logo Sign In

The Phantom Menace trivia

Author
Date
Author
Time
Post link
The Phantom Menace trivia
· Sets were built only as high as the tops of the actors' heads and computer graphics filled in the rest. But Liam Neeson was so tall that he cost the set crew an extra $150,000 in construction.
· Qui-Gon Jinn's communicator is a redecorated Sensor Excel Razor for Women.
· Queen Amidala's throne-room dress took eight weeks to design.
· The special effects teams creating the podrace studied NASCAR crash footage extensively to assure accuracy in the crashes.
· The design of queen Amidala's space ship, is based on the design of the supersonic spy plane "SR71 Blackbird".
· The first film to be recorded in Dolby Digital Surround EX.
· Director George Lucas has said that there are a couple of shots in the movie that were "filmed" on digital video instead of 35 mm film. He also said that he dares anyone to try and figure out which shots these were.
· In 1997, a fierce sandstorm destroyed several of the Tatooine sets in the desert outside Tozeur, Tunisia. Filming resumed two days later. George Lucas considered this a good omen, as the very same thing had happened during filming of the original Star Wars (1977).
· During filming Ewan McGregor made lightsaber noises as he dueled. It was noted and corrected during post production.
· In a scene in the Skywalker home, George Lucas digitally altered Jake Lloyd I's eyes to look in a different direction momentarily.
· Natalie Portman's voice was digitally enhanced to distinguish between Padme and Queen Amidala.
· The sound of the underwater monsters growling near the beginning of the film was made by the main sound technician's three-year-old daughter. The sound of her crying was recorded, and the frequency lowered to obtain the sound heard in the film.
· The sound of the hovering battle tanks used by the battle droids was created by running an electric razor around a metal salad bowl and then digitally lowering the pitch.
· In scenes where Padme and Queen Amidala appear together, Natalie Portman is Padme, while Kiera Knightley is Sabe, one of the handmaidens disguised as the Queen.
· The "water" cascading over the falls in the Naboo capital city was actually salt.
· During filming, Natalie Portman's voice kept changing. In post production, she re-dubbed her lines. The senate scene took eight weeks to do.
· The Naboo Palace setting was also the ballroom set for the Frankenstein family mansion in Geneva used in Frankenstein (1994). Celia Imrie appears in both movies.
· The sound of the "force field" in the lightsaber duel with Darth Maul began as a recording of the audio supervisor's neighbor's ceiling fan.
· In the original trilogy, lightsaber activations and deactivations happened off-screen most of the time to prevent the "jumps" that would occur when the film was stopped to allow the "activated" lightsaber props to be substituted for the deactivated handles. This no longer poses a problem and every activation/deactivation occurs on-screen in Episode I.
· Anakin's theme is a musical variation on the Imperial March (a.k.a. Darth Vader's Theme) from Star Wars – Ep. V : The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
· The parade music at the end of the film is melodically related to the Emperor's Theme from Star Wars - Ep.VI : Return Of The Jedi (1983).
· Qui-Gon Jinn identifies the Queen's starship as a Nubian model J-327. "327" was the number of the landing bay where the Millennium Falcon landed on the first Death Star in Star Wars (1977) as well as the number of the landing platform in Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
· A pod from the Discovery in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) can be seen behind Qui-Gon in Watto's junkyard.
· A group of aliens resembling E.T. [from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)], and a group of creatures resembling the aliens from Alien (1979), can be seen in the Galactic Senate chamber shortly after Queen Amidala calls for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum.
· When the crew lands on Tatooine, as they step out, a silhouette of Elliot and ET flying can be seen in the sky.
· Jar Jar's antics during the climactic battle echo scenes from classic silent comedies. Ball rolling down hill after Jar Jar: Seven Chances (1925). Gun tied to foot firing: The Navigator (1924). Hanging from gun turret: Girl Shy (1924).
· Many details of the pod race resemble the Norwegian animation classic Flåklypa Grand Prix (1975), including the sabotage, the late start, the engine trouble, the dirty tricks and even elements of the camerawork.
· The video and sound effect of Queen Amidala's message when she contacts the federation ship at the beginning of the movie via video transmission is a reference to the "Flash Gordon Serials" of the 1930s, where video transmissions always start with the same video and sound effect.
· Ewan McGregor, who plays Obi-Wan Kenobi, is the nephew of Denis Lawson, who played Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles in Star Wars episodes IV, V, & VI.
· Queen Amidala protects herself by posing as one of her own underlings. The same ploy was used by the President of the United States in Superman II (1980) to conceal his identity from General Zod, played by Terence Stamp - who plays Chancellor Valorum in this film.
· George Lucas reportedly wrote The Phantom Menace in the same binder of yellow ruled paper in which he wrote the original "Star Wars" as well as American Graffiti (1973).
· In the credits, Jabba The Hutt is credited as playing "himself."
· Obi-Wan has "a bad feeling about this" quite often. See also Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983).
· Neimoidian senator Lott Dod was named after two real-life US senators, Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) and Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut).
· After the film's end credits finish rolling, the sound effect of Darth Vader's breathing can be heard.
· Greg Proops' and Scott Capurro's credits are reversed. Proops plays Beed Annodue, the red, English-speaking pod-race announcer, and Capurro plays Fode Annodue, the green, Huttese-speaking announcer.
· During the first week of the first trailer's release, many theatres reported up to 75% of their audiences paying full price for a movie, then walking out after the Phantom Menace trailer was shown.
· Among the props in the background aboard the ship as the group leaves Tatooine are three Hewlett-Packard Inkjet cartridges.
· When Palpatine lands at Naboo at the end of the film, he's accompanied by guards dressed in blue. The guard's costumes are essentially the red Emperor's guards seen in Return of the Jedi (1983) without full face masks.
· Natalie Portman (Queen Amidala) missed the premiere party in New York because she had to go home to study for her high school final exams.
· The pseudonym used by the Queen, "Padme," is the Sanskrit word for "lotus." It is a common word in Buddhism. "Yoda" is also derived from the Sanskrit word for "warrior."
· The film contains no acting credit for the character of Darth Sidious.
· Like a Shakespearean play, this film's final dialogue is a rhyming couplet: "Always two there are, no more, no less: a master and an apprentice." "But which was destroyed? The master or the apprentice?"
· Theatres receiving the first trailer and posters were warned in writing to return them to the distributor (Twentieth Century Fox) on time or risk not receiving further media, and possibly the film itself. This was done to attempt to prevent the "black-market" sale of the incredibly popular trailer.
· The events of this film take place 32 years before Star Wars (1977). Ten years pass between Episodes I and II; 2 years between Episodes II and III; and 20 years between Episode III and Star Wars.
· In the German language version of the film, the collaborating Trade Federation leaders have a French accent, while in the Italian language version they
"May the force be with you!"
Author
Time
Post link
· Warwick Davis

Warwick Davis had multiple appearances in EP1. One was as the Rodian Wald, one of Anakin's friends and his other part is as a Spectator at the race. He can be seen for the first time without a mask, sitting in the box with Watto.

· Other special Credits.
Credit was given to what must have been a very special coffee maker, Javva the Hutt.
Author
Time
Post link
yeah its willow sitting and looking at the podrace alongside watto.
"The ability to speak does not make you intelligent."
Qui-Gon Jinn (R.I.P.)