Feedback Wanted: Jar Jar's voice and personality re-imagined (video experiment)

Let me just start off by saying I loved how Magnoliafan was able to re-imagine Jar Jar’s character in his “Balance of the Force” and “The Clone War” edits. Jar-Jar’s role in the saga has always been and is destined to always be that of the fool, however now instead of being an baby-talking, mentally challenged nitwit, he was an arrogant smart ass, which not only made him much less annoying, but genuinely entertaining. He was able to fill the same function as the original, and yet was able to do it in a way that didn’t make you want ear plugs.

The issue I had though, was that Jar Jar was essentially speaking jibberish, and his character was defined solely on whatever we read at the bottom of the screen, and it stretched believability to think that all characters in the movie were fluent in Gunganese. His character didn’t quite feel complete, and I always felt like if the goal was to truly do him justice, you’d have to record a new voice for him using a new actor, rather than just garbling up the foreign language tracks from the official DVDs. Since today was labor day, and the concept had been nagging at me all weekend, I figured I’d stop imagining about it and see if it was actually possible to sync some a re-imagined Jar Jar’s voice to the original. My recording equipment sucked and the picture quality didn’t come out too hot, but I think it demonstrates the concept effectively:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiGyJB7-LpA

So now, the big question: is my new Jar Jar voice an improvement, or is he more annoying than ever? I’ll let you be the judge (don’t worry, I can handle some tough love).

Thanks a lot Angel! Maybe my misspent youth making movies with my Star Wars action figures wasn't so misspent after all. :)

Something to keep in mind if I decide to pursue these recordings further, is that my school has a professional recording studio that would make for much better audio on a DVD. I actually recorded this scene in my car, using the microphone that came with Rock Band with a paper hood taped over it to reduce popping and crackling. It got the job done, but if I decide to do it all, I'll probably do it at school so I'll have that all-important DVD quality sound.

hey that worked really well! it actualy adds some character to him too, as oppose to being an extra piece of merchendice srolling about on screen!;P

It's really well done and the dialogue is well written, I'm not sure about the accent though.

You have to watch out that you don't replace one offensive ethnic stereotype with another (though it could be the shock of the new).

Try it straight, without any accent but with the same delivery and I might begin to love the Gungan and miss him in the other prequels (now that would be a miracle).

I don't know if you have seen the Slumberland edits but combining those edits with your re-dub and you'll have a really watchable Jar-Jar.

Bingowings said:

I don't know if you have seen the Sunderland edits but combining those edits with your re-dub and you'll have a really watchable Jar-Jar.

Did you mean Slumberland? Or do I need to track down another prequel trilogy?

No I meant Slumberland, bad weather always makes me think of Sunderland, Freudian Slit, sorry.

The Gungan's need to drop some of their physical sillyness (it's not just Jar-Jar it's Boss Nass as well), which is why I mentioned the  Hull...sorry...Slumberland edits where he pretty much fixed that.

Jar-Jar is still clumsy but not so clumsy it takes away from the story and Nass doesn't shake spit over everyone.

I would also like to see how this sort of work could get my linear Episode One to work better :

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/The-Prequel-Radical-Redux-Ideas-Thread/post/365285/#post365285

With Jar-Jar already a naive and clumsy representative of the Gungans in the senate, on Coruscant with Queen Amidala when the invasion happens (literally a fish or amphibian out of water).

I'm going to post a link to this thread onto the Radical Redux Thread so people who read that one get a chance to see this.

This is a WONDERFUL proof of concept.  Bravo!  Perhaps Adywan has something similar in mind for his Revisted prequels?  I really like the accent, btw.

Also, I believe your dialogue is just what this film needs- an arrogant rogue character, but perhaps more cowardly (think Han Solo meets Ash from Army of Darkness).

I would love to see another attempt at a different scene!

I'm in two minds about if it would be better to apply this sort of dub to an extended cut (with all the footage) and using that as a basis of edits and finding an edit that has already removed most of what was annoying about the character and dubbing that to complete the transformation.

Most of those sort of edits don't have the Bongo scene anyway so the glowing eel reaction wouldn't be an issue.

I really did like some of Magnoliafan's subtitles, Jar-Jar the smart arse was a laugh and a revelation even if it was hard to keep up with the reading. It would be nice to add some of that into the character.

Perhaps someone should do the same for the Japanese Trade Federation and Watto Goldberg.

Given an ady style manipulation even the lip-synch could be ironed out, if you look at some of the OT aliens they often don't match either.

Ackbar (who is essentially Sir Robin Day to these ears http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec81vte1rL8) flaps roughly in time with the dialogue but it's not always convincing.

Brimley said:
Also, I believe your dialogue is just what this film needs- an arrogant rogue character, but perhaps more cowardly (think Han Solo meets Ash from Army of Darkness).

Speaking of neo-Jar-Jar's cowardice: in the scene where Boss Nass tells Jar-Jar that we will be a general, rather than being a general, Boss Nass simply tells Jar Jar he'll do great in the battle, and Jar-Jar says "wait, I'm going to to be in the battle!?" and then he faints. :D

Jar-Jar fainting is in my view the sort of thing that needs removing, it's out of place.

I can see him being really frightened or trying to talk himself out of the situation but Jar-Jar is the only Star Wars character that does this sort of thing, it's too cartoonish.

Hmm, I suppose your right. Some of the reaction should stay, but the faint is what pushed it over into cartoon territory. It's not like it would be difficult to put in a wipe that cuts away right before he faints, either.

Expertly done! I was blown away by not only how infinitely better your voice is than the original, but also how you've chosen dialogue that synced up well with his mouth.

Good job! :)

Also, when Episode 1 first came out, I'd always hoped that Jar Jar would be a scoundrel/rogueish character.

That's one thing the prequels are missing. There's no Han Solo equivalent anywhere to be seen.

I've been toying around with ideas for what reason Jar Jar might be banished for with my version. I really liked Magnoliafan's explanation that he was supposed to guard the "Kaiburr Crystal," but he fell asleep and it got stolen by human thieves. It tied in nicely with the ending, and set up where the resentment between the humans and gungans came from.

A more scoundrel-ish explanation that I heard someone suggest a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, was that Jar-Jar got caught in some illicit activities with Boss Nass's daughter, and was promptly kicked out of Theed. I had some ideas for some dialogue that I thought were amusing, although I'm not sure how appropriate it'd be for a Star Wars film so I may end up just borrowing Magnoliafan's Kaiburr Crystal explanation. Also, while the concept of Jar-Jar and Boss Nass's daughter amused me, the fact that we'd never see her would be problematic.

"I know you're just humans, but you shoulda seen 'er! Built like a mermaid, that girl is!"

Excellent work, although, like Bingowings, I'm also a little unsure about the faux carribbean accent.

I never really cared for the Kaiburr crystal explanation myself. I'd much prefer your rogueish one :)

However, not everything needs to be explained.

My personal opinion is that a ridiculous electrostatic globe does need to be explained.  Or better yet - cut out completely.

If not the Kaiburr Crystal, then perhaps it's some other precious Gungan artifact that ended up in the hands of humans? Perhaps the pearl of some gigantic, deadly Naboo sea creature?