:

I prefer Tatooine to be a random planet than being the place where Darth Vader was born

I mean, it was already implied in ANH that Luke’s father and Owen were from there.

Yep. By the way, when the first serious news of George wanting to do the prequels arised in 1994, one of my first memories of imagining what would be in Episode I is seeing an adult Anakin sitting together with his longtime friend Obi-Wan as well as Owen and Beru in the homestead, talking about the Clone Wars and the state of the Galaxy.

Ah. It is pity Darth Caliban’s last 3 images from his post above no longer work.

The 1st image is still okay though:

 
I preferred the lived-in gritty old look vs the pristine sprawling look in the SEs. Much more in fitting with that old Western town feel they were actually aiming for at the time. The size of the buildings also seemed smaller and simpler than the SE replacements and additions, I think?
 

From the SE:

Old Tatooine for me as well. Simpler, smaller, more elegant.

 
I’m with Phil Tippett and his response when asked what he thought of some of the SE changes:

“They’re shit.” He doesn’t think they’re necessary at all, citing as one example how he loved Lucas’ original, Sergio Leone-like approach to shooting Mos Eisley as this minimal, barren place and how now it’s just “filled with a bunch of… CGI shit.”

from his interview at https://web.archive.org/web/20121223080236/http://www.movies.com/movie-news/phil-tippett-star-wars/4324

I agree that the original version feels like a western setting. In fact the different area of Tatooine in the movie feel like a real place with not much of a spectacle, it’s my fave location. When you see the town after Luke sells the speeder it feels like there’s a maze of eerie streets and alleys just out of view, not a bunch of flashy big buildings. The new one is like generic sci-fi stuff with extra towers and domes everywhere. Like any boring city they visit in the animated shows, they usually look like that. Plus the 90s CGI textures look like crap. Like something out of any generic blockbuster of that time.

Mocata said:

I agree that the original version feels like a western setting. In fact the different area of Tatooine in the movie feel like a real place with not much of a spectacle, it’s my fave location. When you see the town after Luke sells the speeder it feels like there’s a maze of eerie streets and alleys just out of view, not a bunch of flashy big buildings. The new one is like generic sci-fi stuff with extra towers and domes everywhere. Like any boring city they visit in the animated shows, they usually look like that. Plus the 90s CGI textures look like crap. Like something out of any generic blockbuster of that time.

Matte paintings and even models would have been more fitting than those 90’s CGI shots. They actually looks like a tv episode of any generic sci-fi show from the 90’s too. I’m with you, they look flat and fake looking, and likely cost considerably more that a talented matte painter or model maker would have?

Kenobi’s hut in real life:

^ 1977/1997 scene comparison

from https://wanderdisney.com/item/unnamed-structure-ben-kenobis-home/

Luke would probably never have thought about leaving if a single port was so busy. There’s probably a thriving metropolis nearby if all that traffic came and went. Even the little CGI creatures ruin the idea that it’s a barren wasteland.

Mocata said:

Luke would probably never have thought about leaving if a single port was so busy. There’s probably a thriving metropolis nearby if all that traffic came and went. Even the little CGI creatures ruin the idea that it’s a barren wasteland.

I was about to make a comment along those lines. Expanding Mos Eisley definitely contradicts the notion Luke’s sets about Tatooine with his earlier remarks. A buzzing spaceport with scurrying creatures, various alien life, and speeders galore definitely doesn’t fit the idea of Tatooine being the planet the farthest from the “bright center of the universe”.

philraid said:

Definitely. It was supposed to be a “wretched hive of scum and villainy”, which it definitely felt more like that in the original film. You turn around any corner you could get shot or captured by a criminal or the Empire. Adding in more buildings, CGI rats and dinosaurs makes it feel more like a zoo or a theme park.
I also just never understood why they kept going back to this planet in the movies, especially since it was never as interesting as it was the first time around for a lot of reasons listed above. Why did Anakin have to be from the same planet as Luke?

I never liked the idea that Anakin was from the same planet as Luke. But unfortunately it’s implied in A New Hope that Luke’s father lived on Tatooine, when Ben says “[Uncle Owen] thought [Anakin] should have stayed here [i.e. here on Tatooine] and not gotten involved.”

But I think Anakin being originally from Tatooine really only made sense before his character was merged with Darth Vader. Plus, the Prequels ended up ignoring or twisting so much of the backstory mentioned in ANH anyway, so it’s not like George Lucas felt particularly bound by earlier stuff he wrote in the 70s.

It was more interesting to consider that Anakin and Luke were both faced with life on the boring dirt farm, but took different paths. Or that Uncle Owen’s poor fortunes were a result of the war. Or something interesting that isn’t The Phantom Menace.